Usher News

Proving to be in a league of her own, edgy pop-country artist Jaclyn Kenyon continues to outshine her past accomplishments with the release of her brand new single When We Love. The high-energy lead single from her forthcoming full-length album highlights the ups and downs of a relationship.

The APX have released their highly anticipated self-titled sophomore album Amplified Experiment! Detroit native singersongwriter Erika Dawn alongside her prodigy multi talented husband Dee Rhodes are an Atlanta based electro funksoul duo collectively known as The APX.

In response to critical acclaim and popular demand, Playwrights Horizons , in association with Page 73 is pleased to announce a three-week extension of the world premiere production of Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop, to July 28 (from the initially-announced closing date of July 7).

The prolific career of hip hop mogul Jermaine Dupri and his indelible influence on music over the last 26 years is explored in 'Power, Influence and Hip-Hop: The Remarkable Rise of So So Def' debuting Thursday, July 18 on WE tv. In addition, Dupri will celebrate the world premiere of the documentary special on Sunday, June 23 at SeriesFest in Denver, Colorado.

Playwrights Horizons, in association with Page 73, present the world premiere production of A Strange Loop, with book, music, and lyrics by 2017 Jonathan Larson Award and 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award-winner Michael R. Jackson, directed by Stephen Brackett (Be More Chill, Buyer and Cellar), and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly (Playwrights: If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhf**ka; Ugly (Black Queer Zoo), Fairview). A Strange Loop explores the thoughts of Usher, a black, queer writer working a job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, queer writer, working a job he hates while writing his original musical. Michael R. Jackson's blistering, momentous new musical (and his professional debut) follows a young artist at war with a host of demons-not least of which are the punishing thoughts in his own head-in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop.

'Don't roll your eyes at me,' a person of influence instructs a promising young musical theatre writer. 'I'm the chair of the Second-Coming-Of-Sondheim Award so I know what the f... I'm talking about!'

On a balmy 70 degree summer day in a northern Texas suburb, Cirque du Soleil made an effort to bring a winter wonderland to life with Crystal. Billed to be the first Cirque production on ice combining 'high-level ice skating' with its idiosyncratic circus fare, I regrettably report that this production was two revolutions short of a triple lutz.

GRAMMY-nominated, multi-platinum selling singer, songwriter and producer JHart (AKA James Abrahart) returns today with a deeply personal, uplifting and inspired new single, 'Temporary' - out everywhere now.

Today, Calexico and Iron & Wine released Years to Burn  via City Slang in the UK/Europe and Sub Pop in the rest of the world. The work of Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino and Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, the album is their first full length release and follows the critically acclaimed 2005 In the Reins EP.

Acclaimed playwright Luis Alfaro talks to BroadwayWorld about revisiting his 'Oedipus El Rey' currently playing at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, how he forged a path for himself in the theater world, his influences along the way, and the role of artists in creating change.

Van Alen Institute announced today that Deborah Marton has been appointed its next Executive Director. The announcement was made by Jared Della Valle, Board Chair of the influential organization celebrating its 125th anniversary of using expansive design thinking to improve lives in cities, landscapes and regions.  Chosen after an extensive international search, Marton, currently Executive Director of the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), will assume her new role at Van Alen in September.

The Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival (FLMTF) proudly launches its 2019 season with the smash hit Grease. The show runs June 5 through June 26 at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Emerson Park. This year marks the company's 61st season which also includes Grand Hotel, South Pacific, Working, A Musical, and Loch Ness, a New Musical.

The Slow Readers Club have announced a run of headline shows in December, with dates in London, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Glasgow. Tickets will be available at 10am on Friday 14th June.

Michaela Anne grew up bouncing around the States and abroad—from Washington to California to Italy, to name a few. A child of a military family, she learned to cope with her lack of roots and what she called “having more questions than answers” by learning to write songs. That skill set and those songs have carried Michaela Anne farther than ever imaginable, impressing the likes of NPR, who said she “works through weepers and hits the honky-tonks as every great country singer should,” and Noisey, who praised her most recent release as the antidote to commercial pop-country, calling her “our saving grace, our angel, the person who will help usher us into a new age.” And into the new age, she continues to push. On September 27th, Yep Roc Records will release Desert Dove, Michaela Anne's full-length follow up to her critically-acclaimed Bright Lights and the Fame. “By Our Design,” the album's first single and video, was premiered today at Rolling Stone. Celebrating the song as “a gorgeous meditation on picking the road not taken,” Marissa Moss, writing for Rolling Stone, notes that the track “highlights the songwriter's pristine voice.' The song, a mid-tempo burn framed with dense violins and tremolo guitar, is a sweet ode to a carved out life together; imperfect, but adaptive and free. Moss also points out Michaela Anne's intent for the song to sound like a “bit of Laurel Canyon dust into Tennessee soil.”Pre-order Desert Dove and/or stream “By Our Design” here.

Multi-award nominated Immersion Theatre are thrilled to present the most magical and romantic comedy of them all, A Midsummer Night's Dream which will be touring venues around the UK this Summer.

The Warner Theatre will welcome POSTMODERN JUKEBOX to the Main Stage on Friday, June 21, 2019 at 8 pm.

Today, multi-platinum, award-winning singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé MBE announces her U.K tour ahead of the release of her much anticipated third album 'Real Life' set for worldwide release 13th September 2019 on Virgin/EMI. Kicking off in Liverpool on 16 November, Emeli will perform in cities across the U.K. before concluding on 13 December in Hull. Tickets go on general sale on Friday 14  June at 9am at https://www.livenation.co.uk/.

Not Black and White explores the multiple pressures, both real and perceived, placed on women of colour through the eyes of a young woman trying - or not trying - for a baby. This new work from the creative team behind last year's sell out Fringe hit Freeman takes on the issues of colourism, ageism, interracial relationships, being a woman in the workplace and the pressures on women to have children - and pressures from family relating to home culture. As Remelle struggles to conform to "professional standards" of how to wear her hair, moderate her accent and limit her gestures in the workplace, her husband wrestles with his own feelings of inadequacy and his finite capacity to empathise with the issues he's never had to experience. Strictly Arts Theatre Company are returning to the Fringe as one of the Associate Artists at the Pleasance.

Join historian Debbie-Ann Paige at the Staten Island Museum on Saturday, June 8 at 12pm and 2pm at the Staten Island presentation of 5 Boros to Freedom to explore the history of slavery, freedom seekers, and the abolition movement on Staten Island. 5 Boros to Freedom is an extension of the work of Underground Railroad History Project taking place in all five boroughs of New York City celebrating and supporting community engagement with the rich African American history that resides there. You can learn more at UndergroundRailroadHistory.org.

Celebrating 10 YEARS with its biggest, boldest, and best billing yet, ONE Musicfest unveils a blockbuster lineup for 2019.