Ken Howard News

 Kenneth Joseph 'Ken' Howard, Jr., a Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor and president of the performers union SAG-AFTRA died today at his home near Los Angeles. He was 71.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: BRIGHT STAR and AMERICAN PSYCHO bow on Broadway and more!

Echoing current presidential candidates' contentious views on immigration, the opera ¡FIGARO! (90210) brings the debate over immigration reform and income equality center stage when the production opens tomorrow, Thursday, March 24th at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project (229 West 42nd Street). After highly acclaimed concert performances in 2013, and a sold-out run with LA Opera in January 2015, ¡FIGARO! (90210) is making its New York stage premiere for a limited engagement through Sunday, April 3rd. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The following statement has been released on behalf of SAG-AFTRA, as an update to the news of President Ken Howard dying at age 71. Click here for his full BWW obituary. 

 Kenneth Joseph 'Ken' Howard, Jr., a Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor and president of the performers union SAG-AFTRA died today at his home near Los Angeles. He was 71.

Tenor Matthew Polenzani--he of the refined singing, elegant deportment and serious nature--is having a great season at the Met, with major roles in a pair of new productions. First, he was Nadir, whose love for the priestess Leila (Diana Damrau) tempts her to give up her vows in Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS). Now he's working his mojo on no less than Elisabetta (Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen of England), in the new production of Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX at the Met, premiering March 24.

?After a months-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of expert judges named five young singers as the winners of the nation's most prestigious vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $15,000 cash prize and the prestige and exposure that come with winning the competition that launched the careers of many of opera's biggest stars.

First American concert appearance to be held Mar. 5 at Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall

Verdi's late masterpiece based on Shakespeare's tragic drama of jealousy and deceit, OTELLO, airs on THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met today, February 21 at 12 p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.) (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera at 12:30 p.m.) Get a sneak peek below!

Take one part “Casablanca,” a taste of Bernstein's CANDIDE, some Alfred Hitchcock and you get Sir Richard Eyre's film noir concept for the Met's new MANON LESCAUT, now set in France in the 1940s, complete with Nazis. Tack on that behind-the-scenes drama of “Roberto Alagna to the rescue”--when tenor Jonas Kaufmann cancelled at the last minute--and add the visual and vocal glamour of soprano Kristine Opolais and you have, well, a messy-but-enjoyable evening at the opera.

Verdi's late masterpiece based on Shakespeare's tragic drama of jealousy and deceit, OTELLO, airs on THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met Sunday, February 21 at 12 p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.) (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera at 12:30 p.m.) Get a sneak peek below!

With MARIA STUARDA at the Met, we're back for the second installment of Donizetti's so-called Tudor Trilogy, with ANNA BOLENA (Anne Boleyn) already off to the gallows and ROBERTO DEVEREUX (with Bette Davis and Errol Flynn, it was “Elizabeth and Essex”) still to come. It's the first time the Met is doing all three operas, with the singular soprano Sondra Radvanovsky as Anna, Maria and Elisabetta (in DEVEREUX, next month). Her Anna was grand, but her Maria was even better.

Balloting for this year's Actor® recipients will close at noon tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 29 (PT). The results will be tallied by Integrity Voting Systems, the SAG Awards' official teller, and sealed until the envelopes are opened onstage by the presenters at the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® ceremony on Saturday, Jan. 30.

Patricia Arquette, Abraham Attah, Jason Bateman, Bryan Cranston, Taye Diggs, Jon Hamm, Keegan?Michael Key, Diane Lane, Julia Louis?Dreyfus, Helen Mirren, Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Renner and J.K. Simmons will be presenters at the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Six-time Actor® nominee Tony Hale ('Veep,” 'Arrested Development.') will join Vitalie Taittinger, Champagne Taittinger Artistic Director, to open the red carpet for the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Anthony Mackie, Rachel McAdams, Jason Mitchell, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon and Kristen Wiig are all set to take center stage when they announce winners in a variety of categories.

Sometimes, the Metropolitan Opera seems like an endless Puccini festival. It's particularly apparent this season, when top dogs LA BOHEME, TOSCA and MADAMA BUTTERFLY are joined by TURANDOT and MANON LESCAUT, which are not second drawer, though certainly less popular than the first three. (Let's see how that descriptor applies to the latter when Jonas Kaufmann steps on stage for the new production of LESCAUT.)

SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard and SAG Awards® Committee Chair JoBeth Williams will announce the honorees for Outstanding Action Performances by Film and Television Stunt Ensembles

One more BOHEME? Yet another TOSCA? How about BARBIERE redux? Sometimes the standard repertoire of opera companies seems too standard. That's why it was good to hear that the Met was mounting Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES for the first time in a century, as a showcase for one of its top divas, Diana Damrau with tenor Matthew Polenzani, one of the company's secret treasures.

The Met's acclaimed new production of Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers), a rarity by the composer of Carmen that has not been staged by the company in a century, will be transmitted on Live in HD for the first time on Saturday, January 16 at 12:55pm ET. Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and directed by Penny Woolcock, Bizet's sweeping romance tells the story of a beautiful Hindu priestess pursued by rival pearl divers competing for her hand. Diana Damrau leads the cast as the priestess Leïla, opposite Matthew Polenzanias Nadir, Mariusz Kwiecien as Zurga, and Nicolas Testé as the high priest Nourabad. Highlights of the score include 'Au fond du temple saint,' perhaps the best-known duet for two male voices in the operatic repertory.