Sharon News

The world premiere of 'Little Girl Blue - The Nina Simone Musical' is a new show that explores the life of American icon Nina Simone. It will kick off 2019 at George Street Playhouse. This production takes the stage under the vision of DirectorChoreographer Devanand Janki. We had the pleasure of interviewing Janki about his career and the upcoming show.

Casting has been announced for Chick Flick the Musical (chickflickthemusical.com), a new musical comedy with book, music and lyrics by Suzy Conn (Suffra-Jets; The Mercer Girls), music direction by Matt Castle (Found: A New Musical; Once Upon A Mattress),choreography by Sarah O'Gleby (Mythic - London; Associate Choreographer - Disney'sFrozen; Kennedy Center Honors), and directed by David Ruttura (Associate Director -Network, School of Rock).

Ensemble Made in Canada (EMIC), fast becoming Canada's premiere piano quartet, continues to crisscross the country this winter with their Mosa que Project, featuring 14 new works by 14 Canadian composers, inspired by regions across Canada. Commissioned by the Ensemble, esteemed composers from a wide variety of musical genres classical, jazz, singer-songwriter, electronic, and First Nations traditions have created a unique musical quilt, representing the many layers of Canada's multi-faceted society and artistic culture, with the aim of celebrating the diversity and richness of Canada through the eyes and ears of its people. First heard in select cities in Ontario, Canada's east coast, and in Iqaluit this past fall, the Mosa que Project will be performed in concert this January through March in cities including Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Snow Lake, Montreal, Quebec City, Whitehorse, Calgary, and several more, reaching all 10 Canadian provinces and three territories before January 2020. (See complete tour information below.) Recently featured on CBC's The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright, Ensemble Made In Canada is violinist Elissa Lee, violist Sharon Wei, cellist Rachel Mercer, and pianist Angela Park all of whom are also forging outstanding individual music careers. Ludwig van Toronto called Ensemble Made in Canada's debut recording favourite chamber music delivered on a beautifully polished silver platter with the works by Mozart and Brahms revealing new layers of beauty with each listen.

The Warner Stage Company will present A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER on the Main Stage February 2-10, 2019. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is the knock-'em-dead, uproarious hit and the most-nominated show of the 2014 season. With ten Tony nominations and four wins, including Best Musical, Book, Direction and Costumes, it also earned seven Drama Desk Awards (including Best Musical), four Outer Critics Circle Awards (including Best Musical) and one Drama League Award (Best Musical). When the low-born Monty Navarro finds out that he's eighth in line for an earldom in the lofty D'Ysquith family, he figures his chances of outliving his predecessors are slight and sets off down a far more ghoulish path. Can he knock off his unsuspecting relatives without being caught and become the ninth Earl of Highhurst? And what of love? Because murder isn't the only thing on Monty's mind.... Performances are February 2, 8 & 9 at 8 PM and February 3 & 10 at 2 PM.

The Navigators are pleased to announce their Fourth Annual Lift-Off New Play Series at the Plaxall Gallery in Long Island City, January 25-27th at 8pm, presented in association with the Long Island City Artists. Tickets are $15, available at www.navigatorstheater.com.

New York based producers Jason Jude Hill and Daniel Sears of GrumpyFilms & Productions are announcing winter/spring 2019 RSVP at Arlo dates with brand new line-ups.

The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts today announced that celebrated musician and conductor Yoel Levi will conduct the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at an upcoming presentation of the Center's Regional Arts Classical Concert Series. Levi is replacing the previously announced Zubin Mehta, who has to withdraw from the Orchestra's current United States tour due to health issues.

Acclaimed South African theatre luminaries, Mbongeni Ngema and Percy Mtwa, reprise their original roles - created some 40 years ago - in one of this country's most brilliant and popular classics, Woza Albert!, at the Baxter Flipside from 5 February to 2 March 2019 at 7.30pm and Saturday matinees at 2pm.

San Francisco Playhouse announced casting for their first Sandbox Series production of 2019 - the world premiere of A White Girl's Guide to International Terrorism, written by Chelsea Marcantel. Morgan Green will direct. The play was commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse.

