Russ Rowland News

Playhouse on Park’s 12th Main Stage Season will open with KENNEDY: BOBBY’S LAST CRUSADE by David Arrow. The play was produced and filmed at the Theatre at St. Clements in NYC for Playhouse on Park audiences.

I am an actor. One that has lived in New York City a long time. Long enough to call myself a New Yorker.

Playwright Jon Spano explores one man's personal struggle to reinvent his identity in the face of mortality in his new play Dennis. Directed by Aaron Salazar and starring Patrick Boyd, with original music by Manuel Pelayo and Giancarlo Bonfanti, this contemporary story about finding connection through self-discovery will play Theatre 54 at Shetler Studios & Theatres (244 West 54th Street), for a limited engagement from March 26 through April 5. Opening is set for March 29. Tickets, priced at $35, are available online at tiny.cc/dennistheplay. For more information, please visit dennistheplay.com.

Culture Project will present About Love, a new play with songs and music. Music and lyrics by jazz artist Nancy Harrow and script and direction by Will Pomerantz. Performances begin Tuesday, February 25 at The Sheen Center (18 Bleecker Street at the corner of Elizabeth Street, NYC) in the Black Box Theater. The official opening is Wednesday, March 4 at 7:30PM. About Love plays a limited four-week engagement, through March 22. Tickets are available online at SheenCenter.org, by phone at 212-925-2812, or in-person at The Sheen Center box office Monday to Friday noon to 5PM and one hour before performances.   

'Welcome to our meeting,' greet the actors to those entering the intimate Paradise Factory for The Seeing Place Theater's very engaging production of Brandon Walker's adaptation of George Orwell's allegorical classic, ANIMAL FARM.

To kick off its landmark 10th Season, The Seeing Place announces its world premiere adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel, ANIMAL FARM. This play is being performed by an ensemble of just four actors, which results in a fast-paced, tightly drawn interpretation of this timely story.

Rules of Desire, a new play by award-winning playwright William Mastrosimone (Extremities), will have its world premiere Off Broadway in a limited engagement next month. Performances are set to begin on Tuesday, February 11th at 7:30pm at The Playroom Theatre (151 West 46th Street - just east of Broadway). Opening Night is set for Monday, February 24th, 2020 at 7:30pm. Performances will continue through March 21, 2020.

Back in the days before multiple workshops and lengthy regional runs, the geniuses of musical theatre often had to work miracles during of-of-town previews to quickly revise and rewrite surefire flops like HELLO, DOLLY! and A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM into Broadway hits.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOUG opened last night, Thursday, February 13 at SoHo Playhouse! 

The newly formed J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company presents the first of the three productions in the company's inaugural 2020 season. Seesaw, with book by Michael Bennett, music by Cy Coleman, and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, will begin performances Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 7:30pm and continue through February 23, 2020 at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street a?" between 9th and Dyer Avenues). Seesaw is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., a Concord Theatricals Company. Based on the play Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson. Opening Night is Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 7:30pm.

Rendezvous with Marlene started with a letter. A young Ute Lemper explodes onto the French stage playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret and the next day the French press proclaimed her, a?oeLa nouvelle Marlene!a??.

ROMEO & BERNADETTE opened this week at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres. Check out photos from opening night!

Alexander 'Sandy' Marshall / Close Quarter Productions (Network) and the award-winning Peccadillo Theater Company proudly present SIDEWAYS THE EXPERIENCE, the New York premiere of Rex Pickett's stage adaptation of his acclaimed novel, the inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film of the same name, paired with an immersive premium wine and gourmet food event curated and presented by leading online wine retailer Wine Access and celebrity caterer Mary Giuliani. 

Long Island's newest year-round professional theatrical venue, The Argyle Theatre, presents the hit Broadway musical Disney's The Little Mermaid with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater, and book by Doug Wright.  

ROMEO & BERNADETTE is now in previews at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres 502 West 53rd Street (10th Avenue & 53rd Street). It will open officially on Thursday, January 23rd.

By popular demand, a Lunar New Year Special: Pan Asian Repertory Theatre (Tisa Chang, Founding Artistic Producing Director), continuing their educational initiative to serve elementary grade students and families with children, has launched its 43rd season with the return engagement of the acclaimed 2018 production of The Emperor's Nightingale by Damon Chua.

Since it's highly unlikely that the Met will take on Carl Maria von Weber's DIE FREISCHUTZ (frequently translated as THE MARKSMAN) anytime soon--or even in the lifetime of any baby born this year--we should be grateful to Heartbeat Opera for bringing it to New York audiences through December 15, in a rootin' tootin' version that resets the piece from 16th-century Bohemia to contemporary Texas.

Amas Musical Theatre presents the Off-Broadway premiere of Romeo & Bernadette: A Musical Tale of Verona and Brooklyn, with book and lyrics by Mark Saltzman, music adapted from classic Italian melodies, and directed and choreographed by Justin Ross Cohen. 

Houses on the Moon Theater Company (Emily Joy Weiner, Co-Founder & Artistic Director; Kevin Connor, Managing Director) proudly presents THE SANTA CLOSET, written and performed by Jeffrey Solomon and directed by Joe Brancato (Daniel's Husband) and Emily Joy Weiner (The Assignment). THE SANTA CLOSET is an updated version of Mr. Solomon's acclaimed solo play Santa Claus is Coming Out, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2009. On the 10th anniversary of that production, this new version reflects the advances and nuances in our of understanding of LGBTQ lives and remains as timely 10 years later as when it first broke ground.

Charlotte's Off Broadway presents the Off-Broadway premiere of Confidence (and The Speech), a new play, written by Susan Lambert Hatem and directed by Hannah Ryan (Hamilton, An American in Paris) for a limited engagement at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street - between 9th & 10th Avenues).