Mark Kennedy News

Based on Pedro Almodóvar's internationally acclaimed 1988 film, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN is set in late 20th-century Madrid and tells the story of the intertwining lives of a group of women whose relationships with men lead to a tumultuous 48 hours of love, confusion and passion and now it's come to Broadway!

THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, the exhilarating new Kander & Ebb musical, opens Sunday, October 31 at the Lyceum Theatre (149 West 45th Street). THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS is the final collaboration by musical theatre giants John Kander and Fred Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret). Based on the notorious 'Scottsboro' case in the 1930s (in which nine African-American men were unjustly accused of a terrible crime) this musical explores a fascinating chapter in American history. This production is directed and choreographed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman (The Producers) and features a book by David Thompson (who adapted the script for Chicago's record-breaking revival).

Signature Theatre Company presents the first New York revival of Tony Kushner's ANGELS IN AMERICA: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, directed by Michael Greif. ANGELS IN AMERICA opens Thursday, October 28 at the Peter Norton Space (555 West 42nd Street). The play began previews on September 14. Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, the two parts of ANGELS IN AMERICA, alternate in repertory.

RAIN performs the full range of The Beatles' discography live onstage, including the most complex and challenging songs that The Beatles themselves recorded in the studio but never performed for an audience. From the early days of their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 through Sgt. Pepper and on to the Abbey Road years, RAIN performs it all. The multi-media concert recaptures the era through all phases of The Beatles astounding musical career including Shea Stadium, the psychedelic late 60s and the long-haired hippie, hard-rocking rooftop days. A fusion of historical footage and hilarious television commercials lights up video screens and live cameras zoom in for close-ups.

It's an opportunity to see acting legends James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave together on stage when they star in one of the most beloved and celebrated American stories of the late twentieth century, Driving Miss Daisy, which will have its Broadway premiere this fall. Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play (later adapted into an Oscar-winning film) is a timeless, searing, funny, and ultimately hopeful meditation on race relations in America, told through the complex relationship between Daisy Werthan (Redgrave) and her driver Hoke Colburn (Jones), two of popular culture's most enduring characters.

LOMBARDI, a new American play from Academy Award-winning playwright Eric Simonson, is based on the best-selling Vince Lombardi biography 'When Pride Still Mattered', by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss. LOMBARDI, starring Dan Lauria as the legendary Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi and Judith Light as his wife Marie, opened Thursday October 21 at the Circle in the Square Theatre, (50th, west of Broadway).

American playwright David Hirson's rollicking 1991 play, LA BÊTE, is a comic tour de force about Elomire (David Hyde Pierce), a high-minded classical dramatist who loves only the theater, and Valere (Mark Rylance), a low-brow street clown who loves only himself. When the fickle princess (Joanna Lumley) decides she's grown weary of Elomire's royal theatre troupe, he and Valere are left fighting for survival as art squares off with ego in a literary showdown for the ages.

In BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, rising star BENJAMIN WALKER reprises his role as America's first political maverick. A.J. kicked British butt, shafted the Indians and smacked down the Spaniards all in the name of these United States-who cares if he didn't have permission? An exhilarating and white-knuckled look at one of our nation's founding rock stars, BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON recreates and reinvents the life of 'Old Hickory,' from his humble beginnings on the Tennessee frontier to his days as our seventh Commander-in-Chief. It also asks the question, is wanting to have a beer with someone reason enough to elect him? What if he's really, really hot?

Recently, the Associated Press was invited inside the Foxwoods Theatre to observe SPIDER-MAN in rehearsal. As reported on ABC News today, reporter Mark Kennedy reveals that the production will feature '41 cast members, 18 orchestra members and about 18 new songs by U2's Bono and the Edge.' The spared-no-expense 60M production also features a circular conveyor belt and high-intensity arial choreography by Cirque du Soliel.

FRECKLEFACE STRAWBERRY THE MUSICAL opened at the New World Stages on October 1 in New York City. Those in attendance included Julianne Moore, Polly Draper, and Kelly Rutherford. Broadwayworld brings you coverage below.

According to a report by the LA Times, Mark Kennedy will be taking the place of respected Associated Press Theatre critic Michael Kuchwara, who recently passed away as a result of complications with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Arden Professional Apprentice (APA) Class 17 concludes their 2009/10 season with the Apprentice Showcase Falling Into Place, featuring five short plays by Christopher Durang, David Ives, Shel Silverstein, and Sean Michael Welch, directed by Steve Pacek, the Arden's Mouse in If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

Arden Professional Apprentice (APA) Class 17 concludes their 2009/10 season with the Apprentice Showcase Falling Into Place, featuring five short plays by Christopher Durang, David Ives, Shel Silverstein, and Sean Michael Welch, directed by Steve Pacek, the Arden's Mouse in If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

Arden Professional Apprentice (APA) Class 17 concludes their 2009/10 season with the Apprentice Showcase Falling Into Place, featuring five short plays by Christopher Durang, David Ives, Shel Silverstein, and Sean Michael Welch, directed by Steve Pacek, the Arden's Mouse in If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.