Nova Payton News

What did our critic think of RENT IN CONCERT at The Kennedy Center?

On Monday, February 20th, The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Lion King, and Garth Fagan Dance celebrated the show's Tony, Olivier, and Helpmann Award-winning choreographer and founder of Garth Fagan Dance, Garth Fagan, the longest-running Black choreographer in Broadway history. 

Top stories include additional dates and complete casting for the tour of Into The Woods, a new tour from Patti LuPone, and more! Plus, check out photos and video footage of Jinkx Monsoon taking her first Broadway bows in Chicago!

Performing classics from The Wiz, The Color Purple, Company, Porgy & Bess, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and more, the cast will feature Corbin Bleu, Nikki Renée Daniels, Tiffany Mann, Nova Payton, Stephanie Mills, Norm Lewis, John Manzari, Leah Flynn, Amber Iman, Peppermint, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Ephraim Sykes, E. Clayton Cornelious, and more.

Today, the Ms. Foundation for Women announced the honorees for the 2022 Women of Vision Awards: The Future is Feminist. The annual gala will take place at Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City on May 17, 2022.

Get ready for an evening of Aretha Franklin, who sold 75 million albums over the course of her outstanding career, winning 18 Grammy Awards, rightfully earning her title as “The Queen of Soul.” Curated by Founder and Music Director Luke S. Frazier, The American Pops Orchestra presents RESPECT: THE MUSIC OF ARETHA FRANKLIN.

Originally Directed on Broadway by James Lapine and Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, Into the Woods will be brought to life outdoors on The People's Plaza using ZACH's architecture and natural environment in surprising ways as part of the ZACH360 experience.

The offer applies to the four paid, ticketed programs in Olney Outdoors: Sing Praise! - a series of faith-centered concerts featuring gospel, Jewish, and East Asian traditions; The Andrew A. Isen Cabaret Series; Jazz@Olney; and Theatre for Young Audiences. Those programs include more than 44 individual performances through September 3.

Producers Dale A. Mott of Edgewood (Broadway’s The Lifespan of a Fact and the upcoming Thoughts of a Colored Man) and NEWorks Productions have announced two industry presentations for GRACE, to be held on August 24, 2021, at Alvin Ailey Studios (405 West 55th Street).

Learn more about all of the additional archival footage added to the event, including Ariana Grande (at age 15 making her Broadway debut) and Brynn Williams in 13; Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Death of a Salesman, Brian Stokes Mitchell in Ragtime, Sutton Foster in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and more!

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts announced today that Jason Robert Brown, Savion Glover, Priscilla López, Susan Stroman, Marisha Wallace, and Christopher Wheeldon have joined the growing list of Broadway stars participating in I'm Still Here: A Virtual Benefit for the Billy Rose Theatre Division, airing June 23, 2021 on Broadway On Demand at 8pm EST and 8pm PST. The fundraiser will help raise critical funds for the Library for the Performing Arts' beloved Theatre Division as it celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

Tickets are available now for Olney Theatre Center’s massive program of live summer events on the open-air Root Family Stage: “Olney Outdoors'. Curated by Kevin McAllister, the series highlights cabaret, jazz, spoken word, drag, dance, faith-centered performances, and theatre for young audiences.

I'm Still Here, a new virtual benefit for The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Billy Rose Theatre Division, will stream on Broadway On Demand on June 23. The evening is a celebration of the division's 90th Anniversary, and the 50th  Anniversary of its beloved Theatre on Film and Tape Archive and will honor Harold Prince and George C. Wolfe. 

The American Pops Orchestra presents WE ARE FAMILY: SONGS OF HOPE AND UNITY, which will be broadcast on Friday, May 14, 2021 (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS Video App. 

PBS launches an expanded slate of multiplatform arts programming beginning April 23. Today, PBS and The WNET Group announced #PBSForTheArts, a multiplatform campaign that celebrates the resiliency of the arts in America during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown and reopening.

a?oeJust Arts: A Celebration of Arts and Activisma?? kicks off on Friday, October 9 streaming at 7:00 pm with an episode dedicated to one of four featured weekly social justice pillars, a?oeEquitya?? curated by Nicole A. Watson.

Four DMV-area arts leaders will co-curate and assemble a 4-week series of free streaming programs celebrating BIPOC artists and the tradition of social protest, presented by Olney Theatre Center. Kicking off on Friday, October 9, and running through October 30, each installment will highlight a different pillar of social justice:  a?oeAccessibility,a?? a?oeRights,a?? a?oeEquity,a?? and a?oeParticipation.a??

The Amen Corner shows the role faith can play when there is almost nowhere left to turn. This alone is a powerful statement about the American experience.

Some of Aretha Franklin's greatest performances happened at the Kennedy Center - chief of which may have been a 2015 performance of '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' at the Kennedy Center Honors that made Barack Obama shed a tear in the Presidential box.

Despite being set in 1899, NEWSIES feels marvelously modern. It is sharp, slick, and explosive. Even if, like me, you saw the bright new production of NEWSIES on Broadway in 2012, the Arena Stage setting is instantly memorable. Being emerged in the theater-in-the-round is like the difference between seeing a beloved film on the big screen and walking into the middle of the action in the Disney theme parks.