McDonald News

Today, bicoastal indie-pop duo EXES and LA-based synthpop duo JOMEofficially released their collaborative EP Nothing's Out To Get You. The album includes powerful singles “Stay Still,” an ode to feelings surrounding love, loss and tragedy, and “One Day,” which was featured on a number of Spotify's New Music Friday playlists.

Today, GRAMMY® Award-winning rock band SWITCHFOOT shared a blistering new live video for 'Native Tongue,' via Alternative Revolt and YouTube Premiere. The live performance clip, produced by SWITCHFOOT and directed by Erick Frost, was shot at Atlanta's historic Tabernacle, and captures the quintet's signature high-energy performance and passionate connection with their fans.

TimesTalks, The New York Times live conversation and performance series, is proud to host an evening of conversation with the women of political drama series "The Good Fight," actors Christine Baranski, Audra McDonald, Cush Jumbo and co-creator Michelle King, on March 12. 

The Ensemble Theatre Artistic Director, Eileen J. Morris, and BOLD-Artistic Associate Rachel Dickson proudly announce the collaborative staged reading of Jon-Marc McDonald's urgent and controversial play, RELATIVELY CONSCIOUS, on March 18, 2019, at 7:00p.m. 3535 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002.

I thought throwing out my Annie CDs would be easy--I thought I only had one! Obviously that would be the indispensable Original Broadway Cast Recording with Dorothy Loudon and Andrea McArdle. How wrong I was! I knew that, as a kid, I had the tape of the 1982 movie soundtrack with Carol Burnett and Aileen Quinn (and an all-star supporting cast!), but I didn't remember buying it on CD. And when the hell did I get the CD of the 1999 TV version (with Kathy Bates and an all-star cast)? And, oh yeah... I forgot about this studio album from the 90s with studio cast queen Kim Criswell--I think I bought back in the day somehow convincing myself Ruthie Henshall was playing Annie. (Spoiler alert: She plays Grace.) Oh, and I do remember this '30thAnniversary' deluxe production with Chicago area diva (and original star of the sequel, Annie Warbucks) Alene Robertson as Miss Hannigan plus a lot of bonus material. To add insult to injury, I also have a Blu-Ray of the recent Hollywood remake with Cameron Diaz. I don't even have a Blu-Ray player! This thing is definitely going into the trash along with all the audio, but I will listen to a few tracks online for my edification.

The Department of Theatre and Performance Studies will present 'Ragtime,' based on E.L. Doctorow's distinguished 1975 novel, from March 14 to 24 at the Stillwell Theater at Kennesaw State University.

The Acting Company (Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley; Ian Belknap, Artistic Director; Elisa Spencer-Kaplan, Executive Director) announced today complete casting for the first reading in the 23rd John McDonald Salon Reading Series, Lillian Hellman's acclaimed drama Watch on the Rhine. The reading will take place on Monday, March 18 at 7 PM at the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizons (416 W. 42nd Street, New York, NY). Tickets are available now online at www.theactingcompany.org.

Producer Mark Cortale's Broadway concert series, hosted by Sirius XM radio star Seth Rudetsky, has announced that Tony Award nominee and star of The CW's Supergirl Jeremy Jordan will join the internationally acclaimed series at NOCCA in New Orleans on Friday, March 29 at 8:00 PM.

Twitter users, check out your next list of must-follow accounts for 2019!

An annual interdisciplinary humanities festival, Live Ideas is a high point of the New York Live Arts season.

Michael Frayn's Noises Off, considered by many as the greatest farce ever written, opens Friday, March 8, at Cumberland County Playhouse, featuring a cast of CCP favorites bringing all the onstage/offstage/backstage hilarity to life in Crossville.

Twenty-eight performers selected to compete for a chance to win top prizes of $20,000, $15,000, and $10,000; total prizes to exceed $75,000; an all-star team of musical theater, opera, and Kurt Weill experts to adjudicate semifinals and finals.

Signature Theatre presents world premiere of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by DC playwright Heather McDonald (Broadway's An Almost Holy Picture, Signature's Available Light). The production is directed by Australian film and theater director Nadia Tass (Malcolm, Matching Jack) and features Holly Twyford(Signature's A Little Night Music, Sex with Strangers) as Layla, Felicia Curry (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Arena's Nina Simone: Four Women) as Mitra, and Yesenia Iglesias (Folger's Love's Labor's Lost, Ford's A Christmas Carol) as Nadia. Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity runs from February 26 through April 7 in Signature Theatre's ARK Theatre.

Signature Theatre is proud to present the world premiere of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by DC playwright Heather McDonald (Broadway's An Almost Holy Picture, Signature's Available Light). The production is directed by Australian film and theater director Nadia Tass (Malcolm, Matching Jack) and features Holly Twyford (Signature's A Little Night Music, Sex with Strangers) as Layla, Felicia Curry (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Arena's Nina Simone: Four Women) as Mitra, and Yesenia Iglesias (Folger's Love's Labor's Lost, Ford's A Christmas Carol) as Nadia. Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity runs from February 26 through April 7 in Signature Theatre's ARK Theatre.

TOMMY CASTRO AND THE PAINKILLERS is playing at Festival Place in Vancouver on March 9, 2019.

The Gamm is currently showing two short plays back-to-back, with all female casts. ESCAPED ALONE by Caryl Churchill (New England Premiere) is a tight one-act that raises far more questions than it answers. COME AND GO by Samuel Beckett is so brief it almost feels like it's over before it begins, but is strangely haunting. Overall, it's a combination of works that are very well-acted, but also feel somewhat jarring in a way that doesn't quite pay off.

Nashville Children's Theatre (NCT) this week revealed its 2019-20 season replete with rock and roll, history, holiday magic, current events, interactivity, musicals, classics and more. NCT, the nation's oldest professional theatre for young audiences and the largest theatre in Tennessee will perform seven shows during its 2019-20 season, including both world and regional premieres.

Today, Freeform began production on its highly anticipated upcoming comedy series “Unrelated” (fka “Besties”), with actor and director Michael McDonald (“MADtv,” “Brooklyn Nine Nine”) set to direct the first episode.

King Productions' THE FACE OF EMMETT TILL deserves witness for bringing the painful truth of this story to light every night.

Today, indie-electronic-anthem artist Jai Wolf releases a stunning music video for his song 'Your Way' feat. Day Wave. The 'Your Way' video uses vivid colors to juxtapose the lavish lifestyle of a famous person with social isolation and loneliness.