Nell Benjamin News

Director and Choreographer Jacque Lueken of Fox Valley Repertory and the Youth Ensemble present Legally Blonde Jr. to the Fox Valley Area. Under the musical direction of Jeffrey Poindexter, the FVR Youth Ensemble brings this upbeat musical, based on the popular movie, to the Pheasant Run Resort Mainstage December 6-21, 2014 (4051 East Main Street, St. St. Charles).

It's London, 1879, and The Explorers Club is in crisis. A woman has been proposed for membership! The members of this venerable club are in shock-who could imagine such a thing? What's really needed here is a good stiff drink, but unfortunately, they have the worst bartender in all of London. And this is just the beginning of the hijinks in Nell Benjamin's The Explorers Club, a co-production with WaterTower Theatre, beginning its 6-week Stage West run on Friday, November 28. (After the holidays, the play will move to WaterTower Theatre for a run from January 16-February 8.) BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

WaterTower Theatre Producing Artistic Director Terry Martin today announced the cast for the The Explorers Club, a co-production with Stage West, running January 16-February 8, 2015 at the Addison Theatre Centre.

There's still plenty of time to acquaint yourself with the story of Dave, for those who missed the movie in 1993. Check out a collection of clips from the film below!

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: BILLY ELLIOT dances onto the big screen, GRAND CONCOURSE opens off-Broadway and more!

Variety reports that on Halloween this year, Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures held a private reading of a new musical adaptation of the film DAVE.

The Office for the Arts at Harvard recently announced that its upcoming undergraduate production of the cult hit Bat Boy: The Musical will debut new scenes and songs by the show's original writers. Composer/lyricist (and Harvard alum) Laurence O'Keefe and bookwriters Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming have been holding writing sessions and workshops at Harvard, working directly with the undergraduate cast and crew to develop the new material. Bat Boy is the story of a feral half-bat/half-boy, originally invented by the Weekly World News supermarket tabloid. The musical comedy's premiere Off-Broadway in 2001 garnered rave reviews and the show has received hundreds of productions worldwide, but the three writers have nonetheless continued to work on the show. O'Keefe recently took the time to chat with BroadwayWorld about revisiting the project and his intentions for the show at Harvard and beyond. Check out the full interview below!

SAY: The Stuttering Association for the Young (www.say.org) (formerly Our Time) will be presenting four original One-Act Plays written and directed by teens who stutter, and performed by professional actors. The teens are part of the organization's innovative Confident Voices program, which helps kids who stutter find their voice.

Atlantic Theater Company has announced that Annie MacRae has been appointed the company's Associate Artistic Director.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) announce recent recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Initiative commissions for Manhattan Theatre Club. The commissioned writers are Jeff Augustin (Little Children Dream of God), Courtney Baron (A Very Common Procedure) and Juliana Nash (Murder Ballad), Nell Benjamin (The Explorers Club), Madeline George (The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence), Tom Holloway (And No More Shall We Part), Nathan Jackson (Broke-ology), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (An Octoroon), Greg Pierce (Slowgirl), and Alexandra Wood (The Initiate).

The Boiler Room Theatre (BRT), Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company opens its second show of their 14th season with the frothy, fun, and energetic LEGALLY BLONDE the MUSICAL playing today, September 30th through October 4th at the beautiful, historic Franklin Theatre. Having won over audiences across the nation, Elle, Bruiser and friends will make their BRT debut for a limited engagement! Equal parts hilarious and heart-warming warming, this musical is so much fun it should be illegal!

Delaware Theatre Company, under the artistic leadership of Bud Martin, announces the five-play lineup for its 36th anniversary season, including the return of Michael Learned, an East Coast premiere of a new work, a hilarious holiday comedy, a chilling retelling of a literary classic, and a heartwarming new musical in pre-Broadway development.

Sweet alien transvestites will take over the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre stage tonight, September 11, 2014 in Dallas Theater Center's all new production of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Show.

Dallas Theater Center previously announced that Austin/Brooklyn band Foe Destroyer would return to the DTC stage in the upcoming production of The Rocky Horror Show. The self-described 'nerd, grunge, trash, pop' group will take center stage at the Wyly Theatre from today, September 11 through October 19.

Why do some actors make it and others don't? Ken Womble sets out to find the answer to this question, one that has fascinated and tormented him for years, in his new book, INSIDE ACT: How Ten Actors Made it and How You Can Too (Hansen Publishing Group, 373 pages, $24.99). To celebrate the release, BroadwayWorld will be featuring chapter previews from the new book. Today, hear from John Tartaglia!

The Waterfront Theatre Company returns to The Masque Theatre in Muizenburg this month with yet another musical that celebrates Women's Month: LEGALLY BLONDE - THE MUSICAL! With a book by Heather Hach and a score by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, this new production of the popular Broadway show will be brought to life by Paul Griffiths (director), Garth Tavares (musical director) and William Jones (choreography).