Ken Howard News

Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann will return to the Met stage January 12, with Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo in his first company performances of the title role, a poet whose attempts at romance are repeatedly thwarted.

Screen Gems has released an all- ew trailer for THE WEDDING RINGER, hitting theaters on January 16, 2015. The comedy stars Kevin Hart, Josh Gad, and Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting

Met Music Director James Levine conducts Wagner's epic human comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in its first-ever Live in HD performance today, December 13 at 12pm EST.

I never ran a marathon, but I sure sat through one the other night at the Met. Richard Wagner's DIE MEISTERSINGER clocked in at six hours--a quarter of a day--without a god or flying horse in sight. And while the composer referred to this as a comedy, it's not exactly “I Love Lucy” (nor, for that matter, LE NOZZE DI FIGARO).

Puccini's LA BOHEME has that magical ability to change its shape depending on the cast. When Pavarotti sang, it became his opera, with a Mimi hard pressed to take the spotlight, even in her death scene. When Stratas, Carreras and Scotto (as Musetta) led the cast, it became a glittery ensemble of shooting stars. At this week's performance with rising star Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Mimi, there was no doubt that she was the evening's “it” girl, even though the other principal singers added mightily to the performance's success.

Met Music Director James Levine conducts Wagner's epic human comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in its first-ever Live in HD performance on Saturday, December 13 at 12pm EST.

Bartlett Sher's production of Rossini's IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA is one of the best of the Gelb years at the Met, with its sliding-doors set by Michael Yeargan and luscious costumes by Catherine Zuber. It was great when it opened with an all-star cast--headed Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Florez and Peter Mattei--and remains sturdy even when some of the casting is a little wobbly.

Ansel Elgort, star of the feature films "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Divergent," and actress/director/producer and SAG Award® recipient Eva Longoria will reveal the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® nominations on Wednesday, Dec. 10

Compared to Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as Katerina Ismailova in LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK at the Met, Barbara Stanwyck and Lana Turner were couple of pikers in their film noir triumphs, “Double Indemnity” and “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” Westbroek kills her father-in-law with rat poison, strangles her husband with her lover's belt and, as the piece de resistence, drowns her lover's new girlfriend, while going under herself. And she has to do it all while effortlessly singing Shostakovich's demanding score. What a dame!

“To be blunt, Sergei is not a nice guy,” says tenor Brandon Jovanovich, talking about his current role at the Metropolitan Opera in Dmitri Shostakovich's LADY MACBETH OF MTENSEK. “He's the kind of fellow who's jovial and friendly one minute…and then you hear he's robbed a store. He uses and abuses people--we all know someone like that, don't we?” he adds, laughing.

To celebrate the publication of The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 2 on November 18 by Dress Circle Publishing, Jennifer Ashley Tepper will be sharing three short excerpts about each of the Broadway theaters featured in the book-countdown style! Today: The Gershwin Theatre!

Only someone who arrived convinced of the opera's bias could have found the Met's premiere of the John Adams-Alice Goodman THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER to be anti-Semitic. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that it's even-handed.

On last night's DANCING WITH THE STARS, one of the commercial bumper dance number featured 'The Wedding Ringer' co-stars Josh Gad and Kevin Hart.

More than most stagings of Mozart's LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, the new Richard Eyre production that opened the season at the Met made it hard to remember that the miserable duo who head the household were the happy couple of Rossini's IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA.

'Cherubino is crazy in some ways, in good ways,' says Isabel Leonard, who is singing the role of the young male page in the Almaviva household in the Metropolitan Opera's new Richard Eyre production of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO. 'He sees everything in Technicolor, eyes wide open, taking everything in, not missing a second that he could possibly enjoy in his life.”'

Josh Gad (Broadway's Book of Mormong) and comedian Kevin Hart star in the new comedy THE WEDDING RINGER from Sony Pictures Entertainment. The film hits theaters on January 16, 2015. Get a first look below!

THE JUDGE will hit theaters on In theaters October 10th. Get a first look at the new trailer below!

How exhilarating are the operas broadcast Live in HD to The Ridgefield Playhouse, complete with behind-the-scenes tours and commentary by some of the genres' most revered stars. From the Met in New York City comes Verdi's masterpiece Macbeth on Sunday, October 12, at 12 p.m., with star soprano Anna Netrebko as Lady Macbeth and Željko Lu?i?'s as Macbeth.

There's a new couple in town. The musical Theatre Project and Kent State's Musical Theatre program are joining forces to do a staged reading/sing-through of the musical 'Babes in Arms.'

San Francisco Opera presents the Company premiere of Carlisle Floyd's two-act opera Susannah today, September 6 at the War Memorial Opera House.