ETOnline.com reports that superstar Elton John is recovering at home after suffering from 'a serious respiratory infection' that forced him to cancel several of his upcoming Las Vegas performances.
After sold out houses and 8 Helen Hayes nominations for Angels in America, Forum Theatre returns to the work of Tony Kushner with The Illusion (freely adapted from Pierre Corneille's L'illusion comique) from tonight, May 24 through June 16, 2012 with opening night on May 26. The show is directed by Mitchell Hébert.
Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Working Title Films, Old Vic Productions and NETworks Presentations, LLC bring the multi-award-winning Billy Elliot the Musical to the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center from June 19 to June 24. Based on the international smash-hit film and featuring music by Elton John, book and lyrics by Lee Hall, choreography by Peter Darling and direction by Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot the Musical has earned critical acclaim around the world and was the winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Manhattan Theatre Club will celebrate Artistic Director Lynne Meadow's 40th anniversary as the visionary and artistic leader of the organization with a special tribute on Monday, June 18. The event will begin at 6:30 PM with a VIP cocktail reception, followed by a 7:30 tribute event at the Samuel J. Friedman (261 West 47th Street). Immediately after the Friedman tribute event, a party will follow at Copacabana (268 West 47th Street).
Billy Elliot the Musical, now in its eighth year, will release a further 640,000 tickets this week, taking booking at the Victoria Palace Theatre to 21 December 2013. Check out the production photographs below.
Twelve year old Harrison Dowzell from Nottinghamshire is to become the thirtieth boy to play the title role of Billy Elliot in the West End. Harrison, who joins the cast of Billy Elliot the Musical today, 14 May 2012, will alternate the role of Billy with Harris Beattie (13 year old from Aberdeen, Scotland), Kaine Ward (13 years old from Hertfordshire), Ryan Collinson (13 years old from Southport) and Adam Vesperman (13 years old from Seattle, Washington, USA) He will be the 65th boy to play the role worldwide, including Jamie Bell who played Billy Elliot in the award-winning film.
"Prom-asaurus" proved that GLEE can still pack a powerful pop culture punch when required to do so; and when it wants to - and spike it with some effervescence and make it pop, too. Even those among us who don't partake in drinking the GLEE Kool-Aid, all must agree that there was more than one episode's fair share of fun, frivolity, twists and tunes, with some very fitting dramatic and musicals moments that we have by now come to anticipate from the genre-hopping musical dramedy enterprise - all of it integrated effectively into the stream-lined storyline, as well. Prom. It's all about prom this time of year and GLEE always makes a point to pay tribute to the month of May in this way. It is in pop culture melding mega-moments like last night's One Direction cover by way of GLEE - "What You Makes You Beautiful" - that we are again reminded of the special place GLEE holds in the American pop pantheon of the 21st century - using real, of-the-moment pop songs and utilizing them to comment on current events while musicalizing and dramatizing the lives of high school students. The classic cuts that come along are a bonus, really, when one considers GLEE from this viewpoint, though the contemporary covers have become the bread and butter of song sales for the mega-music-selling series - "Teenage Dream" by Blaine & The Warblers, as well as the Troubletones's Adele "Someone Like You/Rumor Has It" mash-up sold nearly as many copies as their predecessors - the originals - as far as iTunes sales go. Though FOX channel-mate Simon Cowell of course discovered and shepherds the international pop smash super group One Direction, their musical appearance on GLEE this season marks the continued exposure of the of-the-moment boy band phenomena we have not seen the likes of in over a decade - not since the days of N*SYNC and the Backstreet Boys - after the New Directions success with The Wanted's "Glad You Came" a few episodes back and their upcoming continued presence, no doubt, in addition. What makes GLEE must-see-TV week after week is more often than not the try-anything approach of the creators and cast - some sequences shockingly come off brilliantly and hit all-too-squarely their intended targets, while others fall far short and flop completely, even embarrassingly so. To crib a phrase from One Direction's hit single, what makes GLEE beautiful is that GLEE does not always know what makes it beautiful - experiencing drama coming to us delivered from that rocky, risky-to-mount precipice is sometimes frustrating, sometimes rewarding, but almost always somehow more than merely satisfying.
Live Theatre and Soho Theatre have announced that following its critically acclaimed sell-out double run at Live Theatre, Newcastle and Soho Theatre, A WALK ON PART: THE FALL OF NEW LABOUR will transfer to the Arts Theatre in London's West End, with John Hodgkinson reprising his highly acclaimed role as Chris Mullin, from Tuesday 19 June to Saturday 14 July. Opening night is Tuesday 26 June, 7.30pm.
After sold out houses and 8 Helen Hayes nominations for Angels in America, Forum Theatre returns to the work of Tony Kushner with The Illusion (freely adapted from Pierre Corneille's L'illusion comique) from May 24 - June 16, 2012 with opening night on May 26. The show is directed by Mitchell Hebert.
Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Working Title Films Old Vic Productions and NETworks Presentations, LLC bring the multi-award-winning Billy Elliot the Musical to Milwaukee from July 17-22. Based on the international smash-hit film and featuring music by Elton John, book and lyrics by Lee Hall, choreography by Peter Darling and direction by Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot the Musical has earned critical acclaim around the world and was the winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Charming and unabashedly buoyant, BILLY ELLIOT--which danced away with 10 fairly well-deserved Tony Award wins including Best Musical back in 2009--is a smile-inducing, pleasingly-staged musical based on the 2000 film. The stage musical version's national tour has finally stopped in Los Angeles for a five-week engagement at the Pantages Theatre through May 13.
Art and class collide, as a group of Northern English miners unexpectedly ascend to the top of the art world in The Pitmen Painters at ACT - A Contemporary Theatre. Penned by playwright Lee Hall, author of the celebrated Billy Elliot, this critically acclaimed play from London and Broadway receives its regional premiere in ACT's dynamic in-the-round Allen Theatre directed by ACT's Artistic Director Kurt Beattie tonight April 26, and the show is scheduled to run until May 20.
MAD COW THEATRE is holding auditions by appointment only for its upcoming productions of THE PITMEN PAINTERS by Lee Hall, directed by Bobbie Bell and TWELVE ANGRY MEN by Reginald Rose, directed by Stephan Jones.
Art and class collide, as a group of Northern English miners unexpectedly ascend to the top of the art world in The Pitmen Painters at ACT - A Contemporary Theatre. Penned by playwright Lee Hall, author of the celebrated Billy Elliot, this critically acclaimed play from London and Broadway will receive its regional premiere in ACT's dynamic in-the-round Allen Theatre directed by ACT's Artistic Director Kurt Beattie this Friday, April 20. The official opening night is April 26, and the show is scheduled to run until May 20. Check out photos of Frank Lawler and Jason Marr in the production below!
Art and class collide, as a group of Northern English miners unexpectedly ascend to the top of the art world in The Pitmen Painters at ACT - A Contemporary Theatre. Penned by playwright Lee Hall, author of the celebrated Billy Elliot, this critically acclaimed play from London and Broadway will receive its regional premiere in ACT's dynamic in-the-round Allen Theatre directed by ACT's Artistic Director Kurt Beattie this Friday, April 20. The official opening night is April 26, and the show is scheduled to run until May 20.
Art and class collide, as a group of Northern English miners unexpectedly ascend to the top of the art world in The Pitmen Painters at ACT - A Contemporary Theatre. Penned by playwright Lee Hall, author of the celebrated Billy Elliot, this critically acclaimed play from London and Broadway will receive its regional premiere in ACT's dynamic in-the-round Allen Theatre directed by ACT's Artistic Director Kurt Beattie this Friday, April 20. The official opening night is April 26, and the show is scheduled to run until May 20. Check out photos of Frank Lawler and Jason Marr in the production below!
Flip the switch and watch the sparks fly as PICT raises the voltage with their hot 2012 season! Pittsburgh audiences will get a charge out of a titillating new play by a leading American female playwright, a true story, an exploration of the comedic facets of a Russian master (and the great Irishman who was inspired by him), and a zany holiday farce!
Casting has been announced for Alan Plater's CLOSE THE COALHOUSE DOOR, which is being revived by Northern Stage and Live Theatre in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Directed by Samuel West, with additional material by Lee Hall, the production will open at Northern Stage on Wednesday 18 April, with previews from Friday 13 April and will then tour the UK until June 2012.
blurbThe U.S. National Tour of the 2009 Tony Award winning musical BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL officially opened in Los Angeles April 12, 2012 at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for a limited 5 week engagement through May 13.
In 1984 when Northern English coal miners went on strike in defiance of Margaret Thatcher's announcement to dissolve the unions, there was little hope for the future. Prospects were dim for kids like Billy Elliot who would be expected to enter the family business like his dad and his dad before him and on down the family lineage. Within 10 years, there would be no jobs, and where would Billy go, what would he do? Fortunately, this 11 year-old had unstoppable dreams that would perhaps take him far, if only he could defeat the tremendous odds and get his dad to agree to an audition in London for the Royal Academy - ballet. Since 2000, when the film Billy Elliot won the hearts of the entire world, there came a musical stage version - in 2005 on the West End and 2008 on Broadway, winning 10 Tony Awards. The stage version was as successful as the movie, mainly because the screenwriter Lee Hall and director Stephen Daldry stayed with the project. Billy Elliot has universal appeal for kids with artistic talent, and speaks to the young at heart in all of us. Finally Billy is in LA at the Pantages through May 13 only, with a sensational cast that will have you standing, cheering and singing its praises for years to come.
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