Blockchain Theater Project (BTP), founded by Sofia Alvarez and Nicola Korzenko, is a new theater company that empowers artists to produce the work they create, funded in part by cryptocurrency donations. Like Bitcoin and other blockchains, BTP eliminates the institutional gatekeeper, creating a peer-to-peer model of support where the next play to be produced will be nominated by the playwright of the current production. Alvarez's NYLON will start this chain.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley continues its 2018/19 season with the World Premiere of Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story, written and performed by piano virtuoso Hershey Felder, who shattered box office records at TheatreWorks with his acclaimed portrayals of Irving Berlin, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky. Now, Felder captures the life and music of Impressionist composer Claude Debussy, a visionary who proclaimed nature his religion, creating music of ravishing beauty, color, and compassion, from the sweeping "La mer" to the evocative "L'apres-midi d'un faune" and the mystical "Clair de lune." Intertwined with Debussy's story, Felder for the first time shares his own deeply personal connection to the City of Light.
This season's new Broadway production of William Shakespeare's King Lear, starring two-time Academy Award winner, two-time Emmy Award winner, and 2018 Tony Award winner Glenda Jackson in the title role, will also star Tony Award winner Jayne Houdyshell, three-time Obie Award winner Elizabeth Marvel, Aisling O'Sullivan, Pedro Pascal, Tony Award nominee and two-time Drama Desk Award winner John Douglas Thompson, and two-time Olivier Award winner and Golden Globe Award winner Ruth Wilson.
Good Theater presents the Portland premiere of the recent Broadway hit, A Doll's House Part 2 by Lucas Hnath. The show opens February 20 and plays through March 17. Good Theater is the professional theater company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland.
Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Happy Friday! Help get yourself through this final day of the week before your weekend, by catching up on the latest Broadway news!
ACTUALLY, WE'RE F**KED, a new play by Matt Williams, will be given its world-premiere production at Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St. in Manhattan), with previews starting on February 26 prior to an official opening on March 7, it has been announced by Cherry Lane founder Angelina Fiordellisi and artistic director Seri Lawrence. The play is directed by John Pasquin, with whom Mr. Williams has a long-standing collaboration, including the popular television series "Home Improvement."
Get a look behind the scenes as the full cast of "Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical" record one of the original tracks from the show - "Advertising Ruins Everything." Watch the video below!
Ars Nova has announced the Ars Nova at Greenwich HouseWarming Party, a benefit performance of Freestyle Love Supreme with Lin-Manuel Miranda that will take place on Sunday, March 3, 6pm at Ars Nova at Greenwich House (27 Barrow Street, Manhattan). The HouseWarming Party will celebrate Ars Nova's expansion into the historic Greenwich House Theater and support the development of new artistic programs at two New York theaters: Ars Nova at Greenwich House and the Ars Nova Hub on 54th Street.
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting Award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights.
As BroadwayWorld previously announced, this year, instead of running a 30-second ad during the big game, SKITTLES® is creating the first-ever commercial performed as a live Broadway musical. It has been revealed that Michael C. Hall will lead the 17-member cast.
FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents West End star Zachary Morris (Secret Garden, Spring Awakening, Rocky Horror) and international conductor Ben van Tienen (Funny Girl, West Side Story) making their Feinstein's/54 Below debut with Instructions for Dancing, a night of singing and storytelling. In a time filled with so much doubt and unrest, let yourself be transported into their world of acceptance and empowerment, reminding you through their heartfelt stories that we are all good enough as we are. Take a haunting journey through words, music, and consciousness as they cover the songs from Alan Menken and Jerry Herman to Fleetwood Mac and the Magnetic Fields. Mesmerizing and magical, Instructions for Dancing invites you to come and rediscover yourself at Feinstein's/54 Below. Instructions for dancing the album was created by Zach and Ben in 2016 during their time on the Rocky Horror Show and is available for download on all major music retailers. http://www.instructionsfordancing.com
Following the success of her Sense and Sensibility at the Folger Theatre in 2016, Wall Street Journal's Playwright of the Year 2017 Kate Hamill, returns to D.C. with her adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's classic novel Vanity Fair. Hamill's vibrant and colorful tale about society's foibles is a co-production with San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater. Directed by Jessica Stone and featuring Rebekah Brockman as Becky Sharp, the production will run at the Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th Street, NW) from February 26 through March 31, 2019.
The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present its first Oral History Project of 2019 with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage on Monday, February 4 starting at 6pm in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (111 Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street).
The Drama League (Executive Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks) has announced casting for DirectorFest 2019: The 35th Annual Directors Festival, the only festival in the United States exploring the art of contemporary stage directing. DirectorFest takes place at various locations around NYC: New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street), The Drama League Theater Center (32 Avenue of the Americas), LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (31-10 Thompson Avenue, Long Island City), and Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street). Festival programming, tickets and additional details are available at www.directorfest.org, or by calling (212) 244-9494.
Two of NYC's most beloved underground acts join forces to bring a monthly, intimate evening of entertainment to the legendary Slipper Room. Charming troubadour and raconteur Corn Mo brings his patented combination of original songs, quirky, off-kilter anecdotes, and charisma, framed by The Love Show Dancers' dance performance, burlesque, and saucy surprises! Trivia contests entertain questions charaded by the Love Show Dancers with prizes of insignificant worth! Our special guest is Chris Rozzi!
Yale Repertory Theatre will present the world premiere of Good Faith: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department by Karen Hartman, directed by Kenny Leon, February 1-23, 2019 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, February 7.
The 2017 Tony Award nominee for Best Play and the most-produced play of the 2018-2019 season, A Doll's House, Part 2 makes its Boston debut at the Huntington Theatre Company at the Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue, Boston) in a co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Written by Tony Award nominee Lucas Hnath and directed by Obie Award winner Les Waters, performances will run January 4 through February 3. The press opening will be Wednesday, January 9 at 7pm.
New York Theatre Workshop presents the world premiere of Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris (Daddy, Zola), directed by two-time Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara (Bootycandy), which will now play additional performances through Sunday January 13, 2019. Slave Play began previews on Monday, November 19, 2018 and opened last night, Sunday, December 9 at New York Theatre Workshop (79 E. 4th Street New York, NY 10003).
