Second Stage News

Magic Theatre will welcome back one of Scotland's leading contemporary playwrights, Linda McLean, with the world premiere of Every Five Minutes, directed by Producing Artistic Director Loretta Greco. Every Five Minutes runs March 26 - April 20. Deemed 'a gritty, fiercely empathetic realist of great skill' (San Francisco Chronicle), McLean's new play celebrates the miraculous power of the human spirit. Every Five Minutes begins with a simple homecoming dinner that takes a fantastical turn as Mo slips into a dreamscape that even those closest to him can't imagine.

The world premiere of 17 Orchard Point, a new play starring Tony Award-winner Michele Pawk, will begin performances on Friday, April 25 for a limited four-week Off-Broadway run at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues) through May 24. Written by Anton Dudley (Substitution, Getting Home) & Stephanie DiMaggio, and directed by Stella Powell-Jones, 17 Orchard Point will have its official opening night on Sunday, May 4 at 7pm. Tickets for 17 Orchard Point are $45 and can be arranged online at www.telecharge.com or 212.239.6200 or at the Theatre Row Box Office located at 410 West 42nd Street. For more information, please visit www.17OrchardPoint.com.

Award-winning multi-instrumentalist Rachael Sage is launching her 11th recording, a four-song EP called NEW DESTINATION in May, on her own label MPRESS Records.

The world premiere production of the brand new musical comedy Bullets Over Broadway, written by Woody Allen and based on the screenplay by Allen and Douglas McGrath for the 1994 film, will begin preview performances tomorrow, March 11 and officially open Thursday, April 10, 2014 at The St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street). The new musical will be directed and choreographed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman. Scroll down to learn more about the Bullets Over Broadway company, and watch interviews with the cast!

BroadwayWorld.com is excited to present a new, three part series showing off some of the exciting characters from Murder For Two, which is cuurently running at New World Stages. Below, meet Officer Marcus, played by Brett Ryback!

Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Broadway World have partnered for an inaugural filmed Conversations Q&A series to recognize and celebrate the vibrant theatre community in New York City and the union actors who aspire to have a career on the stage and screen. An upcoming installment will feature Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale - currently starring on Broadway in The Bridges of Madison County - and moderated by Broadway World's Richard Ridge of 'Backstage with Richard Ridge!' on March 20 (3:15PM). The event will take place at The John L. Tishman Auditorium at the University Center 63 Fifth Avenue (between 13th & 14th Street).

The cast and creative team of the hit Off-Broadway musical Murder For Two are teaming up with some of New York's brightest up and coming composers and BroadwayWorld.com every Monday night for their spring concert series, Murderous Musical Mondays. Composer Ryan Scott Oliver will launch the series on Monday, March 24th, 2014, immediately following the 7pm performance of Murder For Two at New World Stages (Stage 5 - 340 West 50th Street).

Currently celebrating its 35th Anniversary Season, Second Stage Theatre has announced complete casting and new performance dates for its upcoming production of JON ROBIN BAITZ's drama, THE SUBSTANCE OF FIRE. The company will feature HALLEY FEIFFER (2ST's suburbia, The House of Blue Leaves), DANIEL ERIC GOLD (2ST's subUrbia, Ugly Betty) CARTER HUDSON (The Whipping Man), JOHN NOBLE (TV's Fringe and Sleepy Hollow), and CHARLAYNE WOODARD (2ST's Sorrows and Rejoicings, Ain't Misbehavin').

A first-rate production indeed!

This just in! New York City Center's acclaimed Encores! Off-Center series, under the artistic direction of Jeanine Tesori, will return this summer for a second season of landmark Off-Broadway musicals. The season opens with Jonathan Larson's tick, tick… BOOM!, June 25 - 28, starring Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo, directed by Oliver Butler, and continues with a one-night only performance of Randy Newman'sFaust: The Concert, with Randy Newman as the Devil, directed by Thomas Kail, on July 1. Pump Boys and Dinettes, withbook, music and lyrics by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann , directed by Lear deBessonet and choreographed by Danny Mefford, wraps up the season, running July 16 - 19. Chris Fenwick is the Encores! Off-Center music director.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Alan Ayckbourn's science fiction comedy Communicating Doors. Eleven plays penned by Alan Ayckbourn have been produced by the Alley, including the American premiere of Henceforward, directed by Ayckbourn, in 1987 and House & Garden in 2002. Alan Ayckbourn has been inducted into the American Theatre's Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts, became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.

Written in 1978, Deathtrap still holds the record for longest-running comedy thriller on Broadway. Sidney Bruhl is a playwright desperately in need of a hit. Just in time, a former student sends him the manuscript of his first play, a murder mystery called Deathtrap. Sidney smells a hit, but he's never been that fond of sharing credit. TIME Magazine said, 'If you care to assassinate yourself with laughter, try Deathtrap.'

With 'SECONDS', a Festival of Play Readings, Mixed Blood Artistic Director Jack Reuler has curated a 'can't miss' opportunity to catch a glimpse of what's hot in American theatre!

As first reported by BWW yesterday, HAMILTON, written by the Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, will have its world premiere next January as part of The Public's 2014-15 season at Astor Place. Directed by his In The Heights collaborator Thomas Kail, this new musical features Miranda playing Alexander Hamilton, one of our country's Founding Fathers and the first Secretary of the Treasury. Tax-deductible Public Theater Memberships are available now and guarantee early access to tickets.

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for the Globe's revival of J.B. Priestley's period classic Time and the Conways. Directed by Rebecca Taichman, Time and the Conways will run March 29 - May 4, 2014 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run March 29 - April 2. Opening night is Thursday, April 3 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE, or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

All the Way, the new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, starring BREAKING BAD's Bryan Cranston, is currently in previews on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre. The production officially opens on Thursday, March 6, 2014 for a strictly limited engagement. The play is directed by Bill Rauch, Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where All the Way began its theatrical life. Scroll down to learn more about the full cast of ALL THE WAY, plus watch interviews with the company below!

Broadway stars might boast the biggest fan-bases, but without their directors, the vehicle driving their talents could easily swerve off the tracks. Keeping the runaway train at bay are season's bold Broadway 'conductors'. Scroll down to learn more about this season's intrepid and imaginative leaders!

Aurora Theatre Company presents its first fully staged production in the company's second stage performance space, Harry's UpStage. Award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson returns to the company to direct this sixth addition to the season, the Professional Bay Area Premiere of John W. Lowell's suspenseful psychological thriller THE LETTERS, featuring Beth Wilmurt (The Eccentricities of a Nightingale) and Michael Ray Wisely (The Arsonists). THE LETTERS plays April 17 through May 25 at Harry's UpStage, located in the Nell and Jules Dashow Wing at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($28, 32) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Kindling Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of TAKE ME BACK, written by Emily Schwend and directed by Jay Stull. TAKE ME BACK begins performances on Friday, February 28 for a limited engagement through Saturday, March 22. Opening Night is Wednesday, March 5 at 8 PM. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

THE HAPPIEST SONG PLAYS LAST is the third in a cycle of plays that began with Hudes' Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, a play about a young Marine coming to terms with his time in Iraq and his father's and grandfather's service in Vietnam and Korea. The second play in the trilogy, the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Water by the Spoonful, received its New York premiere at Second Stage Theatre in 2013. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you photos from opening night!