Michelle Pawk News

Broadway and television star, Jesse Tyler Ferguson took to Instagram last night to share the joyous news that Broadway stars Phillipa Soo and Steven Pasquale were married last night, September 24th.

Below, check out an all-new steamy trailer for HELLO AGAIN, starring six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald.

New York playwright Stephanie DiMaggio has written a play that wrestles with the impact of family secrets, and the fallout that ensues when fame and fortune don't necessarily bring happiness. Now, American Theater Group will present a reading of Levity at the South Orange Performing Arts Center Loft on June 25 at 7 p.m. Tony Award-winning actress Michelle Pawk, and Tony Award-nominated John Dossett, who is currently appearing on Broadway in War Paint, will take the leads in this riveting story. David Ross and playwright Stephanie DiMaggio will round out the cast. The reading gives professional actors a chance to bring life to the play as they read with script-in-hand, and gives audiences the opportunity to provide valuable feedback to the playwright as she continues to refine the work. Benjamin Endsley Klein will direct.

On May 21 at 7 p.m., Erin Mallon's new play, A Mind Out of the Gutter, will be presented by American Theater Group in a reading in the South Orange Performing Arts Center Loft. The reading gives professional actors a chance to bring life to the play as they read with script-in-hand, and gives audiences the opportunity to give valuable feedback to the playwright as she continues to refine the work.

American Theater Group, the South Orange Performing Arts Center's  new theatre company in-residence, presents a staged reading of A Good Farmer by Sharyn Rothstein on Sunday, April 2 at 7 p.m.  The powerful story, set in upstate New York, tells a compelling tale of one family's struggle to maintain their farm through adversity. The wheels of crisis are set into motion when they hire a Mexican immigrant to help them. The topical play highlights the humanity of those whose only crime was to come to American and make a better life for their families, and the bonds we all share as immigrants seeking the American dream. 

The South Orange Performing Arts Center is thrilled to announce a new partnership with American Theater Group, a professional member theatre of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. The company, headed by Producing Artistic Director James Vagias, will begin presenting staged readings in the SOPAC Loft in January, 2017 and the following year will produce at least two fully-staged productions on the mainstage. As SOPAC's theatre company in-residence, American Theater Group and SOPAC will co-present these theatrical offerings.

Luigi's partner Francis J. Roach pulled together an audience with a 'who's who' of Musical Theatre Performers spanning decades. The house was filled with joy and fabulous feelings for all who had the privilege to experience this great Master of Jazz Dance. This particular evening was also filled with fresh young talent that will forever help to carry the torch paying forward the Luigi Jazz Dance technique.

'Broadway will never be the same,' says MAMMA MIA! alum Courtney Reed. It's true... later tonight, after the Dynamos take their final bows as the reigning dancing queens of the Great White Way, an era will end in New York CIty that has lasted a whopping 14 years. Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus' global smash hit musical MAMMA MIA!, inspired by the songs of ABBA, will end its historic, record-breaking run tonight, September 12, 2015, after 5,773 performances.

Tony-Award winning actress Michelle Pawk (Hairspray, Hollywood Arms, Crazy for You) is returning to the stage this spring in the world premiere of 17 Orchard Point, an off-Broadway play co-written by Anton Dudley and Stephanie DiMaggio (DiMaggio also co-stars in the play with Pawk). Opening night is scheduled for this Sunday, May 4th, and the show is set to close on May 24th. Pawk took the time to chat with BroadwayWorld just after her first weekend of preview performances and told us a bit more about the play, as well as her impressive performance career and her current job as a professor at Wagner College.

As BroadwayWorld.com continues to celebrate the site's landmark 10th anniversary, with a variety of special features, today we're turning our spotlight on the wonderful photography of Linda Lenzi.

Today we are talking to a spectacularly talented composer/lyricist noted for his incredibly impressive and accomplished oeuvre thus far, having collectively composed more than twenty full-length musicals, operas and specialty performance pieces - Michael John LaChiusa. Discussing his vast array of projects from BUZZSAW BERKELEY to FIRST LADY SUITE, HELLO AGAIN and THE PETRIFIED PRINCE Off-Broadway through to his double-header in the 1999-2000 millennial season with MARIE CHRISTINE and THE WILD PARTY both on Broadway to his Off-Broadway, regional and international successes since, ranging from LITTLE FISH to another two-show-season in 2006 with BERNARDA ALBA and SEE WHAT I WANNA SEE as well as THE HIGHEST YELLOW and the recent Americana-themed epic musical pseudo-trilogy of LOS otros, QUEEN OF THE MIST and GIANT. Additionally, LaChiusa touches upon some of his lesser-known work, such as his musical revue HOTEL C'EST L'AMOUR, various operatic pieces, additional material he provided for pieces such as THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS and his previous and upcoming solo musicals for continuing collaborator Audra McDonald, such as SEND (who are you? i love you) and MARLENE DIETRICH'S ABCs OF LOVE. Most importantly, LaChiusa takes us behind the scenes of the sparkling new deluxe cast album for GIANT, starring Brian D'Arcy James, and discusses the themes, ideas and adaptation of the Edna Ferber novel itself in a fascinating and revealing analysis of the vast, enveloping and vivid score he has composed for GIANT. Also, LaChiusa offers the 411 on this year's Tony Awards specialty song composed for host Neil Patrick Harris and some starry cohorts (Megan Hilty, Laura Benanti and Andrew Rannells), as well as previous Tony show one-offs penned for Hugh Jackman and others. Plus, LaChiusa clues us in on his upcoming projects - including FIRST DAUGHTER SUITE - and much, much more in this career-spanning conversations with one of modern musical theatre's most daring and prolific artists.

