Kristen Anderson-Lopez News

The Lilly Awards Foundation, celebrating and honoring women of distinction in American theater, held their 6th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony last night, June 1, 2015 at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street) that was hosted by twice nominated 2015 Tony Award nominee Lisa Kron (Fun Home).

The 2015 winners of the Lilly Awards, celebrating and honoring women of distinction in American theater, were recently announced by The Lilly Awards Foundation. The winners will be celebrated at the 6th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony tonight, June 1, 2015 beginning at 5:00 p.m. at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street) and hosted by double 2015 Tony Award nominee Lisa Kron (Fun Home).

The 2015 winners of the Lilly Awards, celebrating and honoring women of distinction in American theater, were announced today by The Lilly Awards Foundation.  The winners will be celebrated at the 6th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony on Monday, June 1, 2015 beginning at 5:00 p.m. at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street) and hosted by double 2015 Tony Award nominee Lisa Kron (Fun Home).  The ceremony will be live-streamed on the Lilly Awards website (www.thelillyawards.org) and HowlRound TV (www.Howlround.com/tv). #lillyawards #howlround

Prospect Theater Company is pleased to announce additional cast members for its 2015 annual gala, a Concert Evening Celebrating Women Making Musicals. This special one-night-only event will be held at The Times Center today, May 16 with an 8pm concert performance featuring Broadway and Prospect stars. The evening's program includes a diverse array of songs written or co-written by women, including encores of work from Prospect productions. Proceeds from the evening will benefit Prospect's ongoing mission to develop and produce new musical theater works by emerging artists.

Prospect Theater Company is pleased to announce additional cast members for its 2015 annual gala, a Concert Evening Celebrating Women Making Musicals. This special one-night-only event will be held at The Times Center on Saturday, May 16 with an 8pm concert performance featuring Broadway and Prospect stars. The evening's program includes a diverse array of songs written or co-written by women, including encores of work from Prospect productions. Proceeds from the evening will benefit Prospect's ongoing mission to develop and produce new musical theater works by emerging artists.

Producer Janet B. Rosen previously announced that she will present two private industry readings of the critically acclaimed new musical In Transit today, May 7 and tomorrow, May 8, 2015. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies), In Transit features a book, music and lyrics by Academy Award winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Frozen), James-Allen Ford, Russell Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth.

A smash hit on Broadway, in the West End and most recently in a critically-acclaimed 2014 UK Tour, award-winning comedy musical Avenue Q is now back on the road and bringing a host of fuzzy friends to theatres across the country.

Producer Janet B. Rosen announced today that she will present two private industry readings of the critically acclaimed new musical In Transit on Thursday, May 7 and Friday, May 8, 2015. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies), In Transit features a book, music and lyrics by Academy Award winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Frozen), James-Allen Ford, Russell Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth.

Today we are talking to a terrifically talented twosome who are responsible for the songs for Disney's biggest hit film of all time, international blockbuster FROZEN, as well as the brains behind a spectacular new specialty song composed expressly for this week's episode of FX's new comedy series THE COMEDIANS - the affable and accomplished Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson Lopez. Discussing the finer points of composing a new tune for their FROZEN and BOOK OF MORMON collaborator Josh Gad especially for the series, a duet with no less than fellow Broadway headliner and Hollywood icon Billy Crystal, the Lopezes open up about their work process and storied history shared with Gad as well as what we can expect from the showstopper on tonight's new episode of the series. Additionally, the Lopezes shed some light on their brand new stage musical premiering later this year at the La Jolla Playhouse, UP HERE, and offer a preliminary sneak peek of what audiences can expect from the daring and original new piece. Plus, thoughts on the upcoming stage version of FROZEN and what is being planned for the hotly anticipated tuner as well as a behind the scenes recapitulation of penning new material for the FROZEN characters in the recent short film FROZEN FEVER, featuring the new composition 'Making Today A Perfect Day'. All of that, BOOK OF MORMON and AVENUE Q memories, thoughts on Tom Cruise potentially starring in their big screen project BOB: THE MUSICAL and much more with two of the most in demand songwriters on Broadway and in Hollywood.

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: JASPER IN DEADLAND starts in Seattle, Menzel chats with Corden and more!

Robert and Kristen, both alumni of the Tony-honored BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, share some insights on how to achieve success in the entertainment industry. Below, BWW brings you an exclusive first look at the full interview - check it out below!

The 6th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony will be presented Monday, June 1, 2015 beginning at 5 p.m. at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street) and hosted by writer and performer, Lisa Kron.

