Nathan Lane News

Co-founders John Stoops, Tim Evans, and Marc Grapey announce the inaugural season of Three Oaks Theater Festival, a new summer theater festival that will bring three limited-engagement runs of highly-acclaimed, professional Chicago-based productions and a World Premiere to audiences in Harbor Country, Michigan. Three Oaks Theater Festival is presented in association with Harbor Arts with special thanks to The Pokagon Fund.

Voting opened on May 2, 2013 and runs through May 31, 2013 for the 11th Annual BroadwayWorld.com Awards! Here are the current standings as of 5/9 with just 21 days to go in voting!

The 58th Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place on Sunday, May 19, 2013 at 8:00 PM at The Town Hall (123 W. 43rd Street). The Awards show is written by Bill Rosenfield and directed by Jack Cummings III (co-founder and artistic director of Transport Group).

The Drama League has announced Emmy Award winner Debra Messing will join Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce as co-host of the 79th Annual Drama League Awards. One of the high points of the theater season, the Awards Luncheon will be held Friday afternoon, May 17th at the Marriott Marquis Times Square (1535 Broadway) at noon.

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing's 67th Annual Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Awards were announced just last week by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Sutton Foster. Check out the full list of Tony nods here, and below you can check out photos of nominee Nathan Lane in the BroadwayWorld.com series 'In The Spotlight' by acclaimed photographer Walter McBride below

Christine Baranski, Kelli Barrett, Walter Bobbie, Jeremy Cohen, Dalton Harrod, Randy Skinner, Shonn Wiley, Karen Ziemba,New York City Ballet Principaldancer Joaquin De Luz and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Irina Dvorovenko will star in Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes, the final Encores! presentation of the 2012-13 New York City Center season.

Lincoln Center Theater's critically acclaimed production of The Nance, a new play by Douglas Carter Beane, directed by Jack O'Brien at the Lyceum Theatre (149 West 45th Street) and starring Nathan Lane will now run through August 11, 2013. Lane stopped by THE LATE SHOW with David Letterman last night to discuss his Tony Awards competition with 'award magnet' Tom Hanks. Watch below!

BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was thrilled to sit down and speak with nearly all of this year's Tony Award nominees at the official Tonys Meet & Greet on May 1, 2013, and we will be bringing you special coverage on all of them throughout the awards season. Today we bring you Douglas Carter Beane, a nominee for Best Book of a Musical for Cinderella. Check out what he had to say below!

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, written by Christopher Durang, today won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2012-2013 season. Matilda received the award for Best Musical. The selections were made at the 78th annual voting meeting of the organization today at the offices of Time Out New York in Manhattan.

Mindy Kaling, Amy Schumer, Lara Spencer and Steve Schirripa will co-host ABC's THE VIEW during the week of May 6th. Also on tap, Whoopi vies for the titled of 'Potato Chip Champion,' more hidden treasures from deep within Whoopi's shoe closet and Barbara learns to golf!

After an embarrassing fall from a horse, the President of the small nation of Turkmenistan agreed to speak live with late night talk show host JIMMY KIMMEL last night on ABC. Check out the exclusive interview between Kimmel and the world leader (played hilariously by Mel Brooks!)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: The Oliviers sweep through London, Megan Hilty sings at NY Pops and Matilda shows off its Revolting Children.

The critically acclaimed La Cage aux Folles by Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman opens at Lakewood Theatre Company tonight, May 3, 2013 with performances continuing through June 9, 2013.

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Andre Bishop, Artistic Director, and Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer) has announced an eight week extension through Sunday, August 11 of its critically acclaimed production of THE NANCE, a new play by Douglas Carter Beane, directed by Jack O'Brien at the Lyceum Theatre (149 West 45th Street).

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for THE 67th ANNUAL TONY AWARDS were announced today by stage and screen actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Tony Award-winning actress Sutton Foster at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement.

Nathan Lane, nominated for BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A PLAY for THE NANCE

Tom Griffin's 'THE BOYS NEXT DOOR' is a tricky script…its subject matter is a group home in the Boston area housing four mentally-challenged adult men; Arnold, Norman, Lucien and Barry. They have a caretaker, Jack, who lives offsite, and the play progresses through a series of vignettes illustrating the challenges of their everyday lives. As depressing as that may sound, the script has many comic moments, and it's a tightrope to balance the humor with the pathos. It was made into a mildly effective television movie in 1996 featuring Nathan Lane, Courtney B. Vance and Mare Winningham. I say 'mildly effective' because the play has an extra layer of difficulty in that the humor is generated by the plight of its characters…the audience laughs at the behavior and reactions of these damaged men, and without careful direction and acting skill, there could be guilt and self-loathing in the laughter rather than charm and warmth. The TV version fell victim to this, but STAGEright Theatre Company presents a beautiful rendering of the show under the direction of Jay D. Irwin.