Susan Hilferty News

The 25th Anniversary TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards were held last Friday, April 26 at The Edison Ballroom. The honorees were: Susan Hilferty who was presented the TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award by her friends Chita Rivera and Michael Mayer; scenic designer John Lee Beatty who was presented the Robert L. B. Tobin Award by former Sharaff awardee, Jane Greenwood; Miodrag Guberinic who was presented the Kitty Leach Young Master Award by former Sharaff awardee Paul Tazewell, and Rodney Gordon who was presented the TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award by Tony winner (and former employee) Cady Huffman.  This year's film by Suzy Benzinger was a special tribute to Irene Sharaff in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the awards.

Award-winning costume designer SUSAN HILFERTY and legendary scenic designer JOHN LEE BEATTY are among the 25TH Anniversary TDF/Irene Sharaff Award recipients which were just announced by TDF

Award-winning costume designer SUSAN HILFERTY and legendary scenic designer JOHN LEE BEATTY are among the 25TH Anniversary TDF/Irene Sharaff Award recipients which were just announced by TDF

Boesman and Lena officially opened on Monday, February 26 in the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center. The production is a limited engagement through March 17, 2019.

The soft clanging of pots and pans gently hitting each other is the first indication that the title characters of South African playwright Athol Fugard's 1969 indictment of Apartheid segregation, Boesman and Lena have arrived.

Verdi's tragic jester returns in Michael Mayer's neon-bedecked, Las Vegas-themed production. Baritones Roberto Frontali and George Gagnidze share the title role, and soprano Nadine Sierra reprises her portrayal of Gilda, the role that helped launch her now-blossoming Met career. Tenors Vittorio Grigolo and Bryan Hymel share the role of the lascivious Duke, and Nicola Luisotti conducts.

No matter what one thinks of the Met's transfiguration of Verdi's RIGOLETTO from Francesco Maria Piave's Mantua to '60s Las Vegas--I personally like much of this “Rat Pack” production from director Michael Mayer--the singing at Saturday's performance [the second of the season] was first rate.

On January 10th, A.R.T./NY named Boundless Theatre Company (Maria-Cristina Fuste, Executive Artistic Director) one of the 2019 recipients of the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund Grant! This grant was awarded to enhance the design of Boundless' upcoming production of Fur by Migdalia Cruz, directed by Elena Araoz. Three women designers of color - costume designer Sarita Fellows, scenic designer Regina Garcia, and lighting designer Maria-Cristina Fuste - will use the grant funding to more fully realize their artistic vision for the production.

Signature Theatre presents Boesman and Lena by Athol Fugard and directed by Yael Farber.The production runs February 5, 2019 to March 17, 2019 with a February 25, 2019 opening night in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

The cast and creative team have been announced for the Signature Theatre production of Boesman and Lena by Athol Fugard and directed by Yael Farber.

I interviewed Diana Damrau when she had just done her first Violetta, her role debut in the Met's old Willy Decker production. It was a part she lusted over from the time she saw the 1982 Zeffirelli film, but was careful about taking on--waiting for the right time in her vocal development. That was nearly six years ago and the good news is that she has developed into a first-rate Violetta, sounding better than she has in some time, and looking every inch the glamorous (yet consumptive) courtesan.

The Metropolitan Opera's new production of La Traviata, opening December 4, will be the first opera conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin as the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director. Soprano Diana Damrau, who made her acclaimed role debut as Violetta at the Met during the 2012–2013 season (with Maestro Nézet-Séguin on the podium), returns as the tragic heroine.

Hunter Theater Project's ecstatically reviewed debut production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya that left Ben Brantley, The New York Times, feeling "shivery, teary-eyed and stunned," with a "career-high performance" from Jay O. Sanders in the title role, has announced its final extension through Sunday, November 18. $37 single tickets and $15 student tickets are available at www.huntertheaterproject.org, or at the Hunter College Box Office at the Kaye Theater (East 68th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues).

There are very few bargains left in New York City, but $37 buys you access to a production that left Ben Brantley, The New York Times, "shivery, teary-eyed and stunned." Hunter Theater Project's ecstatically reviewed debut production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, featuring what Brantley called a "career-high performance" from Jay O. Sanders in the title role, has been extended due to popular demand through Sunday, October 28. Single tickets for $37, and $15 student tickets (with valid ID) are available now at www.huntertheaterproject.org, or at the Hunter College Box Office at the Kaye Theater (East 68th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues).

The Hunter Theater Project at Hunter College (President, Jennifer J. Raab) announced a two-week extension today for the critically acclaimed New York premiere of Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA, directed by Richard Nelson, at the Frederick Loewe Theater (E. 68th Street between Lexington and Park Ave). Translated by Richard Nelson, Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky, and directed by Nelson, UNCLE VANYA began performances on Friday, September 7 and was originally scheduled to run through October 14.

How does a scarecrow learn to talk? How does one become a tin man? What made the lion so cowardly? In an age where prequels are being released left, right and centre in cinemas, it's no wonder that Wicked, which tells the story of what happened before Dorothy landed in Oz, is celebrating its 12th anniversary in London's West End at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.

The Hunter Theater Project at Hunter College (Hunter College President, Jennifer J. Raab) will officially open the New York premiere of Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA, directed by Richard Nelson, on Sunday, September 16 at the Frederick Loewe Theater (E. 68th Street between Lexington and Park Ave). Translated by Richard Nelson, Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky, this production marks the first time renowned Russian literature translators Pevear and Volokhonsky have had a work premiere in New York City, following its world premiere at The Old Globe in San Diego earlier this year. UNCLE VANYA began performances on Friday, September 7 and runs through Sunday, October 14.

For the better part of the present decade, playwright/director Richard Nelson has been going seriously Chekhovian, first with a quartet of plays set during the Obama years in the Rhinebeck, New York home of a family named Apple and then with a trio of visits during the 2016 presidential campaign with the nearby Gabriel family.

The late great comic genius/activist Dick Gregory was a trailblazer for so many reasons. He told it like it was and didn't care what you thought.

The Hunter Theater Project at Hunter College (Hunter College President, Jennifer J. Raab) will officially open the New York premiere of Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA, directed by Richard Nelson, on Sunday, September 16 at the Frederick Loewe Theater (E. 68th Street between Lexington and Park Ave). Translated by Richard Nelson, Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky, this production marks the first time renowned Russian literature translators Pevear and Volokhonsky have had a work premiere in New York City, following its world premiere at The Old Globe in San Diego earlier this year. UNCLE VANYA began performances on Friday, September 7 and runs through Sunday, October 14.