The Riverdale Rising Stars will present the first public performances of the new musical revue, MID-LIFE 2! (The Crisis Continues). Written by brothers Bob and Jim Walton, the show will be presented as a staged reading starring Broadway guest performers tonight, Wednesday, May 22, and tomorrow night, Thursday, May 23 at 7:30pm.

The Riverdale Rising Stars presents the first public performances of the new musical revue MID-LIFE 2! (The Crisis Continues). Written by brothers Bob and Jim Walton, the show will be presented as a staged reading starring Broadway guest performers tonight, May 22 and Thursday, May 23 at 7:30pm.

The Riverdale Rising Stars presents the first public performances of the new musical revue MID-LIFE 2! (The Crisis Continues). Written by brothers Bob and Jim Walton, the show will be presented as a staged reading starring Broadway guest performers on Wednesday, May 22 and Thursday, May 23 at 7:30pm.

If the world were a little more just and the general public's taste for musical theatre a lot more cerebral, news of a new Michael John LaChiusa musical would cause the same kind of box office frenzy that in the 1940s and 50s greeted announcements of Rodgers and Hammerstein's latest.  Or at least match the high expectations these days whenever another Stephen Sondheim revival is mounted.

The Public Theater presents the New York premiere production of Giant, an epic love story with book by Sybille Pearson and music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa. Currently in previews at the Newman Theater, the show has pushed back opening night to November 15. Directed by Michael Greif, Giant runs through Sunday, December 2. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the cast in action below!

Sometimes once is just not enough, so, today, we have a super-special encore conversation with a recent InDepth InterView participant who shares even more candid tales from her impossibly colorful, genre-spanning career on Broadway and in Hollywood - star of properties as diverse as the Broadway musicals MR. PRESIDENT, KELLY and THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG, to movies like MOONSTRUCK and SHALL WE DANCE to her numerous TV appearances on everything from MATCH GAME to QUINCY to 30 ROCK - chameleon-like comedienne and actress Anita Gillette. Discussing some of the more ribald and hilarious stories from her idiosyncratic showbiz career - such as the riotous backstage goings-on out of town at the tryout of one of Broadway biggest bombs, KELLY - as well as spine-tingling "you had to be there"-type memories of the Golden Age - like Irving Berlin stopping by the Winter Garden every Wednesday just to see her Act One showstopper in ALL AMERICAN - Gillette paints a vivid picture of an era gone by, and, also, looks ahead to exciting future endeavors - especially the upcoming Ed Burns-directed feature film, THE FITZGERALD FAMILY CHRISTMAS, opening wide later this year. Of course, Gillette returns to the NYC stage the next two Mondays - September 24 and October 1 - with her new Birdland show, AFTER ALL, so in this all-encompassing conversation we also discuss the themes, style, songs and stories we can anticipate from that intimate solo piece, as well, and she generously shares her recollections of working with some of the men who penned many of the sensational songs she will be performing and figure in to some of the tales she will tell - Charles Strouse, Marvin Hamlisch, Jule Styne, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and the aforementioned Irving Berlin included. All of that and much, much more!

Audiences will be captivated by Andrew Lloyd Webber's fiery story of love, fame and Hollywood in Pittsburgh CLO's debut production of Sunset Boulevard, tonight, July 24 through July 29 at the Benedum Center. Tony Award nominee Liz Callaway, critically-acclaimed star of Love Changes Everything, returns to the Pittsburgh CLO stage as eccentric Hollywood actress Norma Desmond.

Audiences will be captivated by Andrew Lloyd Webber's fiery story of love, fame and Hollywood in Pittsburgh CLO's debut production of Sunset Boulevard, July 24-29 at the Benedum Center. Tony Award nominee Liz Callaway, critically-acclaimed star of Love Changes Everything, returns to the Pittsburgh CLO stage as eccentric Hollywood actress Norma Desmond.