Broadway Records today announced that Emma (Original Soundstage Recording) will be released digitally on Friday, January 11, 2019 and in stores on Friday, January 25, 2019. The album is currently available for pre-order at www.BroadwayRecords.com, and will be available at the Broadway Records booth at BroadwayCon.

Pittsburgh CLO is proud to announce the cast of the world premiere of THE DOUBLE-THREAT TRIO written by Adam Overett February 15, 2019 April 28, 2019 at the CLO Cabaret. THE DOUBLE-THREAT TRIO is the third musical to be given a world premiere from Pittsburgh CLO's inaugural SPARK festival, which developed musicals designed to cultivate the next generation of small-cast shows that will continue on in similar venues around the country. Tickets for this hysterical take on 'making it' in the theater are now available online at CLOCabaret.com, by phone at 412-456-6666 or in person at the Theater Square Box Office, and start at $31.25.

For the week ending Jan. 11, THE TALK, featuring new host Carrie Ann Inaba, delivered 2.47 million viewers, its largest weekly audience in almost 10 months – since the week ending March 30, 2018. The Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show also scored a 0.7 in women 25-54, its best number in the demo this season.

For the first time in the 19-year history of Light of Day WinterFest, the "main event" of the 10-day, three-state festival, the star-studded "Bob's Birthday Bash," long SOLD OUT, will be broadcast LIVE via fiber optic cable during LIGHT OF DAY WINTERFEST '19.

The city of Lawrence, Kansas has been the home of many notable women of incredible strength and will. After the town burned down and most of the men were killed in the mid-1800s, it was the women of Lawrence who brought it back. Since then, many women from Lawrence have gone onto becoming fighters and survivors. Erin Brockovich the activist, and Lynette Woodward the first female Harlem Globetrotter come to mind.

Disney's highly acclaimed a cappella group, DCappella comes to Mayo Performing Arts Center on Friday, February 15, 2019 at 8 pm. Tickets are $39-$89.

Television's highest-rated home renovation series of all time—Extreme Makeover: Home Edition—is coming to HGTV, with the network planning to produce 10 fresh episodes. While it has not yet revealed the cast for the new episodes, HGTV will showcase its own superstar experts in the weekly race to complete a custom, whole home renovation for one deserving family. The new episodes are expected to premiere in early 2020.  HGTV also secured the rights to air 100 existing episodes of the original series that ran on The ABC Television Network for nine successful seasons from 2003-2012. At its peak during the 2004/05 season, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition averaged nearly 16 million viewers on Sunday nights. 

Ryan Murphy has taken to Instagram to announce the ten actors cast in his upcoming Netflix series, 'Ratched.'

Theatre Arlington kicks off 2019 with Sarah Ruhle's quirky and imaginative comedy, Dead Man's Cell Phone.

Irish Arts Center (IAC), a multidisciplinary center dedicated to bringing people of all backgrounds together through the excellence and dynamism of Irish arts and culture, announces its Spring 2019 season a cross-section of the exhilarating theater, music, dance, literature, art, and genre-defying performance coming from Ireland and Irish America, alongside educational events engaging participants with an array of rich traditions. With performances as wide-ranging as Margaret McAuliffe's acclaimed one-woman play The Humours of Bandon, Declan O'Rourke's epic song cycle Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine, and Paul Muldoon's performance adaptation of a 1773 Irish poem, IAC provides an intimate home for artists' boldest visions. As construction on IAC's landmark permanent new home in Hell's Kitchen takes place just beyond the organization's original location, IAC's vast ambition and accomplishment will be on full display, outside and in, throughout Spring 2019.

Jana Robbins (Gypsy, I Love My Wife, The Tale Of The Allergist's Wife) and Haley Swindal (Jekyll and Hyde, White Christmas, Sweeney Todd) bring WE JUST MOVE ON!, their critically acclaimed sold out salute to Kander & Ebb to the Sharon Playhouse before a return engagement at New York's Feinstein's/54 Below Supper Club.