On September 11, Alan Menken joined the Kennedy Center's festivities as a part of the 16-day Opening Festival for The REACH. The legendary composer's music was celebrated in a free concert on the festival's mainstage by Tony Award nominee Megan Hilty (Smash, the Kennedy Center's Little Shop of Horrors), Adam Jacobs (Aladdin, The Lion King), Tony Award nominee Norm Lewis (The Little Mermaid, the Kennedy Center's The Music Man), Tony Award winner Patina Miller (Sister Act, Pippin), the National Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke.
Joshua Bergasse is in town making time for master class, discovering local talent and watching homemade flying contraptions dive into the Mississippi, as well as letting us in on a little secret that may or may not happen but is pretty fun to think about. Oh, and he choreographed and directed SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE, too.
Elsie Fest, New York City's first music festival featuring stars and songs of the stage and screen, will return for its 5th year this fall! A line-up has not yet been announced, but pre-sale begins today for tickets to the October 5th event.
Patti LuPone, the multiple Tony, Grammy, and Olivier Award winner, will be on hand for the Broadway Back to Schoolgala honoring her good friends Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman
The Colony Theatre in Burbank has announced The Music of Brian Gallagher, an evening featuring Broadway stars singing Gallagher's songs, on Saturday, October 19, at 8pm. Set to appear are Megan Hilty, Carly Hughes, Matt Cusson, and Carrie Manolakos, with more to be announced. At this event, music from Gallagher's concept album Brownstone will be heard live on the West Coast for the first time.
BroadwayWorld has an an exclusive video of Megan Hilty who plays Patsy in the upcoming Lifetime movie a?oePatsy & Lorettaa??, singing a?oeWalkin' After Midnight.a?? The video is timed to country icon Patsy Cline's birthday today in celebration of the film, which also stars Jessie Mueller, premiering on October 19.
AT THIS PERFORMANCEa?? returns to The Green Room 42 featuring Standbys and Understudies from AIN'T TOO PROUD; BROADWAY BOUNTY HUNTER; WICKED; KISS ME KATE; BE MORE CHILL; A STRANGE LOOP and ANASTASIA on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH at 7 PM.
It is not often one opens a theater program and on page one sees a letter from composer Stephen Sondheim. I had the privilege of attending the joint Jason Robert Brown and Stephen Sondheim concert on June 24, 2019 at Town Hall in New York City to raise funds for 'Brady United Against Gun Violence' (see link below). It was a very moving evening of great theatrical music by two of this country's best composers.
An all-star cast will join the previously announced Tony Award-winners Celia Keenan-Bolger and Chita Rivera to give back to school theatre by supporting the Educational Theatre Foundation (ETF), which provides financial support for school theatre education programs.
You may have heard of the long journey of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS from a 1060 Roger Corman horror film (with a young Jack Nicholson) to a 1982 Off-Broadway hit musical, a 1986 film with Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, and Steve Martin, and a revival in 2003 this time on Broadway with Hunter Foster, Douglas Sills and Kerry Butler. And believe it or not, another revival coming to Off-Broadway previewing on September 17 and opening October 17 to the Westside Theatre Upstairs with Jonathan Groff, Tammy Blanchard, Christian Borle, and Kinglsey Leggs.
With more than 1,000 artists and more than 500 free events in three new sunlit pavilions and more than 130,000 square feet of new landscaped green space at the nation's cultural capital, the REACH opens its doors in exactly one month's time with 16 full days of creativity in action, providing artists and audiences with the opportunity to experience art as never before. Marking the first expansion at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in its 48-year history, the REACH welcomes the public with an inclusive, multi-genre, multidisciplinary Opening Festival on September 7a?"22. See the video trailer here.
AT THIS PERFORMANCEa?? returns to The Green Room 42 featuring Standbys and Understudies from AIN'T TOO PROUD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS; THE PROM; BE MORE CHILL; OKLAHOMA!; CHICAGO; BEETLEJUICE; KISS ME KATE and AVENUE Q on MONDAY, AUGUST 5TH at 7 PM.
Lifetime revealed that the movie Patsy & Loretta, starring Megan Hilty as music legend Patsy Cline and Tony winner Jessie Mueller as country icon Loretta Lynn, will premiere on Saturday, October 19 at 8/7c, according to TVLine.
