Stephen Brackett News

Obie, Lortel, and Drama Desk Award- winner Michael Urie (Grand Horizons, Torch Song) will reprise his role in a livestreamed one-night-only performance of Buyer & Cellar to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS' COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund. The site-specific performance will broadcast live from the living room of his apartment on Sunday, April 19 at 8pm. Watch live on Youtube!

Today's top stories: Today is Women's Day On Broadway! Plus, a look at Rob McClure in Mrs. Doubtfire, pre-Broadway runs announced for A Strange Loop and Some Like it Hot, and more!

Woolly Mammoth Theatre has announced it will launch its 41st Season with the 'pre-Broadway' production of Michael R. Jackson's hit musical, A STRANGE LOOP, directed by Stephen Brackett, choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly, and music directed by Rona Siddiqui. 

Obie, Lortel, and Drama Desk Award-Winner Michael Urie (Grand Horizons) will reprise his award-winning performance in Buyer & Cellar for two performances only to benefit Pride Plays and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's 25th Anniversary. Performances will take place on April 10 at 8pm and April 11 at 8pm at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place).

PAGE 73 PRODUCTIONS (Page 73) (Michael Walkup, Artistic Director; Amanda Feldman, Managing Director; Rebecca Yaggy, Director of Development; Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Founding Directors) announced today that applications are open for the 2021 Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship and the Interstate 73 Writers Group.

On the heels of its opening in London, the Broadway musical Be More Chill has announced an all-Chicago cast for its the first North American post-Broadway production at the Apollo Theater.

Be More Chill has announced a six-week extension. It will now run at The Other Palace in London until Sunday 14 June 2020, making it the longest running musical at London's The Other Palace.

ZACH Theatre will bring new work to the forefront with its initiative, The Launch Table: New Work Reading Series beginning this February. The development of new and re-imagined work has always been a part of ZACH's fabric, and through this new platform, ZACH will provide artists a home for new work to live and thrive. The Launch Table will offer writers and artists invaluable feedback needed to further develop their art. The first reading will be The Very Extraordinary Mr. Law by Jeffrey LaHoste on Tuesday, February 25, 2020.

Be More Chill opened in London last night at The Other Palace! It's based on the groundbreaking novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini, with original music and lyrics by Joe Iconis and a book by Joe Tracz. Let's see what the critics think!

The Playwrights Realm (Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Roberta Pereira) will presents the 2020 INK'D Festival of New Plays, showcasing new works by this year's Realm Writing Fellows Tanya Everett, Maya Macdonald, Tasha Gordon-Solmon, and Christopher Reyes (February 24-27). The festival's plays offer vast tonal and stylistic variation while cohering around complex contemplations of structural issues. INK'D has proven to be an indispensable launching pad for the voices driving the future of playwriting. This year's powerful slate continues to introduce audiences to a diversity of fresh perspectives, thereby underscoring theater's potential to expand the possibilities of dramatic storytelling and engage with the world around it.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, has shared the entertainment and performers for the 2020 TCG Gala: Our Stories, which will be held on Monday, February 3, 2020, at The Edison Ballroom (240 W 47th St, New York, NY 10036).

PAGE 73 PRODUCTIONS (Page 73) (Michael Walkup, Artistic Director; Amanda Feldman, Managing Director; Rebecca Yaggy, Director of Development; Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Founding Directors) has named Emma Goidel the 2020 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow. Selected from over 400 applicants, Goidel will receive a $10,000 award and an additional $10,000 budgeted for developing several new plays over the course of the year.

Page 73 (Michael Walkup, Artistic Director; Amanda Feldman, Managing Director; Rebecca Yaggy, Director of Development; Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Founding Directors) have announced complete casting for the world premiere of STEW, written by Zora Howard (Premature, IFC Films) and directed by Colette Robert (Behind the Sheet). Performances of STEW begin on Monday, January 20 at the Walkerspace Theatre for a limited run through Saturday, February 22. Opening night is set for Saturday, February 1.

Following the conclusion of its strictly limited 16-week holiday engagement on Broadway, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical will return to the road for a national touring production in the 2020-2021 season.

Be More Chill, the mind-bendingly fun, smash hit Broadway musical, comes to Chicago in a new production at the Apollo Theater. Based on the novel by Ned Vizzini, Be More Chill features music and lyrics by Tony nominee Joe Iconis and book by Joe Tracz. The Chicago production is led by the original creative team of Director Stephen Brackett and Choreographer Chase Brock. Be More Chill starts performances April 17, 2020, at the Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. The Opening is April 26, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.

Casting for the UK premiere of Be More Chill, the mind-bendingly fun, smash hit Broadway musical was announced today.

Broadway Records announced today the surprise release of the Deluxe Edition of the Original Cast Recording of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical as well as a Karaoke Album, now available digitally. Physical copies of the Deluxe cast album are only available at www.BroadwayRecords.com and at the Longacre Theater on Broadway, where the show is playing a strictly limited engagement that must end January 5, 2020.

A few weeks ago I saw The Lightning Thief. Usually when a show opens, I don't read the reviews. But in this case I decided to read the first one I saw. And by the end I had very clearly reminded myself why I never read reviews. This show's reviews are just one part of a wider problem: the field of theater criticism as a whole. We need to completely revamp the way that theater is reviewed and the way that theater reviews can bring down a show.

Page 73 has announced twelve semifinalists for the 2020 Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship.

After a celebratory 18th season full of awards, nominations and tons of critical-acclaim for the main-stage productions of Queen and Caroline, or Change, Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) kicks off their 2019-20 season with Tony award-winner actress Cady Huffman in the New York premiere of Marguerite, a new solo musical with book and lyrics by Anton Dudley, music by Michael Cooper and direction by APAC Artistic Director Dev Bondarin.