Matt Cavenaugh News

You gotta give credit to Scott Rice: the man's got style! Approaching his 40th birthday with the same trepidations that anyone would, instead of just throwing a drunken revelry for all his Nashville friends, he has chosen instead to become an impresario in order to produce, direct and star in the Music City premiere of John Bucchino's It's Only Life.

Broadway favorites and real-life couple Matt Cavenaugh (West Side Story) and Jenny Powers (Grease) will perform 'Direct From Broadway,' a concert to benefit Hartford Children's Theatre, at 6:00 pm on Friday, October 28 at The Marquee (960 Main Street) in downtown Hartford.

Reprise Theatre Company presents Patti LuPone 'Gypsy In My Soul' for one performance only tonight at 8:00 pm, at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA.

Barnes & Noble welcomes a slew of Broadway performers to presentations throughout October.

UnsungMusicalsCo. Inc. (www.UnsungMusicals.org) announces complete casting for its world premiere of the original score from Gatsby at Signature Theatre's Peter Norton Space (555 West 42nd Street) on September 30 at 7pm and 10pm as part of the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Last night, The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) held its opening night Gala hosted by Emmy and Three-Time Tony Award Winner Robert Lopez (The Book of Mormon, Avenue Q). BroadwayWorld was there and brings you photo coverage below!

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 20, 21, 22, The Mabel Mercer Foundation presents its 22nd annual Cabaret Convention at The Rose Theater, Frederick P. Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Performances begin each evening at 6 o'clock and run 2 hours and 30 minutes with an intermission. More than forty exemplary vocalists and musicians are scheduled to appear in three diverse programs.

MATT CAVENAUGH and JENNY POWERS are set to star in A NYMF Developmental Reading of: MANY HAPPY RETURNS- A New Musical by Carey Ramos and Lamont Dozier.

Reprise Theatre Company presents An Evening With Liz Callaway. It will have one performance only on Monday, September 19 at 8:00 pm, at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

Roundabout Theatre Company's (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) production of Death Takes a Holiday, with a book by Peter Stone & Thomas Meehan, music & lyrics by Maury Yeston, directed by Doug Hughes will end its limited engagement on Sunday, September 4th at 2:00PM.

UnsungMusicalsCo. Inc. (www.UnsungMusicals.org) announces complete casting for its world premiere of the original score from Gatsby at Signature Theatre's Peter Norton Space (555 West 42nd Street) on September 30 at 7pm and 10pm as part of the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Roundabout Theatre Company's (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) production of Death Takes a Holiday, with a book by Peter Stone & Thomas Meehan, music & lyrics by Maury Yeston, directed by Doug Hughes will end its limited engagement on Sunday, September 4th at 2:00PM.

Tony Award-winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman delighted students as their special surprise guests during the Broadway Artists Alliance 2011 Summer Intensive Session One. Shaiman and Wittman lent their talents for a surprise Q&A with the students of Broadway Artists Alliance. Following the Q&A, they led a Song Interpretation master class.

Reprise Theatre Company presents Patti LuPone 'Gypsy In My Soul' for one performance only on Tuesday, October 4 at 8:00 pm, at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA.

Reprise Theatre Company presents An Evening With Liz Callaway. It will have one performance only on Monday, September 19 at 8:00 pm, at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

The unfortunate case of laryngitis inflicting Death Takes A Holiday's leading man, Julian Ovenden, divided press reservations for the new musical into 'before' and 'after.'  I was originally scheduled to see the show the week of its opening, but when understudy Kevin Earley began filling in, many of us were, understandably, put on hold to wait for his return.

Reprise Theatre Company's production of the classic American musical 'Cabaret,' which opens the 2011-2012 Reprise season and plays September 13 to 25 (press opening September 14, 2011) at UCLA's Freud Playhouse, includes a cast of new talents as well as Broadway and West End veterans - Zach Bandler as Ernst Ludwig, Lisa O'Hare as Sally Bowles, Jeff McLean as Cliff Bradshaw, Katrina Lenk as Fräulein Kost, Mary Gordon Murray as Fräulein Schneider, Robert Picardo as Herr Schultz and Bryce Ryness as the Master of Ceremonies.

The talented cast of Death Takes a Holiday took to the studio on Monday, August 8, to record their original cast album with PS Classics. Jill Paice, who plays Grazia in the show, took these wonderful photos to document the wondrous occasion!

Tony Award-winning actress Nikki M. James delighted students as their special surprise guest during the Broadway Artists Alliance 2011 Summer Workshop. Ms. James (currently starring the the Tony Award-winning The Book of Mormon) lent her talents for a surprise Q&A with the students of Broadway Artists Alliance.

On August 7 the ghosts come out to sing and dance and reminisce a bit when one of the most legendary musicals of all time returns to the Great White Way and previews begin for a sparkling new production of FOLLIES, directed by Eric Schaeffer, based on the recent Kennedy Center mounting of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's haunting and thrilling nostalgia cornucopia. While the various productions of FOLLIES over the decades have a lion's share of unforgettable star turns and show-stopping moments to treasure, the brand new Broadway revival could very well be the ghostly musical's true total resurrection for a 21st century audience. After all, this is the show which coined the term Broadway Baby! Speaking of which, with a cast boasting Broadway heavyweights Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Elaine Paige and Danny Burstein, along with upcoming InDepth InterView participant Ron Raines, along with the glories of Sondheim's masterful score and the moody magic that this musical can singularly conjure, this production is evidently poised to present FOLLIES as perfectly as potentially possible for a modern audience - so, while taking a look at this particular production and the past performances of the stars of the show we shall parse the looks, lives, love and lore that makes up FOLLIES - and a couple laughs, too - and also consider why it is one of the most important musicals of the twentieth century.