Mark Kennedy News

Manhattan Theatre Club has just announced that due to popular demand, the new Broadway production of Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning MASTER CLASS, directed by Stephen Wadsworth has been extended a second time. The limited engagement has now been extended by two additional weeks with tickets now on sale through Sunday, September 4 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street).

Manhattan Theatre Club's new Broadway production of Terrence McNally's MASTER CLASS, directed by Stephen Wadsworth, opened tonight on Broadway. Check below to see what the critics had to say!

Last night, June 29, Cirque du Soleil opened its major new acrobatic spectacle, Zarkana, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Performances began Thursday, June 9, 2011 for a limited engagement through October 8, 2011. Presented by iShares, Zarkana is written and directed by acclaimed film and theatre director François Girard (The Red Violin, Silk).

The Public Theater kicked off the 2011 Shakespeare in the Park summer season with the official opening of ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, directed by Daniel Sullivan. The show, along with MEASURE FOR MEASURE, will run in repertory with the same company of actors through Saturday, July 30 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

Well, it's finally here. SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark has officially opened on Broadway, on Tuesday, June 14 th at the Foxwoods Theatre. The show now features creative consultation by Philip William McKinley, original direction by Tony Award-winner Julie Taymor, music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, and book co-written by Taymor, Glen Berger and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa . This time, unlike back in February, the critics were actually invited. Let's see what they thought...

Producers Whoopi Goldberg and Stage Entertainment have announced that the Tony-nominated Broadway musical SISTER ACT will launch a North American tour at Toronto's Canon Theatre in the fall of 2012. Additional cities, dates and casting will be announced at a later date. The North American tour of SISTER ACT will be booked by The Road Company.

Lynn Nottage's world premiere comedy, BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK, already extended one week through May 29 at Second Stage Theatre, opens tonight, May 9. Directed by Jo Bonney, BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK is Ms. Nottage's first play to be produced in New York since she won the Pulitzer Prize for Ruined in 2009. For ticket information, please call the Second Stage Box Office at 212-246-4422 or visit the company's website, www.2ST.com. BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK features Stephanie J. Block, Tony Award-nominee Daniel Breaker, Tony Award-nominee David Garrison, Kimberly Hébert Gregory, Kevin Isola, Tony Award nominee Sanaa Lathan, and Tony Award-winner Karen Olivo. Let's see what the critics had to say!

The first ballot for Best Play was radically fractured, with no single candidate garnering more than five of the 24 total votes. On the third (weighted) ballot, the race remained competitive, with Good People and Jerusalem winning 23 points and Other Desert Cities running just behind them with 22 points. Since no play reached the necessary threshold of 37 points, the Circle moves to a fourth ballot-newly approved in a bylaw change in January-that reduced the field to the third ballot's top four vote-getters (including The Motherf**ker with the Hat, which had received 11 points, narrowly edging out such contenders as Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, War Horse and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures). On this ballot, in which previous proxy voters did not participate, Good People won with 34 points, with Other Desert Cities in second place with 30 points.

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.

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.

The cast for THE INTELLIGENT HOMOSEXUAL'S GUIDE includes Michael Cristofer, Linda Emond, Michael Esper, K. Todd Freeman, Hettienne Park, Steven Pasquale, Molly Price, Matt Servitto, Danielle Skraastad, Stephen Spinella and Brenda Wehle. Cristofer, Emond, Esper and Spinella originated their roles in the Guthrie Theater's world premiere of the play. Let's see what the critics had to say...

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!