Steven Spielberg News

Previews begin on Sunday, July 31 for JOY, a new romantic comedy that follows a group of college friends as they fall in and out of love in San Francisco over the course of a year.

The Associated Press reports that the musical will open later this year at the Broadway Theatre. Casting is currently underway.

With the passing of Fred Ebb, Onna White and, most recently, Cy Coleman, the 'death comes in threes' superstition seems to have a sorrowful twinge of truth.

The Guild Hall Academy of the Arts honors composer/lyricist Sheldon Harnick with a Lifetime Achievement Awards for Performing Arts.

Guild Hall of East Hampton, the premier cultural institution of its kind in the area, has announced the honorees for its 20th Annual Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala to be held on Monday, March 14, 2005 at the Rainbow Room, New York City. The distinguished honorees for the year 2004, selected by the 200 member Guild Hall Academy of the Arts, are composer/lyricist Sheldon Harnick for Performing Arts, novelist Louis Begley for Literary Arts, photographer/artist Cindy Sherman for Visual Arts and real estate developer and philanthropist Marshall Rose for Lifelong Patron of the Arts.

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of André Bishop, Artistic Director, and Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer) will continue its 20th Anniversary season with THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, a new musical with book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel and direction by Bartlett Sher.

The Color Purple, headed to Broadway in 2005 has launched a new web site for the production.

Broadway's New HAIRSPRAY Star, BRUCE VILANCH, along with the show's award-winning composer/lyricists, MARC SHAIMAN and SCOTT WITTMAN, join co-hosts, Michael Riedel and Susan Haskins on Friday's THEATER TALK at Midnight on Thirteen.

On Sunday evening, November 21, 2004, The Metropolitan Opera Guild will honor Kitty Carlisle and Moss Hart at a gala benefit program and dinner at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. This unique double tribute --- affectionately entitled HART TO HART --- will celebrate the achievements and contributions of these two icons from the worlds of film, opera, radio, television, theater, and politics.

Co-hosts for the evening will be Julie Andrews and Beverly Sills. Appearances and performances will be by Jane Alexander, Orson Bean, Polly Bergen, Steven Blier, Mario Cuomo, Michael Feinstein, Robert Goulet ,Denyce Graves, Rosemary Harris, Celeste Holm, Audra McDonald, Sylvia McNair, Anna Moffo, Rise Stevens and Kitty Carlisle Hart, plus many more surprise guests.

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone & Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; John G. Schultz, Executive Director) will re-team with NEIL LaBUTE for the world premiere of his latest work, FAT PIG starring in alphabetical order: ASHLIE ATKINSON (Theresa on F/X's 'Rescue Me'); ANDREW McCARTHY (Broadway: Side Man; feature films: Less Than Zero; Pretty in Pink; St. Elmo's Fire); JEREMY PIVEN (Ari Jacobs on HBO's 'Entourage') and KERI RUSSELL (Golden Globe winner for WB's 'Felicity'). Jo Bonney (Living Out; Fifth of July) directs.

On Wednesdays in October, Vaudeville will rise from the dead and take center stage at the newly renovated ACME Comedy Theatre in Hollywood with a darkly comic Vaudeville-style revue called VaudeVile: Theatre du Grotesque!

Join Connie Stevens, Jayne Meadows, Lindsay Wagner, Mr. Blackwell, Kate Linder, Christopher Showerman as Rose Marie (Sally Rogers of the Dick Van Dyke Show) and everyone's favorite TV dad, Dick Van Patten (Eight is Enough) share their experiences of 1940's live radio and welcome the renowned LIQUID RADIO PLAYERS as they take center stage at the newly renovated ACME Comedy Theatre in Hollywood with a 1940-style improvised radio show that needs to be heard to be believed.

As I read The New York Times article 'The Broadway Musical Is Changing Its Key', I was pleased to see that what I meant to say or how I said it was pretty much there. Thank you, Bruce Weber (hey, I gotta kiss butt, ya' never know when he may be reviewing me next!).