Robert Lopez News

Prospect Theater Company is pleased to announce additional cast members for its 2015 annual gala, a Concert Evening Celebrating Women Making Musicals. This special one-night-only event will be held at The Times Center on Saturday, May 16 with an 8pm concert performance featuring Broadway and Prospect stars. The evening's program includes a diverse array of songs written or co-written by women, including encores of work from Prospect productions. Proceeds from the evening will benefit Prospect's ongoing mission to develop and produce new musical theater works by emerging artists.

From the creators of "South Park" and winner of nine Tony Awards, THE BOOK OF MORMON makes its South Bend debut, April 26 - May 1, 2016, at The Morris Performing Arts Center. The New York Times calls it 'the best musical of this century' and Entertainment Weekly says it's 'the funniest musical of all time.'

A smash hit on Broadway, in the West End and most recently in a critically-acclaimed 2014 UK Tour, award-winning comedy musical Avenue Q is now back on the road and bringing a host of fuzzy friends to theatres across the country.

Today we are talking to a terrifically talented twosome who are responsible for the songs for Disney's biggest hit film of all time, international blockbuster FROZEN, as well as the brains behind a spectacular new specialty song composed expressly for this week's episode of FX's new comedy series THE COMEDIANS - the affable and accomplished Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson Lopez. Discussing the finer points of composing a new tune for their FROZEN and BOOK OF MORMON collaborator Josh Gad especially for the series, a duet with no less than fellow Broadway headliner and Hollywood icon Billy Crystal, the Lopezes open up about their work process and storied history shared with Gad as well as what we can expect from the showstopper on tonight's new episode of the series. Additionally, the Lopezes shed some light on their brand new stage musical premiering later this year at the La Jolla Playhouse, UP HERE, and offer a preliminary sneak peek of what audiences can expect from the daring and original new piece. Plus, thoughts on the upcoming stage version of FROZEN and what is being planned for the hotly anticipated tuner as well as a behind the scenes recapitulation of penning new material for the FROZEN characters in the recent short film FROZEN FEVER, featuring the new composition 'Making Today A Perfect Day'. All of that, BOOK OF MORMON and AVENUE Q memories, thoughts on Tom Cruise potentially starring in their big screen project BOB: THE MUSICAL and much more with two of the most in demand songwriters on Broadway and in Hollywood.

The Book of Mormon will open at Melbourne's Princess Theatre in early 2017, it was announced.

Robert and Kristen, both alumni of the Tony-honored BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, share some insights on how to achieve success in the entertainment industry. Below, BWW brings you an exclusive first look at the full interview - check it out below!

Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book, Avenue Q is part flesh (people), part felt (puppets) and packed with heart. This long-running Broadway hit is a laugh-out-loud musical that tells the story of a recent college grad named Princeton who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. There, he meets Kate (the girl next door), Rod (the Republican), Trekkie (the internet-surfing monster), Lucy the Slut (and proud of it), and a host of quirky neighbors who help Princeton finally discover his purpose in life. A little bit naughty, a lot a bit nice, and with enough satire to satisfy the monster in all of us. Contains mature content and dialogue.

Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book, Avenue Q is part flesh (people), part felt (puppets) and packed with heart. This long-running Broadway hit is a laugh-out-loud musical that tells the story of a recent college grad named Princeton who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. There, he meets Kate (the girl next door), Rod (the Republican), Trekkie (the internet-surfing monster), Lucy the Slut (and proud of it), and a host of quirky neighbors who help Princeton finally discover his purpose in life. A little bit naughty, a lot a bit nice, and with enough satire to satisfy the monster in all of us. Contains mature content and dialogue.

Hailed as the launchpad of the American theater, the two-time Tony Award-winning Eugene O'Neill Theater Center responsible for developing more than 1,100 new works for the stage as well as thousands of artists through the semester-long training programs of the National Theater Institute, recently announced the 2015 summer season of plays, musicals, and other works in development through the National Theater Institute, National Puppetry Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Playwrights Conference, and the Cabaret & Performance Conference.

Spoiler Alert! If you attend Avenue Q, you will find yourself at one of the most creative productions of the theatrical season. Avenue Q opened on Friday April 17 at the Barn Players in Mission, Kansas. Based on the original concept of Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx Avenue Q is a musical in two acts. Music and lyrics are by Lopez and Marx with the book by Jeff Whitty.

Last night, April 13, THE BOOK OF MORMON stars David Larsen (Elder Price) and Cody Jamison Strand (Elder Cunningham) appeared at Wrigley Field to sing the Chicago Cubs National Anthem, deliver the ceremonial First Pitch and lead the Seventh Inning Stretch. Scroll down for photos!

