Paul Oakley Stovall News

Porchlight Music Theatre held PorchlightPalooza, a three-day virtual festival Friday, Aug. 21 - Sunday, Aug. 23,  in lieu of its cancelled March 23 ICONS GALA.

Porchlight Music Theatre has announced a new three-day celebration and fundraiser in honor of its 25th Anniversary, PorchlightPalooza, Friday, Aug. 21 - Sunday, Aug. 23, which will include performances from Chicago's best talents, an exclusive interview hosted by legendary newsman Bill Kurtis with the 2020 ICON Award recipient Joel Grey and more.

An all-star line-up of Chicago natives and stars who got their start in the Windy City have come together for a new music video, performing the Blues anthem a?oeSweet Home Chicago.a?? 

In honor of LGBTQ+ Pride, Center Theatre Group has shared a very funny coming out scene (that doesn't quite go as expected) from Paul Oakley Stovall's 'Immediate Family,' which Phylicia Rashad directed at the Mark Taper Forum in 2015.

Adding to the starry line-up of master teachers on Erik Liberman's Bridge to Broadway online training platform are Tony winning actors Andrea Martin, Ben Vereen, and Christine Ebersole.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's HAMILTON is certainly one of the best touring shows going, and the company visiting Richmond through December 8 is of the greatest imaginable quality.

Next week, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

Have you heard of a little musical called HAMILTON?  Considering how much attention this show has gotten for the past three years, it almost seems impossible for it to be as good as people say it is.  Surely people are just caught up in the hype and the moment? I'm happy to say that that's not the case at all, and all praise for this musical is well-earned. It hits the sweet spot of compelling characters, catchy songs, excellent performances and fantastic dance sequences.

Hamilton is a show whose impact extended well beyond the Great White Way and into the larger culture almost immediately; you have to have literally lived under a rock to have escaped awareness of this revisionist take on early United States history. In 2016, Hamilton received a record-setting 16 Tony nominations, won 11, including Best Musical, and was also the recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Broadway blockbuster, 'Hamilton: An American Musical' now has multiple companies entertaining audiences across the U.S. Check out what the critics have to say about the productions in cities such as San Francisco, Orlando, Cincinnati and more in the reviews below.

At this point-four years after it premiered on Broadway and took the world by storm, earning a record 16 Tony nominations and making Lin Manuel-Miranda a household name --it seems a superfluous task to write a review of Hamilton. What hot take can I offer on this groundbreaking, history-making musical that scores of other critics and millions of audience members from around the globe haven't offered already?

Once in every decade or so, a musical is created that redefines the genre. Lin-Manuel Miranda's HAMILTON joins that elite Parthenon of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, LES MISERABLE and RENT. The two-act musical rolled into the Ohio Theatre (39 East State Street in downtown Columbus) on Jan. 29 pulling a 400-boxcar train of hype it couldn't possibly live up to.

What do you want me to say? HAMILTON is in Pittsburgh. If that doesn't sell you already, you already knew you weren't interested.

The most anticipated arrival in Pittsburgh since Le'Veon's vanishing...Hamilton, the Broadway musical, has taken up shop at the Benedum Center through January 27. The musical, nominated for a record number of Tony Awards and winning 11, recounts the life of Alexander Hamilton and the birth of our nation through hip-hop and song. With lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamiltonastonishes. To quote the author, 'There are moments that words don't reach' - and Hamilton is embodies them.

Every so often the musical theatre landscape experiences a swell of enthusiasm and excitement for a fresh, new and engaging play. Theatre fans (and casual viewers) alike can recall the hype when THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or LES MISERABLES first opened (and went on tour). More recently the WICKED phenomenon brought young and old alike out to experience the magic and electricity that only a live performance can elicit. Today, the show that everyone is talking about (and obsessing over) is Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony winning musical HAMILTON. Like its popular predecessors, it has recently begun touring around the country - riding the wave of enthusiasm and further cementing its place as a true pop-culture phenomenon. But unlike its flashy, big budget predecessors, HAMILTON, in many ways, lives in its own category. It is a show that is modern, fresh, and that pushes boundaries and delivers in two and a half hours an experience unlike anything this reviewer has experienced before. I am thrilled to say, in the production that has now arrived at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, CT - HAMILTON shines brilliantly, delivering in every way (and beyond) on the hype that precedes it.

It's not often that a Broadway musical creates so much press and hype that almost every US citizen has heard of the phenomenon that is HAMILTON. The show that got it's start off Broadway at NY's Public Theatre has taken the country by storm. Still the hottest ticket on Broadway 3 years after it has opened, the touring production has been anticipated in almost every US National tour market for a full two years prior to it actually surfacing. This has created record breaking subscription ticket sales just so everyone could be guaranteed a seat for HAMILTON.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Lisa Rothe, Co-Presidents) will present the 2018 Theatre Women Awards at The TimesCenter (242 West 41st Street between 7th and 8th Avenues) on Friday, March 16 beginning at 6:30PM. Tickets ($65-$250) are available for advance purchase at www.theatrewomen.org. 

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Lisa Rothe, Co-Presidents) will present the 2018 Theatre Women Awards at The TimesCenter (242 West 41st Streetbetween 7th and 8th Avenues) on Friday, March 16 beginning at 6:30PM. Tickets ($65-$250) are available for advance purchase at www.theatrewomen.org.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has announced that its 2017 Gala Evening will honor the award-winning artistry and ground-breaking careers of mother and daughter Phylicia Rashad and Condola Rashad. This year's gala will be held on Monday, November 13, 2017 at New York's Espace (635 West 42nd Street).

The New Colony announced today that Founding Members and Co-Artistic Directors Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder will step down in January 2018 at the conclusion of the company's ninth season. TNC's Board of Directors has launched a search for a new Artistic Director and a replacement is expected to be announced later this year.