Marsha Norman News

Greenway Arts Alliance (Whitney Weston and Pierson Blaetz, Co-Founders and Co-Artistic Directors) announces its 2018-2019 Season, which includes the Tony Award-winning musical The Color Purple, the Rolling World Premiere play Herland and the 3rd Annual L.A. Get Down Festival, A Celebration of Hip Hop and Spoken Word. The season productions and festival will be presented at Greenway Court Theatre (544 N. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles).

Friends, this is a tough one to watch. And I don't necessarily recommend it for everyone, especially people who might be triggered by the events of the play. Proceed with caution, because Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'NIGHT, MOTHER is 90 minutes of the most frank discussion of suicide I've ever seen. Dark and Stormy's production, featuring the two-person dream team of Artistic Director Sara Marsh and #TCTheater favorite Sally Wingert, is beautifully done and powerfully affecting, almost painfully so. And they're doing all the right things - partnering with the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and including the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) - so that hopefully this play brings more awareness of and discussion about suicide. And it's also some really intense, intimate, engaging theater. I expect nothing less from Dark and Stormy.

Portland Center Stage at The Armory's 2018-2019 season launches with the Tony Award-winning musical The Color Purple, adapted from Alice Walker's classic novel about the sisterhood, resilience and self-empowerment found in a community of black women living in rural Georgia in the early 20th century. The Color Purple begins preview performances on September 15, opens on September 21, and runs through October 28 on the U.S. Bank Main Stage. Timothy Douglas directs the production, joined by music director Darius Smith, who will bring the Grammy Award-winning score to life.

Cadence Theatre Company, in partnership with Virginia Repertory Theatre, is proud to announce the names of the five fellows who have been selected to participate in the inaugural Cadence Pipeline New Works Fellowship. The initiative, funded in part by founding sponsor CapTech, affords five Virginia playwrights the opportunity to develop new work under the artistic guidance and mentorship of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. Cadence Theatre Company has produced several of Lindsay-Abaire's plays in partnership with Virginia Rep, most recently the award-winning Rabbit Hole in 2017.

Paper Mill Playhouse announced today that individual tickets for the theater's 2018-2019 season will go on sale to the public on Monday, August 20 at 10:00am.

Emerging artist Jessica Moss makes her SummerWorks playwriting debut with A Girl Lives Alone, an ensemble comedy and a mash-up of Hitchcock, radio horror, and Law and Order: SVU.

Once Upon a Rhyme: A Musical Tale (formerly iLLA! A Hip Hop Musical), with book, music, and lyrics by Ronve O'Daniel and music, orchestrations, and arrangements by Jevares C. Myrick will be presented as part of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 2018 New Works Festival.

Sometimes a show comes along on Broadway that leaves you saying, 'Hmm I wonder what it would be like without the large scale production?' The 2014 Jason Robert Brown/Marsha Norman musical The Bridges of Madison County is one of those shows. It had a large production concept that I felt swallowed the small story it was trying to tell. Mind you Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale gave incredible performances as the two leads and Jason Robert Brown rightfully deserved his two Tony Awards for Best Score and Orchestrations after the show had already closed.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, it was recently announced that composer Jason Robert Brown and Broadway and TV star Jeremy Jordan will team up for a performance at SubCulture NYC on September 17th!

It was announced tonight that composer Jason Robert Brown and Broadway and TV star Jeremy Jordan will team up for a performance at SubCulture NYC on September 17th! Tickets and information can be found here.

BroadwayWorld has teamed up with Broadway alum Ilana Levine, who makes her entrance onto the podcast stage with her new show Little Known Facts. Ilana's unique brand of celebrity interview, 'Podcast Verite,' is unfiltered, raw, honest and uniquely funny.

Composer Jason Robert Brown, best known for The Last Five Years and The Bridges of Madison County, will be workshopping a new musical called The Connector at Princeton University this fall.

In a local community theater premiere, The Barn Players will bring the Tony Award winning musical THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY to their stage, August 23rd through September 2nd at The Arts Asylum: 1000 East 9th Street, (off Harrison Street), Kansas City, MO 64106.

Emerging artist Jessica Moss makes her SummerWorks playwriting debut with A Girl Lives Alone, an ensemble comedy and a mash-up of Hitchcock, radio horror, and Law and Order: SVU.

In advance of the 2018-19 Broadway revival of "The Secret Garden," Gulfshore Playhouse Education will present the Tony Award-winning musical as part of the Summer 2018 Teen Conservatory program.

The world's leading theatrical publishing and licensing company, Samuel French, announced today that The Secret Garden (writing team Lucy Simon & Marsha Norman), Doug Wright, and Antoinette Nwandu will be honored at the third annual Samuel French Awards.

There is something glorious taking place at the Repertory Theatre in New Britain, Connecticut. The Connecticut Theatre Company is staging the very first community theater production of THE COLOR PURPLE, the hit Broadway musical with book by Marsha Norman and Music & Lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. Readers familiar with the beloved musical very likely may have the same initial reaction as this reviewer had - "A community theater production of THE COLOR PURPLE? Not sure how good that can be." Well, let me go on the record to say that this production by the Connecticut Theatre Company is absolutely breathtaking and does justice to every note, every scene and every heart-wrenching and beautifully written song in the musical. It is fresh and simple, and every bit as moving and life affirming as the original Broadway production (and its recent revival.)

The Keegan Theatre closes out its 21st season with the Tony Award-winning musical THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, opening on August 4, 2018. An acclaimed musical based on the best-selling novel, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY was developed by the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning creative team of Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World) and Marsha Norman.

THE COLOR PURPLE has announced that a digital lottery, powered by Broadway Direct, will begin Monday, July 16 at 10AM for the Chicago engagement of THE COLOR PURPLE.

Drury Lane Theatre announces casting for its sultry summer drama, Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Tony nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge (2009 Broadway revival of Ragtime, Drury Lane's Smokey Joe's Cafe). Cat on a Hot Tin Roof runs July 5 - August 26, 2018, at Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace. The press opening is scheduled for Thursday, July 12 at 8:00 p.m.