McCarter Theatre News

The Broadway at Birdland concert series has announced that Donna McKechnie's new Talk/Variety show will return on Monday, March 24 at 7pm. Andrea McArdle has signed on to be Donna's Very Special Guest.

Rehearsals begin today for Kansas City Repertory Theatre's production of Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning Broadway hit comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, directed by the Rep's Artistic Director Eric Rosen, and running March 14 - April 6 at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a co-production with Center Stage in Baltimore.

Marc Agger and William Brown present Bikeman: A 9/11 Play by Thomas F. Flynn based on his acclaimed book. Flynn is an Emmy Award-winning CBS reporter who nearly lost his life when the Twin Towers fell. He lived to write about his odyssey in an epic narrative poem that soon became a best seller. Dan Rather called it 'a journey into a modern underworld, and of the escape that made it possible to tell the tale.' Now, this critically acclaimed book has been adapted for the stage directed by Michael Bush. Bikeman features Tony Award nominee Robert Cuccioli, Irungu Mutu, Angela Pierce, Elizabeth Ramos, and Richard Topol. Opening night is tonight, February 18 at 7PM.

The Laguna Playhouse Executive and Artistic Directors, Karen Wood and Ann E. Wareham invite you to take 83 books, with three chameleon-like actors in 98 minutes, and mix it all up into one hilarious evening of ridiculous fun! It's the Reduced Shakespeare Company's production of ALL THE GREAT BOOKS (abridged), written and directed by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor with additional material by Matthew Croke and Michael Faulkner. ALL THE GREAT BOOKS (abridged) will begin previews on Tuesday, March 4 and will open on Saturday, March 8 at 7:30pm and run through Sunday, March 30, 2014 at the LagunaPlayhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

Marc Agger and William Brown proudly present Bikeman: A 9/11 Play by Thomas F. Flynn based on his acclaimed book. Flynn is an Emmy® Award-winning CBS reporter who nearly lost his life when the Twin Towers fell. He lived to write about his odyssey in an epic narrative poem that soon became a best seller. Dan Rather called it 'a journey into a modern underworld, and of the escape that made it possible to tell the tale.' Now, this critically acclaimed book has been adapted for the stage directed by Michael Bush. Bikeman features Tony Award® nominee Robert Cuccioli, Irungu Mutu, Angela Pierce, Elizabeth Ramos, and Richard Topol.

The Broadway Cast - led by Hannah Yelland and Tristan Sturrock - will appear in the internationally celebrated Kneehigh production of Noel Coward's Brief Encounter, which will have a 43-performance limited engagement at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts today, February 15 to March 23, 2014 (press opening February 19).

Birdland Jazz Club's March 2014 schedule will feature Quest: with Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure & Billy Hart, Billy Hart Quartet, Kevin Mahogany, Cheyenne Jackson; Now This: with Gary Peacock, Marc Copland & Joey Baron, Bill Charlap Trio, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, Billy Stritch; and more! Check out full details below!

Court Theatre continues its 2013-2014 season with the Chicago premiere of Water by the Spoonful written by Quiara Alegria Hudes, and directed by Henry Godinez. Water by the Spoonful will run March 6 - April 6, 2014 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue. Press Opening is Saturday, March 15, 2014 at 8:00PM.

The Pearl Theatre Company continues its 30th anniversary season-the second season in its new home on West 42nd Street-with a new production of No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre, adapted from the French by Paul Bowles. Linda Ames Key, making her Pearl debut, directs this touchstone of French existentialism in its first Off-Broadway production in over 15 years. The cast includes Pearl Resident Acting Company (RAC) member Jolly Abraham as Inez and Pearl RAC member Branford Cover as Cradeau along with Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris as Estelle and Pete McGilligot as Valet.

