Tim Rice News

Oscar(TM)-winning actor Robin Williams, the extraordinary actresses of The Golden Girls, the voices of Donald Duck and Goofy, and other incomparable contributors to the Disney legacy will be honored on Sept. 10 at the 2009 Disney Legends Awards during the D23 EXPO at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Disney's THE LION KING set new box office records during its two Canadian engagements in Calgary and Edmonton during the past two months, grossing a combined total of $13 million and entertaining more than 154,000 people.

Casting of principals and the company of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was announced today. The role of Joseph, the young man with 11 troublesome brothers and a particularly splendid coat, will be played by Anthony Fedorov, who was a top four American Idol finalist in 2005.

Saycon Sengbloh featuring Kojo Modibo Sun rocked Joe's Pub on Sunday, August 30th with a thrilling concert full of passionate song.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) brings Disney's Aladdin, an enchanting adaptation of the 1992 animated film, to the stage continuing CST's tradition of bringing family-friendly theater to Navy Pier all summer long.

There are two things you should know about me: I am a musical theatre lover, and I love to schmooze with actors and composers. I am very fortunate to live in the DC area where our theatre community is growing by leaps and bounds. There are so many productions opening in September in DC, Maryland and Virginia theatres, my head is spinning trying to figure out which ones I will see.

HARTFORD CHILDREN'S THEATRE (360 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT) is holding auditions for Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the first production of the 2009-2010 20th Anniversary Main Stage Season, '20 Years of Enchantment.' Performances of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will take place at Hoffman Auditorium on the campus of Saint Joseph College in West Hartford October 30 through November 7, 2009.

Judy Kuhn, who recently starred on Broadway as Fantine in the revival of Les Misérables, will offer a Master Class in song interpretation and vocal performance at the acclaimed Michael Howard Studios in Manhattan.

HARTFORD CHILDREN'S THEATRE (360 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT) is holding auditions for Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the first production of the 2009-2010 20th Anniversary Main Stage Season, '20 Years of Enchantment.' Performances of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will take place at Hoffman Auditorium on the campus of Saint Joseph College in West Hartford October 30 through November 7, 2009.

For one night only and under one roof, local arts lovers are invited to attend a celebration to kick off the 2009-2010 cultural season. Culture Collision will be held on Wednesday, September 2, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Christopher Plummer will return to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival next year to play Prospero in The Tempest, one of four Shakespeare plays scheduled for the 2010 season.

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, presents the ferociously funny, utterly unreliable memoir, Yellow Face, from the Tony Award-winning author of M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang. Part fact, part fiction, this revealing backstage comedy chronicles the playwright?s struggle to define racial identity in the mixed-up melting pot of contemporary America. Broadway and Off-Broadway star Francis Jue will reprise his Obie-Award winning role as the playwright?s father alongside New York-based actor Pun Bandhu and Bay Area theatre veterans Robert Ernst, Amy Resnick, and Howard Swain. Thomas Azar and Tina Chilip make their TheatreWorks debuts. Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley will direct. Yellow Face plays August 26 through September 20 (press opening August 29), at TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets and information, the public may call 650-463-1960, or visit www.theatreworks.org.

CHESS IN CONCERT, starring Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal and Marti Pellow, will be screen in cinemas across the United Kingdom and Ireland beginning in September.

Coming off of a streak of some of the most successful seasons to date, William Pullinsi, Artistic Director, announces Theatre at the Center's 20th anniversary season, filled with some of the most popular productions of all time and an area premiere. All of the 2010 season titles have marked, and will mark, a 'first' for the history of Theatre at the Center.

York Little Theatre is holding auditions on August 24 and 25, for their upcoming production of the musical Beauty and the Beast which runs November 6 - 22, 2009.

Green has long been heralded as one of the region's finest music directors, while Ditty has gained a justifiably stellar reputation as one of the best choreographers around. With this production, which exemplifies the term 'all-singing, all-dancing,' it's apropos then that the two would share the directing credit. Obviously, from the first notes of the overture to the final tormented moments of Jesus Christ's death on the cross, the shared vision of the two men is vividly portrayed and stunningly realized. The work, widely considered the first 'rock opera,' is movingly exhilarating, taking audiences on a veritable rollercoaster ride of emotional highs and lows.

The rock opera collaboration between the talented duo of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat relates the musical journey through ancient Egypt with the young dreamer, Joseph, his eleven brothers and the coat of many colors.

In August 2009, Four Seasons Theatre (FST), in cooperation with the Wisconsin Union Theater, will present Andrew Lloyd Webber's EVITA. Based on Mary Main's 1952 biography 'The Woman with the Whip,' EVITA focuses on the life of Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentinean president Juan Perón. The story follows Evita's earlylife, acting career, rise to power, charity work, feminist involvement and untimely death at the age of 33.

Village Theatre's KIDSTAGE SummerStock produces Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor© Dreamcoat to be performed August 14-23, 2009 at the Everett Performing Arts Center.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's historic rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar bows at Boiler Room Theatre Friday night, August 21, continuing through September 19 at the Franklin theatre. Directed by Jamey Green, with choreography by Billy Ditty, Jesus Christ Superstar is widely regarded as the first rock opera, originally created as a concept album at the end of the '60s.