Simmons News

NextStop Theatre has announced the creation of the 'Front Row to History' Initiative, which will provide free, front-row tickets for local high school students to see THE MOUNTAINTOP, a play about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Three-time GRAMMY® Award winning multiplatinum band Maroon 5 have announced dates for their upcoming 2020 U.S. tour produced by Live Nation. These upcoming tour dates mark the biggest U.S. shows of the band's career, with the group playing iconic venues such as at Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Citi Field and Banc of California Stadium. The band's multi-country tour will kick off on May 30th at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, CA. Leon Bridges will appear on all stadium dates. Meghan Trainor will appear on all show dates.  For more information, please see tour dates below and

'Messiah' is probably Handel's best-known piece; written in 1741, the oratorio was originally composed for Easter time, but you don't have to travel far to find a performance of it at this time of year. Handel at Christmas at the Royal Albert Hall is always a special, festive event. The composition has been performed in full at the venue since 1871 and, as of this month, it has been performed a remarkable 524 times.

YOSHIKI appeared as a surprise guest last week (Dec. 11) during the Tokyo Dome performance of KISS's 'End of the Road World Tour.' He shocked the audience by performing piano and drums for two songs during the encore of KISS's only Tokyo show on the band's “Final Tour Ever.” YOSHIKI will also perform with KISS at their Osaka performance at the Kyocera Dome on December 17, 2019.

Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance will return to NYC February 25 and 26, 2020 with the premiere of Tales of Hopper (2019), a new theater-dance work inspired by American realist painter Edward Hopper.

As the poster shows, The Merry Little Christmas Show was a visit to Scott Dreier's living room. It was an intimate evening with a very up close and personal man who sang and told stories about his love of Christmas. Scott has a very lovely and warm singing and speaking voice. It doesn't matter if he is singing or talking, it comes across as one on one. He is performing just for you. The 85 minute show included guest star Kurtis Simmons, who sang beautiful original compositions about Christmas as well as dueting with Dreier. Both were backed by superb musician,/musical director Andy Langham, whose rapport with the two singers is top notch.

Grand Horizons is now in previews on Broadway!  Grand Horizons will play a strictly limited 10-week engagement, and officially open on January 23, 2020 at The Hayes Theater (240 West 44th Street).

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Birmingham Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! The people have spoken nominations are set, and now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!

Two Variety show on consecutive nights in Midtown Manhattan are still taking NYC by storm every week, and it's all due to the hosts who created them

The annual holiday extravaganza SPARKLE: An All-Star Holiday Concert returned to New York City on December 1 for its 8th consecutive year, once again benefiting the programs and services of The Actors Fund.

Bravo's 'Top Chef' announces the cast of Season 17 - All Stars LA featuring the fiercest group of competitors the show has seen with 15 finalists, front runners and fan favorites from seasons past who have all returned to finish what they started and battle it out for the coveted title. Premiering with a supersized episode on Thursday, March 19 from 10 - 11:15 pm ET/PT, the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series returns with host Padma Lakshmi, head judge Tom Colicchio and judge Gail Simmons. Coinciding with the premiere, Bravo is teaming up with Universal Studios Hollywood for the inaugural Bravo's Top Chef Food & Wine Festival on March 19-20, 2020. In addition, Bravo and Spectra recently announced a new location of quick service restaurant Top Chef Quickfire to open in January 2020 in Philadelphia.

Electric Company Theatre presents the world premiere of Carmen Aguirre's spellbinding new work, Anywhere But Here, from February 4-15, 2020 at the Vancouver Playhouse. Directed by Juliette Carrillo with set design by Christopher Acebo - an acclaimed Chicanx duo making their Canadian debut - this haunting blend of dark comedy and magical realism is a vibrant celebration of Latinx theatre that chronicles the many paths and timelines, real and imagined, we take to discover the truth - the truth about who we are, and where we may be headed. Produced in association with Playwrights Theatre Centre and presented with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, the play introduces a host of fantastical characters who have experienced the pull of home, the ache of displacement, and the harsh realities of the borderlands in Trump's America.

The story continues... following the groundbreaking Emmy nominated and Critic's Choice Award and MTV Award winning explosive documentary series seen by over 26.8 million people and sparking world-wide conversation, Lifetime unravels more to the saga with Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning airing across three nights, beginning January 2 at 9pm ET/PT. Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning will feature interviews from a variety of perspectives including with new survivors, supporters, psychologists and cultural and legal experts, and more insights into the ever-growing saga of the R&B singer, who is currently facing federal and state charges. The three-night event uncovers new stories with revealing details and explores why the voices of the girls that spoke up decades ago are only now being heard.

WP Theater, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag, has announced that the world premiere of playwright and performer Donnetta Lavinia Grays' Where We Stand, co-presented by WP Theater and Baltimore Center Stage, will star Grays [Men on Boats, In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)], who will alternate select performances with David Ryan Smith (One Man, Two Guvnors; Passing Strange) beginning February 15. Directed by Tamilla Woodard (Hadestown Broadway associate director), previews begin Off-Broadway on Friday, January 31 at WP Theater with an opening night of February 11, 2020. The limited engagement at WP Theater will run through March 1, 2020 before playing Baltimore Center Stage April 2-26.

Roustabout Theatre Troupe has announced their 2020 season, which will bring the company back to the Ypsi Experimental Space once again as the resident theatre company. The upcoming season will be comprised of two productions, both of which were originally seen at past Crooked Tree Play Festivals in Milan.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater is pleased to announce the cast and creative teams for the 2019/20 Season Winter shows including The Legend of Georgia McBride in the Quadracci Powerhouse and Chasin' Dem Blues in the Stackner Cabaret.

There's just a few weeks left to make your voice heard and submit your votes for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Birmingham Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! The people have spoken nominations are set, and now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!

Some may doubt that a stage adaptation of the terrifically inventive, romantic, and witty 1998 film, 'Shakespeare in Love,' could possibly succeed. However, Connecticut Repertory Theatre's current production, expertly directed by Vincent Tycer and acted by a vibrant, masterful cast, proves that setting this story--which is about theater, after all--in an actual theater, creates a magic all its own. This production is, without a doubt, 'a hit! a palpable hit!'

A workshop production of Pure Imagination Projects' MARVELS OF MAGIC will have its world premiere the weekend of December 13, 2019 at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre. Written by Andrew Simmons and directed by Enrico De La Vega, this coming-of-age story of Pure Imagination Projects' creator Derek McKee will follow his path in his teens to becoming the magician/producer/humanitarian Derek is today. I had the chance to discover some of the behind the scenes magic that Derek conjures up in MARVELS OF MAGIC and POLYGRAPH.

Merrilee Mannerly: A Magnificent New Musical is now in performances at Playhouse on Park (244 Park Road, West Hartford, CT) through December 15. Following the Playhouse on Park production, Merrilee Mannerly: A Magnificent New Musical will play an open-ended run in New York City, opening in the spring of 2020.