Michael Williams News

Cape Town Opera returns to the UK this June & July for a tour of their acclaimed Porgy and Bess, culminating in a two week run at the London Coliseum. Tsakane Maswanganyi, who previously thrilled audiences in the title role of Carmen Jones at the Royal Festival Hall will play Bess, while Xolela Sixaba will reprise the role of Porgy having won great acclaim for his performance in 2009.

The Kennedy Center presents Come Fly Away in the Eisenhower Theater from April 18-29, 2012. Conceived, choreographed, and directed by Tony Award® winner and Kennedy Center Honoree Twyla Tharp (Movin' Out) and by special arrangement with the Frank Sinatra Family and Frank Sinatra Enterprises, Come Fly Away blends the legendary vocals of Frank Sinatra with a live on-stage big band and 14 of the world's finest dancers. The show's score combines classic and newly discovered vocal performances from the Sinatra archives, along with Sinatra's signature arrangements by Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Quincy Jones, among others, and brand new charts, for this fresh innovative musical. Press night will take place on Wednesday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Repertory Philippines' current 45th theater season reaches fever pitch with the premiere of composer Frank Wildhorn and book writer and lyricist Leslie Bricusse's overtly melodramatic, pop rock-laden Broadway musical JEKYLL AND HYDE. However, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, director for JEKYLL AND HYDE, along with her team, seems to have been rising above the original Broadway production's bad reputation since the local production opened last weekend. Whereas American critics find Wildhorn's body of work as "gallumphing, dunderheaded musicals that make everything by Andrew Lloyd Webber seems like great art," says Linda Winer of 'Newsday'; Filipino critics find Repertory Philippines' stripped-down incarnation of Wildhorn's most popular undertaking as nothing short of a miracle. "By doing away with the stage spectacle [without the high-tech gimmickry that marked its Broadway run], the focus was redirected to the actors - and rightly so," says Vladimir Bunoan of ABS-CBNNews.com.

The Kennedy Center presents Come Fly Away in the Eisenhower Theater from April 18-29, 2012. Conceived, choreographed, and directed by Tony Award® winner and Kennedy Center Honoree Twyla Tharp (Movin' Out) and by special arrangement with the Frank Sinatra Family and Frank Sinatra Enterprises, Come Fly Away blends the legendary vocals of Frank Sinatra with a live on-stage big band and 14 of the world's finest dancers. The show's score combines classic and newly discovered vocal performances from the Sinatra archives, along with Sinatra's signature arrangements by Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Quincy Jones, among others, and brand new charts, for this fresh innovative musical. Press night will take place on Wednesday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m.

For its first offering this year, 9 Works Theatrical presents the musical comedy YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN - based on the comic strip 'Peanuts' by Charles Schulz; featuring book by John Gordon; and music and lyrics by Clark Gesner. The show runs at Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City until Saturday, March 3.

Premier theater company Repertory Philippines (Rep) opened Ken Ludwig's (CRAZY FOR YOU, LEND ME A TENOR) rib-tickling play LEADING LADIES last night at Onstage Theatre, Greenbelt 1, Makati City. Circle in the Square School (N.Y.)-trained actor Topper Fabregas and Rep regular James Stacey topbill the production.

Trinity Rep's Education Department will once again provide students the opportunity to spend the summer exploring a world of creativity and theater under the instruction of Rhode Island's most knowledgeable theater professionals. Enrollment is now open for both the Young Actors Summer Institute (YASI), which offers classes for grades 5-12 and for YASI Jr., a week-long program for grades 1-4. The YASI class for grades 8-9 is at capacity, but interested students can be placed on a wait list. Additionally, spaces are still available for the Young Actors Studio and Lifelong Learning spring sessions, which include classes for grades 4-12, as well as selections for adult actors and theater enthusiasts.

The cast of Repertory Philippines' (Rep) LEADING LADIES, a rib-tickling play by Ken Ludwig (CRAZY FOR YOU, LEND ME A TENOR), recently held a photo op during a press conference at Rep's main office in Ortigas Center. LEADING LADIES is Rep's second offering for its 75th season.

Falling in love is sweeter the second time around, and it's true in the case of LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE, an Off Broadway play that you would fall in love with, and would love to see over and over again. For that reason alone, Manila-based CTE Productions brought back LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE for another run at RCBC Theater in Makati City last weekend. Michael Williams and Cathy Azanza-Dy teamed up again as co-directors for LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE, which was first performed in Manila in July 2011.

It's almost over! There's just THREE days of voting remaining for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 26, 2011. Voting ends at midnight on 12/31 so time is running out.

Following a short tour in 2009 Cape Town Opera returns to the UK in 2012 to bring its production of Porgy and Bess to Birmingham, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Canterbury and Southampton before arriving in London for a two week run at the London Coliseum.

There's just TWO short weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 19, 2011. Voting ends at midnight on 12/31 so time is running out.

There's just a few weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 12, 2011.

There's just 4 weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Tuesday November 29, 2011.

Voting is now well underway for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Now, it's time for you to get out and vote for your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award. No time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday November 21, 2011.

Congratulations to BroadwayWorld.com (BWW) Philippines Awards' nominees, whose names are below, and were shortlisted from around 500 nomination entries sent from October 6 to 31.

The new Broadway musical and U.S. National Tour of COME FLY AWAY, conceived, choreographed, and directed by Tony Award-winner Twyla Tharp and featuring vocals by Frank Sinatra, made its Los Angeles debut at the Pantages Theatre Tuesday, October 25 for a strictly-limited 2 week engagement thru November 6, 2011. Michael Sterling, co-producer and Los Angeles correspondent for Broadway World TV, along with Associate Producer Jerry Evans of the JLE Media Group, Inc. covered the evening's festivities. The star-studded guest list included many of the late Sinatra's celebrity friends and family members. After attending the performance, Sterling said 'In short, the show is an intoxicating marriage of pure harmony and wedded bliss.'

Actors' Equity Association announced today that James Earl Jones is the recipient of the 2011 Paul Robeson Award. Created in 1971, the Award recognizes a person who best exemplifies the principles by which Mr. Robeson lived.