Marc Norman News

Nashville Repertory Theatre will open its 2018-19 season - its 33rd - with a production of the Broadway hit musical Avenue Q, opening on September 8 at the Andrew Johnson Theatre at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Seattle Shakespeare Company closes its 2017-2018 season with Shakespeare in Love, the delightful new stage adaptation of Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's Academy Award-winning film. This warm and witty romantic comedy will be helmed by Seattle Shakespeare Company's Artistic Director George Mount. Originally produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions and adapted for the stage by Lee Hall with music by Paddy Cuneen, Shakespeare in Love previews May 2 and 3, opens May 4 and runs through June 3 at the Cornish Playhouse at the Seattle Center.

Cape Rep Theatre is celebrating its 33rd season with an exciting line up of plays and musicals, all of them Cape Cod premieres, and one world premiere by a local playwright. The Indoor Theater season will open May 9th with the George Furth and Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, followed by the world premiere production of The Tuna Goddess, by local theater artist, Jade Schuyler. Next up is the Broadway sensation, Mamma Mia!, music by the beloved super group ABBA and book by Catherine Johnson, followed by the 5-time Tony Award winning Fun Home, book and lyrics by Lisa Kron, music by Jeanine Tesori, based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. The season will close with the Cape Cod premiere of Shakespeare in Love, based on the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, adapted for the stage by Lee Hall.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is a 2014 stage adaptation by Lee Hall of the 1998 Academy Award winning film by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard of the same name. It was first created under the auspices of Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions. The story concerns an imaginary love affair involving Viola de Lesseps (Claire Grasso) and playwright William Shakespeare (Stephen Mercantel) while he was writing Romeo and Juliet. Many of the characters are based on historical figures, and many of the characters, lines, and plot devices allude to Shakespeare's plays. The production, now playing at Austin Playhouse, is one of their biggest productions to date. This script has become one of the most produced plays in America this season, and rightfully so, as it as entertaining as the 1998 film was.

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Witty, enchanting, and joyously self-referential, the original film version of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE fantasizes a story involving a young, virile William Shakespeare in his prime, who quells a bout of writer's block by secretly romancing an engaged lady named Viola---which apparently becomes the inspiration for the Bard's infamous star-crossed tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet.' The plot of the film remains fairly intact in Lee Hall's mostly delightful if slightly diluted stage adaptation, now continuing performances in a gorgeous-looking new regional production at Orange County's Tony Award-winning theater South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through February 10, 2018. This spunky love letter to the theater is chockfull of stagecraft-insider amusements and fun-to-find Shakespearean Easter Eggs that both aficionados and casual fans will appreciate. But, shockingly, despite the spectacular production values and the beguiling, gusto-bathed performances of its large ensemble cast, this stage adaptation somehow loses some of the inescapable romanticism that is so much more prevalent in the original film.

So many productions are happening all over the city. Here's what made the Hot List: Bugaboo & the Silent One, The Hothouse, Cabaret, Pirates of Penzance, Shakespeare in Love, Disney's Aladdin. Go see a show!

Palo Alto Players, the Peninsula's first theatre company, announces its 88th season - featuring four Peninsula premieres and a re-imagined classic. The 2018-19 line-up, beginning September 2018, was unveiled Sunday, January 28 by Artistic Director Patrick Klein at the company's annual Season Announcement Party and includes Disney's TARZAN®, ALL THE WAY, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, FLOWER DRUM SONG, and ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS. All performances are held at the Lucie Stern Theater located at 1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto. Subscriptions are on sale now online at www.paplayers.org or by phone at 650.329.0891. Individual tickets for the September show go on sale in August and for the remaining season beginning in October.

SpeakEasy Stage Company's New England premiere production of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is a meaty, fast-paced comic romp with lots of sizzle to go with that steak. Jennifer Ellis and new leading man in town, George Olesky, are a match made in heaven, surrounded by a talented ensemble that includes Nancy E. Carroll, Remo Airaldi, Eddie Shields, and Lewis D. Wheeler. Director Scott Edmiston wrangles a cast of 18 into a cohesive bundle of joy

Romance, mistaken identities, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics served up with a generous dash of comedy are at the heart of Shakespeare in Love, adapted by Lee Hall from the Oscar-winning film written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, with music by Paddy Cunneen. South Coast Repertory Artistic Director Marc Masterson directs the production on the Segerstrom Stage, Jan. 13-Feb. 10. Tickets are now on sale: www.scr.org.

Asolo Rep proudly kicks off its repertory season with SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, the stunning new stage adaptation of Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's triumphant Academy Award-winning film. The film starred Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola, who garnered an Oscar for the role, Joseph Fiennes as Will, and Dame Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth. This lush, sweeping and timeless romantic comedy will be helmed by director and choreographer Rachel Rockwell. Originally produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions and adapted for the stage by Lee Hall, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE previews January 10 and 11, opens January 12 and runs in rotating repertory through March 28 in the Mertz Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts.

Here is the performance schedule for South Coast Repertory for the four-month period of January-April 2018.

Romance, mistaken identities, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics served up with a generous dash of comedy are at the heart of Shakespeare in Love, adapted by Lee Hall from the Oscar-winning film written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, with music by Paddy Cunneen. South Coast Repertory Artistic Director Marc Masterson directs the production on the Segerstrom Stage, Jan. 13-Feb. 10. Tickets are now on sale: www.scr.org.

Asolo Rep proudly kicks off its repertory season with SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, the stunning new stage adaptation of Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's triumphant Academy Award-winning film. The film starred Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola, who garnered an Oscar for the role, Joseph Fiennes as Will, and Dame Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth. This lush, sweeping and timeless romantic comedy will be helmed by director and choreographer Rachel Rockwell. Originally produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions and adapted for the stage by Lee Hall, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE previews January 10 and 11, opens January 12 and runs in rotating repertory through March 28 in the Mertz Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts.

New Stage Theatre is bringing this romantic comedy this April! SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is about young William Shakespeare attempting to move past his writer's block, but it isn't until he meets a young lady can he write the so-called 'greatest love story.'

In celebration of its upcoming production of the stunning new stage adaptation of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, Asolo Rep will host a special one-night-only screening of the original Academy Award-winning romantic comedy in the Mertz Theatre on Monday, December 4 at 6:30pm. Abounding with wit and charm, Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's sweeping film stars Gwyneth Paltrow, who garnered an Oscar for the role of Viola, Joseph Fiennes, and Dame Judi Dench. SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE presents an imagined tale of Will Shakespeare, his greatest muse, and the extraordinary romance that inspired one of the world's most enduring love stories.

Below check out the performance schedule for South Coast Repertory for the four-month period of November 2017-February 2018.

The all South African production of the West End smash hit comedy SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE has been extended owing to overwhelming demand to 25 November at the Fugard Theatre. Extra matinee performances have also been added at 16:00 on Sundays.

Most of all, perhaps, is the sense of the theater as a helter-skelter, seat-of-the-pants, totally precarious enterprise, in which people start out to cast or produce a show with no idea how it's going to be completed, without necessarily even a script, and in which the way to make the final product viable, let alone successful, is, as the script keeps saying, a mystery.

Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 27th summer season will launch with the Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime and will feature three Shakespeare plays: the popular comedy Twelfth Night, the profound and lyrical history play King Richard II, and an actor-driven production of the spirited and bittersweet comedy All's Well That Ends Well. As the Festival continues its ambitious progression through the canon, King Richard II will be the 30th of Shakespeare's 38 plays PSF has produced. Rounding out the season will be the stage adaptation of the spectacular Shakespeare in Love, the most produced play in the nation this year following its run in London's West End.