Richard Israel News

National Alliance for Musical Theatre has announced additional casting for their 34th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which returns in person and takes place on Thursday, October 20 and Friday, October 21, 2022 at New World Stages.

The Colony Theatre in Burbank (Heather Provost, Producing Artistic Director) has announced a new production of the musical Calvin Berger with preview performances beginning on February 16, 2023. Opening is set for Saturday, February 18, at 8pm.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre has announced preliminary casting and additional programming for their 34th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which returns in person and takes place on Thursday, October 20 and Friday, October 21, 2022, at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

National Alliance for Musical Theatre has announced this year's directors and music directors for the 34th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which returns in person and takes place on Thursday, October 20 and Friday, October 21, 2022, at New World Stages.

If a playgoer knows anything about Shakespeare and/or musicals, then for sheer inventiveness, sweetness and curtain-to-curtain smiles, SOMETHING ROTTEN! has you covered.

5-STAR THEATRICALS present the second show of its 2021-2022 season, with the hilarious love letter to all things musical theatre, SOMETHING ROTTEN!, music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick, book by John O'Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick, choreography by Michelle Elkin and directed by Richard Israel.

5-STAR THEATRICALS has announced the second show of its 2021-2022 season, with the hilarious love letter to all things musical theatre, SOMETHING ROTTEN!, music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick, book by John O'Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick, choreography by Michelle Elkin and directed by Richard Israel. 

5-Star Theatricals returns to the stage with a new production of its postponed musical 'Mamma Mia!' starring Kim Huber and Eric Martsolf.

5-Star Theatricals returns to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza after 17 months with the first show of its 2021-2022 season, Mamma Mia! The cast features Kim Huber starring as 'Donna Sheridan,' and Emmy award-winning 'Days of Our Lives' star Eric Martsolf starring as 'Sam Carmichael.'

The Foundation for New American Musicals presents the 2021 FNAM All-star Benefit and Fundraiser. The evening will honor Tony/Grammy/Emmy Award-winner Marc Shaiman (Hairspray and Mary Poppins Returns), who will receive FNAM's first Inspire Award; and FNAM Founding-member Robert Klein, who will receive the first Founders' Award.

The impossible-to-resist hits of the Swedish pop group ABBA power this sunny, funny show about a young woman’s search for her birth father. Whether you grew up bopping to the beat of hits like “Dancing Queen,” “Take a Chance On Me,” “Chiquitita” and “Money, Money, Money,” or you discovered ABBA on the big screen, 5-Star’s production will lift you higher than a pair of bedazzled platform boots.   

Now that COVID restrictions have been lifted for theatres, 5-STAR THEATRICALS is announcing its 2021-2022 season of shows!  All of 5-Star’s productions are locally produced, auditioned and rehearsed in Southern California, and performed exclusively at the Kavli Theater at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

REWIND is an original new musical about love, redemption and the magic of second chances. It tells the story of a powerful producer who derails a young girl's promising music career. When the producer meets an untimely end, he is barred from heaven, and in order to gain entrance he must, with a little help from the Universe, rewind time and help her reclaim her true destiny.

Ogunquit Playhouse’s virtual benefit reading of the new musical, A VERY BRADY MUSICAL, offered theatre-starved Mainers (and online audiences beyond) the opportunity to enjoy a fresh, charming, nostalgic piece featuring the beloved Brady Bunch characters in a delightful ninety minutes of family fun. The work with book by Lloyd J. Schwartz and Hope Juber and music and lyrics by Hope and Laurence Juber references the original 1970s television series, while adding a contemporary spin using an ethnically diverse cast and slightly comic edgier predicaments.

This Spotlight focuses on Nan McNamara, an award-winning actress who I have seen in many productions at the Actors Co-op in Hollywood, perhaps most notably in the 2017 Ovation Award-winning '33 Variations' in which she played a journalist who was able to go back in time to interview Ludwig Von Beethoven (an outstanding performance by Bruce Ladd) about his work. But what happened to the world premiere production of Lee Blessing's 'A Body of Water' which Nan directed when Covid-19 shut down L.A. theaters?

With the current theatre world on hiatus, I have created a Spotlight Series on Broadway World which features interviews with some of the many talented artists who make our Los Angeles theatre community so exciting and vibrant thanks to their ongoing contribution to keeping the Arts alive in the City of the Angels. And just like all of us, I wondered how they are dealing with the abrupt end of productions in which they were involved. This Spotlight focuses on Suzanne Mayes, who started out thinking she would pursue the stars as an astronaut and wound up shining onstage!

5-STAR THEATRICALS has announced the second show of its 2019-2020 season, Misty Cotton starring as 'Donna Sheridan,' and Emmy award-winning 'Days of Our Lives' star Eric Martsolf starring as 'Sam Carmichael' in the feel-good musical of the Spring, the buoyant and infectious, MAMMA MIA!, music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and some songs with Stig Anderson, book by Catherine Johnson, originally conceived by Judy Craymer, musical direction by Anthony Lucca, choreography by Stephanie Landwehr and directed by Richard Israel. MAMMA MIA! opens on Friday, March 27, 2020 and runs through Sunday, April 5, 2020 at the 1,800-seat Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.

 SHE LOVES ME, now playing at San Diego Musical Theatre through March 8th, is a delightfully entertaining and sweet, that will have people leaving the theatre humming and that warm and fuzzy feeling of true love conquering all. 

This year San Diego Musical Theatre opens the 2020 season with a show to deliver on old world charm and affairs of the heart. From the creative team behind Fiddler on the Roof and based on a play that became both the Jimmy Stewart movie, The Shop Around the Corner and the '90s classic You've Got Mail, She Loves Me is a charming romantic comedy about idealism and the promise of true love, guaranteed to lift your spirits and leave you grinning.

On Saturday, October 12th, the Foundation for New American Musicals will showcase short (10-minute) musicals written by high school and college-age finalists competing for cash-award scholarships at SHOWSEARCH 2019.