Tamyra Gray News

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today's top events: the final day of the off-Broadway toy drive is today! Donate and receive free tickets! Pasadia Familiar closes off-off-Broadway today. And more!

The producers of Broadway's newest hit, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, announced today that Broadway veterans Norm Lewis and Tamyra Gray will step into the roles of Agwe and Papa Ge, respectively, on January 8. Merle Dandridge exits for a contractual leave to shoot her television series Greenleaf. Quentin Earl Darrington will also be on a contractual leave.

Co-writers Bradley Bredeweg (Freeform's 'The Fosters,' Showtime's 'Intersection,' Bill Condon's Side Show on Broadway) and Brad Hooks (Freeform's 'The Fosters') have just concluded a two-and-a-half week development lab for HEADLESS-a modern gothic rock-opera ghost story that revisits author Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow-at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis) in Beverly Hills. BroadwayWorld has photos below!

HEADLESS - a modern gothic rock-opera ghost story that revisits author Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow from co-writers Bradley Bredeweg (Freeform's 'The Fosters,' Showtime's 'Intersection,' Bill Condon's Side Show on Broadway) and Brad Hooks (Freeform's 'The Fosters') - will be the focus of a new work development lab that will explore the score, story and new stage technology over the course of two and a half weeks at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis) in Beverly Hills. The lab will launch on Thursday, July 6 and will culminate with closed presentations today, July 22 and Sunday, July 23 (presentations by private invitation only).

HEADLESS - a modern gothic rock-opera ghost story that revisits author Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow from co-writers Bradley Bredeweg (Freeform's 'The Fosters,' Showtime's 'Intersection,' Bill Condon's Side Show on Broadway) and Brad Hooks (Freeform's 'The Fosters') - will be the focus of a new work development lab that will explore the score, story and new stage technology over the course of two and a half weeks at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis) in Beverly Hills. The lab will launch on Thursday, July 6 and will culminate with closed presentations on Saturday, July 22 and Sunday, July 23 (presentations by private invitation only).

This holiday season, Roanoke Children's Theatre brings a fantastical, magical, musical adventure to the stage with SEUSSICAL, THE MUSICAL.

This holiday season, Roanoke Children's Theatre brings a fantastical, magical, musical adventure to the stage with SEUSSICAL, THE MUSICAL.

On October 1, Broadway's brightest stars will perform to benefit the Amigos de Jesus home for impoverished children in Honduras.

After 312 performances in 25 cities across the United States, the National Tour of If/Then concludes its run today in Atlanta, GA. At seven select cities, the tour featured several of the stars from the original Broadway run, including Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp, LaChanze, and James Snyder.

IF/THEN, the original Broadway musical which reunites composer Tom Kitt, book writer/lyricist Brian Yorkey, and director Michael Greif, the creative team behind the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical, Next to Normal, will play its final performance on tour in Atlanta this weekend. To mark the occasion, the cast put together a hilarious 'Drunk History' parody. We don't know about you, but we think this should become the Broadway community's next viral trend. Click below to watch the silliness!

Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you had made different choices? Would you have a different job? A different love? Would your life have been better, or maybe worse? In the first show of Hartford's 2016-2017 Bushnell Broadway Series, IF/THEN, one woman finds herself at the intersection of choice and chance, and takes audiences on a journey guided by the whims of fate. Playing, Elizabeth, the woman whose life splits into parallel paths due to one fateful choice, is Jackie Burns, a Connecticut native who is returning to her home state to bring this contemporary musical to the Bushnell stage. I caught up with Jackie to talk about the show and hear how it feels to return home with IF/THEN.

It's always a challenge to find a fresh, new, innovate way to tell a story. It seems at times like every story out there has already been told so the only option is to tell it again, but tell it differently. Use a storytelling technique that excites and engages the audience, and maybe it won't even matter what the story is. That idea, while it might sound good, just doesn't work in reality, as demonstrated by the current touring production of If/Then, now playing at Providence Performing Arts Center. The interesting way of telling the story just can't mask the fact that the story being told is incredibly ordinary, unoriginal and dull.

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Washington, DC, Phoenix, Singapore and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include a 'bold, new' THE TAMING OF THE SHREW in DC, HOSTAGES in Phoenix, and an interview with Simon Gleeson on the Singapore return of LES MIS, just to name a few.

If/Then is an original musical that tells the story of Elizabeth Vaughan, a 40-year-old woman who moves back to New York City seeking a fresh start to her life. The musical depicts two different paths of where Elizabeth's life could take her.

Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Atlanta announced today that tickets for the National Tour of IF/THEN, which was named the "Best Musical of the Year" by New York Magazine, will go on sale Sunday, May 22. IF/THEN will perform a limited one week engagement from August 9-14 at Atlanta's Fox Theatre to close the 2015/2016 Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Atlanta Series.

If/Then, a musical from the creators of Next to Normal and the director of Rent, opened last night at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. The show, which was written as a star vehicle for Idina Menzel, is one of the most exhilarating new musicals I've seen in a decade – and mere moments in any concerns that the show lacks something without a celebrity in the lead were put to rest.

Just moments before the show left the air, viewers were stunned to hear Seacrest add the words 'For now.'

The Grammy award winner did take the time to pre-record an amazing medley of her hits which aired during the show. Check it out below!

Last night's two-hour series finale of AMERICAN IDOL ended with a bang, delivering a 9.6/15 in metered market ratings.

Last night on AMERICAN IDOL, the lights were dimmed for a final time and host Ryan Seacrest made one last dream come true, as Trent Harmon, 25, from Amory, MS, was named the 15th and final AMERICAN IDOL in the history-making series finale live from Dolby Theatre.