Playbill News

Imagination and teamwork will be center stage when a diverse cast of over 2,000 students and teachers representing 50+ schools and educational theatre groups from 15 states and Canada join Broadway creatives in a monumental celebration of the arts at the 2011 Junior Theater Festival happening January 14 - 16, 2011, at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, GA, it was announced today by Theater of the Stars president, Nick Manos and Timothy Allen McDonald, founding chairman of iTheatrics. Four-time Tony nominated composer Jeanine Tesori (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Shrek the Musical) will receive the Junior Theater Festival Award for Advancement of Musical Theatre for Young People, while Broadway producer and Disney Theatrical Group president Thomas Schumacher will be the festival's keynote speaker and Grammy award-winning musician, producer and songwriter Bryan-Michael Cox will participate in a Q&A session with all attendees. For the first time, in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, the festival will also feature 'Dream Boxes' where students will record 30 second messages with their dreams for the future to be uploaded on the Internet.

The Broadway League and NYC & Company, New York City's official tourism, marketing and partnership organization, today announced winter marketing programs - including the first ever Broadway Week featuring 2-for-1 tickets to participating shows from January 24 - February 10, 2011 - to encourage residents and visitors to experience the best New York City has to offer this winter.

Beginning today, January 10, Swann Auction Galleries will hold its first-ever online only auction, featuring a treasure trove of performing arts autographs.

The legendary Broadway star, actress/singer Betty Buckley, who is currently co-starring in the Dallas Theatre Center's production of Arsenic and Old Lace, continues her successful Song Interpretation Workshop with a new round of six classes open to new participants in January and February, 2011.

Swan Lake, one of the greatest classical ballets of all time, is based on a German fairy tale and follows the heroic young Prince Siegfried as he labors to free the delicately beautiful swan maiden, Odette, from an evil sorcerer's spell.

Joan Didion's dramatic adaptation of her best-selling memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking, unfolds, in her words, 'with the nonsequential inexorability of a dream.' The stream of consciousness delivery of this hugely personal and powerful one-woman show demands a tour de force performance from actor Claire Hart-Palumbo. With previews January 22, 23, and 25, The Year of Magical Thinking opens January 27 and runs through February 13 at Main Street Theater - Rice Village, 2540 Times Blvd. Performances are on Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm.

It's a quiet season on Broadway; a time of load-outs and dark marquees. It's easy for us passionate Broadway fans to feel a sense of loss while theatres go dark around us, but I urge you to look on the bright side of the slower season, and look ahead to the wonderful new fleet of shows that is coming our way during this new year.

The legendary Broadway star, actress/singer Betty Buckley, who is currently co-starring in the Dallas Theatre Center's production of Arsenic and Old Lace, continues her successful Song Interpretation Workshop with a new round of six classes open to new participants in January and February, 2011.

BroadwayWorld.com has heard from those in the audience on Tuesday night that the show was stopped once and that stuffed into the Playbill was word of a new cast member, and multiple understudies.

Ticket Sales Manager Cinda Barbuto oversees all aspects of ticketing including the box office, group sales, and telemarketing. She worked her way up from the box office at Goodspeed Musicals where she now programs the computerized ticketing system which handles individual tickets as well as 14,000 subscriptions. Barbuto cultivates audiences of repeat visitors by personally greeting patrons, which assists Goodspeed in being a destination theatre in New England.

Sh-K-Boom Records will release the debut studio album from musical songwriting team Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, entitled Our First Mistake, on January 18, 2011. To pre-order the album, visit http://sh-k-boom.com/ourfirstmistake.shtml.

'Thirteen Stories Down - the songs of Jonathan Reid Gealt' is released digitally December 14th, 2010 on Sh-k-Boom/Ghostlight Records.

The Actors Fund's Auction of 1000 Stars Holiday Edition is live for bidding online through December 15. The event will raise money to support the entertainment charity.

Not sure what to give for a present this year? Why not the gift of theater? The award-winning Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company has Season Tickets available for its 2011 Mainstage Season.

Northrop Dance at the University of Minnesota presents The Voronezh State Ballet Theatre of Russia, Thu, Feb 3 at 7:30 pm at Northrop at the University of Minnesota.

Perhaps the Broadway musical would enjoy a complete and total renaissance of quality if only Thomas Meehan would agree to co-author the book of every new show that hits town.  The writer whose main stem debut was the perfectly crafted Annie has gone on to spend the bulk of his career co-authoring with the likes of Mel Brooks, Mark O'Donnell and Lee Adams.  And while I'm certainly not dismissing the contributions of his collaborators, the Thomas Meehan name in a Playbill seems to guarantee that no matter how the dialogue and the score turn out, the elements will be housed in a sturdy structure that firmly establishes its story arc, gives us reasons to care about the characters and steadily glides along to a satisfying conclusion.

Not sure what to give for a present this year? Why not the gift of theater? The award-winning Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company has Season Tickets available for its 2011 Mainstage Season.

Swan Lake, one of the greatest classical ballets of all time, is based on a German fairy tale and follows the heroic young Prince Siegfried as he labors to free the delicately beautiful swan maiden, Odette, from an evil sorcerer's spell.

As promised last week, today's From The Archives features promotional materials from the early 1980s.

an you believe it's December already? Christmas is just a few weeks away, and Hannukah started this week. If you haven't already done your shopping, now would be a good time to start.