Michael Broughton News

Full casting for Bill Kenwright's highly anticipated new production of Saturday Night Fever has been announced. Joining acclaimed dancer and actor Richard Winsor as Tony Manero, in his first leading role in a major musical, is: Kate Parr (Follies) in the role of Stephanie, Owen Broughton (Gus), Michael Cortez (Joey), Raphael Pace (Bobbie C) and Jared Thompson (Double Jay).

A who's who of Hollywood's music elite is coming out to play with Michael Feinstein at the Pasadena POPS' August 16th Hooray for Hollywood concert, presented in partnership with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) at the LA Arboretum. Four of ASCAP's top film composers and lyricists will perform their hit music with the POPS: Alan Bergman ('Windmills of Your Mind,' with Marilyn Bergman and co-written with Michel Legrand, 1968 Oscar winner from The Thomas Crown Affair), Michael Giacchino (music from Up, winner of the 2010 Oscar for best original score), Bruce Broughton (music from Silverado, 1986 Oscar nominee for best original score) and Paul Williams ('Evergreen,' co-written with Barbra Streisand, 1976 Oscar winner from A Star Is Born).

Theatreworks is presenting Seven Guitars in conjunction with next month's Death of a Salesman as part of a miniseries entitled 'America's Backyards.' Both productions are set in 1948 outside ordinary homes and revolve around ordinary lives. The synchronicity invites further comparisons between August Wilson's portrait of black blues musicians and Arthur Miller's masterwork. Both plays share a theme of hope against desperate odds, of reaching for the better life that The American Dream claims everyone is entitled to. Both plays feature a man who pursues that dream in defiance of everything against him, and both end in tragedy.