Usher News

The 26th annual Dance for Life Chicago will exemplify Chicago's versatile and virtuoso dance community with the eight companies that are performing August 19 at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. Chicago Dancers United (CDU), which mobilizes Chicago's dance community by raising funds through dance, presents this annual benefit performance, which is preceded by a gala reception at the Hilton Chicago.

The Cape Playhouse has big plans for little theatre goers this summer, as FunDay FriDays! Playhouse for Kids takes the stage.  From pirate tales to dogs performing hilarious tricks, puppets, magicians and jugglers, the schedule has something for all kids.

Kitchen Theatre Company, Central New York's Off Broadway theatre, announces its 2017-2018 season. This is the first season for incoming Producing Artistic Director, M. Bevin O'Gara, who will be joining longtime Managing Director, Stephen Nunley. Kitchen TheatreCompany is known for its intimate 99-seat space, now owned by the theatre, and for the bold, intimate, engaging work it has produced for over 25 years. The 27th season will include seven plays aimed at starting 'important conversations,' presented from September to June.

FRIGID New York @ Horse Trade in association with Elephant Run District will present the World Premiere of Chris Harcum's Martin Denton, Martin Denton, directed by Aimee Todoroff, July 6-23 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery) with performances Today through Saturday at 7pm and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets ($25/$20 students & seniors) may be purchased in advance at www.horseTRADE.info. The performance will run approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission. 

Experimental and beautifully composed, Songs of the Soul Beams is a theatrical musical cycle by Felix Jarrar (composer, musical director, pianist) and Brittany Goodwin (librettist, stage director, Persephone) that fuses elements of opera, musical theater and dance in order to explore coping with death. The show made its debut on Sunday, June 4th in the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Fisher-Hillman Studio. I was excited to have the chance to catch up with the promising, young directors of the show and learn more about their process.

Moira Finucane's The Rapture: Art vs Extinction fully immerses its audience into what can only be described as a hybrid form of boutique theatre. The result is fantastic, a hurly-burly experience that leaves you walking out of the theatre in pure euphoria.

Not Here Right Now...the hilariously touching tale of a tall man in tight spaces finding clarity and avoiding a quarter-life crisis in the Far East, all while wearing strappy-velcro sandals (except to the wedding of the century) premieres at Synchronicity Theatre in Atlanta, GA on July 1st.

Sire Records has signed rock 'n' roll phenomenon King Leg. Born in Nebraska, 'discovered' in Nashville and now occupying Los Angeles, King Leg's debut single 'Great Outdoors' is available beginning today.

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).

Time Inc.'s (NYSE:TIME) ESSENCE today announced that Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry will open the Empowerment Experience Stage at the 2017 ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans, presented by Coca-Cola, on Friday, June 30, 2017 at 11:30am, which will kick off the Festival's weekend slate of daytime programming at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

Manchester International Festival today announces the programme for the 2017 Festival, which takes place 29 June - 16 July this year.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Maine's Ogunquit Playhouse will produce the world premiere of Heartbreak Hotel, on stage August 30 to September 30. This brand new tribute to the King of Rock 'n' Roll is the prequel to Tony-winning, record-setting, smash hit Million Dollar Quartet that became the greatest selling show in Ogunquit Playhouse history.

Look how far they've come! Straight from the Hamilton Mixtape comes the brand new music video for Immigrants (We Get the Job Done), and BroadwayWorld brings you the video below!

Celebrate Gay Pride with the Village Playwrights tomorrow on Wednesday, June 28 at 8 pm at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, room 301.

Fresh off a music video premiering on BET Soul, feature articles in VIBE and Billboard, and a tidal wave of momentum throughout 2017, NYC's Drew Vision has teamed up with executive producer Bryan Michael Cox his newest project.

#FOLLOWME: YouTube Dance Stars On Stage!, the brand new interactive dance show starring WilldaBeast ('So You Think You Can Dance'), Nia Sioux ('Dance Moms'), Kenneth San Jose, and Janelle Ginestra ('Step Up), announces the #FOLLOWME: YouTube Dance Stars On Stage! Ultimate Finale Fan Contest, offering fans the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dance LIVE ON STAGE with their idols at the Fox Theatre on Thursday, August 10. For the choreography break-down and entry details, visit www.FollowmeOnstage.com/contest.

#FOLLOWME, the brand new interactive dance show starring WilldaBeast (“So You Think You Can Dance”), Nia Sioux (“Dance Moms”), Kenneth San Jose, and Janelle Ginestra (“Step Up), announces the #FOLLOWME Ultimate Finale Fan Contest, offering fans across the country the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dance LIVE ON STAGE with their idols in every city. For the choreography break-down and entry details, visit: www.FollowmeOnstage.com/contest.

Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis announces the Indiana premiere of The Golem of Havana, which opens June 22, 2017 on the Livia and Steve Russell Stage. This production runs through July 16, 2017, with Bryan Fonseca serving as director.

Society of London Theatre (SOLT) has announced that Kenny Wax has been appointed as its new President.

Allison Vulgamore, president and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association has announced she will conclude her tenure with the organization when her contract ends in December 2017.  When she took the helm in 2010, the Orchestra was mired in deep financial and managerial problems.  Over her eight years, Vulgamore balanced artistic excellence with fiscal stability, implementing progressive measures that put the Orchestra on more solid footing artistically and financially.