Playbill News

Back in the day-1907, actually-when John Millington Synge's The Playboy of the Western World premiered at Dublin's Abbey Theater, it apparently caused riots, its tale of an apparent patricide engendering great public outrage and overt hostilities. Four years later, when the play debuted in New York City, audience members hurled epithets, rotten tomatoes and various other vegetation across the footlights, protesting the play's perceived "immorality."

Gallery New World Stages, located at 343 West 49th Street, today announced the upcoming opening of FIRST CONTACT: UFOs, Aliens and Broadway. This exhibition of 100 works of cartoon and comic art includes pieces by syndicated cartoonists and contributors to The New Yorker and will be on view from September 7, 2012 through January 6, 2013, with an Opening Reception on Friday, September 21, from 5pm to 8pm.

The newlywed is playing a high schooler in his 4th Bway show, which arrived in NYC for a limited engagement after a national tour.

In the words of EVITA's Max von Essen, 'Holy ?#SIP? it's Saturday!!!', and that means its time for BroadwayWorld's 'Saturday Intermission Pics' round-up! Today's photos feature EVITA's Michael Cerveris and Ricky Martin with an Saints tribute, a hilarious parody of The Lord of the Rings from BOOK OF MORMON and some face-time with Jared Gertner on tour, BRING IT ON's muscular men's ensemble, the usual antics from NEWSIES, a NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT bridal shower, a first SIP for CHAPLIN (now in previews), farewell SIPs from MAMMA MIA!'s national tour, a first and last SIP from SISTER ACT, the swings of PORGY AND BESS, Goodspeed's CAROUSEL and much more!

Guests at the Hobby Center's Theater District Open House this Sunday, from noon - 4 p.m., can enjoy a sneak peek of Gexa Energy Broadway at the Hobby Center's highly anticipated 2012 - 2013 season and take advantage of exclusive offers.

First Night Award-winning Boiler Room Theatre is looking ahead to its 2013 season, unveiling the seven shows that will make up the company's Lucky 13th Season. The 2013 season shows have been announced via social media this week, with each day featuring the announcement of another title in BRT's slate of shows.

THE BLUES SUMMIT, featuring The Taj Mahal Trio, with special guests James Montgomery and Duke Robillard. The event happens tonight, August 17, 8:00pm, at the Capitol Center for the Arts, Concord, and is the second installment of Child and Family Services' 2012 Concerts for the Cause season.

You should have heard me squeal when I saw the media shelves at Housing Works Thrift Shop on 9th Avenue today.

Once upon a summer of '83, a young aspiring actor named Woody Harrelson became close pals with a Harlem-raised fellow named Frankie Hyman while they both worked a construction job in Houston.  Eventually, they went their separate ways; one becoming famous for doing something other than playwriting and the other pursuing a career in writing, although these many years later he apparently hasn't written anything he would care to mention in a Playbill bio.

Two days after the death of its author, I had the pleasure of taking in director Michael Wilson's outstanding revival of The Best Man – one of the best evenings Broadway had to offer last season – for the third time.  Gore Vidal most certainly went out with a landslide victory.

Marin Theatre Company, in a co-production with Encore Theatre Company of San Francisco, opens its 2012/13 Season with the regional premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, which runs tonight, August 2 to August 26.

...we'll still be playin' his songs.

This is not your ordinary musical. Not. At. All. There are no elaborate tap dance numbers, no catchy sugar-pop show tunes, no grand finale romantic embraces. Good does not prevail over evil in this production. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find 'good' at all embedded within Stephen Sondheim's musical creation. This is a musical in which you stop at intermission, stunned, and double-check that you're in the right place - and that the performance taking place before you is reality.

TotalTheater Productions announces the return of "SHALOM DAMMIT! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon," to NYC. Rabbi Sol will spend two glorious weeks at midtown Manhattan's Roy Arias Theater Center, 300 West 43rd Street (8th Avenue).

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the Graduate Center, CUNY is pleased to announce the first wave of confirmed participants for PRELUDE.12, the ninth annual PRELUDE festival dedicated to artists at the forefront of contemporary New York City theatre, dance, interdisciplinary and mediatized performance.

THE BLUES SUMMIT, featuring The Taj Mahal Trio, with special guests James Montgomery and Duke Robillard. The event happens on Friday, August 17, 8:00pm, at the Capitol Center for the Arts, Concord, and is the second installment of Child and Family Services' 2012 Concerts for the Cause season.

It's Saturday, and that means its time for BroadwayWorld's 'Saturday Intermission Pics' round-up! Today's photos feature NEWSIES, GHOST, BRING IT ON, NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, MARY POPPINS, EVITA, PETER PAN, MAMMA MIA!, BABY CASE at NYMF and more!

Antoni Cimolino today announced the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's playbill for 2013, his first season as Artistic Director, and began to outline his vision for the Festival's future during his tenure.

Antoni Cimolino today announced the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's playbill for 2013, his first season as Artistic Director, and began to outline his vision for the Festival's future during his tenure.

TotalTheater Productions announces the return of "SHALOM DAMMIT! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon," to NYC. Rabbi Sol will spend two glorious weeks at midtown Manhattan's Roy Arias Theater Center, 300 West 43rd Street (8th Avenue).