Mary Ellen News

The Des Moines Community Playhouse is approaching its 100th anniversary, and is starting the celebration early with a special performance to be held each year leading up to the big day. Today and tomorrow, Mar. 4-5, the Playhouse will begin the trip down memory lane with 'Countdown to 100: A Musical Revue of the '60s and '70s.'

David Goldyn Productions presents the World Premiere of DADDY ISSUES, a new comedy by Marshall Goldberg. Directed by David Goldyn, previews begin March 31 at Davenport Theatre with opening night slated for April 7. The production will now star Kate Katcher, who debuted on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof opposite Zero Mostel and repeated the role of Tzeitel with Herschel Bernardi, directed by Jerome Robbins. She also appeared in Wonderful Town with Lauren Bacall and Two for the Seesaw directed by Judith Ivey. Katcher replaces Daisy Eagan, who leaves the cast to star in Wit in North Carolina.

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club will present the World Premiere of Heather Litteer's solo show LEMONADE, directed by Elena Heyman (Erin Markey's Deleted Scenes From Fun Home; Becca Blackwell's They, Themselves and Schmerm) for a limited engagement April 15-24, 2016 at The Club at La MaMa (74A East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery) with performances on Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 6pm. Tickets ($18/$13 students & seniors) are available online at www.lamama.org or by calling 646-430-5374. The show runs approximately 60 minutes, with no intermission.

The Des Moines Community Playhouse is approaching its 100th anniversary, and is starting the celebration early with a special performance to be held each year leading up to the big day. On Mar. 4-5, the Playhouse will begin the trip down memory lane with 'Countdown to 100: A Musical Revue of the '60s and '70s.'

Dominican University's Performing Arts Center presents ETHEL's Documerica tonight, February 20th at 7:30 p.m. in the Lund Auditorium.

?Like a comet that burns far too brightly to last, Janis Joplin exploded onto the music scene in 1967 and, almost overnight, became the queen of rock & roll. The unmistakable voice, filled with raw emotion and tinged with Southern Comfort, made her a must-see headliner from Monterey to Woodstock.

In the grand tradition of musical parody, Georgetown Palace brings us the lighthearted, all-in-good-jest musical, XANADU. For Valentine's Weekend, The Palace is having a special promotion of $5 off per ticket order if the code XANADU5 is entered at checkout online. With only one weekend left, a ticket to this campy story of 80's love would indeed make an novel gift for your Valentine.

Dominican University's Performing Arts Center presents ETHEL's Documerica on Saturday, February 20th at 7:30 p.m. in the Lund Auditorium.

David Goldyn Productions presents the World Premiere of DADDY ISSUES, a new comedy by Marshall Goldberg. Directed by David Goldyn, previews begin March 31 at Davenport Theatre with opening night slated for April 7.

The Bushwick Starr is proud to present Obie Award-winning playwright Clare Barron's newest work, the world premiere of I'LL NEVER LOVE AGAIN (a chamber piece), part concert and part archaeological dig about first love, first heartbreak, and how those formative teenage experiences haunt the rest of our lives. I'LL NEVER LOVE AGAIN is created from Barron's actual teenage diary and performed by a chorus of downtown's finest. We track the emotional ups-and-downs of 'Clare' as she goes through her very first relationship. It's a chance to spend some time in a real-life teenage brain and with real-life teenage artifacts (drawings from Clare's journals, the actual purple iridescent choir robes from her high school, her baby teeth...) but the goal is to jog the audience's memories and inspire their own personal reflection. Do you remember your first cup of coffee? Or how intense it was the first time you took your pants off with someone? Or all the things you promised yourself before you got distracted by the Adult World?  

Can you hear the people sing? The Carbonell Awards judges did, honoring LES MISERABLES at Maltz Jupiter Theatre with 10 Carbonell nominations, the most of any musical production. Daniel's Husband at Island City Stage, a world premiere about the importance of marriage equality, garnered six nominations, the most of any play.

Composer Paola Prestini, the Creative and Executive Director of the National Sawdust (NS), announces the initial programming for the non-profit's winter 2016 season in its acclaimed new home -- a $16 million, 13,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art chamber hall in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Newly released "Sheldon's Diary" delves into the animal world with lighthearted humor and soulful adventure as it follows the secret lives of two furry felines knighted by the Paws for the Imminent Cause (or PICs for those who prefer a good acronym) which is the high council governing any critter not human. The mission is to help the helpless, and freshly appointed knights Sir Sheldon and Sir Cheddar are ready and willing to give whatever aid is needed. Okay, well maybe ready and willing is a bit of an overstatement seeing as there's kibble to be had and naps to be taken, but you try searching for a squirrel that doesn't want to be found or battling the chaos of The Wild Hunt just to rescue a missing ghost dog from the pack doomed to run with the hounds for all eternity and see just how gung-ho you are. Written by author Mary Ellen Quire, this book will surely make you rethink the assumption that your pet sleeps all day or maybe even give you cause to consider the possibility that your local stray may not just be a vagrant looking for a good meal. For in the animal world, things may not truly be what they seem. Now available on Amazon.com, "Sheldon's Diary" will surely peak the interest of animal lovers everywhere.

The Palace Theater's 'Your Palace - Your Place,' radio show heard over WATR 1320 AM from 9:10 to 10 a.m. on the first and third Friday morning of each month, is taking the show on the road with a live broadcast from the theater on Friday, Dec. 18, from 9:10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Theatre Project is thrilled to present New York solo performer JEFFREY SOLOMON in his Off?Broadway comedy, THE SANTA CLOSET, about a little boy seeking validation and the closeted holiday icon too scared to give it.

Composer Paola Prestini, the Creative and Executive Director of the National Sawdust (NS), announces the initial programming for the non-profit's winter 2016 season in its acclaimed new home -- a $16 million, 13,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art chamber hall in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Justin Boyd, Britt Byrd, Katherine Morgan and Taylor Novak will team up to host 2016 Midwinter's First Night - set for Sunday night, January 10, 2016 - and to ride herd on First Night founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis for the presentation of the BWW Nashville Awards and the presentation of First Night's Top 10 of 2016.

Tonight, November 19 (8 pm) pianist Anthony de Mare brings the third and final installment of his inspired LIAISONS project to Symphony Space's Peter Jay Sharp Theatre.

The reimagining and recycling of Hollywood movie iconography in contemporary art, and the way that movies live on in our personal and cultural memories, are explored in the exhibition Walkers: Hollywood Afterlives in Art and Artifact, opening today, November 7, 2015 at the Museum of the Moving Image.

fandango 4 Art House has announced that it will present the world premiere of THE DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE OF PRIVATE PITTS, a new play based loosely on actual events surrounding a young Texas girl's unfathomable journey from 'miracle child' to aimless rebel, into the throes of the Iraq war and beyond, tonight, November 5 - November 22 at the IATI Theater at 64 East 4th Street in NYC.