Linda Winer News

Good People, written by David Lindsay-Abaire, today won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2010-2011 season. The award for Best Foreign Play play went to Jerusalem, written by Jez Butterworth. The Book of Mormon received the award for Best Musical. The selections were made at the 76th annual voting meeting of the organization today at the offices of Time Out New York in Manhattan.

The new Broadway musical, COME FLY AWAY, conceived, choreographed, and directed by Tony Award-winner Twyla Tharp and featuring vocals by Frank Sinatra, will make its Connecticut premiere at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford May 29-June 3, 2012, as part of The Bushnell's 2011-2012 Broadway Series.

Adam Feldman, president of the New York Drama Critics' Circle (NYDCC), has announced that the Circle will meet at the offices of Time Out New York magazine on Monday, May 9, to select the winners of the 76th annual New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, which will be announced at approximately 7pm, immediately following the meeting.

Winners of the 2011 Theatre World Awards, which honors debut theatre performances, will be announced May 10 at noon. Additionally theDorothy Loudon Award for Excellence and the Lunt-Fontanne Award for Ensemble Excellence will also be announced. A ceremony will be held on June 7

Adam Feldman, president of the New York Drama Critics' Circle (NYDCC), has announced that the Circle will meet at the offices of Time Out New York magazine on Monday, May 9, to select the winners of the 76th annual New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, which will be announced at approximately 7pm, immediately following the meeting.

Roundabout Theatre Company is presenting the new Broadway musical THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE, starring two time Tony® Award-winner Donna Murphy, directed by Leonard Foglia. THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE features book & lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart and music by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler.

The new Broadway musical Baby It's You! tells the inspiring story of Florence Greenberg, the woman who changed the recording world forever when she discovered The Shirelles and created Scepter Records, becoming the music industry's first female powerhouse. Starring Tony Award winner Beth Leavel as Greenberg, conceived by Floyd Mutrux, directed by Floyd Mutruxand Sheldon Epps, and written by Tony nominated book writers Mutrux and Colin Escott, the team behind Broadway's Million Dollar Quartet, Baby It's You! began performances at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) Saturday, March 26, 2011, and opens TONIGHT, April 27, 2011, at 6:30pm. Baby It's You! features a cast of 19 that includes Allan Louis, Geno Henderson, Erica Ash, Kelli Barrett, Kyra DaCosta, Crystal Starr Knighton, Barry Pearl, Christina Sajous, Brandon Uranowitz,Alison Cimmet, Erica Dorfler, Berlando Drake, Adam Heller, Jahi A. Kearse, Annette Moore, Zachary Prince, Ken Robinson and Chelsea Morgan Stock.

The Broadway premiere of Larry Kramer's ground-breaking play The Normal Heart officially opens tonight, Wednesday, April 27, at the Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street). The limited, 12-week engagement, directed by Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe, began performances on Tuesday, April 19.

Ben Stiller, Edie Falco and Jennifer Jason Leigh star in the Broadway revival of John Guare's comedic masterpiece THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, directed by David Cromer. THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, a strictly limited 16-week engagement opened tonight, April 25, 2011 at the Walter Kerr Theatre!

Previews for Born Yesterday began March 31, at Broadway's Cort Theatre. Directed by Doug Hughes, this revival of Garson Kanin's award-winning comedy about sex and politics opened tonight, Easter Sunday, April 24!

JERUSALEM opened at The Royal Court Theatre in July, 2009 with critics praising Jez Butterworth for his beautiful and comic elegy for a disappearing way of life in rural England and actor Mark Rylance, who was lauded as delivering one of the great stage performances of our time. The production played an extended sold out run at the Royal Court, before moving to the Apollo Theatre in the West End in January, 2010, where it received an unprecedented set of five-star reviews from 12 London newspapers. Will it garner the same reception across the pond? Let's find out!

SISTER ACT began preview performances March 24 and opens tonight Wednesday, April 20, 2011. SISTER ACT features an original score with music by multi-Academy, Grammy and Golden Globe Award-winning composer Alan Menken, lyrics by Tony Award-nominee Glenn Slater, a book by multi-Emmy Award winners Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, and additional book material by Douglas Carter Beane. Directed on Broadway by four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks , the production features choreography by Tony and Olivier Award nominee Anthony Van Laast and is based on the Touchstone Pictures motion picture Sister Act written by Joseph Howard.

HIGH explores the universal themes of truth, forgiveness, redemption and human fallibility. When Sister Jamison Connelly (Turner) agrees to sponsor a 19 year-old drug user in an effort to help him combat his addiction, her own faith is ultimately tested. Struggling between the knowledge she possesses as a rehabilitation counselor and a woman of religious conviction, she begins to question her belief in miracles and whether people can find the courage to change. Did the show live up to high expectations? Find out now!

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN opened on Broadway Sunday, April 10, 2011 at the Neil Simon Theatre. This new musical, created by a team of Tony winners, features a book by Terrence McNally, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, choreography by Jerry Mitchell and is directed by Jack O'Brien. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is based on the book and hit 2002 DreamWorks film of the same name directed by Stephen Spielberg with screenplay by Jeff Nathanson and book by Frank Abagnale, Jr.

'God of Carnage' opens next Wednesday, April 13, at 8 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group / Ahmanson Theatre reuniting the original Tony Award-nominated Broadway cast of Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden in the scathingly funny, Tony Award-winning Best Play. The production is currently in previews and will play through May 29 only.

Roundabout Theatre Company's (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) new Broadway production of Anything Goes, starring Tony Award winner Sutton Foster as 'Reno Sweeney' and Tony and Academy Award winner Joel Grey as 'Moonface Martin,' opens on Broadway tonight, Thursday, April 7th at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING opened on Sunday, March 27, 2011, at Broadway's Al Hirschfeld Theatre. So did the critics fall in love with the 50th Anniversary production of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING? Let's find out...

THE BOOK OF MORMON opened Thursday, March 24 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. THE BOOK OF MORMON features book, music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone. Parker and Stone are the four-time Emmy Award-winning creators of Comedy Central's landmark animated series, 'South Park.' Tony Award-winner Lopez is co-creator of the long-running hit musical comedy, Avenue Q. The world premiere musical is choreographed by three-time Tony Award-nominee Casey Nicholaw (Monty Python's Spamalot, The Drowsy Chaperone) and directed by Nicholaw and Parker.

Due to overwhelming demand, 'God of Carnage' at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre has been extended for two additional weeks. The production, which features the original Broadway cast of Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden, will now be performed in Los Angeles for eight weeks from April 5 through May 29, 2011.

Following smash hit productions in Australia, London and Toronto, PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT THE MUSICAL began previews on Broadway on February 28 and opened on March 20th. PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT THE MUSICAL stars Tony Award® nominee Will Swenson, Olivier Award nominee Tony Sheldon and Nick Adams as the trio of friends on a heart-warming, uplifting road trip of a lifetime who hop aboard a battered old bus searching for love and friendship in the middle of the Australian outback and end up finding more than they could ever have dreamed.