Phylicia Rashad News

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Reality star Frankie J. Grande comes to ROCK OF AGES, CHASING THE RIVER and LMNOP get readings today, MTC hosts its Fall Benefit, and the Lilly Awards take over Birdland!

La Jolla Playhouse announces five shows for its 2015/2016 season, featuring all new works, including the world-premiere musical Come from Away, featuring book, music and lyrics by acclaimed Canadian husband-and-wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein, directed by Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley; the world premiere of Indecent, co-created by director Rebecca Taichman (Playhouse's Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Milk Like Sugar), and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), co-produced with Yale Repertory Theatre; and Blueprints to Freedom: An Ode to Bayard Rustin, by Michael Benjamin Washington (Memphis, The Wiz), directed by The Cosby Show's Phylicia Rashad, which had its first workshop during the Playhouse's 2014 DNA New Work Series.

Today we are turning back the clock to this very same week in 1987 when Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's INTO THE WOODS hit Broadway.

Today, Wells Fargo Center for the Arts announced that the legendary Bill Cosby will perform for a one-night-only performance at the Ruth Finley Person Theater (50 Mark West Springs Road) in Santa Rosa on Saturday, June 6, 2015 at 8:00 pm.

The Public Theater presents The Fortress of Solitude, a world premiere musical with a book by Itamar Moses, and music and lyrics by Michael Friedman. Conceived and directed by Daniel Aukin, The Fortress of Solitude runs through Sunday, November 2. BroadwayWorld brings you phtotos from opening night below!

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE presents the world premiere of WAR by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, November 21–December 13 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). The company opening is scheduled for Friday, November 28. The official press opening will follow on Saturday, November 29.

From November 3-9, 2014 the Gold Coast Arts Center, in conjunction with the Town of North Hempstead, will present the 4th annual Gold Coast International Film Festival (GCIFF), and everyone's invited-again-to join us for this special week of films, parties, panels, and glamour!

Emerson Theatre Collaborative (ETC), in association with Black Stars of the Great White Way - a Chapman Roberts and Richard Allen Center for Art & Culture, announces its production of the play, Hour Farther written by David Horace Greer, directed by Camilla Ross, and starring renowned stage and screen actor and singer, Kirk Taylor. Most recently, Mr. Taylor had the honor of working alongside the late Robin Williams and Mila Kunis in the film, The Angriest Man In Brooklyn directed by Phillip Alden Robinson.

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU just opened last night, September 28, 2014, at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street), after 32 previews. The production is directed by six-time Tony Award-nominee and Drama Desk Award winnerScott Ellis (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Twelve Angry Men, 1776) and will play a 19-week limited engagement. BroadwayWorld was there for the special evening and below, you can check out photos from the star-studded red carpet!

At Monday night's League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW) Oral History event (Monday September 22, 2014), Tony Award-Winning actress Phylicia Rashad interviewed stage and screen legend, activist and philanthropist Billie Allen to a standing-room-only audience at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the NYPL of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Scroll down for photos from the evening!

Emerson Theatre Collaborative (ETC), in association with Black Stars of the Great White Way - a Chapman Roberts and Richard Allen Center for Art & Culture, announces its production of the play, Hour Farther written by David Horace Greer, directed by Camilla Ross, and starring renowned stage and screen actor and singer, Kirk Taylor. Most recently, Mr. Taylor had the honor of working alongside the late Robin Williams and Mila Kunis in the film, The Angriest Man In Brooklyn directed by Phillip Alden Robinson.

Due to early ticket demand, Court Theatre and American Blues Theater announce an extension to the world premiere of American Blues Ensemble Member Nambi E. Kelley's new adaptation of Richard Wright's classic novel, Native Son, directed by Seret Scott. Native Son will now run September 11 - October 19, 2014 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue.

This year's show will be hosted by Kym Whitley, star of the humorous and poignant docu-series "Raising Whitley" on Oprah Winfrey's The OWN Network.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), as part of an initiative called Women Count, are pleased to present an analysis of women employed Off-Broadway in the four most recent theatrical seasons. A number of efforts to count, study, analyze and report on the status of women in theatre, in recent years, have focused on playwrights and directors. This new study looks at a broader range of professional roles with a specific focus on Off-Broadway productions.

Three bold new plays and two classic dramas will be presented in Center Theatre Group's 2015 season at the Mark Taper Forum, it was announced today by CTG Artistic Director Michael Ritchie.

Kicking off its 27th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents Death Tax, by Lucas Hnath, and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. Death Tax runs September 2, 2014 - October 12, 2014 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The Press Opening is Friday, September 12, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.

BroadwayWorld has just learned that stage and screen star Anika Noni Rose has joined Instagram. Folllow Anika and stay in the know about her latest projects @anikaaroundtheworld.

Kicking off its 27th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents Death Tax, by Lucas Hnath, and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. Death Tax runs September 2, 2014 - October 12, 2014 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The Press Opening is Friday, September 12, 2014 at 7:30 p.m..

The League of Professional Theatre Women is pleased to present Actor/Director/Philanthropist BILLIE ALLEN for the next Oral History interview. ALLEN will sit down with Tony Award-Winning Actress PHYLICIA RASHAD to discuss her fascinating work as a theatre artist. The event will be Monday, September 22, 2014 at 6:00 pm at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on 65th Street & Amsterdam Avenue. Admission is free, but seats will be on a first-come-first-seated basis.

A great, big Broadway season is on its way, with fourteen productions already slated to open in the next few months. With weeks until the craziness begins, there is still plenty of time to catch up on what's been going on at Broadway's already occupied theaters . BroadwayWorld will be profiling the hits of the Great White Way that continue to draw crowds after months, years, and (in some cases) decades. Meet the current cast of Broadway's MAMMA MIA! below!