Sumayya Ali News

The National Tour of THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS, winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, will launch at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre this November. The tour, accompanied by a 23-piece orchestra, will begin performances Sunday, Nov. 10 with an official opening on Wednesday, Nov. 13. The national tour will travel to more than 20 cities in its first season in addition to San Francisco, including Los Angeles (Ahmanson Theatre), Seattle (5th Avenue Theatre), Dallas (Winspear Opera House), West Palm Beach, Tampa, Naples, Greenville, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo, East Lansing, St. Paul, Des Moines, Las Vegas, Tempe and Charlotte, with additional cities to be announced in the coming days.

Elisabeth DeRosa (Mary Poppins) and Spencer Plachy (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) recently joined the cast of Easter Mysteries, a contemporary oratorio being performed during this year's holy week celebrations at St. Clement's Episcopal Church.

It was announced today that Elisabeth DeRosa (Mary Poppins) and Spencer Plachy (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) have joined the cast of Easter Mysteries, a contemporary oratorio being performed during this year's holy week celebrations at St. Clement's Episcopal Church.

On Saturday, March 23, 7:30pm, composer Zach Redler and librettist Sara Cooper, the creative team behind next month's musical 'The Memory Show' at the Duke Theater, will premiere their latest work 'Windows' featuring singers Sumayya Ali (The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess) and Etai BenShlomo (Wicked). Part of AOP (American Opera Projects) and Opera on Tap's new music series, 'OPERAtion Brooklyn' the 40-minute staged song-cycle will be followed by excerpts from two new operas - Decoration and Smashed. The performances will take place on multiple floors of ART-NY's South Oxford Space (138 S. Oxford St., Brooklyn 11217) in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Tickets are $20, available at www.operationbrooklyn.com. The evening will run 1 hour, thirty minutes.

On Saturday, March 23, 7:30pm, AOP (American Opera Projects) and Opera on Tap will present a new installment of their acclaimed series, 'OPERAtion Brooklyn' a semi-annual festival that highlights Brooklyn as the cultural epicenter for progressive works of opera and classical music. Audiences will be guided around multiple floors of ART-NY's South Oxford Space (138 S. Oxford St., Brooklyn 11217) in Fort Greene, Brooklyn to hear music from new operas by local talents Mikael Karlsson, James Barry and Zach Redler. Tickets are $20, available at www.operationbrooklyn.com. The evening will run 1 hour, thirty minutes.

AOP (American Opera Projects) in partnership with The Walt Whitman Project will be participating in the Brooklyn Public Library's annual free Kwanzaa program today, December 27 at 3pm at the S. Stevan Dweck Auditorium at the Central Library, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn Public Library (10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238). On Friday, December 28 at 2pm, the program will be repeated at the Rosetta Gaston Senior Center in Brownsville (460 Dumont Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11212.) Both performances are free and open to the public. Reservations are not necessary, but seating is first come, first served.

AOP (American Opera Projects) in partnership with The Walt Whitman Project will be participating in the Brooklyn Public Library's annual free Kwanzaa program on Thursday, December 27 at 3pm at the S. Stevan Dweck Auditorium at the Central Library, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn Public Library (10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238). On Friday, December 28 at 2pm, the program will be repeated at the Rosetta Gaston Senior Center in Brownsville (460 Dumont Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11212.)

Musicals Tonight! continues its ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys and Understudies with its next edition of AT THIS PERFORMANCE…™ to be held tonight, October 8th at The Lion Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street at 7 PM.

Musicals Tonight! continues its ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys and Understudies with its next edition of AT THIS PERFORMANCE…™ to be held on Monday, October 8th at The Lion Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street at 7 PM.

The 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS will conclude its limited engagement at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 West 46th Street) today, September 23, 2012. The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS began previews on Saturday, December 17, 2012, and officially opened on January 12, 2012. Upon closing, it will have played 322 performances. Below, BroadwayWorld takes you on a multimedia journey through the life of the longest-running production of Porgy and Bess to ever play on Broadway.

Anthony Crivello was back in New York after a six-year run in the title role of Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular. He went backstage to visit with Audra McDonald after seeing her perform in Porgy and Bess. McDonald performed with Crivello in Broadway's production of Marie Christine in 1999. BroadwayWorld has an exclusive shot of the reunion below.

The 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS becomes the longest-running production of Porgy and Bess to ever play on Broadway with its 306th performance today, September 11, 2012, breaking the record formerly held by the 1953 revival at the Ziegfeld Theatre. The show will conclude its limited engagement at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 West 46th Street) on Sunday, September 23, 2012.

Producers of the 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS welcome Tony Award winner Audra McDonald's return to an eight-performance schedule beginning tonight, August 28th. She had previously been on a schedule of seven performances per week, not performing the Wednesday evening shows.

Producers of the 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS announced today that five-time Tony Award winner AUDRA McDONALD will return to an eight-performance schedule beginning Tuesday, August 28th. She had previously been on a schedule of seven performances per week, not performing the Wednesday evening shows.

Producers of the 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS, have announced that the show will conclude its limited engagement at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Sunday, September 23, 2012. The show, which had been twice extended, was originally scheduled to end a week later. The new date has been set to make room for the next engagement at the Rodgers, beginning October 4, 2012.

The best of Broadway will be presented FREE on six consecutive Thursdays this summer with "106.7 Lite FM's Broadway in Bryant Park 2012" - a lunchtime series beginning today, July 12 at 12:30 p.m. on the Bryant Park Stage. Sponsored by Resorts World Casino New York City and hosted by Lite FM's on-air personalities, the twelfth annual presentation of open-air, On- and Off- Broadway lunch hour performances will run through August 16. BroadwayWorld was there for the festivities, and we bring you complete photo coverage below!

As BroadwayWorld reported yesterday, Audra McDonald, the five-time Tony winning star of PORGY & BESS, will indeed be returning to the show today following a 2-week doctor-mandated hiatus.

A devout theater fan knows no holiday, and thankfully, many of Broadway's most beloved shows and performers nationwide don't either. So what's a theater enthusiast to do on this Independence Day? Check out a sampling of this year's most exciting 4th of July offerings and click below to revisit some of your favorites saluting our nation in song!