Playbill News

paper chairs enthusiastically announces its next production, PLANO written by Will Arbery and directed by returning paper chairs co-founder Dustin Wills. This marks the second collaboration between Arbery and Wills, who previously presented Evanston Salt Costs Climbing with New Neighborhood . PLANO recently received its NYC debut with Clubbed Thumb . Now paper chairs is thrilled to give this very Texas play its very Texas premiere!

As BroadwayWorld sadly reported yesterday, the great Broadway director and producer Hal Prince passed away at 91 years of age after a brief illness, in Reykjavik, Iceland. Renowned caricature artist Ken Fallin, remembers the icon below.

Nothing Like Live!a?"that's the theme of the 28th season of the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. Always responsive to audience requests for a?oemore Broadway, more comedy, more music superstars from Bach to rock,a?? Palm Beach County's largest and most popular entertainment venue promises a dynamic playbill of award-winning shows, world-class talents and powerful performances that will generate enthusiastic standing ovations from discerning audience members of every age and demographic.

Birds of a Kind, Wajdi Mouawad's award-winning play about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is now in previews before its official English-language première on Wednesday, August 14, at the Festival's Studio Theatre. This gripping production is directed by Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino who brought the book that inspired the play to Mouawad.

A White Man's Guide to Rikers Island transports the audience from the privilege and prominence of a New Jersey golf club to the cacophony and brutality of New York's Rikers Island. Occasional moments of levity stand in stark contrast to the overall gravity of the violence-laden narrative, one that explores how Richard Roy (a straight, white, cisgender male) adapted to life as a racial minority in the world's largest penal colony that is 92% Black or Hispanic. Roy spares no detail of his personal lived experience at Rikers; guilt, shame, terror and sadness permeate the play and haunt him still.

Chris Abraham directs a new adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand's romantic tale of unrequited and selfless love. Translated from French to English, Associate Artistic Director Kate Hennig's version is presented in prose, yet it thrillingly preserves the poetic beauty of Rostand's original verse. Cyrano de Bergerac begins previews Saturday, July 27 at the Royal George Theatre.

Back by popular demand! 2Scoops returns to Joe's Pub with The Farewell Tour.

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture has announced its 2019 Fall season, a mix of theater, film, music, author's nights, gallery exhibition, and talk events featuring artists and thought leaders

Circle Gets The Square, LLC announced today the upcoming 10th Anniversary Special Edition recording of Disenchanted!, the critically-acclaimed and award-winning musical with book, music and lyrics by Dennis T. Giacino. The album will feature a reunion of actresses from the 2015 Off-Broadway production, the NYC workshops, as well as the out-of-town tryout productions in Orlando and Tampa.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open How To Catch Creation, helmed by Incoming Artistic Director Nataki Garrett in her OSF directorial debut, on July 27 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are July 23, 25 and 26, and the play runs through Oct. 26, 2019.

'Forbidden' is certainly a fitting adjective for Roxy's Downtown current production entitled Forbidden Broadway. If you simply look up the word 'forbidden' in the dictionary, you will find its meaning to be prohibited, not allowed or even banned. It's a clever little title to describe this Off-Broadway parody rated PG-13 which spoofs many lyrics and shows such as Mamma Mia, Cats, and even Hairspray which would send original playwrights and performing artists rolling in their graves with laughter. Opening originally in 1982 by parodist Gerard Alessandrini, the show has gone under many revisions to include even newer musicals. Starring Julia Faust, John Keckeisen, Seth Knowles, Shaun-Michael Morse, Patty Reeder, and Christine Tasheff, Forbidden Broadway runs from now until August 24 at the 1930s cabaret venue in downtown Wichita.

Rounding out Diamond Head Theatre's 104th season is the always anticipated, larger scale summer production, and this year, is it Matilda, based on the Roald Dahl's beloved children's story. What is destined to become a local crowd-pleaser, the show primarily boasts a fantastic cast but slightly falters in other minor aspects of its ambitious production.

Following sell-out seasons in London and Toronto, Jim Steinman's smash-hit musical Bat Out of Hell heats up New York City Center this summer in its American premiere. This award-winning musical thunders through Meat Loaf's legendary anthems and includes Lena Hall in her return to the New York stage.

An extreme exploration of the power of words, Howard Barker's Victory is not for the squeamish. A tale of survival set against the violent aftermath of the English civil war, Victory uses language as a weapon, challenging a modern audience's expectations of what theatre should be. Directed by Artistic Director Tim Carroll, Victory features an all-star ensemble cast led by Martha Burns, Sara Topham, Patrick Galligan, Gray Powell, Tom Rooney and Tom McCamus. The Shaw Festival's production begins previews on Sunday, July 14 at the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre. 

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC) is pleased to continue its Common Access Initiative as part of its 24th season of "Free Shakespeare on the Common." Cymbeline runs July 17 - August 4 on the Boston Common. CSC is committed to keeping theatre accessible - financially, geographically, and artistically - as well as inclusive for patrons of all abilities. CSC has offered at least one American Sign Language (ASL) performance nearly every season since its founding in 1996, and in recent years has had the opportunity to meaningfully expand its disability access programming and offerings.

Eight outstanding educators from schools and performing arts centers around the U.S. will work one-on-one with Broadway greats at the 10th Annual FREDDIE G FELLOWSHIP July 10th - 13th.  The event is underwritten by Freddie ('G') Gershon, Co-Chairman of the global theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI), his wife Myrna and MTI. The four days of classes and activities honor instructors and teachers who are working to make a difference for their students and communities through the process of staging musical theatre productions in their schools and educational theatre groups. In addition to the all-expense paid visit to New York, each of the teachers' schools receives $5,000 from Freddie and Myrna. The teachers are empowered to identify and select how their respective school's theatre program can best utilize the funds.

T. Fellowship, in association with Columbia University School of the Arts, announces the next T. Fellow is Ben Holtzman, the eighth fellow in the one?year program designed to educate and empower new creative producers. The fellow will receive a stipend of $10,000 with a $20,000 budget for the development of a new theatrical production, and will have access to courses in Columbia's MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program.

Nothing says live like things not going according to plan. After all, live is what gives theater its magic. Luckily, sometimes performances don't go according to plan but it's the professionality dedication of the cast and crew that brings it all back together.

Although an over-arching consideration of evil is perhaps difficult to comprehend even three-quarters of a century after the end of World War II and beyond the scope of a stage-bound drama, playwright Kenley Smith nonetheless focuses his attention on the intertwined stories of two such villains as those captured in those wartime photos to great effect and maximum impact in Maidens, an original work given its world premiere production by Tennessee Playwrights Studio at Nashville's Darkhorse Theatre. Onstage through July 13, Maidens is as disturbing and provocative as its subject matter would indicate, brought to life with bravery and commitment by a seven-person cast under the direction of the playwright himself.

During tonight's dinner celebrating The Shaw's production of The Ladykillers, Executive Director Tim Jennings announced the Festival has received a funding boost from the Ontario Government's Celebrate Ontario program.