Marc Blitzstein News

The New Mexico Actors Lab announced today that they have received a matching grant for their August production of The Cradle Will Rock. This grant - provided by four anonymous donors - totals a fund of $12,500 that will match dollar-for-dollar any other donations they receive for The Cradle Will Rock up to the $25,000 budgeted for this show.

As part of an effort to incorporate more opera into their mainstage programming, the Baumgartner Studio Artist Showcase will open with Leonard Bernstein's 45-minute opera Trouble in Tahiti. Bernstein began working on this piece on his honeymoon, and many consider it autobiographical, to an extent. This American gem incorporates Bernstein's quintessential jazzy idioms and a plot that runs the gamut from sneaking out of a kid's concert to see a movie and some 'Mad Men' era shenanigans at the office. A vocal trio singing of idyllic middle-class life in 1950s suburbia evokes radio commercials of the era. Throughout the 45-minute opera, the Trio functions as a contemporary Greek chorus, providing satirical commentary to the drama.

New Mexico Actors Lab founder Robert Benedetti announced today that co-Artistic Director Nicholas Ballas has been named the group's sole Artistic Director, and that Benedetti will now serve as Managing Director in concert with Mr. Ballas.

Steven Blier, Artistic Director a?? Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director   presents Marc Blitzstein's No For An Answer and Kurt Weill's Der Silbersee (Silverlake). Two powerful, neglected works by two masters of political theater. Each speaks passionately to the issues of our times. 

Classic Stage Company's 2019 gala will honor Anika Noni Rose, whose singular performance in CSC's recent production of Carmen Jones propelled it to widespread acclaim, and Ted Chapin, visionary President of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization.

The Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska has announced their fourth biennial GROW A SHOW, a development program for new musical theatre. The workshop, although it is ticketed, is free to the public. Tickets are available online at www.liedcenter.org. This is an incredible free event for theatre doers and goers.

Lincoln Center Theater, under the direction of André Bishop, has announced it will produce a new musical during its 2019-2020 season. FLYING OVER SUNSET, with a book and direction by James Lapine, music by Tom Kitt, and lyrics by Michael Korie, will feature choreography by Michelle Dorrance, and will begin previews March 12, 2020 and open on Thursday, April 16, 2020 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). Carmen Cusack, Harry Hadden-Paton and Tony Yazbeck will head the cast with additional casting to be announced at a later date.

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG has announced the lineup for its 2019-20 Season.

The little OPERA theatre of ny will present a FREE concert of scenes from American operas in collaboration with Bronx Opera and operamission on Saturday, June 22, 2019. The concert will showcase the diversity of music and stories written for the opera stage by both native born and immigrant composers and librettists. The concert will take place outdoors on Governors Island in Nolan Park, in front of building 25. The performance is at 5pm and is FREE to the public. (Rain date: Sunday, June 23 at 4pm.)

The little OPERA theatre of ny will present a FREE concert of scenes from American operas in collaboration with Bronx Opera and operamission. The concert will showcase the diversity of music and stories written for the opera stage by both native born and immigrant composers and librettists. The concert will take place outdoors on Governors Island in Nolan Park, in front of building 25. The performance is at 5pm and is FREE to the public. (Rain date: Sunday, June 23 at 4pm.)

Perhaps Leonard Bernstein's most uplifting composition is paired with one of the most significant compositions by musical master Ludwig van Beethoven's in "Bernstein and Beethoven: Part II" on Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore.

Now onstage through Mother's Day (Sunday, May 12) in a much anticipated and gleefully subversive production from Nashville Opera, The Cradle Will Rock remains hard to define: It could be described as a work of art whose meaning, its very raison d'etre, can be bent to suit any conceivable justification. Variously, Blitzstein described his 1937 work as a 'play in music' or an 'opera for actors' and its history clearly paints it as either or even as both.

THEATER 2020, Brooklyn Heights' NY award winning professional theater company is pleased to announce its June 2019 run of the masterwork 'THE CRADLE WILL ROCK,' in a limited run of 16 performances (indoors & out) Friday, June 7th - Sunday, June 30th, 2019.

It's another busy weekend in Nashville - but when is Music City not packed with events, festivals, affairs? - and we're back with our Critic's Choice recommendations to have you cut through the theatrical flotsam and jetsam and find a cultural opening that's a good fit for your harried lifestyle. Nashville Opera opens its staging of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock at Noah Liff Opera Center, Way Off Broadway Productions unveils its version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Music Valley Event Center, Street Theatre Company invites you to the see their staging of Lynn Nottage's Sweat at their new venue on Elm Hill Pike and Nashville Rep continues its celebration of 10 years of The Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Children's Theatre.

Classic Stage Company announces two events in conjunction with Tony Award-winner John Doyle's production of Marc Blitzstein's 1937 play in music The Cradle Will Rock. On May 14, legendary former New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse, author of the forthcoming Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor (Alfred A. Knopf, August 2019),and Kate Shindle, president of Actors' Equity Association, will discuss the history and current state of labor and union movements in relation to Cradle's timely and timeless themes. 

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Broadway veteran Elizabeth Josephine 'Jo' Sullivan Loesser passed away yesterday, April 28, from heart failure in her New York City Home. She was 91 years old.

Opera Santa Barbara presented a musically dramatic rendition of THE CRUCIBLE. As an opera it struck the emotions with a stronger hammer than the play did with mere words. If you can be in Santa Barbara tomorrow afternoon, don't miss the performance at the Lobero Theatre.

Classic Stage Company announces two exciting and illuminating events in conjunction with Tony Award-winner John Doyle's production of Marc Blitzstein's 1937 play in music The Cradle Will Rock.

One of Leonard Bernstein's most iconic compositions will be paired with the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven's most celebrated work in "Bernstein and Beethoven: Part I" on Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore. As a continued celebration of the Leonard Bernstein Centennial, world-renowned pianist Michael Brown will join Philharmonic Music Director and Conductor Piotr Gajewski and the National Philharmonic in performing Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 ("The Age of Anxiety"), a genre-defying work that combines elements of symphony, concerto, and program music and is inspired by the dramatic poem The Age of Anxiety by W.H. Auden. After an intermission, Gajewski will lead the Philharmonic in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. This timeless work is one of the most performed, recorded, adapted, and abused of all the works in Beethoven's canonical repertoire. A pre-concert lecture will take place between 6:45-7:15 p.m. From 7-7:30 p.m., families can explore orchestral instruments with Philharmonic musicians. The concert will feature a members-only encore question-and-answer. Ticket prices are $42-$78, and young people 7-17 are free. Strathmore is located at 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit nationalphilharmonic.org or call 301.581.5100.

The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music awarded $71,000 in prizemoney at the finals of 2019 Lotte Lenya Competition, which took place in a packed Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, on April 13. The $20,000 First Prize went to Daniel Berryman, 28 of Seattle, WA. Andrea Wozniak, 28 of Boston, MA, won the $15,000 Second Prize, and Trevor Martin, 30 of Fayetteville, GA, received Third Prize of $10,000.