Verona News

In a year filled with celebrations around the world commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre ushers in its 20th Anniversary Season with three mainstage productions, the Classical Acting Academy, a killer FringeArts Festival run of Kill Will, a *NEW* Actors Season, and special events and lectures spread throughout the year.

Temple Theaters, with support from the George and Joy Abbott Center for Musical Theater, presents Lucky Guy: A Staged Reading, January 22-24 in the Randall Theater. Written by Willard Beckham, Lucky Guy is the tale of a singing cowboy who has the chance to become a star. The reading, starring Patrick Bishop and Rebecca Joy, is directed by Maggie Anderson and Dann Dunn, with musical direction by Gina Giachero.        

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the world premiere play TWO DOLLAR BILL, tonight, January 15, through January 30, 2016.

AMERICAN PSYCHO, the American premiere of a new musical based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis -- which celebrates the 25th anniversary of its publication this March -- will begin performances on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

BroadwayWorld is excited to report the complete cast and creative team for The Old Globe's world premiere of Anna Ziegler's THE LAST MATCH, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch (who directed Bethany at the Globe in 2014).

The timeless drama and storytelling of Shakespeare's plays have inspired generations of theatregoers across the globe for hundreds of years. In 2016, Birmingham Royal Ballet commemorates 400 years since the death of arguably the world's most prolific playwright with a rare and exceptional season of seven works including a brand-new one-act ballet from Jessica Lang, a world premiere by David Bintley plus two pieces new to the Company inspired by Shakespeare's stories, characters and prose.

He's going to put a smile on your face and song in your heart. MAURICE HINES TAPPIN' THRU LIFE is a swinging, song and dance musical that celebrates the astonishing showmanship of one of the last great tap dancers of a by-gone era still working today and whose collaborators were a jaw-dropping, who's who of theatre, music, film and television. Co-starring the fierce tap dancing Manzari brothers and the all female vivacious Diva Jazz Orchestra, the show is directed by Jeff Calhoun (Newsies, Deaf West's Big River, Grease). Performances began December 23rd at New World Stages (340 W. 50th Street), and opened just last night, January 11th. Check out photos from the big night below!

Luna Stage is proud to present The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney, hailed by The Chicago Tribune as 'The greatest piece of writing by an American playwright under 30 in a generation or more.'

Writers Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma, presents the first production in the Theatre's new home, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, directed by Michael Halberstam. The show runs March 16 - April 24, 2016 at the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre in Writer Theatre's new theater center at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe. The Press Opening is Wednesday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m.

The 2016 Apprentice/Intern Company evening of new ten-minute plays, THE TENS runs today, January 12, through January 16 in the Victor Jory Theatre at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Yale Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of THE MOORS by Jen Silverman, directed by Jackson Gay, January 29-February 20 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, February 4.

Lyric Opera of Chicago announced today that Tony Award-nominated Kate Baldwin and Paolo Montalban will star as Anna Leonowens and the King of Siam in Lyric's grand-scale production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, April 29-May 22, 2016 (press opening April 30). A graduate of Northwestern University, Baldwin last appeared onstage in Chicago in the Broadway-bound musical Big Fish. Montalban has been seen in Broadway productions of Pacific Overtures and The King and I, and is best known for starring as the Prince in ABC's telefilm of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, alongside Brandy and Whitney Houston.

Eight new shows have been announced as part of Wolverhampton Grand Theatre's new season - including the return of the hugely popular stage sensation DIRTY DANCING and the 2016 - 17 pantomime, ALADDIN.

MAURICE HINES TAPPIN' THRU LIFE is a swinging, song and dance musical that celebrates the astonishing showmanship of one of the last great tap dancers of a by-gone era still working today and whose collaborators were a jaw-dropping, who's who of theatre, music, film and television. Co-starring the fierce tap dancing Manzari brothers and the all female vivacious Diva Jazz Orchestra, the show is directed by Jeff Calhoun (Newsies, Deaf West's Big River, Grease). Performances began December 23rd at New World Stages (340 W. 50th Street), and opening night is tonight, January 11th.

Squeals of delight and blood-curdling screams of fright will fill the Allen Theatre as Cleveland Play House's (CPH) Centennial Season continues with a humorous and heartfelt production of Little Shop of Horrors. Hearkening back to its very first productions in 1915 that featured sophisticated marionettes, CPH is bringing the cheeky and blood-thirsty plant Audrey II to life in a production that will be every vocal coach's dream - and every hemophobic's worst nightmare!

Performances of MAURICE HINES TAPPIN' THRU LIFE began on December 23rd at New World Stages (340 W. 50th Street), and opening night is Monday, January 11th. Stage and screen actress Christine Ebersole recently stopped by the show and visited with the cast backstage. Check out photos below!

 To kick off her first season as the Jungle Theater's Artistic Director, Sarah Rasmussen will direct THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, one of William Shakespeare's first plays. With twists that echo in his later work, this lavish production honors and mirrors Elizabethan tradition with an all-female cast. The new version also offers a modern take on Shakespeare's own Globe Theatre, bringing 24 seats on stage to create a dynamic connection between actors and audience. The Two Gentlemen of Verona opens February 12 and runs through March 27 at the Lyn-Lake neighborhood theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave. So. in Minneapolis. 

With the critically acclaimed Show Boat currently running in the Crucible, and Partus and A Raisin in the Sun in rehearsals, Sheffield Theatres' Artistic Director Daniel Evans announces the full casts for the forthcoming productions of Waiting For Godot and the world premiere of Richard Bean's comedy thriller The Nap, both at the Crucible this spring.

St. Ann's Warehouse will continue the inaugural season in its new waterfront theater with the American Premiere of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy and writer-director Enda Walsh's thrilling new opera The Last Hotel, in a Landmark Productions / Wide Open Opera production. Singers Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams and Katherine Manley, actor Mikel Murfi, and an ensemble of New York's finest contemporary players, conducted alternately by André de Ridder and Alan Pierson, will deliver this “searingly powerful new chamber work” (The Guardian). Presented by St. Ann's Warehouse and co-presented withPROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now andIrish Arts Center, The Last Hotel comes to New York after tremendously acclaimed engagements at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Dublin Theatre Festival and the Royal Opera House in London.

Producers Karl Sydow and Paul Elliott today announced that a brand new production of DIRTY DANCING - THE CLASSIC STORY ON STAGE will tour the UK later this year, and will play at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre Mon 28 November - Saturday 3 December 2016.