Leonard Bernstein News

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, written by Christopher Durang, today won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2012-2013 season. Matilda received the award for Best Musical. The selections were made at the 78th annual voting meeting of the organization today at the offices of Time Out New York in Manhattan.

To coincide with the 20-year anniversary of the Ford Partnership Program, which nurtures locally based artists and arts organizations, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission presents the inaugural Zev Yaroslavsky Signatures Series. This two-concert program benefiting the Ford Theatre Foundation pairs world-renowned performers with a local artistic treasure, celebrating Los Angeles as a destination for world-class artists, who find here both collaboration with, and inspiration from, celebrated local artists.

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the epic musical LES MISERABLES. Due to popular demand, the production's run has been extended by two weeks. Performances take place tonight, May 3 through June 1, 2013.

Eighty-Eight Entertainment announces that the Chicago Premiere of THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE, starring internationally-acclaimed storyteller and pianist, Mona Golabek, is extending through May 25 at The Royal George Theatre, 1641 North Halsted Street . The production is adapted and directed by Hershey Felder and based on the book The Children of Willesden Lane by Golabek and Lee Cohen. The Chicago premiere follows successful productions in Los Angeles and Boston.

Spectrum presents an afternoon recital with virtuoso pianist Beth Levin on Sunday, May 5th at 3. The program features a world premiere by Andrew Rudin, a New York premiere by David Del Tredici and works by Scott Wheeler, Yehudi Wyner, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert and Michael Rose.

NYC and Tokyo-based clarinetist, Thomas Piercy performs two concerts of new music by contemporary Japanese composers based on their thoughts about NYC and works by non-Japanese composers influenced or inspired by Japan. The concerts will be visually backed by projections of photos of New York City by photographer Christina Boers and photos of Tokyo by Thomas Piercy. Many of the pieces have been composed for and premiered by Mr. Piercy. Several of the pieces include the combination of Western classical instruments with traditional Japanese instruments (shakuhachi and hichiriki).

Notable Broadway leading man and internationally recognized Glee star Matthew Morrison offered up a spectacular musical medley last night on the 2013 Olivier Awards with a tribute to the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim/Arthur Laurents musical theatre staple WEST SIDE STORY.

Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson has established itself as "a hotbed of intellectual and aesthetic adventure" (New York Times).

Wendy Beckett's seductive new play, LOVE THERAPY opens at the DR2 Theatre (101 East 15th Street) on Monday, April 29th. Directed by Evan Bergman, LOVE THERAPY is the fourth in a series of ten of Ms. Beckett's plays that will be brought across the Pacific from Australia by Peter Walters for Pascal Productions. For tickets, please visit Telecharge.com or call (212) 239-6200.

On Tuesday, May 14 at 2:00 p.m., EDT, medici.tv (www.medici.tv) will present a free live Webcast of the New York Philharmonic's concert of 20th- and 21st-century music at Volkswagen's Die Glaserne Manufaktur, or Transparent Factory, in Dresden, Germany, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert.

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston presents ON THE TOWN, May 10 - June 8, 2013, featuring Book & lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Music by Leonard Bernstein, Based on an idea of Jerome Robbins. Directed by Spiro Veloudos, the production will feature music direction by Jonathan Goldberg and choreography & musical staging by Ilyse Robbins.

Eighty-Eight Entertainment presents the Chicago Premiere of THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE, starring internationally-acclaimed storyteller and pianist, Mona Golabek, in a limited engagement at The Royal George Theatre, 1641 North Halsted Street. The press opening was last night, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the opening night celebrations!

Music Director George Rothman will lead Riverside Symphony in a program of musical gems reflecting the cross-pollination of jazz and indigenous music with traditional European compositional technique. The orchestra closes its 32nd season with flair on Thursday evening, June 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

The Theatre Group at SBCC will present the new comedy BECKY'S NEW CAR by Steven Dietz as the final play in the 2012/2013 season. Directed by Katie Laris, Becky's New Car will run tonight, April 24-May 11, 2013 in the intimate Jurkowitz Theatre.

Eighty-Eight Entertainment presents the Chicago Premiere of THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE, starring internationally-acclaimed storyteller and pianist, Mona Golabek, in a limited engagement at The Royal George Theatre, 1641 North Halsted Street. The press opening is tonight, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. The production is adapted and directed by Hershey Felder and based on the book The Children of Willesden Lane by Golabek and Lee Cohen. The Chicago premiere follows successful productions in Los Angeles and Boston. BroadwayWorld has a first look at Golabek onstage below!

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's 44th season concludes with a flourish as Alisa Weilerstein, lauded by The New York Times as a 'brilliant young American cellist,' performs Shostakovich's thrilling Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107, originally composed for legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, on Saturday, May 18, 2013, 8 pm, at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, and Sunday, May 19, 2013, 7 pm, at Royce Hall, UCLA. Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, who conducts the program and has long been committed to championing artists early in their careers, also presents the US premiere of up-and-coming French composer Hugo Gonzalez-Pioli's The Love of Zero, an intriguing bassoon concerto, featuring LACO Principal Bassoon Kenneth Munday and played with Robert Florey's avant-garde 1927 short silent film of the same title. Gonzalez-Pioli, whose work adds a touch of Hollywood to the program, is a 2012 graduate of USC's prestigious Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program.

The Canadian Opera Company's 2013 spring season marks the return of celebrated Canadian director Atom Egoyan with his searing, critically acclaimed COC production of Richard Strauss's Salome.

Led by Associate Conductor Robert Franz, the Houston Symphony invites families to a concert today, April 20 that will take audience members back to pre-historic times. Featuring pieces such as John Williams' Theme from Jurassic Park and Morton Gould's The Jogger and the Dinosaur, the concert will create a pre-historic world within Jones Hall. During the concert, there will be several special visitors including an archeologist from the Houston Museum of Natural Science who will present and discuss dinosaur artifacts. The Symphony's percussion section will also be in the spotlight throughout the performance.

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the epic musical Les Miserables. Due to popular demand, the production's run has been extended by two weeks. Performances take place May 3 through June 1, 2013.

Celebrating the 1970s, the Houston Symphony and Michael Cavanaugh will entertain audiences in concerts of classic rock favorites tonight, April 19 and April 20 & 21. Under the direction of Associate Conductor Robert Franz, the Symphony will accompany Cavanaugh on hits from Elton John and bands such as Journey, Chicago, the Eagles and Styx.