Russ Rowland News

The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) announced today the winners of the 2018 NYMF Awards for Excellence, which were awarded on Sunday, August 5, 2018 at Hudson Terrace

Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe and Gunther will only be there for you until July 22, 2018 when FRIENDS! The Musical Parody, the unauthorized parody of the hit TV show will play its final performance. When FRIENDS ends its successful run, it will have played 17 previews and 213 regular performances.

The Off-Broadway musical, A LETTER TO HARVEY MILK, which recently celebrated its 100th performance at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre (410 W 42 Street) will end its extended run, as planned, on Saturday, June 30, 2018.

Cherry Lane Theatre recently opened First Love, check out photos from the evening below!

Little Rock recently celebrated their official opening night at The Sheen Center, check out the photos below! Six of the surviving members of 'The Little Rock Nine'.  In addition, the Mayor's Office proclaimed Thursday, June 14 as 'Little Rock Day' and Carla Hoke-Miller (Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment) was on hand at the top of the show to read the Proclamation from the stage

The Off-Broadway musical, A LETTER TO HARVEY MILK, will celebrate its 100th performance at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre (410 W 42 Street) on Tuesday, June 5

The Ensemble Theatre sets up for its season finale,  SISTAS THE MUSICAL by Dorothy Marcic, musical arrangements by Germono Toussaint, directed and choreographed by Patdro Harris, and musical direction by Chika Kaba Ma'atunde.

The musical, A LETTER TO HARVEY MILK, will host Los Vegas shooting survivor, Ashley Hoff on Thursday, May 24 at 7pm. She will be part of a post- show talkback.

Broadway's Philip Hoffman will play the role of Harry Weinberg in the musical A Letter to Harvey Milk through May 27. The musical extended its run at through June 30, 2018 and will release its cast album on May 22 (Harvey Milk's birthday) at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre (410 W 42 Street) through June 30,2018. Tickets are $79 - $99 and can be purchased at Telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200.

Adapted and directed by Brandon Walker and presented by The Seeing Place Theater, The People vs. Antigone recently concluded its run at the Paradise Factory; it was one of three shows presented as part of the Whistleblower series. Depicting the 'odd man (or woman) out' as the tragic hero of their own story, the audience is given a chance to understand the dynamics of one who fights against an authority that strips people of their right to be human beings - all with the irony of supposedly doing it for the people. How can we understand a person who doesn't simply comply with what she is told, or accept what so blatantly shouldn't be? In an era where everyone seems to have a purpose or agenda, a zealousness to their step when standing up for the world's injustices, do they look at the wrongs being done or simply recognize their part of a movement towards something?

Despite some great music, nobody ever said that Beethoven's FIDELIO is an easy opera to love. Yet, the reduced, revised and reconfigured 90-minute version that Heartbeat Opera premiered the other night--as part of this year's NY Opera Fest from the New York Opera Alliance--showed some fearless work that was somehow true to the original yet very current. This tale of the rescue of a political prisoner, Florestan, by his wife, Leonore, disguised as a prison guard, will always work. And the powerful use of a chorus of prisoners–here, represented by projected work of actual prison choruses from around the Midwest—was a master stroke.

Linked Dance Theatre's original immersive dance theater piece, Beloved/Departed, has begun performances of its Off-Off-Broadway debut at The Center at West Park (located at 165 West 86th Street, at Amsterdam Avenue). This strictly limited engagement will run through May 18, 2018.

The global sensation, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, created by Jonathan Rockefeller, has performed over 1000 shows worldwide and is currently playing in New York City's DR2 Theatre and Oregon's Children's Theatre.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash hit School of Rock - The Musical, now in its third year on Broadway, announced today that the show celebrates its 1,000th Broadway performance on Saturday, April 28, 2018, with the release of photos from the show's recent alumni reunion at the Winter Garden Theatre.

The Amoralists (James Kautz, Artistic Director) announce their 11th season, RICOCHET: An Amoralists Anthology about Surviving an American Epidemic. RICOCHET will feature four boundary-pushing original, intersecting plays that follow a community as it copes with the aftermath of a mass shooting. Written by The Amoralists 2018/2019 'WRIGHT CLUB playwrights, Gabriel Jason Dean, Charly Evon Simpson, and James Anthony Tyler, the season will include four complementary original graphic novels created by Danica Novgorodoff.

Dan Lauria boasts an extensive career both on stage and off. He took a moment to speak with BroadwayWorld about his experience in The Stone Witch and his upcoming projects including a recurring role on the hit television series 'This Is Us'. Find out what he had to say below!

Bright Colors And Bold Patterns - the Off Broadway hit hailed as 'scorchingly funny' by The New York Times - will celebrate the final week of its triumphant five-month run with the return of the show's author and original star Drew Droege from Thursday, April 5 through Monday, April 9. On the heels of its fourth extension, the final performances will be filmed by BroadwayHD.

Older character men hungry for fresh scenery to chew will certainly look forward to the day when Shem Bitterman's The Stone Witch becomes available for regional and amateur productions.

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott Newsome, in association with Alec Seymour, SPF Group and Susanne Adamski, present the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence). The Stone Witch has its official opening last night. See all the red carpet arrivals below!

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott Newsome, in association with Alec Seymour, SPF Group and Susanne Adamski, present the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence).  Performances began Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement at The Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).  Opening Night is Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.