Thomas Jefferson News

They'll tell the story of tonight becuase today, January 16, marks the birthday of legendary In the Heights and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. In honor of the ocassion, we're looking back at where the story of the ten-dollar founding father began: The Public Theater. Check out the video to see Lin alongside Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and more celebrating the show's Off-Broadway opening night!

TNT's post-apocalyptic sci-fi series Snowpiercer will premiere Sunday, May 31, at 9:00pm ET/PT. Based on the critically acclaimed graphic novel series and the film from Golden Globe® Award winner Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), the new series stars Oscar® winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) and Tony Award® winner Daveed Diggs.

The Spring Lake Theatre Company will present the award-winning and revolutionary 1776 the Musical - with a twist!

The Theater Project is once again reaching out to creative young people in its 18th annual Young Playwrights Competition. Winners receive cash prizes and see their work performed by professional actors at the awards ceremony in March of 2020.   The submission deadline is January 24, 2020. New Jersey's high school playwrights submit their short plays at TheTheaterProject.org web site, where they will find all the necessary entry guidelines and formatting rules.  

BroadwayWorld has confirmed that Miguel Cervantes will be joining the Broadway company of Hamilton, taking over the role of Alexander Hamilton, fresh off of his run in the Chicago production of the hit musical.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's epic masterpiece Hamilton - the Broadway behemoth that continues to take the theater world by storm one city at a time, one stage at a time - has settled into its multi-week run at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Broadway has been home to a lot of incredible shows over the past decade, and what better way to keep on living through those memories than by listening to those cast recordings?

Theodora Skipitares has achieved renown for her large-scale puppetry epics on such topics as physics, genetics and medicine. An early American giant of science is the subject of her latest multi-media spectacle, 'The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker.' It celebrates the life of the free black man who, living in Maryland from 1731 to 1806, became one of his era's most outstanding engineers and astronomers. La MaMa will present the world premiere of the piece January 23 to February 2 in its Ellen Stewart Theatre, at 66 East Fourth Street.

Few musicals in recent years have received as much attention and acclaim as HAMILTON. It is essentially a historical drama with a dash of comedy delivered in the form of exceptional lyrics and tantalizing beats that switch seamlessly from a melody to a rap and back. The brainchild of Lin-Manuel Miranda has caused a ripple of excitement across the musical world, and that ripple has made its way to Indianapolis this winter.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's HAMILTON is certainly one of the best touring shows going, and the company visiting Richmond through December 8 is of the greatest imaginable quality.

Anna Karenina: a riff is a fresh, comedic reimagining of the classic Tolstoy tale by Gwen Kingston, opening November 23rd 2019 at the Flea Theater. Created with Notch Theatre Company and featuring an original, folk-punk score by Christie Baugher, Teresa Lotz, Yan Li and Will Turner, Anna Karenina: a riff moves at the speed of a runaway train as it examines the consequences of female rebellion and its echoes today.

Fans unable to score tickets to HAMILTON on Friday, when tickets for the show's Fort Worth premiere went on sale, still have a chance to be in 'The Room Where it Happens.' A limited number of tickets are available at www.basshall.com and at the Bass Hall box office at 525 Commerce St.

Comedy and drama are on the table with the turkey this Thanksgiving, when Kaleidoscope Kabaret, an annual program of short plays by the members of The Theater Project's Playwrights Workshop comes to Union Center, November 23 and 24. Two of the plays in the program are about the joys and woes of the approaching holidays.    

The 2020 presidential candidates just got a little more musical! With the presidential campaigns officially underway, Twitter user @absobyrne took to social media to compare the current candidates to some of Broadway's Tony-winning Best Musicals. To help you get a better understanding at the comparisons, we're giving you a look inside each of the shows, from older classics like South Pacific and Hello, Dolly! to more recent shows including Rent and The Producers. Check it all out!

HAMILTON's captivating three-week run at Appleton's Fox Cities P.A.C. came to an end on October 20. Thousands of theatergoers flocked to downtown Appleton to enjoy the smash hit, but it is impossible to heap sufficient praise on the show and its performers.

For the second year in a row, Hamilton will host a special fan performance on Thursday, October 31 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, with all tickets for the 7:00pm performance being sold for $10.

New casting has been announced for the multi award-winning West End production of HAMILTON as the show enters its third year at the Victoria Palace Theatre. Also announced is the release of further tickets with the show now booking in London to 28 March 2020.

Internationally acclaimed violinist Midori will tour JUNO Award-winning Canadian composer Vivian Fung's Birdsong to DC, NYC, and London from November 2-8, 2019. Commissioned by the Delaware Chamber Music Festival through the DeRosa Family Fund, Fung's 10-minute long Birdsong was premiered in June, 2012 in Wilmington, Delaware by violinist Kristin Lee and pianist Conor Hanick. Birdsong was written in memoriam of Julian Rodescu and showcases the virtuosity of both piano and violin, with quick runs, intense rhythmic passages, and exploration of improvisational moments. The title refers to the birdcalls of the opening and closing, as well as the general rhapsodic nature of the violin in this piece.

Two years ago, I revisited French Woods Festival of the Arts (which I attended from 1999 to 2002 as a camper/teen actor and then as an assistant director/stage manager) and BroadwayWorld kindly published an article I wrote about the experience. In light of my responsibilities at work (attorney by day, theater critic by night) and at home (including a hyperactive toddler and commuting daily between NY and NJ), I was not planning on visiting again this past summer, but that instantly changed when I learned that the camp was planning on presenting 1776 for the first time in nearly two decades - and with an all-female cast.

Now's your chance to see Hamilton on Broadway with two house seat tickets - plus, you will go backstage and meet Tony Winner James Monroe Iglehart, who plays Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson! Get reacquainted with a retelling of American history in this is genre-defying, ground-breaking musical.