Simon Phillips News

The continuation of Broadway's longest-running musical The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies closes tonight at Melbourne's Regent Theatre.

The Tony Award-winning production of Bette Midler's PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT THE MUSICAL celebrates its one year anniversary on Broadway and 500,000th audience member worldwide on today.

Producers John Frost and Sharleen Cooper Cohen, along with NSW Minister for Tourism, Major Events and the Arts, George Souris, today welcomed the full cast and crew of the new musical An Officer and a Gentleman to their first day of rehearsals, ahead of the World Premiere on 18 May, 2012 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre, The Star.

The Tony Award® winning production of Bette Midler's PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT THE MUSICAL celebrate its one year anniversary on Broadway and 500,000th audience member worldwide on Tuesday, March 20. In the video below, Joan and Melissa Rivers pay a visit to the show where they chat with Tony Sheldon, get a tour of backstage, and more. Click below to check it out!

Bette Midler's PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT salutes Spring with the return of Wednesday matinees at the Palace Theatre beginning tomorrow, March 14 at 2:00pm.

The Tony Award® winning production of Bette Midler's PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT THE MUSICAL celebrate its one year anniversary on Broadway and 500,000th audience member worldwide on Tuesday, March 20.

In honor of the encore screening of Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES at Fathom-equipped movie theaters across the US today, following the rapturously received first showing late last month, this week we are highlighting the show's central stars, Anna O'Byrne and Ben Lewis, and speaking to them all about the spectacular Coney Island-set PHANTOM OF THE OPERA musical sequel. Following the previous interviews in this series with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Glenn Slater, this LOVE NEVER DIES series shines a special spotlight on the risky and ambitious new theatrical venture, which originally began in London's West End and has now been thrillingly filmed in its completely reconceived and rewritten Australian iteration directed by visionary innovator Simon Phillips. In an unprecedented move, Fathom will be presenting the elegantly designed film of the stage show in over 500 movie theaters nationwide, making LOVE NEVER DIES an absolute must-see for Broadway babies curious to see where the story of the Phantom, Christine and the rest ends up ten years later - and, also, a real treat for just plain entertainment enthusiasts in general out there. To paraphrase from the musical drama itself, the special screenings of LOVE NEVER DIES prove that love does, indeed, live on. Today, in this LOVE NEVER DIES focused portion of the upcoming complete InDepth InterView, LOVE NEVER DIES star Ben Lewis and I discuss his insights into playing the Phantom, working with the phenomenally talented cast featuring Anna O'Byrne as Christine, as well as what his impressions are of the final finished film version of the show now that he has seen it on the big screen - all of that and much, much more!

In honor of the encore screening of Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES at Fathom-equipped movie theaters across the US on March 7, following the rapturously received first showing late last month, this week we are highlighting the show's central stars, Anna O'Byrne and Ben Lewis, and speaking to them all about the spectacular Coney Island-set PHANTOM OF THE OPERA musical sequel. Following the previous interviews in this series with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Glenn Slater, this LOVE NEVER DIES series shines a special spotlight on the risky and ambitious new theatrical venture, which originally began in London's West End and has now been thrillingly filmed in its completely reconceived and rewritten Australian iteration directed by visionary innovator Simon Phillips. In an unprecedented move, Fathom will be presenting the elegantly designed film of the stage show in over 500 movie theaters nationwide, making LOVE NEVER DIES an absolute must-see for Broadway babies curious to see where the story of the Phantom, Christine and the rest ends up ten years later - and, also, a real treat for just plain entertainment enthusiasts in general. To paraphrase from the musical drama itself, the special screenings of LOVE NEVER DIES prove that love does, indeed, live on. Today, in this LOVE NEVER DIES focused portion of the upcoming complete InDepth InterView, LOVE NEVER DIES star Anna O'Byrne and I discuss her affiliation with Andrew Lloyd Webber, the nature of playing Christine in the original PHANTOM and, now, its sequel, as well as performing musical theatre as an opera-trained actress and much, much more!

Sequels are the biggest risk takers in any form of entertainment. So the idea of taking the longest running musical, The Phantom of the Opera, which just celebrated its 10,000 performance and creating a part two is as hazardous as the Opera Ghost himself.

Across the United States, many movie theaters showed the latest recorded production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES. Set up as a sequel to Webber's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, this show picks up ten years later in Coney Island, New York and features the Phantom and Christine, as well as her now husband Raoul and ten-year-old son Gustave.

