Lee Adams News

Now that The Capital Fringe Festival has finally packed up its tent, (read all 132 reviews of the Fringe reviews and reflections here), DC theatergoers are being offered some musical offerings this month including new productions of the popular musicals Chess, Nunsense, Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, The Fantasticks and Side Show.

Dallas Theater Center proudly presents IT'S A BIRD...IT'S A PLAN...IT'S SUPERMAN, starring Matt Cavenaugh as Clark Kent/Superman and Patrick Cassidy as arch-villain Max Menken, June 18 - July 25, at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Broadway star Matt Cavenaugh will star as the iconic Clark Kent in Dallas Theater Center's production of the musical It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman, June 18 - July 25, at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Matt Cavenaugh will play Superman this summer when an updated version of IT'S ABIRD...IT'S A PLANE...IT'S SUPERMAN takes to the Dallas Theater Center stage.

In today's New York Post, columnist Michael Riedel notes that several New York producers have been down to see the show and that 'Superman' will surely have a life beyond Dallas, although some rights issues have to be cleared with DC Comics if it's to return to Broadway. As the Dallas Theater Center discovered, the show has a built-in audience.'

Dallas Theater Center opened IT'S A BIRD...IT'S A PLANE...IT'S SUPERMAN, starring Matt Cavenaugh as Clark Kent/Superman and Patrick Cassidy as arch-villain Max Menken on June 18, 2010. The production will run through July 25 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. SUPERMAN cast member Andrew Keenan-Bolger recently recored his experience backstage for MTI on their MTISpaceshow.com network. Click below to take his tour and meet the cast.

Miracle Theatre Group and Staged! Portland's Musical Theatre Series present a collaborative production of SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD

Dallas Theater Center opened IT'S A BIRD...IT'S A PLAN...IT'S SUPERMAN, starring Matt Cavenaugh as Clark Kent/Superman and Patrick Cassidy as arch-villain Max Menken on June 18, 2010. The production will run through July 25 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Click below for a first look at Cavenaugh in performance as Superman.

The Dallas Theater Center proudly presents IT'S A BIRD...IT'S A PLAN...IT'S SUPERMAN, starring Matt Cavenaugh as Clark Kent/Superman and Patrick Cassidy as arch-villain Max Menken at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

After a brief hiatus from any major productions, STAGED! Portland's Musical Theatre Series is back with an ambitious summer line-up. STAGED! is presenting an in-depth look at one of the most dynamic musical theatre composers working today, Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown.

Lyric Stage's BYE BYE BIRDIE, 1961's Best Musical Tony Award winner, opens tonight at the Irving Arts Center's Carpenter Performance Hall. Lyric Stage's production will feature a 31 piece orchestra playing Robert Ginzler's original Broadway orchestrations.

Lyric Stage's BYE BYE BIRDIE, 1961's Best Musical Tony Award winner, opens tonight at the Irving Arts Center's Carpenter Performance Hall. Lyric Stage's production will feature a 31 piece orchestra playing Robert Ginzler's original Broadway orchestrations.

Dallas Theater Center opens IT'S A BIRD...IT'S A PLANE...IT'S SUPERMAN, starring Matt Cavenaugh as Clark Kent/Superman and Patrick Cassidy as arch-villain Max Menken, tonight June 18. The production will run through July 25 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Stage and screen star Patrick Cassidy joins the cast of Dallas Theater Center's productionof It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman as the Man of Steel's arch nemesis Max Mencken, the role originated by his father, Jack Cassidy, in the 1966 original Broadway production.

Miracle Theatre Group and Staged! Portland's Musical Theatre Series present a collaborative production of SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has taken on the task of breathing new life into an old idea by writing the book for a re-imagined version of a 1966 musical based on the adventures of Superman.

After a brief hiatus from any major productions, STAGED! Portland's Musical Theatre Series is back with an ambitious summer line-up. STAGED! is presenting an in-depth look at one of the most dynamic musical theatre composers working today, Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown.

Dallas Theater Center proudly presents IT'S A BIRD...IT'S A PLAN...IT'S SUPERMAN, starring Matt Cavenaugh as Clark Kent/Superman and Patrick Cassidy as arch-villain Max Menken, June 18 - July 25, at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Today, we are taking a look at a clip from the 1971 Tony Awards in the title song from that year's Best Musical. The song is performed by the chorus members of the ALL ABOUT EVE musical, the Lauren Bacall-led APPLAUSE. This clip features a twenty-six-year-old Bonnie Franklin leading one of two featured numbers (and she was nominated for Best Featured Actress - losing out to Melba Moore for PURLIE) who would later find fame on the hit 80s sitcom ONE DAY AT A TIME… APPLAUSE had all the makings of a truly great musical: a score by then-white-hot songwriting team Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, a book by legends Betty Comden and Adolf Green, and a leading lady the likes of whom simply don't exist anymore in Lauren Ball. Stars like her don't shine, they radiate. They just ARE, and Bacall was (and still is). Don't let the fact that she can't really sing fool you: she could put over a number as well as Merman, Callas or Lotte Lenya, for that matter. So here, with a nod to the currently-running shows of that time - among them CABARET, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, HELLO,DOLLY, MAME - and many others in a fun parody sequence that is not a part of the original cast album for what we would assume would be questionable copyright issues given the uncanny homage. Also, viewer beware that there is some slight nudity in the form of some bare backsides at one point in the clip, but surely something broadcast on national television nearly forty years ago could not be held accountable for too much prurience. It's a bit of a desperate ploy in a bit of a desperate song from an even more desperate show. It just screams "Like me!" but one may find it hard to fully embrace the at-times pure camp and over-the-top elements on display in an entirely serious way. Take it for what it is: frivolous fun. Whatever the case with APPLAUSE, it truly seems they threw everything and the kitchen sink into this number - with interesting, if not entirely successful, results. Be sure to stay tuned past the seven minute mark for a quite unexpected surprise. Speaking of which: Bonnie Franklin sure could tap, but her other talents are seemingly a bit less pleasurable from an audience member's point of view judging by this clip. See if you don't agree. The over-the-top camp and hokey allure of this clip justify this as the sole, perhaps, for-diehards-only entry in our Top Ten Tony Moments countdown. After all, a little frothy fun never hurt anybody. 'Til tomorrow…