Sheldon Harnick News

It was just announced by Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy that Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop has officially won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This year's finalists included: Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning and David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's Soft Power.

The Pulitzer Prize Board today will present the 2020 award winners' (originally scheduled for Monday, April 20) for Prizes in Journalism, Books, Drama and Music. Who will win this year? Tune in right here at 3pm to watch the announcement live!

Yesterday was Sheldon Harnick's 96th birthday! In honor of the big day, the York Theatre released a flashback video to honor the acclaimed lyricist.

In honor of Sheldon Harnick's 96th birthday, Thursday, April 30, producer Arnold Mittelman and National Jewish Theater Foundation in conjunction with JAY Records are offering a free audio stream of the cast recording of the re-imagined The Rothschilds musical, aptly titled, Rothschild & Sons.

The York Theatre Company has launched The York's 50th Anniversary 'Uniquely York' Online Auction, now accepting bids online at www.biddingowl.com/Auction/home.cfm?auctionID=21187

The Best of Broadway series at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center announced the shows for the 2020-2021 season today. The season will welcome five shows including: Hairspray (December 4-6, 2020); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (January 8-10, 2021); Oklahoma! (January 29-31, 2021); Fiddler on the Roof March 19-21, 2021); and Anastasia (May 14-16, 2021). All performances will be held at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center.

Jane Krakowski took part in Roundabout's 'Roundabout Off-Script' series, where members of the company's family share their favorite moments from onstage or off.

How do we make a list of the 101 greatest show tunes from the past 100 years? Well, we did the near-impossible task.  Check out our full list here! 

Artistic Director Marya Sea Kaminski and Managing Director Lou Castelli have announced Pittsburgh Public Theater's 2020/2021 six-play subscription series, two special events, and new programs for the company.

Play and Screenwriter, Caytha Jentis, will bring her new motion picture to live theatre with a special presentation of POOLING TO PARADISE, April 22, 23, 24 at 7:00 p.m. as part of Emerging Artists New Works Series at TADA! (Paul Adams, artistic director) https://newworkseries.com.

The Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) and Broadway in Columbus today announced the next exciting lineup for the PNC Broadway in Columbus series. The six-show 2020-21 season, supported in part by PNC, includes four productions never before seen in Columbusa?"the Tony Award-winning Come From Away, the dazzling musical production of the beloved movie Pretty Woman: The Musical, Disney's newest spectacular Broadway musical, Frozen, and winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards including Best Musical and the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, Hadestown. The season also includes the acclaimed new production of Fiddler on the Roof and the record-breaking, classic musical, CATS.

MasterVoices continues its 2019-20 season on Thursday April 2, at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Artistic Director Ted Sperling will lead a concert staging of Bizet's Carmen in its original Opéra Comique version, with dialogue rather than recitative, sung in English translation by award-winning Broadway lyricist Sheldon Harnick. His translation of Carmen was commissioned and premiered by the Houston Grand Opera in 1981 and served as the English text for Peter Brook's ingenious 90-minute La tragédie de Carmen which was performed at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York in 1984. The MasterVoices performance will mark the New York premiere of the full translation.

In her first cabaret show in 2020, Karen Mason will ring in her birthday on Monday, March 30 at Feinstein's/54 Below! It will be night of unforgettable music, stories, laughter, and joy, and perhaps a few surprisesa??..because you never know what will happen with this birthday girl!

Broadway's Liz Callaway has announced a new concert tour with dates in New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and more!

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Evans Haile, Executive Director), dedicated to the development of new musicals and rediscovery of musical gems from the past, as part of its 50th Anniversary season celebration, will present two added special events during the month of March: York Chat: Musicals in Mufti: 118 and Counting, the second in a series of panel discussions, _An Evening with Sheldon Harnick and Friends_ a special concert featuring Sheldon Harnick, Liz Callaway, and Karen Ziemba. Both special events will take place at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue).

In George Gershwin's short 38 years, he and his brother Ira wrote dozens of the most beloved songs of all time, changing the art of songwriting forever.

 SHE LOVES ME, now playing at San Diego Musical Theatre through March 8th, is a delightfully entertaining and sweet, that will have people leaving the theatre humming and that warm and fuzzy feeling of true love conquering all. 

Hancock Whitney Broadway in New Orleans announced today that individual tickets for the tour of the Tony Award®-nominated Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof will go on sale Friday, Feb. 21 at 10 a.m. Presented by the New Orleans Theatre Association, Fiddler on the Roof is part of the Hancock Whitney Broadway in New Orleans 2019-2020 season and will be coming to the Saenger Theatre from May 12-17, 2020.

There are times when being a theater reviewer is a fabulous gig. Last night at the Providence Performing Arts Center was one of those times. FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, running through Sunday at PPAC is not to be missed. It is warm, funny, sad, uplifting, and helps us see the world from the vantage point of the oppressed-it is gorgeous. First, let's give credit to FIDDLER'S creators: Jerry Bock wrote the music, Sheldon Harnick the lyrics, and Joseph Stein the book. Bock and Harnick had previously collaborated on the Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner Fiorello; Stein had been part of the writing team along with Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Neil Simon on television's Your Show on Shows-these were some talented guys. The original Broadway production of the show, which opened in 1964, had the first musical theatre run in history to surpass 3,000 performances. It held the record for the longest running Broadway musical for almost ten years. The production was extraordinarily profitable and highly acclaimed. It won nine Tony awards, including best musical, score, book, direction and choreography. It spawned five Broadway revivals and a highly successful film adaptation and has enjoyed enduring international popularity.

Though SCR's admirable new production of the 1963 Broadway musical SHE LOVES ME, for the most part, still has many charming, beautifully-staged, and well-sung moments, it also somehow feels like it is slightly reigned in, as if there was a purposeful attempt to downscale some of its built-in whimsy and spirited vivaciousness---particularly in the first act where emotional expressions all seem to sit in the same middle areaa?? never tipping over to too angry or too sad or too happy or too, well, anything. Now on stage in Costa Mesa through February 22, 2020, the production---directed by the theater's own artistic director David Ivers---is genuinely entertaining, but still needs a huge shot of joy, romance, and pep to make it feel complete.