Loren Shaw News

Drama Desk and Tony Award winner Laura Benanti ('The Sound of Music Live!', Gypsy, Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) will host the 59th Annual Drama Desk Awards tonight, June 1, 2014 at 8:00 PM at The Town Hall (123 W. 43rd Street). BroadwayWorld will be updating you with winners throughout the night. Check back later for the full list!

The Flea Theater has announced the extension of the World Premiere of THE MYSTERIES - a radical retelling of the Bible. Playwrights commissioned by Jim Simpson and Carol Ostrow including Tony Award and Academy Award winners and nominees David Henry Hwang, Craig Lucas, Billy Porter, Jose Rivera and Jeff Whitty; Flea alumni, Mallery Avidon, Trista Baldwin, Erin Courtney, Yussef El Guindi, Amy Freed, Sean Graney, Nick Jones, Qui Nguyen, and Jenny Schwartz; and a host of notable newcomers, Marc Acito, Johnna Adams, Liz Duffy Adams, Bill Cain, CollaborationTown, Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Eisa Davis, Gabriel Jason Dean, Chris Dimond, Madeleine George, Kate Gersten, Sevan K. Greene, Kirsten Greenidge, Lillian Groag, Jordan Harrison, Lucas Hnath, Ann Marie Healy, Meghan Kennedy, Kimber Lee, Kenneth Lin, Laura Marks, Ellen McLaughlin, Michael Mitnick, Don Nguyen, Dael Orlandersmith, A. Rey Pamatmat, Max Posner, Kate Moira Ryan, Najla Said, Jordan Seavey, Matthew Stephen Smith, Lloyd Suh, Jason Williamson and Bess Wohl join together to tell the entire History of Man's Salvation in 52 episodes from The Fall of Lucifer through and including Judgment Day.

Eligibility and award category designations for the productions under consideration this season were determined by the Drama Desk board of directors with recommendations from the nominating committee. Because of the abundance of great work throughout the season, the Board also authorized the increase in the number of nominees allowed in select categories.

Williamsburg's conversion from affordable artists' enclave to destination for luxury condominiums is the stuff of twisted fairy tales, making it a fitting backdrop for the New York debut of Vacant Lot Theatre Company's Born of A Fairytale, a modern mashup of classic tales penned by Eli Sibley. Having debuted before sold-out audiences at the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival in Washington, DC, the one-woman show is given new life by Vacant Lot with a new actress, Thea Brooks, and new director, Kathleen Amshoff. Opening tonight, April 3 and running for three weekends through Sunday April 20 at Triskelion Arts Zoo Theater, Born of a Fairytale tickets are $18.00 and available at brownpapertickets.com. Triskelion Arts Zoo Theater is located at 118 N 11th Street between Wythe and Berry, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The Flea Theater presents the World Premiere of THE MYSTERIES - a radical retelling of The Bible.

Williamsburg's conversion from affordable artists' enclave to destination for luxury condominiums is the stuff of twisted fairy tales, making it a fitting backdrop for the New York debut of Vacant Lot Theatre Company's Born of A Fairytale, a modern mashup of classic tales penned by Eli Sibley. Having debuted before sold-out audiences at the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival in Washington, DC, the one-woman show is given new life by Vacant Lot with a new actress, Thea Brooks, and new director, Kathleen Amshoff. Opening on Thursday, April 3 and running for three weekends through Sunday April 20 at Triskelion Arts Zoo Theater, Born of a Fairytale tickets are $18.00 and available at brownpapertickets.com. Triskelion Arts Zoo Theater is located at 118 N 11th Street between Wythe and Berry, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The Flea Theater presents the World Premiere of THE MYSTERIES - a radical retelling of The Bible.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson runs now through October 20, 2013 at Portland Stage. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

'Blues are a way of understanding,' Ma Rainey tells her band in the second act of August Wilson's 1984 play set in a 1920s recording studio in Jim Crow era Chicago. And, indeed, Wilson uses music as a means of making sense of the African-American experience in a world scarred by racism and violence. The Portland Stage's new production, which opens its 2013-2014 season, is a tautly directed, intensely acted interpretation of Wilson's meditation on what it is like to be black in a white man's world. The play, which uses the a quasi-musical blues structure of long, seemingly improvised solos interspersed with short rhythmic exchanges of dialogue, builds slowly and tensely to its chilling climax. Along the way, it penetrates the recesses of the musicians' hearts, their troubled pasts and their tenuous presents. And it examines the high cost of 'making it' in white America, where, for all their artistic talent and success, these determined entertainers remain faceless and invisible. Delivering Wilson's prose with an engaging blend of humor and pathos, the Portland Stage Company's cast scales the poetic heights of the playwright's genius.

