Norbert Leo Butz News

Tony-winner, Broadway star and BroadwayWorld.com fave Norbert Leo Butz is on set today filming a guest starring role in the upcoming NBC series - SMASH. Butz will play the lead character in HEAVEN ON EARTH, the 'currently running show within a show' written by the characters played by Debra Messing and Christian Borle. He will perform an original tune, entitled 'The Higher You Get, the Farther You Fall' written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

Broadway veteran Taye Diggs recently released a childrens' book titled Chocolate Me. In the video below, Diggs visits 'The Talk' where he chats about the book, his youth, and more! Click below to check it out!

To kick off the New Year, actor Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel attended the Strip's favorite show ABSINTHE on January 1, 2012 to enjoy the raucous comedy from The Gazillionaire, Penny Pibbets and the rest of the eccentric gang.

Today in 1972, Broadway veteran Taye Diggs was born. In 1996, he originated the role of the landlord Benny in Jonathan Larson's Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent, which also starred his future wife, Idina Menzel. After Rent he appeared as Mr. Black alongside Idina Menzel's character of Kate in Andrew Lippa's off-Broadway production of The Wild Party. Diggs also played The Bandleader in the 2002 film version of the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago and filled in as Billy Flynn on Broadway. He also temporarily filled in for Norbert Leo Butz (an original Rent standby) as the love interest Fiyero of Idina Menzel's Elphaba character in Wicked.

Not to be outdone by their female counterparts, the men of Broadway can boast a banner year. Norbert Leo Butz won a second Tony for Catch Me If You Can, Harry Potter mega-star Daniel Radcliffe made his debut in a Broadway musical to tremendous acclaim, Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Robert Lopez rocked Broadway to its core with the Rialto's latest certified Blockbuster, The Book of Mormon, and Pee-Wee Herman came to the stage at last.

My 2011 theatrical exploits, while not as numerous as I'd like, have been enjoyable on the whole and happily have involved the West End, the London and Edinburgh Fringes and Broadway. In an attempt to summarise I have come up with a few arbitrary and inconsistent categories into which to put some of the shows I've seen.

Kevin Cahoon (The Wedding Singer, The Foreigner), Jennifer Regan (Born Yesterday) and Marnie Schulenburg (24-hour Musical) join two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz (Catch Me If You Can) and Emmy and Independent Spirit Award nominee Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight, Grey's Anatomy) in Second Stage Theatre's upcoming production of Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE.

In MCC Theater's annual Miscast gala, Broadway's hottest stars perform songs from roles in which they would never be cast. Check out a photo of Broadway favorite Jonathan Groff rehearsing for the event, as featured on the MCC blog!

Two Time Tony Award winner NORBERT LEO BUTZ (Catch Me If You Can) and Emmy and Independent Spirit Award nominee ELIZABETH REASER (Twilight, Grey's Anatomy) will co-star in Second Stage Theatre's upcoming production of Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE. Directed by Kate Whoriskey, the production begins previews on Tuesday, January 24 and officially opens on Monday, February 13 at 7:00pm at Second Stage's Tony Kiser Theatre (305 West 43rd Street). For tickets or more information, please visit www.2ST.com.

Patricia Watt, Producer, The Douglas Watt Family Fund for the Performing Arts & Julie Keyes along with 2012 Fred & Adele Astaire Awards 30th Anniversary Co-Chairs Carolyn Kendall Buchter and Alix Michel will host a kickoff cocktail reception for the committees and sponsors of this year's awards gala. The reception will also welcome the legendary Judith Jamison to the Awarding Committee. The event will be at Remi Restaurant, 145 West 53rd Street, New York 10019 on Monday, November 7 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

Patricia Watt, Producer, The Douglas Watt Family Fund for the Performing Arts & Julie Keyes along with 2012 Fred & Adele Astaire Awards 30th Anniversary Co-Chairs Carolyn Kendall Buchter and Alix Michel will host a kickoff cocktail reception for the committees and sponsors of this year's awards gala. The reception will also welcome the legendary Judith Jamison to the Awarding Committee. The event will be at Remi Restaurant, 145 West 53rd Street, New York 10019 on Monday, November 7 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

It's that time of year again. Time to make your voices heard for your favorite shows and performances from the 2011 Seattle Theater Season. Last year's inaugural Seattle awards were so much fun that we just had to bring them back.

It's powerful, it's moving, it's melodious, and it's true!

Today we are completing BroadwayWorld's seven part analysis of Shakespeare's works, all with an eye towards the new movie ANONYMOUS - which questions the authorship of William Shakespeare - with a look at the greatest moments of deception in theatre taken from the last few decades. While deception and betrayal are both tried and true tactics of creating some tense, terse, taught drama by playwrights and filmmakers the world round - both onstage and onscreen - and it is certainly as much a hackneyed trope used today as it was used five hundred years ago in Shakespeare's time - the acts themselves that we will be focusing on today are the most surprising, effective and entertaining examples of them all. Analyzing moments from entities as diverse as SWEENEY TODD, CARRIE, WICKED, GYPSY, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, THE MUSIC MAN, SISTER ACT, SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, HAMLET, ENRON and more - split into three categories: musical tragedies, musical comedies and straight plays - it becomes quite clear over the course of analyzing these double-crosses that Shakespeare was not the only dramatist who could make the drama's biggest twist also be the moment that stays with us long after the curtain has come down or the screen has gone black. Note: given the nature of today's topic, be forewarned that spoilers copiously abound from here on out!

It's that time of year again. Time to make your voices heard for your favorite shows and performances from the 2011 Seattle Theater Season. Last year's inaugural Seattle awards were so much fun that we just had to bring them back.

Musical Mondays Theatre Lab, which for 12 years has been instrumental in developing new musicals including 'Next to Normal,' salutes its founder, Bick Goss, with a gala celebration on Monday evening, September 19 at a private penthouse apartment on Manhattan's east side.

Musical Mondays Theatre Lab, which for 12 years has been instrumental in developing new musicals including 'Next to Normal,' salutes its founder, Bick Goss, with a gala celebration on Monday evening, September 19 at a private penthouse apartment on Manhattan's east side.

Musical Mondays Theatre Lab, which for 12 years has been instrumental in developing new musicals including 'Next to Normal,' salutes its founder, Bick Goss, with a gala celebration on Monday evening, September 19 at a private penthouse apartment on Manhattan's east side.