Michael Frayn News

At long last, Music City Confidential is back to help you get caught back on the talk of the town - all the news that's fit to print about the Nashville theater community - and to immerse you in the minutiae of life in Theater City (a term we've been trying to copyright since we were in junior high with Thespis, Aristophanes and Martha Wilkinson).

Nashville Repertory Theatre is proud to announce its 2016-17 season, which includes a brilliant and powerful musical, a hysterically chaotic comedy, the regional premiere of a play from Nashville Rep's Ingram New Works Project, and a great American classic.

Nashville Repertory Theatre will launch its 2016-17 season with Jason Robert Brown's contemporary musical The Last Five Years and will feature the regional debut of Doug Wright's Posterity, a play about Henrik Ibsen that was developed in the company's Ingram New Works program and which premiered off-Broadway in 2015.

The 2016 Drama League Award Nominees for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the much-coveted Distinguished Performance Award were just announced this morning at Sardi's, by Aladdin stars Adam Jacobs, Courtney Reed and James Monroe Iglehart. Check out the full list of nominees below!

Patti LuPone is bringing her no-nonsense Broadway swagger to the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre tonight in a new show titled, DON'T MONKEY WITH BROADWAY, as part of Symphony Space's 'Project B-Way/95' series.

The Lakewood Playhouse presents the fifth show of its 77th season, its debut presentation of the famous comedy farce NOISES OFF by Michael Frayn. Performances will be tonight, April 15th, through May 8th, 2016. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Casting has been announced for George Bernard Shaw's THE PHILANDERER at the Orange Tree Theatre. Rupert Young (High Society at the Old Vic, Sir Leon in BBC's Merlin) plays Leonard Charteris, the philanderer of the title. He's joined by Helen Bradbury, Joe Idris-Roberts, Michael Lumsden, Dorothea Myer-Bennett, Christopher Staines, Mark Tandy and Paksie Vernon.

Theater J, the nation's largest and most prominent Jewish theater, announces its 2016-2017 season, the first season chosen by new Theater J Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr. This lineup of seven diverse plays features Tony Award-winning plays and playwrights, Washington area premieres, and a stellar lineup of directors and artists. The season's plays promise delight, joy, and a thoughtful examination and exploration of pressing ideas about morality, ethics, the role of faith in this country, and the changing face of Jewish identity in this country. Theater J's new season features the work of Deborah Zoe Laufer, Lucas Hnath, Michael Frayn, Sarah Treem, Neil Simon, and Arthur Miller.

The 2017 Olivier Awards will be held at the Royal Albert Hall.

The Lakewood Playhouse will present the FIFTH SHOW of its 77th SEASON: the debut presentation of the farce, NOISES OFF! by Michael Frayn. This production will also mark the continuation of its year-long celebration of the 50th ANNIVERSARY of THE LAKEWOOD PLAYHOUSE THEATRE. From TAMING of the SHREW in its first year to AVENUE Q at the end of this season, it will have presented over 300 Productions at the venue that was first built for in 1965 by the Lakewood Arts Foundation.

Patti LuPone is bringing her no-nonsense Broadway swagger to the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre this spring in a new show titled, DON'T MONKEY WITH BROADWAY, as part of Symphony Space's 'Project B-Way/95' series.

The play that made James Corden an American commodity is at Oyster Mill to prove to you whether it's just as funny as you heard it was -- and chances are, it is.

Due to popular pre-sale demand, Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will again extend the West Coast Premiere of Sarah Treem's (Netflix's House of Cards, HBO's In Treatment, Showtime's The Affair) thought-provoking THE HOW AND THE WHY, the third fully staged production to be performed in the company's second stage performance space, Harry's UpStage. Acclaimed Bay Area actress and director Joy Carlin (Talley's Folly, After the Revolution, Body Awareness, Jack Goes Boating, Awake and Sing!) helms this intimate and keenly perceptive play. The company will add an additional two weeks of performances to the previously extended run dates. Originally extended through May 8, THE HOW AND THE WHY now plays through May 22nd (added performances: Tuesday, May 10, 7pm; Wednesday, May 11, 8pm; Thursday, May 12, 8pm; Friday, May 13, 8pm; Saturday, May 14, 8pm; Sunday, May 15, 2pm; Tuesday, May 17, 7pm; Wednesday, May 18, 8pm; Thursday, May 19, 8pm; Friday, May 20, 8pm; Saturday, May 21, 8pm; Sunday, May 22, 2pm) at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($35-45) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) and Columbia University School of the Arts (Carol Becker, Dean of Faculty) have just announced Columbia@Roundabout, an initiative aimed at educating and developing the next generation of playwrights and theatre administrators, as both institutions celebrate their 50th anniversaries. No other collaborative partnership in the New York area brings together an esteemed Ivy League MFA program with a Tony Award- winning not-for-profit theatre. The initiative is made possible by a grant from the Tow Foundation.

Dear Readers, I'm back from the Mothership (New York of course) to let you all in on some of the wonderful and not so wonderful things I saw with a few brief notes on each. And yes that includes my catching the juggernaut of all shows on Broadway right now, 'Hamilton'. Now there are some shows that I saw that are still in previews so I can't really review them but wanted to let you know about them anyway. So let's start at the top.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) and the Board of Directors (Tom Tuft, Chairman) have embarked on a $50 million Anniversary Campaign to ensure the future of the 50- year- old not-for-profit institution. The campaign was announced last night at Roundabout's Spring Gala at the Waldorf Astoria, honoring six-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald and Chairman Tom Tuft.

David Furr has bruises; lots and lots of bruises. In his stellar performance as Gary Lejeune in the current revival of Michael Frayne's hilarious NOISES OFF, Furr slides on a floor scattered with sardines, stumbles down one staircase. slips across a balcony, gets his foot caught in a box of theatrical props, wields a hatchet and falls down yet another staircase which crumbles apart as he does so. It's an understatement to say that his role is physically demanding.

Theater Works 2016-17 Masterworks Season sees the return of master entertainers, lauded composers, Tony Award ® Winners and two premieres. The 31st MasterWorks season opens with the comedy Noises Off, and is followed by the World premiere of the newest work by the team that brought the works of Cole Porter, A Gershwin Revue celebrates the works of the acclaimed composer George Gershwin.

An all-new episode of THEATER TALK features an interview with actor Brian d'Arcy James - now in the hit Broadway show SOMETHING ROTTEN! and in the Oscar-nominated Best Picture SPOTLIGHT - and a segment with three cast members - Tracee Chimo, David Furr and Campbell Scott - of the rollicking farce, NOISES OFF.

Wie schon im letzten West End Roundup erwahnt gab es uber den Jahreswechsel nicht all zu viele Neuigkeiten zu berichten, deswegen fasse ich in diesem Broadway Roundup die News der letzten 2 Monate zusammen. Dieses Mal berichte ich von Hollywoodstars wie Claire Danes und Cate Blanchet, Revivals von Broadway Klassikern wie FIDDLER ON TH ROOF und HELLO, DOLLY, sowie von neuen Adaptionen bekannter Inhalte, darunter FROZEN, SPONGEBOB, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD und FREAKY FRIDAY. Los gehts!