Neil Simon News

Tyne Daly, Tom Wopat, Gregg Edelman, Aaron Lazar, Tony DeSare, Michele Lee and Jamie Barton have joined the roster of guest artists to perform at The New York Pops' 28th Birthday Gala, Celebrate Hope, on May 2, 2011. A grand gala evening celebrating the legacy of late actor and comedian Bob Hope and honoring decades of support by Interpublic Group, the event begins at 7:00 PM with a concert at Carnegie Hall featuring a special lineup of concert artists, followed by a black tie dinner and dance held at the luxurious Plaza Hotel.

A Contemporary Theatre brings to stage a host of performances for the month of May! Vanities: A New Musical concludes it successful run, as ACT's next Mainstage production starts, Neil Simon's comic portrait of urban angst, The Prisoner of Second Avenue.

A CHORUS LINE closes at NJPAC Sunday, May 1 at 2 p.m.

National Corporate Theatre Fund (NCTF) will hold its Annual Chairman's Awards Gala and benefit on Monday, May 2 at the St. Regis New York hotel (2 East 55th Street at Fifth Avenue). This year, NCTF Chairman James S Turley, Chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young, will honor Oscar and Tony Award-winner Joel Grey (on Broadway this season inAnything Goes and director of The Normal Heart), recipient of the Theater Artist Award, presented by Anything Goes director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall; Charles Dillingham (Managing Director, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles), recipient of the Theater Professional Award, presented by Benjamin Moore (Managing Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre) and Richard Thomas (Race on Broadway and The Public's Timon of Athens); and BNY Mellon, recipient of the Corporate Leadership Award, presented by Tony Award-winning stage and film actress Anika Noni Rose. All net proceeds of the event will be distributed as the NCTF/BNY MELLON FUND FOR NEW AMERICAN THEATRE.

Last night, Thursday 4/28, Norbert Leo Butz and the cast of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN performed 'Don't Break the Rules' on 'The Late Show with David Letterman.' Click below to check out the performance!

Tonight, Thursday 4/28, Norbert Leo Butz and the cast of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN perform 'Don't Break the Rules' on 'The Late Show with David Letterman.'

The Castillo Theatre (Dan Friedman, artistic director, Diane Stiles, managing director) is opening Fred Newman and David Truskinoff's musical LICENSE TO DREAM, Friday, April 29 and running through Sunday, June 5 with an official press preview on Thursday, April 28, directed by David Nackman and choreographed by Javier Dzul.

Timely, relevant, bittersweet, and scathingly funny, The Prisoner of Second Avenue by the prolific Neil Simon gets the all-star treatment at ACT Theatre, April 29-May 29, with director Warner Shook at the helm and a cast that reads like a Who's Who in Seattle Theatre.

Cortland Repertory Theatre celebrates our "Ruby Jubilee" 40th Anniversary year of presenting quality, professional summer productions in Dwyer Memorial Park, Preble, NY - 10 minutes north of Homer on Route 281 from the south, or off Exit 13 of Route 81 from the north.

DanceOn, a YouTube partnership channel exclusive to dance, released the seventh episode of DIARY OF A CHORUS GIRL today. The cast and crew of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN prepare for the start of previews, and Alex Ellis has her first performance on a Broadway stage! Click below to watch the episode!

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes the Rubicon Theatre in California to Americas Off Broadway with their critically acclaimed production of THE BEST IS YET TO COME: THE MUSIC OF CY COLEMAN, devised and directed by David Zippel.

The Bergen County Players (BCP) presents The Tiger, a dark comedy by Murray Schisgal. Under the direction of Jerry Pettinati, The Tiger will be performed at the Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell for two performances only: Saturday, May 14 at 2pm and Sunday, May 15 at 7pm.

On the heels of his 1970 hit film The Out of Towners Neil Simon crafted The Prisoner of Second Avenue in 1971, which had a more than a healthy run on Broadway and filmed in 1975 with Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft. Towners has always been my favorite as it depicts how bright and enthusiastic small town people visit and view the living conditions of New York City as less than desirable. Anything that can go wrong does and the pair cannot wait to make a fast exit. In Avenue, it's a perspective from within as New York apartment dwellers Mel (Jason Alexander) and Edna (Gina Hecht) Edison must cope with high rent, noisy neighbors, unemployment, robbery, garbage strikes, the exorbitant cost of living and trying to keep one's sanity in the process. In this new production at the El Portal, Glenn Casale's fantastic pacing as director and a superb ensemble make The Prisoner of Second Avenue more topical than ever.

That 'one, singular sensation' - A CHORUS LINE - which wowed audiences and raked in awards with its 1975 premiere and reclaimed its place in Broadway's heart with a new production in 2006, comes to NJPAC's Prudential Hall from April 26th to May 1st.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN began preview performances on Friday, March 11, 2011 at Broadway's Neil Simon Theatre and opened on Sunday, April 10, 2011. Click below for a sneak peek of 'Jet Set' from the show!

The Castillo Theatre (Dan Friedman, artistic director, Diane Stiles, managing director) is opening Fred Newman and David Truskinoff's musical LICENSE TO DREAM, Friday, April 29 and running through Sunday, June 5 with an official press preview on Thursday, April 28, directed by David Nackman and choreographed by Javier Dzul.

From March 5 through April 25, 2011, The New York Botanical Garden 9th Annual Orchid Exhibition, 'The Orchid Show: On Broadway,' will present the work of Al Hirschfeld in 'Hirschfeld's Broadway Scrapbook.' Just across the Garden's ground in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library's Rondina and LoFaro Gallery, the complementary exhibition will feature more than 30 drawings, as well as posters, programs, and sketchbooks from the Al Hirschfeld Foundation that tell the history of the Great White Way as seen by its foremost chronicler.

The exhibit will end on April 25.

The 'Sas' is back. Rachelle Rak (better known to the Broadway community as 'Sas'), has had a career as a Broadway dancer to be envied. Having worked on Broadway for ten straight years in the original companies of Cats, Fosse, Starlight Express, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (among others) and the revival company of monster hits such as Oklahoma!, it seemed Rak had not only 'made it,' but found a home as the consumate chrous girl. Until 2006.

This morning, Norbert Leo Butz and Kathleen Chalfant announced the nominations for The 77th Annual Drama League Awards in the categories of Distinguished Production of Play, Distinguished Production of a Musical, Distinguished Revival of a Play, Distinguished Revival of a Musical and the Distinguished Performance Award. Both actors are previous winners of The Drama League's Distinguished Performance Award. BroadwayWorld brought you the live stream of the nomination reception at SD26 Restaurant and now we bring you the list of honorees!