Leon Rothenberg News

The Berkshire Theatre Critics Association has announced the nominees for the 5th Berkshire Theatre Awards, known colloquially as The Berkies.

As we filed out of the theatre following the performance of the World Premiere Musical, A CROSSING, I leaned in toward BSC Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and said, “I am torn between two words - magnificent and gorgeous”. She replied, “I will take them both”, and I assure you deservedly so.

Williamstown Theatre Festival has announced members of the creative teams for all three of their 2021 Live Season productions, which will take place outdoors, socially distanced, and with safety prioritized.

To correspond with the return to school for Fall Semester, the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association (TSDCA) announces the Fall 2020 Student Sound Design Challenge -- an opportunity for students from many different colleges and universities across the country to collaborate and create sound design together. 

Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) has lined up a series of online lessons, conversations and chats this week and next, many tying into the live reading of The White Chipby the Off-Broadway cast of Artistic Director Sean Daniels' journey to sobriety, in a benefit for ATC and The Voices Project, a grassroots recovery advocacy organization.

In line with Arizona Theatre Company's ongoing commitment to bringing diverse creative content to audiences online, the original Off-Broadway cast of The White Chip will perform a live reading of Artistic Director Sean Daniels' play about his unusual path to sobriety as a fundraiser for The Voices Project.

The original Off-Broadway cast of The White Chip will perform a live reading of Artistic Director Sean Daniels' play about his unusual path to sobriety as a fundraiser for The Voices Project, a grassroots recovery advocacy organization, and Arizona Theatre Company.

Atlantic Theater Company has announced initial casting for the world premiere production of A Play is a Poem, a collection of one-acts by Academy Award winner Ethan Coen (Almost an Evening; The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), directed by Neil Pepe (Atlantic Artistic Director, Broadway's American Buffalo) and produced in association with Center Theatre Group. The production has also announced a new first preview date. A Play is a Poem will now begin previews Thursday, May 14th and will open Monday, June 1st for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 21st Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street).

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for the West Coast premiere of Faceless by award-winning playwright Selina Fillinger (The Armor Plays: Cinched/Strapped, Something Clean), which was presented in the 2019 Powers New Voices Festival and will be directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch (the Globe's The Last Match and also Off Broadway, Bethany, and The Blameless). Faceless runs March 28 a?" April 26, 2020 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Previews run March 28 a?" April 1, with opening night on Thursday, April 2, at 8:00 p.m. Single tickets are on sale now, starting at $30.00, and can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE [234-5623], or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. Following its run at the Globe, Faceless will tour to four Community Partner venues with our free Globe for All program from April 30 to May 3.

The Broadway Theatre was the place to be last night as talents from stage and screen gathered to celebrate opening night of Tony Award winner Ivo van Hove's new production of West Side Story.

HAMLET THE ROCK MUSICAL with book, music and lyrics by Cliff Jones, with additional music and lyrics by Craig Fair, has undergone a few incarnations since its Broadway run in the late 70s. The launch of a re-imagined 21st Century version, produced by David Carver Music, magnificently directed by Bill Castellino, with conductor Doug Oberhamer's music direction and choreography by Janet Roston, certainly proves there's something still rockin' in Denmark! And even those not familiar with the Shakespeare's classic tragedy will be able to understand the story, performed as a sung-through musical with enough heartfelt emotions on display to leave no doubt as to how and why the characters interact with one another to mostly bad results.

In this version, Count Dracula is not an obvious outlier with fangs and pale skin, but a charming fellow you'd never suspect is spreading the acceptance of patriarchal attitudes and gender roles through his seductive bites.

David Carver Music presents HAMLET THE ROCK MUSICAL featuring music and lyrics by Cliff Jones and additional music, lyrics and orchestrations by Craig Fair.

David Carver Music will present HAMLET THE ROCK MUSICAL featuring music and lyrics by Cliff Jones and additional music, lyrics and orchestrations by Craig Fair.

In 1976 on Broadway, just 11 songs into the 2-hour performance, the audience erupted into a show stopping standing ovation. That, and the well-earned nightly show-ending standing ovations proved how powerful and moving this musical was in '76 and will be again in February, with the re-imagined 21st century version of Hamlet The Rock Musical.

Classic Stage Company has cancelled the first two preview performances of Kate Hamill's reimagining of Dracula, directed by Sarna Lapine, due to an issue with heat in the theater that has delayed technical rehearsals this week. The production will now run January 16 a?" March 8.

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director Tim Sanford, Managing Director Leslie Marcus) today announced the cast and creative team of Unknown Soldier, a sweeping, elegiac chamber musical that melts time, spanning three generations as it follows a woman's journey to unearth the secrets buried in her family's past. With a book and lyrics by Daniel Goldstein, making his New York writing debut, Unknown Soldier is also the last work from the late, beloved Michael Friedman (music and lyrics) to be premiered in the city. Together, they created a work that profoundly illustrates the search into the existences of those who've passed, connecting the love and loss, hope and regret of two womena?'and a country forever scarred by wara?'across a century. Unknown Soldier follows Ellen Rabinowitz, a woman who's inherited her grandmother's homea?'and with it, a clue that her understanding of her family and of herself are incomplete. Directed by Trip Cullman and choreographed by Patrick McCollum, this New York premiere production will take place in the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street), February 14-March 29, 2020.

Classic Stage Company today announces the casts and designers for the thrilling repertory cycle of adaptations of two legendary Gothic nightmares-Kate Hamill's reimagining of Dracula, directed by Sarna Lapine (January 15-March 15, 2020) and Tristan Bernays' adaptation of Frankenstein, directed by Timothy Douglas (January 30-March 15, 2020).

Pasadena Playhouse presents a co-production with East West Players, the Los Angeles premiere of Lauren Yee's The Great Leap, directed by Tony Award winner BD Wong. From the author of Cambodian Rock Band and King of the Yees, comes the story of an American basketball team in Beijing where the coaches find themselves in a conflict that runs deeper than the strain between the countries, and where a young player's actions become the accidental focus of attention.

Pasadena Playhouse, the State Theater of California, in association with East West Players, presents the Los Angeles premiere of Lauren Yee's The Great Leap. Urgent, sharp-witted and fast-paced, The Great Leap is an unforgettable night of theater. As two men from different cultures reunite and find themselves at a crossroads - one man struggling to keep his career alive and an old friend flourishing in a career he never wanted - a young Chinese-American gets lost in the Tiananmen Square Protest and finds himself at the accidental center of international attention. All three men must face their past and struggle to find their own personal victories in this compelling drama directed by Tony Award winner BD Wong.