Patrick Parker News

Jenna Pastuszek and Joshua Zecher-Ross will bring GET HAPPY!: A Tribute to the World's Greatest Entertainer, Judy Garland, to the Zlock Performing Arts Center in Newtown, PA.

As theatres work to return to the new normal, we continue to find new ways in which the industry needs to find improvements on the way that they treat those that are creating the art - we have arrived at the “rubber meets the road” moment for every theatre that issued statements about their ideals in the past few years.

Paper Mill Playhouse has announced that Jen Bender (Broadway’s The Lion King, The Wedding Singer, Avenue Q) will join PMP as Associate Artistic Director, following longtime Associate Artistic Director Patrick Parker, who stepped down on September 30, 2022 after 27 years at the post.

Paper Mill Playhouse announces Patrick Parker will step down as Associate Artistic Director after 27 years with the company on September 30, 2022.   Parker will continue on a consulting basis, assisting with the transition and consulting on a variety of special projects.

Surflight Theatre honors Judy Garland's 100th birthday with Get Happy! The Music of Judy Garland. Eighty-three years after singing about “somewhere over the rainbow,” Judy's music continues to thrill audiences with her unyielding star power.

Paper Mill Playhouse announced that the theater’s annual Gala, which was held at the Hilton Short Hills on Friday, May 20, was sold out and raised almost $1.2 million with the most successful Live Auction in Paper Mill's 84-year history.  

At the end of April, The Cabaret Project of St. Louis is presenting Laura Benanti at The Sheldon for her first solo performance in St. Louis. Ms. Benanti is a Tony Award Winner and five time nominee. Ahead of the event, BroadwayWorld sat down with the celebrated star of Stage and Screen.

Jenna Pastuszek and Joshua Zecher-Ross will debut GET HAPPY!: A Tribute to the World's Greatest Entertainer, Judy Garland, at The Green Room 42 in NYC. It's been 83 years since the world first heard Judy Garland sing about a place 'somewhere over the rainbow,' and her star power is just as potent as it was then.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre announces the line-up of directors for their 30th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which takes place on Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26, 2018 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues). The Festival events will kick off on Monday, October 22 with Thank You, 30!, a gala event to celebrate the 30th Annual Festival.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre (Betsy King Militello, Executive Director) is thrilled to announce the line-up of new musicals for their 30th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which takes place on Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26, 2018 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues). The Festival events will kick off on Monday, October 22 with Thank You, 30!, a gala event to celebrate the 30th Annual Festival.

BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at some of the winners of Paper Mill Playhouse's 2016 Rising Star Awards.  Check them out below!

Tony Award-winning lyricist of the musical NEWSIES, Jack Feldman, married his longtime partner of 23 years, Dr. Matthew Liss, in an intimate ceremony and reception surrounded by family friends and Broadway luminaries at '48 Lounge' on Sunday, September 27th, 2015. BroadwayWorld has photos from the ceremony and reception below!

Paper Mill Playhouse lost its former Executive Producer Angelo Del Rossi on Saturday, August 30, 2014. Angelo Del Rossi helmed Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, for forty years. A funeral service was held on Monday, September 1, 2014 in Montclair, NJ. Paper Mill Playhouse is planning a memorial tribute at the Millburn theater where the entire theater community can celebrate the life of Angelo Del Rossi. Date, time and more information is forthcoming. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting memorial contributions to the Angelo Del Rossi Scholarship Fund, Paper Mill Playhouse, 22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, NJ, 07041.

Paper Mill Playhouse has announced the appointment of Laura Green as the theater's new Production Manager and Bea Daggett, leading the historic theater's development team as Director of External and Strategic Affairs. "We are thrilled to add Bea Daggett and Laura Green to our stellar senior management team," stated Todd Schmidt, Paper Mill Playhouse's Managing Director. "Bea and Laura are experienced professionals that will enhance the work that Paper Mill Playhouse produces onstage and beyond. These appointments will allow the theater to continue to grow and thrive."

Paper Mill Playhouse presents Ken Ludwig's Lend Me a Tenor. This hysterically funny, door-slamming comedy features Broadway stars and Paper Mill Playhouse favorites including: Judith Blazer (Maria), John Treacy Egan (Tito), Donna English (Diana), Nancy Johnston (Julia), David Josefsberg (Max), Michael Kostroff (Saunders), Jill Paice (Maggie) and Mark Price(Bellhop). Lend Me a Tenor will run at the Millburn, New Jersey, theater through March 10, 2013. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the opening night after party below!

Paper Mill Playhouse's production of A Chorus Line, directed and choreographed by Mitzi Hamilton, one of the dancers in Michael Bennett's original taped workshop that inspired the 1975 musical began performances October 3 and opened Sunday with a tribute to composer Marvin Hamlisch. View photos from opening night below!

More than 20 years after its premiere, Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens have re-invented their first musical with Tony-nominated director Thomas Kail (In the Heights, Lombardi, Magic/Bird), choreographer Bradley Rapier (So You Think You Can Dance, Jesus Christ Superstar) and new orchestrations by music director Lynne Shankel (Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Altar Boyz). Once On This Island just opened last night, June 3, and runs through Sunday, June 24, 2012.

Paper Mill Playhouse just opened Damn Yankees, directed by Paper Mill Playhouse's Producing Artistic Director, Mark S. Hoebee, with choreography by Denis Jones. The cast features Howard McGillin (Applegate), Chryssie Whitehead (Lola), Christopher Charles Wood (Joe Hardy), Joseph Kolinski (Joe Boyd), Patti Cohenour (Meg Boyd) and Nancy Anderson (Gloria Thorpe). BroadwayWorld was there for the big opening and brings you coverage from the first curtain call below!

With an intoxicating script by Marc Camoletti, Boeing-Boeing tells the tale of Bernard, an American playboy in swinging '60s Paris who juggles three flight-attendant fiancées-one American, one German, and one Italian. With the help of airline timetables and a phenomenally efficient housekeeper, he convinces each that she is his only love. But then a fast new Boeing jet puts the flight attendants on a collision course, hurtles Bernard's cunning deception towards disaster, and provides lift-off for laugh after laugh.

Paper Mill Playhouse hosted its Center Stage Celebration on Friday, May 13th at the Hilton Short Hills. The benefit honored eight time Academy Award®-winning composer Alan Menken with the theater's prestigious Frank Carrington Excellence in the Arts Award. There to add to the entertainment of the evening and help honor the music man was Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Laura Benanti. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the event and brings you photo coverage of the gala below.