The Kleban Foundation is pleased to announce that the 25th annual Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theatre lyricist has been awarded to Sam Willmott and the 25th annual Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theatre librettist has been awarded to Sam Carner. The 2015 prizes will be presented on Monday, June 22, 2015, in a private ceremony (by invitation only) hosted by ASCAP and BMI at ASCAP.

California Musical Theatre announced the 2015-16 Broadway Sacramento season at the Community Center Theater, featuring six shows not previously presented on the series, two of which were produced in the round at Music Circus but never before part of Broadway Sacramento.

THE BOOK OF MORMON, winner of nine Tony Awards including Best Musical, is pleased to announce a lottery ticket policy for the National Tour, which begins Wednesday, April 15 at 2pm at the SHN Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco and plays through Saturday, June 27, 2015. In San Francisco, the production will conduct a pre-show lottery at the box office, making a limited number of tickets available at $29 apiece.

What a renaissance - again! Although the period beginning with THE LITTLE MERMAID in 1989 through to the doubleheader of POCAHANTAS in 1995 and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME in 1996 and ending with MULAN in 1997 is considered by House Of Mouse superfans and many entertainment enthusiasts as the official Disney Renaissance era - meaning the company once again came to major prominence as a direct result of its animated musicals - it very much looks as if an entirely new type of Disney rebirth is in the process of occurring, spurred on by the worldwide success of the esteemed company's most successful animated feature to date, the highly theatrical and Broadway pedigreed FROZEN. Of course, in any way matching an era which in addition to MERMAID, POCAHANTAS, HUNCHBACK and MULAN shepherded BEAUTY & THE BEAST, ALADDIN and THE LION KING from inspiration to actuality would be a high order, if not outright impossible, yet it seems that the recent, current and upcoming spate of ingenuously timed and expertly devised projects that Disney possesses at the moment could put them in that stratospheric level of uber entity once again in the industry - and in the hearts and minds of millions around the world, as well.

Coming off a record-setting year, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall's 2015-2016 Broadway Season continues to bring some of the most sought-after Broadway shows, as well as classic musicals that continue to excite and inspire generation after generation.

At the annual New Conservatory Theater Center (NCTC) Season Announcement Party for subscribers, donors, artists and press, NCTC Founder & Artistic Director Ed Decker announced the line-up for the 2015-16 subscription season. Regarded nationally and internationally as San Francisco's Premier LGBQI and Allied Theatre Company, NCTC builds on this rich tradition with its 2015-16 Season, featuring exhilarating U.S., regional and world premieres, as well as two extraordinary musicals.

It promises to be an evening of musical magic, touching accolades and tremendous excitement when the Los Angeles Children's Chorus (LACC) honors at its annual Gala Bel Canto the Oscar and Grammy Award-winning songwriters behind Disney's 'Frozen,' Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, and LACC President and Vice Chair Edward J. Nowak, Deputy General Counsel of The Walt Disney Company, on Tuesday, April 14, 2015, 6 p.m., at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion's Grand Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

THE BOOK OF MORMON National Tour is offering an opportunity for the Chicago community to engage with THE BOOK OF MORMON on social media and in person through a citywide scavenger hunt.

One of the most popular stories of the year so far, the unexpected announcement of a special one night only charity concert performance of a fan favorite musical-within-the-series from NBC's musical series SMASH, BOMBSHELL, to benefit the Actors Fund, is already a huge hit here on BroadwayWorld, and, now we bring you an exclusive chat with an elemental figure in the creation of the project, choreographer and director Joshua Bergasse, all about the hotly anticipated evening. As part of our conversation, Bergasse offers up a slew of new details on what plans are currently in place for the unprecedented SMASH reunion as well as share first reactions to the wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that has already racked up more than $315,000 in donations in less than two weeks, having begun with a goal of $50,000 when the event was first announced. Additionally, Bergasse parses the finer points of the BOMBSHELL score and outlines what fans can expect from the songstack on the evening as well as preliminary staging and presentational plans and also what the momentum engendered by BOMBSHELL could lead to in the future, near and far - a HIT LIST concert or perhaps a night featuring the other musicals-within-the-series. Plus, Bergasse also comments on his contributions to two new mainstage musicals this season byway of ON THE TOWN and GIGI as well as looks ahead to the La Jolla Playhouse premiere of the new musical by the FROZEN team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, UP HERE, while also glancing back at his Broadway debut in THE LIFE. All of that and much, much more!