Matthew Richards News

The Play Company's (PlayCo) 2015-16 Idea Lab features three curated events, November 18 & 28 and December 4, following performances of award-winning, German playwright Maria Milisavljevic's Abyss. The critically acclaimed U.S. premiere, directed by Maria Mileaf, runs through December 6 at Theaterlab, 357 West 36th Street. Writing about Abyss for The New York Times, Ben Brantley praised the 'poetic drama,' as 'genuinely artful...And it will take you places you didn't expect to go.' Speaking about the play's painfully current themes, he said it considers, 'some very topical questions of European national identities in a time of permeable and shifting borders.'

Center Stage will present the opening night performance tomorrow of family musicalThe Secret Garden, based on the beloved novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  BroadwayWorld has a first look below!

The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Executive Producer Lauren Weigel, kicks off its 15th Anniversary season with the U.S. premiere of Abyss, which marks the U.S. debut of the award-winning German playwright Maria Milisavljevic. Abyss, directed by Maria Mileaf, is a poetic thriller centered on the mysterious disappearance of a young woman. The play exemplifies PlayCo's unique commitment to premiering work from around the world to advance a dynamic, international experience of contemporary theater in New York. Abyss is an exploration of what it means to be an outsider. Speaking about the play Milisavljevic says, "making a new home means finding a new kind of honesty. Otherwise the old lies will follow you."

I was shocked and then realized I was behind the eight ball when hearing that Cincinnati's Playhouse in the Park would open its season with a musical interpretation of The Secret Garden. Shocked because I somehow missed that my beloved girlhood book and movie had been turned into a musical. Albeit this occurred back in 1991, but still I found myself curious as to how the story would translate into this medium. Well I watched the performance of this version and I have mixed thoughts.

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park opens its 2015-16 season with the heartwarming, soaring musical THE SECRET GARDEN, based on the enduring family classic penned more than a century ago by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Winner of three Tony Awards on Broadway, with book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman and music by Lucy Simon, THE SECRET GARDEN runs Sept. 5-Oct. 3 in the Playhouse's Robert S. Marx Theatre.

Primary Stages and Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Project present Informed Consent, a New York City premiere by Deborah Zoe Laufer (End Days, Leveling Up) and directed by Obie winner Liesl Tommy (Appropriate, The Good Negro). The limited engagement began performances earlier this week on, August 4, and continues through September 13, 2015 at Primary Stages at The Duke on 42nd Street - a New 42nd Street project. Opening night is Tuesday, August 18 at 7PM.

BroadwayWorld has confirmed that Tina Benko (Broadway's Irena's Vow, Top Girls, The Real Thing) will join Pun Bandhu (Wit, The Judge), Jesse J. Perez (Recent Tragic Events, American Splendor), DeLanna Studi (August: Osage County, Edge of America), and Myra Lucretia Taylor (Nine, 'Girls') in Primary Stages and Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Project's upcoming production, Informed Consent. The New York City premiere by Deborah Zoe Laufer (End Days, Leveling Up) and directed by Obie winner Liesl Tommy (Appropriate, The Good Negro) will play a limited engagement August 4 - September 13, 2015 at Primary Stages at The Duke on 42nd Street - a New 42nd Street project.  Opening night is Tuesday, August 18 at 7PM.

More energy than you think.

Westport Country Playhouse will stage 'And a Nightingale Sang,' a love story surrounding a working-class British family during World War II. Written by C. P. Taylor, and directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, the play runs now through June 27. The title is based on the 1940s popular song, 'And a Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,' which, among other music of the war years, is included in the play. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Primary Stages and Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Project (William Carden, Artistic Director; Paul Slee, Executive Director; Doron Weber, Sloan Foundation Vice President of Programs), announce casting for Informed Consent, a New York City premiere by Deborah Zoe Laufer (End Days, Leveling Up)and directed by Obie winner Liesl Tommy (Appropriate, The Good Negro).  The limited engagement runs August 4 - September 13, 2015 at Primary Stages at The Duke on 42nd Street - a New 42nd Street project.  Opening night is Tuesday, August 18 at 7PM.

Westport Country Playhouse will stage 'And a Nightingale Sang,' a love story surrounding a working-class British family during World War II. Written by C. P. Taylor, and directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, the play will run June 9 - 27. The title is based on the 1940s popular song, 'And a Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,' which, among other music of the war years, is included in the play.

Westport Country Playhouse will open its 2015 Season with the comedy, "The Liar," an adaptation by David Ives of Pierre Corneille's classic comedy that weaves an increasingly intricate web of lies leading to hilarious romantic misadventures. Celebrating the Playhouse's 85th season, the comedy will run May 5 - 23, directed by Penny Metropulos.

Seacoast theatergoers will be treated to a glimpse inside the mind of the infamous Marquis de Sade when Peter Weiss's "Marat/Sade" is staged at the Players' Ring.

The LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater world premiere production of VERITE, a new play by Nick Jones, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, is currently in previews. The play features Anna Camp, Oliver Hollmann, Matt McGrath, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Robert Sella, Jeanine Serralles, and Danny Wolohanand will run through Sunday, March 15 at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street). The production opened last night, Wednesday, February 18. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you a look inside the festivities!

The LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater world premiere production of VERITE, a new play by Nick Jones, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, is currently in previews. The play features Anna Camp, Oliver Hollmann, Matt McGrath, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Robert Sella, Jeanine Serralles, and Danny Wolohan and will run through Sunday, March 15 at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street). Opening night is Wednesday, February 18. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Previews begin Saturday, January 31 at 7pm for the LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater world premiere production of VERITE, a new play by Nick Jones, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel. VERITE features Anna Camp, Oliver Hollmann, Matt McGrath, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Robert Sella, Jeanine Serralles, and Danny Wolohan and will run through Sunday, March 15 at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street). Opening night is Wednesday, February 18. All tickets are $20.

The Players' Ring presents the Edward Albee classic WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? The show runs February 13, 2015 – March 8, 2015 with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sunday, February 15 and 22 at 7 pm, and Sunday March 1 at 1 pm.

Anna Camp, Oliver Hollmann, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Robert Sella, Jeanine Serralles, Danny Wolohan, and Damian Young will be featured in the LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater world premiere production of VERITE, a new play by Nick Jones, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel. VERITE begins performances Saturday, January 31, opens Wednesday, February 18, and will run for six weeks only through Sunday, March 15 at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street).

Aya Cash ("You're the Worst" on FX), Carl Lundstedt (Freaks: a legend about growing up), and Luke Macfarlane ("Brothers and Sisters" on ABC) will star in the world premiere of Reverberation by Matthew Lopez from February 19 to March 15 at Hartford Stage. Associate Artistic Director Maxwell Williams (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) will direct.

Christopher Marlowe's 1587 epic Tamburlaine, Parts I and II, edited and directed by Olivier Award-winner Michael Boyd and starring John Douglas Thompson, opens Sunday, November 16, at 1:00pm at Theatre for a New Audience, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place.