Rob Ashford News

Today, we're excited to present our special annual Tony Nominees Photo Booth Portraits shot by Walter McBride. How many future Tony winners can you spot below?

'I'm feeling quite happy right now! It's quite a nice surprise to wake up to! I got the news this morning from my agent, who also happens to be a close friend. It's always such an honor to be acknowedged and to have your work recognized. Especially when you've been around a while, its a thrill to be able tio change things and reinvent things. I feel deeply honored. There might have to be an extra special glass of cabernet with dinner tonight to celebrate!'

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for THE 66th ANNUAL TONY AWARDS® were announced today by Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Jim Parsons and Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement.

We'll be talking to nominees all day for their reactions!

Esta mañana se han presentado las Nominaciones a los Tony Awards 2012 por Kristin Chenoweth y el televisivo Jim Parsons. La ceremonia de los Premios más importantes del teatro en Broadway se celebrará en el Beacon Theatre, y seretransmitirán a través de la CBS el próximo domingo 10 de junio de 2012.

The 2012 Tony Awards Nominations Announcement was co-hosted this morning by Tony winning actress Kristin Chenoweth and Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Jim Parsons. The Tony Awards will be broadcast in a live three-hour ceremony from the Beacon Theatre, on the CBS television network on Sunday, June 10, 2012.

This week - it's all about EVITA! The show opened April 5th, at Broadway's Marquis Theatre, Directed by Tony and Olivier Award-winner Michael Grandage and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Rob Ashford.

MASTERWORKS BROADWAY has announced details of the release of the complete New Broadway Cast Recording of Evita, the first complete English language stage recording of the show since the original 1979 Broadway cast album. The two-CD set, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Nigel Wright, with Tim Rice as Executive Producer, will be released on June 26, 2012. Visit MasterworksBroadway.com for more information as it develops.

In every previous Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, a white Blanche DuBois has complained that her sister Stella's white husband Stanley has “something downright bestial about him.”  She refers to him as “sub-human” and “ape-like.”  And depending on her co-star's performance, audience members might have agreed with her to some extent.

Nominations for the 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced at a news conference this morning by Drama Desk winners Donna Murphy and Brian d'Arcy James. The 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place on Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 8:00 PM at The Town Hall in Manhattan.

The Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye today reports that Gwyneth Paltrow has been offered a role in the musical version of FINDING NEVERLAND, which will play Leicester's Curve Theatre in September 2012. Paltrow would play 'Sylvia Llewelyn Davies', whose children inspired J.M. Barrie to write Peter Pan. Julian Overden is currently set to lead the production, which will be directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford.

Ricky Martin, currently starring in the new revival of EVITA, will host a fundraising event on May 14th to support the re-election of President Barack Obama. Univision's Primer Impacto announced that Martin will host the event alongside the LGBT Leadership Council and the Futuro Fund.

Leap of Faith, based on the 1992 film of the same name, began previews on April 3 and opens on Broadway on tonight at the St. James Theatre. It's been a long road to the Broadway stage, and we highlight key parts of the musical's journey below!

The new musical comedy NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, with music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and a book by two-time Tony Award-winner Joe DiPietro, opened last night, April 24 at Broadway's Imperial Theatre. NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT stars two-time Tony Award-winner Matthew Broderick and three-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara and is directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award-winner Kathleen Marshall. BroadwayWorld was on the red carpet as the stars arrived for showtime and brings you photo coverage below!

Award winning SHREK THE MUSICAL® will celebrate its first year in the West End on May 6, 2012. To mark the first anniversary, SHREK THE MUSICAL® will open its doors to the public for a FREE, ogre-sized, family fete at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on May 6, 2012. There will be party games, competitions, sweet treats, storytelling, theatre tours and opportunities to meet the cast from 11am to 2pm.

BroadwayWorld.com was there to capture all the red carpet arrivals of GHOST THE MUSICAL's opening night on Broadway - April 24, 2012!

The 50th Anniversary production of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical comedy HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, will host "University Week: HOW TO SUCCEED In The Arts" from today, April 24 to April 26 at Broadway's Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street).

Nominations Talley for 3 or more: 9 - Nice Work If You Can Get It; 7 - Newsies, Once; 5 - Follies, Death of a Salesman, Evita, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark; 4 - One Man, Two Guvnors, Porgy and Bess, Tribes; 3 - The Best Man, Bonnie & Clyde, Death Takes a Holiday, The Lyons, Queen of the Mist, Sons of the Prophet;

Broadway Records will release an EP of Nick Jonas performing five tracks from the smash hit musical HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING. The CD will be released Tuesday, May 8, 2012, and will be available in the Hirschfeld Theatre the week of May 1. Pre-orders are now being taken at amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007V3N0KG/ref=cm_sw_su_dp. Produced by six-time Grammy nominee Robert Sher who produced the Grammy nominated Daniel Radcliffe/John Larroquette HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUR REALLY TRYING cast album, the new Nick Jonas recording is executive produced by Van Dean and Kenny Howard of Broadway Consortium (Executive producers of the Radcliffe/Larroquette album) and Ken Mahoney.

The 36th Olivier Awards welcomed the United Kingdom's biggest stars tonight, April 15, at the Royal Opera House in London. See photos of Matthew Warchus, Tim Minchin and Bertie Carvel with Sophia Kiely, Eleanor Worthington Cox, Kerry Ingram and Cleo Demetriou, winners of Best Actress in a Musical for Matilda the Musical, plus Ruth Wilson, Jonny Lee Miller, Zach Braff, Susannah Fielding, Peter Darling, John Berry, Hayley Atwell, Dan Stevens and more in the winners room below!