What a renaissance - again! Although the period beginning with THE LITTLE MERMAID in 1989 through to the doubleheader of POCAHANTAS in 1995 and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME in 1996 and ending with MULAN in 1997 is considered by House Of Mouse superfans and many entertainment enthusiasts as the official Disney Renaissance era - meaning the company once again came to major prominence as a direct result of its animated musicals - it very much looks as if an entirely new type of Disney rebirth is in the process of occurring, spurred on by the worldwide success of the esteemed company's most successful animated feature to date, the highly theatrical and Broadway pedigreed FROZEN. Of course, in any way matching an era which in addition to MERMAID, POCAHANTAS, HUNCHBACK and MULAN shepherded BEAUTY & THE BEAST, ALADDIN and THE LION KING from inspiration to actuality would be a high order, if not outright impossible, yet it seems that the recent, current and upcoming spate of ingenuously timed and expertly devised projects that Disney possesses at the moment could put them in that stratospheric level of uber entity once again in the industry - and in the hearts and minds of millions around the world, as well.

The Los Angeles premiere engagement of Disney's NEWSIES celebrated its opening night last night, March 26th, at the Pantages Theatre for a limited run through April 19th. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening festivities below!

It promises to be an evening of musical magic, touching accolades and tremendous excitement when the Los Angeles Children's Chorus (LACC) honors at its annual Gala Bel Canto the Oscar and Grammy Award-winning songwriters behind Disney's 'Frozen,' Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, and LACC President and Vice Chair Edward J. Nowak, Deputy General Counsel of The Walt Disney Company, on Tuesday, April 14, 2015, 6 p.m., at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion's Grand Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

One of the most popular stories of the year so far, the unexpected announcement of a special one night only charity concert performance of a fan favorite musical-within-the-series from NBC's musical series SMASH, BOMBSHELL, to benefit the Actors Fund, is already a huge hit here on BroadwayWorld, and, now we bring you an exclusive chat with an elemental figure in the creation of the project, choreographer and director Joshua Bergasse, all about the hotly anticipated evening. As part of our conversation, Bergasse offers up a slew of new details on what plans are currently in place for the unprecedented SMASH reunion as well as share first reactions to the wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that has already racked up more than $315,000 in donations in less than two weeks, having begun with a goal of $50,000 when the event was first announced. Additionally, Bergasse parses the finer points of the BOMBSHELL score and outlines what fans can expect from the songstack on the evening as well as preliminary staging and presentational plans and also what the momentum engendered by BOMBSHELL could lead to in the future, near and far - a HIT LIST concert or perhaps a night featuring the other musicals-within-the-series. Plus, Bergasse also comments on his contributions to two new mainstage musicals this season byway of ON THE TOWN and GIGI as well as looks ahead to the La Jolla Playhouse premiere of the new musical by the FROZEN team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, UP HERE, while also glancing back at his Broadway debut in THE LIFE. All of that and much, much more!

Well-Strung has been establishing a growing presence amongst Broadway fans. The all-male, singing string quartet whose members are Chris Marchant, Daniel Shevlin, Trevor Wadleigh and Edmund Bagnell, was the brainchild of Manager Mark Cortale and Marchant. They first came on to BroadwayWorld's radar when they appeared onstage for the Opening Gala of the Walt Disney Theater in Orlando, part of the new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The gala was directed by Richard Jay-Alexander and conducted by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, with members of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. But check out who they shared the stage with: Sierra Boggess, Deborah Voigt, Chris Mann, Norm Lewis & more. We then saw them at the Hirschfeld Theatre in another stellar line-up that included Rob McClure, Julie Haltson, Tituss Burgess, Lena Hall, Florence Henderson, Norm Lewis, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Lillias White, Lily Tomlin and more Broadway favorites for Broadway Backwards, on March 9th, directed by Robert Bartley with musical supervision by Mary-Mitchell Campbell and conducted by Tim Rosser. The guys definitely impressed.

Due to the incredible demand for subscriptions to the 2015/2016 season, La Jolla Playhouse announces a week-long extension for its first two season productions: Come from Away, a world-premiere musical written and composed by David Hein and Irene Sankoff, directed by Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, as well as for Up Here, a world-premiere musical comedy directed by Alex Timbers (Playhouse's Peter and the Starcatchers), featuring book, music and lyrics by the husband-and-wife team of Robert Lopez (The Book of Mormon, Avenue Q) and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who took home the Academy and Grammy Awards for Best Song with their mega-hit "Let It Go" from the Disney animated film Frozen. Come from Away will now run May 29 - July 5 in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre, and Up Here will now run July 28 - September 6 in the Mandell Weiss Theatre.

Walt Disney Animation Studios' all-new short FROZEN FEVER which welcomes Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf back to the big screen, will open in theaters today, March 13, 2015, in front of Disney's 'Cinderella,' a live-action feature inspired by the classic fairy tale.

In a new interview with Gold Derby, discusses his new hit HBO series LOOKING, lending his voice to the new FROZEN short 'Frozen Fever,' and taking over a starring role in the Broadway bound musical HAMILTON.