Mrs. Johnson News

Ovation! Performing Arts Northwest presents Bye Bye Birdie over two weekends at Bainbridge Performing Arts this January. America's top performer Conrad Birdie is being drafted into the Army; how will he say 'Bye Bye' to his most devoted fan? This classic musical set in 1958 will feature an all-ages cast singing and dancing their way through a marvelous score with a rockabilly beat.

McCarter Theatre Center announces a generous gift of $500,000 from McCarter supporter and arts philanthropist Betty Wold Johnson, in honor of Emily Mann's thirty years as Artistic Director and Resident Playwright. The gift will be used to support the ongoing artistic excellence for which McCarter became known during Mann's tenure.

Everything comes together with a swell of vitality in Arizona State University Music Theatre and Opera's production thanks to stars Mary Ott and Kathlynn Rodin, Music Director Greg Paladino, and Director Robert Kolby Harper.

Watford Palace Theatre today announce full cast for Patrick Hamilton's classic psychological thriller, Gaslight. Richard Beecham directs Hannah Hutch (Nancy), Sandra James-Young (Elizabeth), Jasmine Jones (Jack Manningham), Tricia Kelly (Inspector Rough) and Sally Tatum (Bella Manningham). The production opens on 7 October with previews from 2 October and runs until 26 October.

Directed by Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara, Hansberry's fearless interrogation of hope in the face of racial and economic strife is as provocative and powerful today as when it premiered. In the hands of this talented team, the issues the younger family faces transcend traditional lines and distinctions. Their challenges and aspirations are those found in just about any household.

Jonathan Maitland delivers a satirical take on Brexit in general and Boris Johnson in particular, that lacks the insight and the jokes required to do justice to its source material's rich potential.

Poignant and compelling, Mockingbird - the play adapted for the stage by Julie Jensen from the National Book Award-winning novel for younger audiences by Katherine Erskine - is a remarkably timely and prescient look at the aftermath of a school shooting for the people most intimately affected by it, in particular an 11-year-old girl named Caitlin, who has Asperger's syndrome, and whose beloved older brother was a victim of the horrific incident that takes place (mercifully, for audiences) prior to the start of the play.

Director L. Peter Callender guides a stellar cast. You won't see a better RAISIN IN THE SUN anywhere.

Stagecrafters' Main Stage is currently presently the American classic, A Raisin in the Sun, until November 18th in Royal Oak. The talented cast performed the timeless play wonderfully and brought the audience fully into the drama of a 1950s Chicago family.

I first recall watching Tim Mackabee play a policeman in the musical GUYS AND DOLLS while he was in high school in Towson, MD at the Carver Center for the Arts and Technology. I next met him outside the Yale Repertory Theatre where he was studying for his Master's Degree in Set Design. I've been following him ever since as he has risen to be one the most successful set designers in the country. He even made it to Broadway and London where he designed THE ELEPHANT MAN. His work is now ensconced at Baltimore's Center Stage where you can see his masterful job designing the set for SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (which is a co-production with the Cincinnati Playhouse). I was able to see the show in a preview performance (it opens officially October 26, 2017) and marveled at his work. I caught up with him during tech rehearsals in Baltimore just before he had to leave for Philadelphia.

Stagecrafters proudly presents A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. The show runs November 3rd through November 18th at the Baldwin Theatre, 415 S Lafayette Avenue, in downtown Royal Oak.

Nashville Children's Theatre, the nation's oldest professional theatre for young audiences today announces full casting and creative teams for the 2017-2018 season, opening the theater's 87th season - its first with programming designed by new executive artistic director Ernie Nolan.

'There was a musical version of Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun?': this has been universal response of friends who knew I reviewing RAISIN. Even Dev Bondarin, the artistic director of APAC (Astoria Performing Arts Center) who directed the current production, only became aware of the show in college, during an historical survey of musical theater. I will leave it to others to speculate why a musical nominated for nine Tony awards--including Best Original Score, Best Choreography, Best Book--and the winner of two statues (best musical and Best Leading Actress) has all but vanished from theatrical memory. But one hopes that Bondarin's production will restore Raisin to its rightful place in the musical theater canon, not because it takes up relevant social and political topics (which it does), but because it's a fine show with compelling music and lyrics by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan and sharp, elegant by Hansberry's ex-husband and literary executor, Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zalztberg. (The cast album also won a Grammy in 1975.)

The Laurie Beechman Theatre is proud to announce the return of The Fabulous Equinox Orchestra, the most unconventional soulful Southern big band you'll ever love.

Theatre Charlotte's vivid new staging of A RAISIN IN THE SUN reminds us that Lorraine Hansberry's drama was written to show us all the things, good and bad, that can happen to 'a dream deferred.'

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company's mainstage season continues with the American classic A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. The production, running March 24 - April 15, 2017, is directed by Christopher V. Edwards and features Geoffrey Warren Barnes II, Burgess Byrd, and Torie Wiggins in the leading roles. The production is generously sponsored by Johnson Investment Council and Thompson Hine LLP.

???????Following a full year of successful programming, DreamWrights once again offers StAGEs, an award-winning, theatre arts program designed for adults 50 and older. Sponsored in part by AARP and the Cultural Alliance Creative Impact Award, this program encourages active participation in the arts where participants learn and experiment with theatrical techniques to tell stories, create plot and characters, build friendships and laugh! 

Freeform and Marvel today announced six new series regulars for its highly anticipated series, MARVEL'S CLOAK & DAGGER a live-action adaptation of the popular Marvel comic.

MCC Theater's All the Ways to Say I Love You will be filmed for the New York Public Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) to be preserved for the archives at Lincoln Center. The filming will occur at tonight's (October 20th) performance. The twice-extended All The Ways ends its celebrated run this Sunday, October 23, 2016.

MCC Theater has announced that All The Ways To Say I Love You will be filmed for the New York Public Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) to be preserved for the archives at Lincoln Center.  The filming will occur at the Thursday, October 20th performance.