Michael Arden News

Alexandra Billings has been set to host the 27th Annual LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, January 17 at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center. Red carpet arrivals begin at 6pm and the ceremony begins at 7:30pm.

There are undoubtedly other productions worthy of merit in 2016 which I did not cover. This list is based only on what I saw and reviewed. (alphabetical listings; Equity, Equity-waiver & Non-Equity productions are mixed) (artists performing outside LA may be included in performance categories) No set, costume, technical awards. I leave that to the bigger awards and to the expertise of those who really know those fields inside out.

Happy New Year, BroadwayWorld! As we eagerly anticipate the amazing musicals and plays coming up in 2017, we're taking a moment to look back at the significant Broadway closings of 2016.

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Washington, DC, Chicago, Orlando and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include THE SECRET GARDEN in DC, THE FUNDAMENTALS in Chicago, and PYGMALION in Orlando, just to name a few.

These two unassuming understudies got the roles of a lifetime right before opening night.

When MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG opened on Broadway in 1981, no one anticipated that it would be a flop. With a score by Stephen Sondheim and direction by Hal Prince, it should have been the next success in a series of highly successful collaborations by the two kings of musical theatre, following such game changers as COMPANY, FOLLIES, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, PACIFIC OVERTURES, and SWEENEY TODD

Legendary American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's masterwork Merrily We Roll Along is revisited in a new production under the direction of Tony Award nominee Michael Arden (Spring Awakening) set for the Bram Goldsmith Theater stage at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from November 23 through December 18.  BroadwayWorld has an exclusive look below! 

Legendary American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's masterwork Merrily We Roll Along is revisited in a new production under the direction of Tony Award nominee Michael Arden (Spring Awakening), playing at the Bram Goldsmith Theater stage at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts through December 18. 

Today's big news: Michael Arden's starry MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG starts tonight at the Wallis!

Legendary American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's masterwork Merrily We Roll Along is revisited in a new production under the direction of Tony Award nominee Michael Arden (Spring Awakening) set for the Bram Goldsmith Theater stage at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from tonight, November 23, through December 18.

Today's big news: XXXX

Michael Arden, who brilliantly re-imagined The Wallis and Deaf West Theatre's production of Spring Awakening that received rave reviews on Broadway, directs this rarely staged Stephen Sondheim (Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, West Side Story) musical. Merrily We Roll Along travels backwards in time to navigate the bumpy history among three friends - Franklin, Charlie and Mary - who begin their in careers in show business together. The powerful and moving story, based on the Kaufman and Hart play, features some of Sondheim's most beautiful songs including 'Good Thing Going,' 'Our Time' and 'Not a Day Goes By'.

Today's big news: Lynn Nottage's SWEAT opens this evening at The Public Theater, and A BRONX TALE begins previews tonight on the Great White Way!

Today OUT magazine unveiled their annual list celebrating the Top 100 most compelling people of the year with the special OUT100 double issue.

Once in a very rare moment do you see community art shine, shine like a diamond in the rough, shine like nothing you could have hoped to find there. Rarely can one expect to find New York quality shows in a space outside of the great white way, perhaps Boston or Chicago. Not Broward, never Broward. Some blessings reach far, in the figure of Patrick Fitzwater and Slow Burn Theatre, opening their bright new season with a shock. Under a very exclusive contract, Fitzwater and his team are premiering The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a Disney produced show with only four productions ever produced. The score is one of the most challenging and daunting ever written, the characters dark as Victor Hugo's original novel, and technical nightmares never seen in south Florida. Somehow, through the magic of his performers (and a full choir), Fitzwater puts on a premiere that rivals New York, a show that most have never seen before, certainly one of the greatest productions the state has ever seen.

Today's big news: Sarah Jones's SELL/BUY/DATE opens at Manhattan Theatre Club, and 'THE GREAT COMET' begins previews on Broadway!

Legendary American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's masterwork Merrily We Roll Along is revisited in a new production under the direction of Tony Award nominee Michael Arden (Spring Awakening) set for the Bram Goldsmith Theater stage at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from November 23 through December 18.

Legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize in Literature 'for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.' Dylan is the first American to win the esteemed prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.

Today's big news: The U.S. premiere of COMMUNION bows tonight at Urban Stages, the casts of RIDE THE CYCLONE and IN TRANSIT meet the press, and Roundabout's HOLIDAY INN opens on Broadway!