Richard Burton News

The 2008/2009 POW! Professional Performance season concludes in May 16, 2009 with a rare live appearance by the peerless screen legend Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront, Raintree County, North by Northwest, etc.).

The four-character play made its Broadway premiere in 1931, starring Noel Coward himself. It has a long history with six Broadway revivals, most recently in 2002, and a long list of well known cast members including Laurence Olivier, Tallulah Bankhead, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Alan Rickman.

Carrie Fisher's one woman show, 'Wishful Drinking', certainly comes through with the laughs. But at times, her in your face performance proved to be a little too much for some.

The Associated Press reports that President Barack Obama's gift of an iPod to Queen Elizabeth II came packed with 40 songs from popular Broadway productions, including 'The King and I,' 'West Side Story', 'Dreamgirls' and 'The Phantom of the Opera'.

Ravinia Festival Chairperson Pamela B. Strobel and President and CEO Welz Kauffman today announced details of the 2009 season of music theater and dance events.

Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater, has announced the 26-member Broadway cast of HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. Newcomers to the cast include Gavin Creel, Caissie Levy and Sasha Allen, who join the rest of the tribe, who are reprising their roles from Central Park last summer. HAIR begins preview performances on Friday, March 6 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street, NYC) with an Opening Night set for Tuesday, March 31, 2009.

The producers of Blithe Spirit are pleased to announce the show will play The Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street). Rehearsals are scheduled to begin Monday, January 26, 2009 with the first performance on Thursday, February 26, 2009.

Broadway's Davis Gaines takes the starring role as the demon barber of Fleet Street along with Tony Award winner Faith Prince as the diabolical Mrs. Lovett. The two have worked together before on several projects including Guys and Dolls in Seattle and In Living Color in New York and Orlando.

Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater, has announced the 26-member Broadway cast of HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. Newcomers to the cast include Gavin Creel, Caissie Levy and Sasha Allen, who join the rest of the tribe, who are reprising their roles from Central Park last summer. Currently in rehearsal at the Union Square Theatre, HAIR begins preview performances on Friday, March 6 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street, NYC) with an Opening Night set for Tuesday, March 31, 2009.

In March 2009, the new Theatre and Performance galleries at the V&A will open to the public. The galleries replace those at the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden, which closed in 2007. The new displays will explore the process of performance, from the initial conception, through the design and development stages, to audiences' reactions. A section on costume design will include Maria Bjornson's design for Michael Crawford as the Phantom of the Opera as well as realised garments worn by performers including Richard Burton as Henry V, Adam Ant as Prince Charming and an Ossie Clarke jump suit worn by Mick Jagger. A section on set design will display models, sketches and stage props.

The upcoming Broadway revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit will go on general sale on Saturday, December 20, 2008. Tickets can be purchased by visiting telecharge.com or calling 212-239-6200 in the New York area, and 800-432-7250 outside the New York metro area. Rehearsals are scheduled to begin Monday, January 26, 2009 with the first performance on Thursday, February 26, 2009 and the official opening on Sunday, March 15, 2009 at The Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street).

The upcoming Broadway revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit will go on general sale on Saturday, December 20, 2008. Tickets can be purchased by visiting telecharge.com or calling 212-239-6200 in the New York area, and 800-432-7250 outside the New York metro area. Rehearsals are scheduled to begin Monday, January 26, 2009 with the first performance on Thursday, February 26, 2009 and the official opening on Sunday, March 15, 2009 at The Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street).

Tony-Winner, Film Veteran, Raconteur, and Beatles Intimate Tells All (or most) in Three Free Performances of Victor Spinetti: A Very Private Diary at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts-January 5, 8, and 10

The producers of the upcoming Broadway revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit are pleased to welcome Tony-nominated actress Deborah Rush in the role of Mrs. Bradman, reuniting her with her Noises Off! director, two-time Tony Award winner Michael Blakemore.

Women Designing for Theater, Opera, and Dance Take Center Stage in Exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts! Everyone loves a backstage story, and none so much as the one about the brilliant but unsung talent who finally makes it into the spotlight. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the League of Professional Theatre Women bring that long-deserved moment to 140 of those stories in Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance . Featuring treasures from the Library's archives, Curtain Call is a multi-media exhibition crackling with creative verve and bursting at the seams with the dazzling works of the little-noted women without whose costume, set, and lighting designs and innovations the show could not have gone on in North America for the past hundred-plus years. This is the stuff that makes the audience gasp in awe. This is the opportunity to meet those responsible for taking our breath away.

Bay Area Cabaret has announced that it will follow-up last season's resoundingly successful series of 'Perfect Pairings' duet concerts with an illustrious line-up of nationally renowned Broadway and jazz divas. Bay Area Cabaret's fifth season will kick-off on Sunday, November 16 at 7pm with popular Broadway veteran Christine Andreas celebrating the great women of musical theatre at the historic Empire Ballroom of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

The producers of Blithe Spirit are pleased to announce the show will play The Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street). Rehearsals are scheduled to begin Monday, January 26, 2009 with the first performance on Thursday, February 26, 2009.

Everyone loves a backstage story, and none so much as the one about the brilliant but unsung talent who finally makes it into the spotlight. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the League of Professional Theatre Women bring that long-deserved moment to 140 of those stories in Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance.

Daytime mainstay Eileen Herlie, who played the wise Myrtle Fargate for 32 years on ABC's 'All My Children,' died Wednesday, ABC has announced. Her death came from complications from pneumonia. She was 90 years old.

Ghosts. Romance.Mischief. New York City, 1938. What if those who have passed on have never really left us at all? It's possible! Join Bruce, a medium-at-large, as he plays matchmaker for a pair of sisters in this world and the next, and set skepticism aside for an evening of romantic high jinks. As one sister says to the other, 'You've dropped your friends, you're secretive, you're defensive, you're mysterious, you're hostile...it's got to be love.'