NEW YORK MUSICAL THEATRE FESTIVAL (NYMF) and CASTLE WALK THEATRE COMPANY LLC presents, as part of the 2013 next link project, the world premiere production of Milton Granger's CASTLE WALK, directed by Richard Stafford. Castle Walk plays a one-week limited engagement at PTC Performance Space (555 West 42nd Street, NY, NY). Performances begin tonight, July 22nd and continue Sunday, July 28th.

Westchester Broadway Theatre presents The Sound of Music, with Music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. Directed and Choreographed by Jonathan Stahl with Musical Direction by Leo Carusone, the production runs now through August 11, 2013. BroadwayWorld has new photos of the cast onstage below!

One of the world's best loved musicals, based on the memoir of Maria Von Trapp; The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. Maria is a young, aspiring but quirky, nun whose love of freedom makes it obvious to her superiors that she is not suited for religious life. Thus, she is sent off to be the governess to Captain von Trapp's seven troublesome children. Unlike previous governess', Maria becomes friends with the children due to their mutual love of music. She fills the lives of the Von Trapp children with 'The Sound of Music' and captures the heart of their stern and lonely father. But, will their harmonious lives be torn apart when their beautiful homeland is ravaged by war? Rodgers and Hammerstein's Tony Award-winning musical delights audiences with the uplifting story and an irresistible score: 'Climb Every Mountain,' 'Do-Re-Mi,' 'Edelweiss' and 'My Favorite Things.'

NEW YORK MUSICAL THEATRE FESTIVAL (NYMF) and CASTLE WALK THEATRE COMPANY LLC are pleased to announce, as part of the 2013 next link project, the world premiere production of Milton Granger's CASTLE WALK, directed by Richard Stafford. Castle Walk will play a one-week limited engagement at PTC Performance Space (555 West 42nd Street, NY, NY). Performances begin Monday, July 22nd and continue Sunday, July 28th. Opening Night is Monday, July 22nd (8 p.m.).

Westchester Broadway Theatre presents THE SOUND OF MUSIC, with Music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. Directed and choreographed by Jonathan Stahl with musical direction by Leo Carusone, the production runs now through August 11, 2013. Press Opening: June 20, 2013. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Earlier this week I posted how I voted for this season's Outer Critics Circle Awards, so now here are the picks from my ballot for the Drama Desk Awards, which will be presented Sunday night.

The Constitution is the only document you get more knowledge of it, the drunker you get.  Why?  It was written during a four month drunken binge. The bills from those days show thousands of dollars in wine, port, beer.  They were all drinking.

The 58th Annual Drama Desk take place tonight, May 19th at Town Hall (123 W. 43rd Street). BroadwayWorld will be updating the list of winners live, so be sure to check back to stay in the know!

The 58th Annual Drama Desk awards will take place tonight, May 19th at Town Hall (123 W. 43rd Street). Scroll below for the full list of nominees, and be sure to check back later for BWW's live coverage!

One of the world's best loved musicals, based on the memoir of Maria Von Trapp; The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. Maria is a young, aspiring but quirky, nun whose love of freedom makes it obvious to her superiors that she is not suited for religious life. Thus, she is sent off to be the governess to Captain von Trapp's seven troublesome children. Unlike previous governess', Maria becomes friends with the children due to their mutual love of music. She fills the lives of the Von Trapp children with "The Sound of Music" and captures the heart of their stern and lonely father. But, will their harmonious lives be torn apart when their beautiful homeland is ravaged by war? Rodgers and Hammerstein's Tony Award-winning musical delights audiences with the uplifting story and an irresistible score: "Climb Every Mountain," "Do-Re-Mi," "Edelweiss" and "My Favorite Things."

The Play Company's Idea Lab, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut New York and the German Consulate New York, is proud to present a public event featuring internationally acclaimed German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig, in conjunction with our New York premiere production of his play THE GOLDEN DRAGON. Mr. Schimmelpfennig will discuss his award-winning play THE GOLDEN DRAGON, his larger body of work, and trends in German theatre today, May 12 @ 4:15pm -- immediately following the 3pm matinee performance of THE GOLDEN GRAGON at The New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher Street. This open conversation will be moderated by Dr. Frank Hentschker, Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center.