Today we are talking to one of the busiest lyricists in show business, Glenn Slater, all about today's movie theater showing of his collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber, LOVE NEVER DIES - a continuation of the world's most successful show, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - and the spectacular Simon Phillips-directed Australian production of it filmed for the ages and presented in hundreds of movie theaters across the country, with an encore cinema showing on March 7 prior to its DVD/Blu-ray release in the Spring. Besides discussing all aspects of the writing of the show and its West End debut, Slater also elaborates on the rewriting of the show and how this new production and unprecedented in-theater presentation is the ultimate realization of Lloyd Webber's dream vision for the musical drama - something the Lord shared with me himself when he recently did this column.

WNBC 'New York Live' host Lauren Scala went backstage with PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT's Will Swenson to discuss the Tony Award nominated star's year with the smash hit musical and to play dress up in its Tony Award winning frocks.

The stars of the Tony Award winning hit musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Nick Adams and Kyle Brown and Priscilla producer Scott Mauro celebrated Fashion Week in New York City this week at the 9th Annual Woman's Day Red Dress Awards to support the American Heart Association at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room. Mauro also produced the Red Dress Awards show and festivities that were hosted by 'The Today Show's' Hoda Kotb. Earlier in the week Nick Adams also took to the Mercedes-Benz Fall 2012 Fashion Week runway to model designer Malan Breton's new Fantome Collection.

Music star and American Idol runner-up ADam Lambert recently paid a visit to New York City, wher he made a pit stop at Broadway's PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT. Check out what he had to say about the show below!

The Tony Award® winning production of Bette Midler's hit musical PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT is celebrating the sweetest day of the year in a way that only Broadway's most fabulous show can - in full color.

The Tony Award® winning production of Bette Midler's hit musical PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT will welcome new principals Adam LeFevre as "Bob" and Julie Reiber as "Marion" to the Palace Theatre when they begin performances on Monday, February 6, 2012.

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, January 29, 2012 - Sunday, January 29, 2012.

This weekend, BroadwayWorld will be presenting an illuminating InDepth InterView with legendary composer Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber all about the enchanting new performance capture film version of his PHANTOM OF THE OPERA sequel, LOVE NEVER DIES. Until that chat, let's take a look back at some of the finest Andrew Lloyd Webber-related performances related to the entertainment dynasty built upon his operatic pop musical version of the classic Gaston Leroux novel that is about to celebrate its 10,000th performance on Broadway later this month, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, as well as its continuation, LOVE NEVER DIES, and the two revivals of his two classic 70s hit stage collaborations with previous InDepth InterView participant Sir Tim Rice coming back to Broadway in a big way - JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and EVITA. Plus, a look at the new Simon Phillips-directed production of LOVE NEVER DIES coming to Fathom-equipped movie theaters nationwide on February 28 and March 7, with DVD & Blu-ray after that, as well as the PHANTOM 25 DVD & Blu-ray being released in the US on February 7. It's a busy time of year for phans, clearly! Fetch your favorite mask and check out these four Andrew Lloyd Webber delicacies before they arrive!

On Friday, I had the exceptional honor of talking to the most successful composer in the world, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, all about the unprecedented new HD film version of his thrilling new musical coming to movie theaters in February, a continuation of the story begun in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, titled LOVE NEVER DIES. In addition to outlining the impossibly detailed process of bringing a production as complex as the Simon Phillips Australian staging of LOVE NEVER DIES to the big screen, we also discuss the genesis of the show and what an immense achievement it is to now have the original musical - in the form of the 25th anniversary Royal Albert Hall production of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - as well as the sequel - LOVE NEVER DIES - committed to celluloid, mere months apart. Also, 2012 is certainly the year of the Lord on Broadway thanks to new revivals of two of his most beloved musicals, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and EVITA (the latter starring Ricky Martin), as well as the 10,000th performance of PHANTOM on Broadway. Plus, Lloyd Webber clues us in on which musical of his he would like to film next - SUNSET BOULVEVARD, with either Madonna or original Tony-winning star Glenn Close - and he also elaborates on the indescribable allure of the Phantom legend, now, nearly thirty years after the original show's debut and expresses his enthusiasm for the revolutionary new age of theatre-on-film we are experiencing now - all of that and much, much more!

Chucho Valdes returns to NJPAC's Prudential Hall for the first time since 2003 on Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 3pm with the Afro-Cuban Messengers, the band with which he recorded his latest Grammy-winning CD.