Mary Rodgers News

Freakier Friday, Disney's sequel to the 2003 fan-favorite film, will arrive October 7 on digital platforms and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD November 11. 

Charles Kirsch is the 17-year-old host of the theater podcast Backstage Babble, where he has conducted over 250 in-depth interviews with some of Broadway’s best. In “Stage Direction,” he will be using material from the podcast and additional interviews to chronicle the career and impact of some of the most influential theater directors. 

What did our critic think of SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM at Oil Lamp Theater? I’m Still Here. In a career spanning 69 years and countless songs, it is safe to say that 4 years after the passing of one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century, Sondheim is still here. The current production at Oil Lamp Theatre in Glenview is the musical revue Side By Side By Sondheim.

Oil Lamp Theater is presenting Side by Side by Sondheim, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and music by Leonard Bernstein, Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers and Jule Styne with continuity by Ned Sherrin. Get a first look at photos here! 

Julie Benko performed at Birdland on Monday with a Richard Rodgers tribute concert, cheekily titled My Fanny Valentine—a nod to her now-legendary turn as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. See photos here! 

Reviews are now out for Freakier Friday, Disney's highly anticipated sequel to the 2003 fan-favorite film. The movie, which features the return of Disney Legend Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, will be released this Friday. Find out what critics think of the film!

Birmingham Village Players will open its 103rd season this fall with five productions including Man of La Mancha and more. See the full season and learn how to purchase tickets.

Oil Lamp Theater has revealed the cast and creative team for its next production, Side by Side by Sondheim, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Learn how to purchase tickets.

Candela, a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to expanding access to theater education for playwrights, book writers, and lyricists of Latin American and Caribbean heritage, has announced the fellows selected for its third annual Playwrights Summer Fellowship program.

The Library of Congress has acquired the manuscripts, music and lyric drafts, recordings, notebooks and scrapbooks of legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Learn more here!

A nostalgic trip based on a 1976 Disney movie

It's a freaky Friday once more! Disney has released the full trailer for the eagerly anticipated Freakier Friday, the upcoming sequel to the 2003 fan-favorite film. Watch it now!

The Sharon Playhouse will continue its tradition of pairing extraordinary talent from Broadway, television and film with talented local theater artists from the region and beyond, proudly announces casting for the 2025 season.

Candela has announced the opening of applications for its Third Annual Playwrights Summer Fellowship, a.k.a. Summer Jam, taking place July 13-20, 2025 at the Dramatists Guild of America's Mary Rodgers Room in New York City.

Cowley College’s Summer Theatre Program is thrilled to announce its upcoming production of Disney’s Freaky Friday, a heartfelt and hilarious musical comedy that explores the challenges of growing up—and parenting—with a magical twist.

It’s not out of the ordinary these days for worthwhile musicals that originally premiered off-Broadway and then entered the canon to receive their Broadway debuts decades later. Floyd Collins shares this journey with shows including Assassins, Gutenberg! The Musical!, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Last 5 Years, Little Shop of Horrors, and Violet.

The 1962 feature film “Light in the Piazza” was shot on location at the Piazza della Signoria and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and the Via Veneto and Roma Ostiense railway station in Rome, making its technicolor splendor a hard act to follow when the story, based on a 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer, was developed for the stage in 2003.

Broadway figures Shaina Taub, Jeanine Tesori, and Helen Park have withdrawn from the Library of Congress’s StageStruck! VI conference following recent political turmoil, forcing major programming changes.

The Library of Congress will host “StageStruck! VI: Women and the American Musical,” a free three-day conference May 14-16 featuring Jeanine Tesori, Shaina Taub, Helen Park, Julie Taymor, Camille A. Brown, and Marjuan Canady.

The Drama League announced the 2025 Drama League Awards Nominees for Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Outstanding Direction of a Play, Outstanding Direction of a Musical, and the much-coveted Distinguished Performance Award. We have the full list of nominees here!