Patrick Rizzotti News

Dwelvan David (Caroline, or Change, The Wiz, Songs for a New World), Jenna Leigh Green (Wicked, Bare, "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch"), Alex Goley (Big River, The Berenstain Bears Live!), Eryn Murman (Spring Awakening), Darren Ritchie (Wonderland, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Dracula The Musical, Little Shop of Horrors, Nerds) and Matt Shingledecker (West Side Story, Rent, Spring Awakening) will lead the cast of STANDBY, an Official Selection of the 2013 New York Musical Theatre Festival Next Link Project.

Almost twenty-five years to the day John Waters' iconic film was released, the Kean Department of Theatre will present the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of Hairspray from Friday, February 22nd to Saturday, March 2nd in Kean University's Wilkins Theatre. Featuring music by Mark Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Mr. Shaiman, and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, Hairspray is based on Mr. Waters' popular 1988 comedy of the same name, and received its Broadway premiere on August 15, 2002. Hairspray ran for nearly six-and-a-half years on Broadway (over 2,500 performances), and collected an unprecedented thirteen Tony Award nominations in 2003, going on to win in eight categories (including Best Musical), the most wins by any production nominated that year. It has subsequently toured throughout the United States and received several high-profile international productions, including a successful run in London's West End in 2008 that garnered a record eleven Laurence Olivier Award nominations, ultimately winning four awards (including Best New Musical). In 2007, a second feature film adaptation of Hairspray - based on the original film and Broadway musical - was released, starring John Travolta and Michelle Pfeiffer.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, has announced that it has awarded grants to 10 opera companies and four teams of artists through two funding programs: The Opera Fund: Repertoire Development and the Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Showcase. These grants support the production of new North American opera and help develop the careers of promising directors and designers, respectively.