Michael Wilson News

I'm assuming that whatever Tina Howe is trying to get across in Chasing Manet, her disappointing new play receiving a well-acted mounting by Primary Stages, is contained in a lengthy speech Jane Alexander delivers early in the first act.

THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE, the world premiere of a three part theatrical event by the late Academy Award and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Horton Foote, will feature a company of 22 actors under the direction of Michael Wilson. The exciting, sweeping work will be co-produced in the 2009-2010 season by Hartford Stage (Michael Wilson, Artistic Director; Michael Stotts, Managing Director) and Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director).

Goodspeed Musicals' production of 'Big River' and its director Rob Ruggiero are big winners of the 19th annual Connecticut Critics Circle awards, announced June 15. The show received nods for best musical, for Russell Joel Brown who played Big Jim as best actor in a musical, for Michael Schweikardt's sets, and for Ruggiero's direction.

Seacoast Repertory Theatre is proud to host our 7th annual Rainbow FUNdraiser starring Varla Jean Merman in VIVA VARLA on Sunday, June 21st at 8pm.

Vassar & New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater announces the cast for the first of three Mainstage productions of the 25th anniversary season: Ninety, by Joanna Murray-Smith, directed by Maria Mileaf, beginning performances June 30 and running through July 12, and new additions to the star-filled line-up for the 25th anniversary gala benefit, 'Silver Celebration under the Stars,' June 27.

Seacoast Repertory Theatre is proud to host our 7th annual Rainbow FUNdraiser starring Varla Jean Merman in VIVA VARLA on Sunday, June 21st at 8pm.

After three smash seasons at Navy Pier, Cirque Shanghai returns with an all-new full-scale theatrical production, 'Cirque Shanghai: Bright Spirit.' Embraced by Chicagoans and tourists alike as 'Chicago's Summer Circus,' Cirque Shanghai performs June 3 - Sept. 7, rain or shine, at the Pepsi Skyline Stage, the 1,500-seat, canopied, open-air theater on Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave.

LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater's new initiative devoted to producing work of emerging playwrights, directors and designers, will produce STUNNING, a new play by David Adjmi, directed by Anne Kaufmann, as the second offering of its inaugural season. STUNNING will be presented June 1 ? 27, 2009 at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project, (229 W. 42 Street).

2009 Tony Award nominee Hallie Foote (Dividing the Estate) will be featured in the cast of THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE, the nine-play three part theatrical event by her late father, the Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winning playwright Horton Foote, which will be co-produced in the 2009-2010 season by Hartford Stage (Michael Wilson, Artistic Director; Michael Stotts, Managing Director) and Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director).

Hartford Stage, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Wilson and Managing Director Michael Stotts, announced today that acclaimed actress Lois Smith will return to Hartford Stage in the role of matriarch Stella Gordon as she joins the Broadway cast of Horton Foote's hit comedy Dividing the Estate for the production's run at Hartford Stage May 28 - July 5.

Hartford Stage, under the leadership of Michael Wilson, artistic director, and Michael Stotts, managing director, announced today that the Broadway hit comedy Dividing the Estate, by Horton Foote, directed by Wilson, will transfer to Hartford Stage in May 2009 to close the Tony Award-winning theatre's 45th season. The gospel musical drama Gee's Bend, which was to have been the sixth and final MainStage offering this year, has been postponed until next season.

Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announced that the Alley Theatre subscription season - the Theatre's 63rd - will combine three world premieres, including Frank Wildhorn's new musical Wonderland, Rajiv Joseph's bold and theatrical Gruesome Playground Injuries and Kenneth Lin's gripping Intelligence-Slave, along with re-imagined productions of the great American classic Our Town by Thornton Wilder and the sublime fantasy Harvey by Mary Chase.

Lincoln Center Theater will host a memorial for the award winning writer Horton Foote on Monday, May 11 at 4pm at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). Mr. Foote, whose most recent play Dividing the Estate was presented on Broadway to critical acclaim earlier this season by Lincoln Center Theater by arrangement with Primary Stages, died on March 4, 2009.

Lincoln Center Theater will host a memorial for the award winning writer Horton Foote on Monday, May 11 at 4pm at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). Mr. Foote, whose most recent play Dividing the Estate was presented on Broadway to critical acclaim earlier this season by Lincoln Center Theater by arrangement with Primary Stages, died on March 4, 2009.

After three smash seasons at Navy Pier, Cirque Shanghai returns with an all-new full-scale theatrical production, 'Cirque Shanghai: Bright Spirit.' Embraced by Chicagoans and tourists alike as 'Chicago's Summer Circus,' Cirque Shanghai performs June 3 - Sept. 7, rain or shine, at the Pepsi Skyline Stage, the 1,500-seat, canopied, open-air theater on Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave.

This evening's performance of 'Chasing Manet' at Primary Stages has been cancelled as cast member Vanessa Aspillaga rushes out of town to tend to a family emergency. Donnetta Grey, who recently appeared in 'Shipwrecked! An Entertainment,' will appear onstage, book in hand, when performances resume tomorrow evening at Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters.

In one of the most exciting theater events of the current season, The Year of Magical Thinking, the stage adaptation of Joan Didion's bestselling memoir, has its Connecticut premiere at TheaterWorks. One of the true luminaries of American theater, Annalee Jefferies, stars in this recent Broadway hit, which will be directed by Steve Campo. The production runs April 17 through May 24, 2009 at TheaterWorks in downtown Hartford's City Arts on Pearl at 233 Pearl Street. (The play opens to press Friday, April 24 at 8 p.m.)

Hartford Stage, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Wilson and Managing Director Michael Stotts, announced today that acclaimed actress Lois Smith will return to Hartford Stage in the role of matriarch Stella Gordon as she joins the Broadway cast of Horton Foote's hit comedy Dividing the Estate for the production's run at Hartford Stage May 28 - July 5.

Producer Daryl Roth has announced this year's recipient of the 2009 Creative Spirit Award: LAByrinth Theater Company member Scott Hudson. The Creative Spirit Award was founded 13 years ago to celebrate gifted theatre artists and provide them with support as they develop new work in an artistic residency.

Today's Broadway Blogs on BroadwayWorld.com from Sunday, April 12, 2009.