The Pearl Theatre Company continues its 30th anniversary season-the second season in its new home on West 42nd Street-with a new production of No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre, adapted from the French by Paul Bowles. Linda Ames Key, making her Pearl debut, directs this touchstone of French existentialism in its first Off-Broadway production in over 15 years. The cast includes Pearl Resident Acting Company (RAC) member Jolly Abraham as Inez and Pearl RAC member Branford Cover as Cradeau along with Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris as Estelle and Pete McGilligot as Valet.

In 2012, Playwrights Theatre began the New Jersey Emerging Women Playwrights Project (NJEWP) as part of its larger ongoing effort to provide meaningful support to playwrights through an authentic development process that focuses on the specific and individual needs of the writer.

Rehearsals started today for the Alliance Theatre's world premiere of THE TALL GIRLS, a play set in the depression-era Midwest where the success of a girls' basketball team may be the only way to a better life for the team's members. Playwright Meg Miroshnik, winner of the 2012 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition for her play The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, has been described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as 'a ferocious talent with a promising career in store.'

The evening will be co-hosted by two of the company's alumni actors: two-time Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce (at PH in Richard Greenberg's The Maderati in 1987) and two-time Tony Award nominee, two-time Obie Award winner and 2012 Special Drama Desk Award winner Mary Testa (at PH in William Finn's In Trousers in 1979, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Lucky Stiff in 1988, Tom Donaghy's From Above in 1998/Obie Award and Kathleen Tolan's The Wax in 2000).

Following hip surgery that took place just one week after the August 14, 2013 premiere of her Restless Creature, Wendy Whelan, in consultation with her doctors, has concluded that her body needs more time to heal and that she must postpone her spring 2014 (March 16 – April 11) inaugural U.S. tour of the work. Rescheduled dates will be announced at a later time. See below for a list of postponed engagements. The UK premiere, presented by The Royal Opera House, will take place at the Linbury Studio Theatre in London as scheduled (July 22–26).

Playwrights Theatre's will present a free reading at the Madison Public Library, 39 Keep Street, Madison, NJ of THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT by Suzanne Bradbeer. The reading will begin at 7:00pm on February 27, 2014, and will be followed by a discussion with the playwright. This reading is part of Playwrights Theatre's FORUM new play reading series. Any patron who purchased a FORUM pass for the December reading series, that pass is valid for this reading.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for the world premiere of a new comedy by Theresa Rebeck, Fool. In Rebeck's new comedy, two kings get together and place a wager on their fools - a jester competition, and the funniest one gets to keep his head. Two evil minions have a lot to say about this, but not as much as the kitchen wench. And what's the queen been up to all night? A dramatical comical farcical tragical play about power, love and laughter, set in a medieval kitchen. Adult Language, Adult Situations, Beheadings.

The Wallis has announced that Tony nominee Judy Kuhn (She Loves Me, Chess and Les Miserables) and Tony winner and five-time Emmy nominee John Glover (Love! Valour! Compassion!, 'Smallville') will star in Love, Noel: The Letters and Songs of Noel Coward, devised and written by Coward authority Barry Day, and directed by Jeanie Hackett, who over saw The Antaeus Theatre production of Noel Coward's Tonight at 8:30 and the three-year development of the Antaeus production of Coward's Peace in Our Time. The musical direction and piano accompaniment is by David O. Due to popular demand, additional performances have been added and Love, Noel will now be performed February 14 through 23 in the Lovelace Studio Theater.

'It's been a bathtub week.'

Victory Gardens Theater continues its season with the World Premiere of The Gospel of Lovingkindness by Victory Gardens Ensemble Playwright Marcus Gardley, directed by Artistic Director Chay Yew. The Gospel of Lovingkindness runs February 28 - March 30, 2014 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.

The Los Angeles Premiere of the critically acclaimed DERBY DAY written and directed by Samuel Brett Williams opens Saturday, February 22nd at 8 PM. There will be two previews on February 20th and February 21st. at 8 PM. The show runs Thursday's, Friday's and Saturday's through March 22nd at the Elephant Theatre (6322 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood, 90038). Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.plays411.com/derbyday or by calling 323.960.7779.