Nina Simon News

The Pasadena Playhouse announced today full casting for A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN.  Conceived, written and directed by Randy Johnson, with choreography by Patricia Wilcox and musical direction by Tyler Evans.  A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN stars Mary Bridget Davies, following her Tony Award nominated Broadway run.  Pasadena native Kacee Clanton, also from the Broadway production of A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN, will alternate the role of Janis Joplin with Davies.  

Netflix's new documentary WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? premieres tonight, June 26th. Check out a trailer below!

UMe has released an exclusive new 15-track soundtrack for the hit NBC series AQUARIUS. Music From The Original Series AQUARIUSis available now for download purchase from all major digital service providers.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? This weekend's big news: NYC readings, a GREY GARDENS auction and more!

Lincoln Center Out of Doors one of the country's longest-running, free, summer outdoor festivals opens its 45th season on July 22, 2015. A range of concerts, dance performances, family events, related film screenings, talks, and an exhibition will be presented across three weeks, from July 22 - August 9.

Somewhere in my prodigious vinyl collection there is at least one album by the self-proclaimed 'High Priestess of Soul,' Nina Simone; and having just seen SIMPLY SIMONE: The Music of Nina Simone, at the Hattiloo Theatre, I am taking a deep breath and planning to thumb through my myriad of records in order to seek it out. Nina Simone never quite 'caught on' with mainstream audiences; the legendary Aretha Franklin, who, like Simone, emerged from a gospel background and was a gifted pianist, was much more successful in that respect. Simone was too idiosyncratic a performer to be pigeonholed or labeled. She scoffed at being called a blues singer or a jazz singer; her early classical training, encouraged by a white pianist and patron (who collected money from the people in the town and helped to enroll at Juilliard), always informed her music. Moreover, the songs she chose to interpret, in addition to her own, were an eclectic repertoire: Everything from Gershwin to the Beatles. Underappreciated in her own country, and disillusioned by the stagnation of the Civil Rights Movement after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she found her audience abroad, particularly in France; she turned her back on disco (which she disdainfully dismissed) and was selective and intelligent in the music she chose to interpret, which left no room for her on the popularity bandwagon.

This June Melbourne Cabaret Festival will play host to Natasha York's critically acclaimed one woman show 'These Things Take Wine', at the new Alex Theatre Complex this June. As the title would suggest this show is full of puns, tipsy tales, and a whole wine-inspired soundtrack including classics by Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse, Nancy Sinatra and even Michael Jackson. York pours her heart out in this comedy cabaret filled with power tools, balloon animals and decisions made under the influence.

This summer, Joe's Pub at The Public (425 Lafayette, NYC) welcomes a slate of artists that defy genre but share a core of unadulterated and soulful vocals. The calendar promises a season of outstanding music performances from artists ranging from jazz man Brian Blade, making his singer-songwriter debut, to indie songbird Diane Birch to NPR phenomenon Fantastic Negrito to SXSW success story and mother-son duo Madisen Ward & the Mama Bear.

The performance spanned the decades, with so many landmark songs marking the way.

Queen Latifah is Bessie Smith!

Now that Memphis in May has finally bid adieu to the Sunset Symphony, crowned the winners of the barbecue contest,and trod well the welcome mat to the magnficent new Bass Pro Shop, Memphians can look to its theatres, old and new, for diversions of a histrionic nature.

?The Playwrights' Center has introduced eight new Core Writers, as well as the 2015-16 Many Voices Fellows, Many Voices Mentees, and Core Apprentices. These writers will join the continuing Core Writers and the previously announced 2015-16 Jerome Fellows, McKnight Fellows in Playwriting, and McKnight National Residency and Commission recipient as the Center's season of playwrights. McKnight Theater Artist Fellows will be announced in June.

Queen Latifah is Bessie Smith!

Oscar® nominee Queen Latifah ("Chicago") stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO Films drama BESSIE, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Dee Rees ("Pariah") from a screenplay by Dee Rees and Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois.

?Oscar® nominee Queen Latifah ("Chicago") stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO Films drama BESSIE, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Dee Rees ("Pariah") from a screenplay by Dee Rees and Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois.

Oscar® nominee Queen Latifah ("Chicago") stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO Films drama BESSIE, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Dee Rees ("Pariah") from a screenplay by Dee Rees and Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois.

Playwright Dominique Morisseau's play features Valeka J. Holt, Manu H. Kumasi, and Jefferson A. Russell.

Netflix released the first triler for What Happened, Miss Simone? a new documentary premiering on June 26th. Check it out below!

Valerie Joyce and a fine cast go back to the roots of Brecht's THREEPENNY OPERA and uncover a feminist treasure trove

Broadway composer Charles Strouse, who has written scores for over 30 stage musicals, including 14 for Broadway, and is a three-time Tony Award winner, a two-time Emmy Award winner, and whose cast albums have earned him two Grammy Awards will visit the school and lead a 'Talk-Back' with students. The Teaneck Community Charter school will present a production of the recently created 'Bye Bye Birdie Young Performers Edition.' The Talk-Back event will feature the student cast and crew of the show and will lead into the Opening Night performance at 8pm.