Peter James Zielinski News

Several Tony Award-winners are teaming up to bring an adaptation of the 1988 musical "Lucky Stiff" to the screen. The show, based on Michael Butterworth's 1965 novel "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," was written by Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty and first performed at New York's Playwright's Horizons where it won the Richard Rogers Production Award before going on to London and hundreds of international productions. Ahrens & Flaherty went on to win the Tony for their musical "Ragtime" as well as two Academy Award nominations. Other notable credits include "Once On This Island" and "Seussical." Ahrens has adapted the play for the screen, while Flaherty and Ahrens have written additional songs.

Andrew Lloyd Webber will receive a BASCA Fellowship at this year's Ivor Novello Awards tonight 17 May. The BASCA Fellowship is the highest accolade which a composer can receive, bestowed by composers in the UK. It recognises unique creative talent in music writing together with iconic achievement for and on behalf of composers. BASCA Fellows are exceptional artists and ambassadors for the song-writing and composing profession and BASCA's role within it.

Producers Scott Landis and Philip Morgaman have announced that EVER AFTER, a new musical based on the 20th Century Fox Film, will open on Broadway in the 2013-2014 season following a pre-Broadway engagement to be announced. The production will be directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. EVER AFTER features music by Zina Goldrich and book & lyrics by Marcy Heisler, who recently won the 2012 Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre for most promising musical theatre lyricist. The music director is Mary-Mitchell Campbell.

Andrew Lloyd Webber will receive a BASCA Fellowship at this year's Ivor Novello Awards on Thursday 17 May. The BASCA Fellowship is the highest accolade which a composer can receive, bestowed by composers in the UK. It recognises unique creative talent in music writing together with iconic achievement for and on behalf of composers. BASCA Fellows are exceptional artists and ambassadors for the song-writing and composing profession and BASCA's role within it.

Nordoff Robbins, the national specialist music charity, has announced today that Jessie J and Andrew Lloyd Webber will reunite as they both win 2012 Nordoff Robbins O2 Silver Clef Awards. The O2 Silver Clef Awards is hosted by Nordoff Robbins at the London Hilton on Park Lane, on Friday June 29th. The star-studded annual event which is known for its who's who audience of A-list musical heavyweights recognises outstanding musical talent whilst raising money for the national specialist music charity, Nordoff Robbins, using music to transform the lives of vulnerable children and adults.

Theater producer Daryl Roth, who produced last season's Tony Award-winning revival of The Normal Heart and has presented an unprecedented seven Pulitzer Prize-winning plays on the stage, is set to receive two prestigious honors next month. The Family Equality Council will present Roth with the Hostetter-Habib Family Award for her continued support of the LGBT community. The presentation will take place at the organizations Night at the Pier event tonight, May 8.

Award winning SHREK THE MUSICAL® celebrates its first year in the West End today, May 6, 2012.

Award winning SHREK THE MUSICAL® will celebrate its first year in the West End on May 6, 2012. To mark the first anniversary, SHREK THE MUSICAL® will open its doors to the public for a FREE, ogre-sized, family fete at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on May 6, 2012. There will be party games, competitions, sweet treats, storytelling, theatre tours and opportunities to meet the cast from 11am to 2pm.

Theater producer Daryl Roth, who produced last season's Tony Award-winning revival of The Normal Heart and has presented an unprecedented seven Pulitzer Prize-winning plays on the stage, is set to receive two prestigious honors next month. The Family Equality Council will present Roth with the Hostetter-Habib Family Award for her continued support of the LGBT community. The presentation will take place at the organizations Night at the Pier event on May 8. Later in the month, at its Stella by Starlight Gala on May 20, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting will present Roth with The Harold Clurman Spirit Award "for courageous contribution to the culture of the city of New York and beyond." Her fellow honorees at the Stella by Starlight Gala include Harry Belafonte, James Earl Jones, Ed Schultz, and Masa Tanaka.

Jujamcyn Theaters (Jordan Roth, President) and True Colors Theatre Company (Kenny Leon, Co-Founding Artistic Director) have announced the judges and guest performers for the 4th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition on Monday, May 7th at 7:00 p.m. at the August Wilson Theatre (245 West 52nd Street). The event, which is free and open to the public, features high school students from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh and Seattle performing monologues by the late, legendary American playwright.

According to an audition listing, Walter Bobbie is set to direct Vineyard Theatre's Developmental Lab Production of THE LANDING (previously titled 'Andra') -- a collection of three related one-act musicals written by the celebrated composer John Kander and his new collaborator, Greg Pierce - THE LANDING will be presented May 15-June 3 at The Vineyard (108 E. 15 St.).

This Thursday, April 12, Melissa Errico (Irving Berlin's White Christmas, My Fair Lady) will make a guest appearance at Seth's Broadway Chatterbox at Don't Tell Mama.

The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation just announced a donation to The Theatres Trust to help launch its Theatres Protection Fund. The Foundation will award a grant of £125,000, to be paid over the next five years, in order to help create a new Small Grants Scheme providing grants of under £5000 from the Theatres Protection Fund. The Foundation hopes its donation will encourage other organisations and individuals to give to the Scheme which will help protect theatres across the country that have significant value within their communities.

MTV today announced that 'Savage U,' a new original series featuring columnist, author, and co-creator of the 'It Gets Better Project' Dan Savage, will premiere on April 3 at 11 p.m. ET/PT. 'Savage U' follows Savage and his producer Lauren Hutchinson as they travel to college campuses across the country, taking students' questions and offering a crash course on relationships, responsibility, sex, love and life.

Maja Lieberman cannot tell a lie, and unfortunately, neither can I. Mario Fratti's OBAMA 44, now playing at the La MaMa Theatre, inherently lacks the necessary appeal to enable the audience to sympathize with any of its bizarre and one-dimensional characters, thus rendering an uninspiring and overall lackluster performance.

Two-time Tony Award nominee, Emmy Award and Golden Globe winner Alan Rickman (Private Lives, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the Harry Potter franchise) will play his final performance on Sunday, April 1 in SEMINAR by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Peabody Award winner Theresa Rebeck (Mauritius, The Understudy, Omnium Gatherum, NBC's new hit series "Smash"), directed by Obie Award winner Sam Gold (Circle Mirror Transformation, The Aliens, Kin, The Coward).

Since its first edition in 1987, the annual Easter Bonnet Competition has capped off weeks of fundraising for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS with dozens of shows from Broadway, Off-Broadway and tours offering song and dance presentations, often featuring outlandish insider humor, topped off by the modeling of wildly creative Easter bonnets.

La MaMa is currently in previews for the world-premiere of Mario Fratti's newest play, OBAMA 44, with performances an official press opening April 1 at La MaMa (74 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan. Directed by Wayne Maugans, the cast of OBAMA 44 includes Rob Sedgwick, Julia Motyka, Dennis Ostermaier, Thomas Poarch and Richard Ugino. View photos below!

On April 18, the Wagner College Theatre will premiere "Goddess Wheel," a new musical by "Hair" composer Galt MacDermot, with book and lyrics by Matty Selman. The show, which runs through April 29, will be staged in the Music Hall at Staten Island's Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

The Actors Fund, the nationwide human services organization that helps all professionals in performing arts and entertainment, presented the 17th edition of Nothing Like a Dame, a benefit for the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative (PNWHI) last night, March 26, at The Gerald Lynch Theatre.