Mary Rodgers News

Theater Works' concludes the season with the musical comedy, Once Upon a Mattress continuing May 5-14. This hilarious retelling of The Princess and the Pea  will have you looking at fairy tales in a whole new way! Queen Aggravain has ruled that none may marry until her son, Prince Dauntless marries. However, she has managed to sabotage every princess that comes along with impossible tests! 

From screen to stage to screen again! According to a Disney Channel spokesperson, Disney's new FREAKY FRIDAY musical adaptation is in development for TV, 'contingent on casting.'

Abingdon Theatre Company presents its first musical with the New York premiere of The Boy Who Danced On Air, with music by Tim Rosser and book and lyrics by Charlie Sohne, winners of 2015 Jonathan Larson and Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart awards. Directed by Abingdon Theatre Company Artistic Director Tony Speciale, The Boy Who Danced On Air plays four weeks only, May 15 through June 11, at the June Havoc Theatre (312 West 36th Street). Opening night is Thursday, May 25 at 7PM. Below, check out an interview with the musical's creators Tim Rosser & Charlie Sohne!

Completing the cast of the European Premiere of WORKING at Southwark Playhouse are six young performers all making their professional debuts.

The announcement of today's Tony Award nominations marks this as a week for celebration and reaffirms the commitment of organizations that protect the survival of the arts. For those organizations, like the Dramatists Guild Fund (DGF), that commitment likely means shouldering a larger burden of funding and support. Today's celebration also coincides with the launch of the latest installment of 'The Legacy Project: Volume III' from DGF, featuring one of Broadway's best known and loved composers/lyricists, Stephen Schwartz, chatting with Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home) about storytelling through song. Watch the interview below!

A friendly reminder! The well reviewed, NY Times Critic's  Pick Baghdaddy (formerly known as, Who's Your Baghdaddy?) by Marshall Pailet  and A.D. Penedo has returned to NYC and will open on Monday, May 1, 2017, for an initial run thrugh June 18, 2017 at St. Luke's Theatre (308 West 46th Street). 

Abingdon Theatre Company presents its first musical with the New York premiere of THE BOY WHO DANCED ON AIR, with music by Tim Rosser and book and lyrics by Charlie Sohne, winners of 2015 Jonathan Larson and Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart awards. Directed by Abingdon Theatre Company Artistic Director Tony Speciale, THE BOY WHO DANCED ON AIR plays four weeks only, May 15 through June 11, at the June Havoc Theatre (312 West 36th Street). Opening night is Thursday, May 25 at 7PM. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the company below!

360repco presents, in association with the Dramatist Guild, the first reading of Sherry Bokser's THE PULSE PROJECT on May 5th at 8 p.m. at Dramatist Guild's Mary Rodgers Room (1501 Broadway, 7th Floor).

Abingdon Theatre Company presents its first musical with the New York premiere of THE BOY WHO DANCED ON AIR, with music by Tim Rosser and book and lyrics by Charlie Sohne, winners of 2015 Jonathan Larson and Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart awards. Directed by Abingdon Theatre Company Artistic Director Tony Speciale, THE BOY WHO DANCED ON AIR plays four weeks only, May 15 through June 11, at the June Havoc Theatre (312 West 36th Street). Opening night is Thursday, May 25 at 7PM.

If you go to the theater for enjoyment, Cleveland Play House's "Freaky Friday" is your thing. If you go to the theater to see marvelous talent, in a well-directed, well-conceived show, "Freaky Friday" is your thing. If you don't go to theater but have always wondered what a Broadway show is like, "Freaky Friday" is your thing. Yes, if you don't go see "Freaky Friday" you are going to miss out on a special event!

The body-swapping duo in Cleveland Play House's (CPH) musical production of Disney's Freaky Friday will be played by Heidi Blickenstaff (Broadway's Something Rotten!) and Emma Hunton (Broadway's Spring Awakening). Blickenstaff and Hunton will reprise their roles as Katherine Blake (mother) and Ellie Blake (daughter) from La Jolla Playhouse's production, which launched a three-theatre co-production that will move to Cleveland Play House and conclude with a run at Houston's Alley Theatre. Get a sneak peek at them in action at La Jolla Playhouse before they hit Cleveland!

Pulitzer Prize Winner and Steinberg Distinguished Playwright, Stephen Adly Guirgis, whose script 'Between Riverside and Crazy,' is now on stage at Cleveland Play House, is noted for writing plays that feature racial discord and the definition of family, while examining 'self-interest, self-delusion, self-recriminating, greed and amorality.'

Complete casting has been announced for Joe Gulla's 'GARBO' at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Directed by Brian Rardin, this One Night Only performance will take place on May 9th as part of the 2017 Downtown Urban Arts Festival.

Abingdon Theatre Company presents its first musical with the New York premiere of THE BOY WHO DANCED ON AIR, with music by Tim Rosser and book and lyrics by Charlie Sohne, winners of 2015 Jonathan Larson and Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart awards.

???????Gillian Bevan, Dean Chisnall, Krysten Cummings, Siubhan Harrison, Peter Polycarpou and Liam Tamne will lead the cast of the European Premiere of WORKING.

Ethan Slater will join the cast in the role of Jerry Samuel in the well-reviewed, NY Times Critic's Pick Baghdaddy (formerly known as Who's Your Baghdaddy?) as it returns to Off-Broadway this April.

BroadwayWorld continues our exclusive content series, in collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which delves into the library's unparalleled archives, and resources. Below, check out a piece by Annemarie van Roessel, Assistant Curator of the Billy Rose Theatre Division on: The Designs of Jo Mielziner.

Cleveland Play House will close out their 2016-17 season with the joyful new musical romp, Freaky Friday. Based on the celebrated novel by Mary Rodgers which spawned two hit Disney films, Freaky Friday tells the story of a mother and daughter who magically swap bodies for 24 chaotic hours. The contemporary update of this American classic includes a hilarious new book by Bridget Carpenter ("Parenthood," "Friday Night Lights"), and a pop?rock score by Tony Award® and Pulitzer Prize winners Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal, If/Then). Directed by Christopher Ashley, Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse, it has been hailed as "a polished, peppy, modern fairy tale" by The Washington Post. With high-energy choreography by Sergio Trujillo (Memphis, Jersey Boys), this vivacious production is "delightfully spunky" with "timeless appeal" (Variety).

The 8th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony, which celebrates women of distinction in the American Theater, will this year be hosted by Tony Award-winning playwright, Sarah Jones, with honorees to be announced soon.

For this episode, we take a deep dive into the new Disney musical FREAKY FRIDAY , which was developed by Disney Theatrical Productions expressely for licensing to professional and then amateur theatres. Cast member Jason SweetTooth Williams moderates a chat--recorded backstage at La Jolla Playhouse--with the show's two stars, Heidi Blickenstaff and Emma Hunton.