Lynn Ahrens News

This March, the creative team behind Ragtime on Ellis Island will be developing new use of in-ear monitoring (IEM) technology in a Sound Workshop, meant to explore its potential use for audiences in a fully realized site-specific production.

Manhattan Concert Productions (MCP) presented Broadway Classics in Concert, on Tuesday, February 20, 8:00 PM, in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall. The concert featured Michael Arden(Ragtime, Hunchback of Notre Dame), Sierra Boggess (The Secret Garden), Carolee Carmello(Broadway Classics 2013), Allan Corduner (Titanic), Quentin Earl Darrington (The Secret Garden), Ramin Karimloo (Parade, The Secret Garden), Norm Lewis (Ragtime), Laura Osnes (Crazy For You), Lea Salonga (Ragtime), Ryan Silverman (Titanic), and Tony Yazbeck (Crazy For You).

Broadway Grand Rapids will celebrate 30 years of bringing the best of Broadway to West Michigan when the new season begins next fall. The 2018-19 season will include some of the freshest and liveliest shows on tour.

The Young People's Chorus of New York City (YPC) and Artistic Director/Founder Francisco J. Nuñez celebrate the chorus' 30th anniversary in its 2018 Annual Benefit Concert, to be held at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Monday, March 5, at 7:00 p.m. This year's musical guests are Tony Award-winning, Broadway songwriting duo Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, whose works for the stage include Anastasia and Once On This Island; singer and actress Jenn Colella, currently starring in Broadway's Come From Away; singer/actor Jordan Donica, whose roles include Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the national tour of Hamilton; and classical baritone Lester Lynch, who has performed at Teatro alla Scala, Covent Garden, and with the San Francisco Opera, among other companies.

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today's top stories: At Home at the Zoo opens off-Broadway tonight at Signature Theatre, and more!

How did some of your favorite songs come to be? BroadwayWorld is getting the story behind the song in exclusive interviews from your favorite Broadway composers. Below, watch as Lynn Ahrens, currently represented on Broadway with Once on This Island and Anastasia, explains how she and collaborator Stephen Flaherty came to write an Act 2 anthem from Ragtime, 'Back to Before.'

How did some of your favorite shows come to be? BroadwayWorld is getting the story behind the show in exclusive interviews from your favorite Broadway creators. Below, watch as Susan Stroman explains how taking a risk on some last minute changes to CRAZY FOR YOU made it a hit back in 1992.

The Young People's Chorus of New York City (YPC) and Artistic Director/Founder Francisco J. Nuñez celebrate the chorus' 30th anniversary in its 2018 Annual Benefit Concert, to be held at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Monday, March 5, at 7:00 p.m. This year's musical guests are Tony Award-winning, Broadway songwriting duo Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, whose works for the stage include Anastasia and Once On This Island; singer and actress Jenn Colella, currently starring in Broadway's Come From Away; singer/actor Jordan Donica, whose roles include Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the national tour of Hamilton; and classical baritone Lester Lynch, who has performed at Teatro alla Scala, Covent Garden, and with the San Francisco Opera, among other companies.

How did some of your favorite shows come to be? BroadwayWorld is getting the story behind the show in exclusive interviews from your favorite Broadway creators. Below, watch as Ken Ludwig explains what happened when the creative team of CRAZY FOR YOU decided that Act 2 needed some major last minute changes.

RAGTIME will play at The Axelrod Performing Arts Center (APAC) in Deal Park, NJ. March 3-25.

First of all, kudos to director James Esposito for discovering the musical DESSA ROSE, based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Sherley Anne Williams. This awe-inspiring musical received its New York premiere at Lincoln Center in 2005 and it's a wonder no other theater group has decided to produce this timely exploration about the universal need for freedom and equality. With book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty, it tells the story of a young black woman (a runaway slave) and a young white woman (an abandoned mother) beginning in the years just prior to the Civil War and continuing through their journey to acceptance in the antebellum South. The audience has the role of playing their grandchildren, to whom the elderly pair tell their story as it is presented to us.

How did some of your favorite songs come to be? BroadwayWorld is getting the story behind the song in exclusive interviews from your favorite Broadway composers. Below, watch as Alan Menken, currently represented on Broadway with Aladdin and A Bronx Tale, explains how he and collaborator Stephen Schwartz came to write one of his most beloved Disney ballads, 'Out There,' from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

How did some of your favorite songs come to be? BroadwayWorld is getting the story behind the song in exclusive interviews from your favorite Broadway composers. Below, watch as Maury Yeston explains how he found the voice of Titanic in writing its opening and closing numbers. 

Direct from New York, Nederlander presents SunTrust Broadway at DPAC's, 2018 / 2019 Season. It's our "New York, New York" Season with all eight shows being current or recent hits direct-from-Broadway. The eleventh season of SunTrust Broadway at DPAC begins this fall, anchored by HAMILTON, and featuring 2017 Tony-winning Best Musical and the 2018 Grammy Award-winning, DEAR EVAN HANSEN and 2017 Tony-winning Best Revival of a Musical, HELLO, DOLLY! starring Broadway legend Betty Buckley as Dolly Gallagher Levi.

How did some of your favorite songs come to be? BroadwayWorld is getting the story behind the song in exclusive interviews from your favorite Broadway composers. Below, watch as Lucy Simon explains how she came to write one of the hauntingly powerful duet from The Secret Garden, 'Lily's Eyes.'

Due to high ticket demand, Hartford Stage announced today that it is adding four additional performances to the run of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig and directed by Emily Mann. The show now runs through Sunday, March 25. 

How did some of your favorite songs come to be? BroadwayWorld is getting the story behind the song in exclusive interviews from your favorite Broadway composers. Below, watch as Jason Robert Brown, explains what inspired Parade's epic opening number, 'The Old Red Hills of Home.'

How did some of your favorite songs come to be? BroadwayWorld is getting the story behind the song in exclusive interviews from your favorite Broadway composers. Below, watch as Stephen Flaherty, currently represented on Broadway with Once on This Island and Anastasia, explains how he and collaborator Lynn Ahrens came to write one of the most beloved songs from Ragtime, 'Make Them Hear You.'

Pat Wilhelms, Artistic Director for Roanoke Children's Theatre, is proud to announce the upcoming selection of plays for the Company's 11th Season. For the past decade, RCT has been the valley's only professional theatre designed specifically for children, schools and families. Continuing their motto of "Bigger and Better at the Jefferson Center," the 2018-2019 Season will be packed with plenty of fan favorites.

Siblings Grace and Jack Sweeney will be featured cast members for the Axelrod Performing Arts Center's upcoming production of "Ragtime, The Musical," which will run from March 3-25 and will be directed and choreographed by Luis Salgado, who is returning to the theater after last year's successful production of "In the Heights."