S. Epatha Merkerson News

According to Deadline, Broadway vet Colin Donnell has signed on for NBC's upcoming CHICAGO MED as a series regular. He joins Oliver Platt, S. Epatha Merkerson, Laurie Holden, Nick Gehlfuss and Yaya Dacosta in the CHICAGO FIRE spinoff.

Palm Beach Dramaworks concludes its fifteenth anniversary season with Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, a moving and surprisingly joyous look back at the too-short, turbulent life of the legendary Billie Holiday. Lady Day opens at  the Don & Ann Brown Theatre tonight, May 15 and continues through June 7.

The Off-Broadway League just announced winners in 18 categories for the 30th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. BroadwayWorld a there for the big night, and below, you can check out photos from the red carpet arrivals! Click here for the full list of winners.

The Off-Broadway League recently announced nominations in 18 categories for the 30th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Lortel Awards are being handed out tonight, Sunday, May 10, 2015 at NYU Skirball Center beginning at 7:00 PM EST, and BroadwayWorld will be updating the winners as they are announced!

As it closes in on its second consecutive season-long victory in the key adult 18-49 demographic, NBC unveils a new 2015-16 primetime schedule that combines popular returning series, edge-of-your-seat new dramas, inventive new comedies and season nine of the Emmy Award-winning musical competition series “The Voice.”

The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 18 categories for the 30th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Lortel Awards will be handed out tonight, Sunday, May 10, 2015 at NYU Skirball Center beginning at 7:00 PM EST. Check out the full list of nominees below!

According to Deadline, NBC has ordered three pilots to series for the 2015-16 television season, becoming the first network to yet do so

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR), the ensemble-based theater company based in South Orange/Maplewood, NJ, announces A CONVERSATION WITH BILLY PORTER, on Monday, June 15, 2015 at 7:30 PM at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) in a one-night-only benefit appearance hosted by NY1's Budd Mishkin.

In the fall of 2013, The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC & WQXR undertook a historic undertaking: to record -- for the first time -- all 10 plays from August Wilson's lauded American Century Cycle. Those audio recordings, along with exclusive video excerpts and photographs from the readings, are now being made available for online streaming on a time-limited basis here until August 26, 2015.

Palm Beach Dramaworks concludes its fifteenth anniversary season with Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, a moving and surprisingly joyous look back at the too-short, turbulent life of the legendary Billie Holiday. Lady Day opens at  the Don & Ann Brown Theatre on May 15 and continues through June 7, with specially priced previews on May 13 and 14.

The Bonstelle Theatre closes its 2014-15 Season at Wayne State's Midtown theatre with the Tony Award-winning Urinetown: The Musical, playing tonight, April 17 - 26. A hit on Broadway and in London's West End, the wickedly smart book and lyrics satirize crony capitalism, while the score parodies popular musicals. Written by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, it was originally produced on Broadway in September, 2001 by the Araca Group and Dodger Theatricals in association with TheaterDreams, Inc., and Lauren Mitchell.

The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 18 categories for the 30th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Lortel Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 10, 2015 at NYU Skirball Center beginning at 7:00 PM EST, and hosted by Emmy-nominated actors Anna Chlumsky (“Veep,” Broadway's Living on Love) and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family,” this summer's The Tempest). This year's event will once again benefit The Actors Fund.

The Bonstelle Theatre closes its 2014-15 Season at Wayne State's Midtown theatre with the Tony Award-winning Urinetown: The Musical, playing April 17 - 26. A hit on Broadway and in London's West End, the wickedly smart book and lyrics satirize crony capitalism, while the score parodies popular musicals. Written by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, it was originally produced on Broadway in September, 2001 by the Araca Group and Dodger Theatricals in association with TheaterDreams, Inc., and Lauren Mitchell.

Tony and Grammy Award-winner Billy Porter continues Philadelphia Theatre Company's new Theatre Masters Series on March 23 at 7:00 PM at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Porter will be joined in conversation by theatre historian and author John Kenrick. Launched as part of PTC's celebration of its 40th Anniversary season, Theatre Masters offers an array of Monday night on-stage interviews with major theatre artists with whom PTC has worked, each sharing personal journeys of transformation and creative growth over time and how it has impacted both art and life. The series, which launched February 16 with a sold out house for Bill Irwin, concludes with Anna Deavere Smith on May 11.

According to Deadline, Oliver Platt is the latest actor to join the cast of NBC's upcoming CHICAGO FIRE spin-off CHICAGO MED.

According to Deadline, former WALKING DEAD star Laurie Holden has joined the cast of the planted pilot for the medical spinoff of NBC's CHICAGO FIRE, titled CHICAGO MED.

The Tony winner is costarring in downtown performance piece 'The Life and Death of Kenyon Phillips' and doing cabaret shows uptown.

Deadline writes that S. Epatha Merkerson, best known for her long-running role on LAW & ORDER, will star in another series created by Dick Wolfe, NBC's CHICAGO FIRE spin-off CHICAGO MED.

Creative Alternatives of New York (CANY) is bringing together Broadway's finest to help raise funds for its programs that use drama therapy to empower children and adults who have endured trauma to rebuild their lives.

BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY opened at the Tony Kiser Theatre yesterday, February 11, and runs through March 8. BroadwayWorld was there for the opening night- check below for photos!