Verona News

Houston Ballet continues its Shakespeare series with Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch's premiere of his interpretation of ROMEO AND JULIET, Shakespeare's ever relevant treatise on the perils of vengeance and love, on February 26. The ballet will be set to Sergei Prokofiev's masterful score and will feature sets and costumes by acclaimed Italian designer, Roberta Guidi di Bagno.

Despite some flaws, this is a riveting production with immersion staging that puts us right there in the jury room.

Earlier this season, Folger Theatre announced plans to expand programming towards young patrons with Brews and Banter, a new pre-show behind-the-scenes conversation about the plays being performed on the Folger stage. Patrons are encouraged to peek behind the curtain with Folger actors engage with the greatest literature in the world at the world's largest Shakespeare library.

Today in 1957, The Taming of the Shrew openend at the Phoenix Theatre, where it ran for 23 performances. A comedy by William Shakespeare, the play is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591. The main plot depicts the courtship of Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, and Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate shrew. Initially, Katherina is an unwilling participant in the relationship, but Petruchio tempers her with various psychological torments-the 'taming'-until she becomes a compliant and obedient bride. The subplot features a competition between the suitors of Katherina's more desirable sister, Bianca.

The Old Globe's West Coast Premiere of The Twenty-seventh Man by award-winning novelist Nathan Englander, directed by Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, will now play an extra week of performances -- through March 22, 2015. Tony and Emmy Award winner Hal Linden ('Barney Miller,' The Rothschilds) leads a cast of Broadway and Globe veterans including Ron Orbach, Robert Dorfman, Eli Gelb, James Shanklin, and Lowell Byers. Opening night is tonight, February 19 at 8:00 p.m., and BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Utah Opera tests the limits of friendship, fidelity, and credibility in the production of Mozart's 'Così fan tutte' to see if love can indeed conquer and resist all. Conducted by Will Crutchfield and directed by Crystal Manich, this is the third production of Utah Opera's 2014-15 season. The performances are from March14 to 20 at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre at 7:30 p.m., with a matinée performance on Sunday, March 22, at 2 p.m.

Internationally acclaimed director, Trevor Nunn will direct drama school students in a production of TWO GENTLEMAN OF VERONA. The play will open at The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Theatre on April 30 and run until May 12.

Great Lakes Theater (GLT), Cleveland's Classic Company, commences the second half its 2015-16 season with Frederick Knott's murder mystery masterpiece, Dial "M" for Murder. The production will be performed in the company's intimate and audience-friendly home at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, February 27 - March 22, 2015. Charles Fee, GLT's Producing Artistic Director, directs the production. Dial "M" for Murder is presented through special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

Great Lakes Theater (GLT), Cleveland's Classic Company, commences the second half its 2015-16 season with Frederick Knott's murder mystery masterpiece, Dial "M" for Murder. The production will be performed in the company's intimate and audience-friendly home at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, February 27 - March 22, 2015. Charles Fee, GLT's Producing Artistic Director, directs the production. Dial "M" for Murder is presented through special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

The Old Globe welcomes Tony and Emmy Award winner Hal Linden ('Barney Miller,' The Rothschilds) to star in the West Coast Premiere of The Twenty-seventh Man by award-winning novelist Nathan Englander, directed by Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. The cast also features Ron Orbach, Robert Dorfman, Eli Gelb, James Shanklin, andLowell Byers. The Twenty-seventh Man will run tonight, February 14 through March 15 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Opening night is Thursday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast below!

Happy Birthday Stockard Channing! In 1971, she made her Broadway debut in Two Gentlemen of Verona - The Musical, working with playwright John Guare. She also appeared on Broadway in 1973 in a supporting role in No Hard Feelings. In 1978, at the age of 33, she took on the role of high school teenager Betty Rizzo in the hit musical Grease. Additional Broadway credits include: They're Playing Our Song, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, Woman in Mind, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, and The Lion in Winter. She is currently starrign on Broadway in Other Desert Cities at the Booth Theatre.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? This weekend's big news: ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY begins tonight, THE LAST FIVE YEARS movie debuts and Broadway's THE AUDIENCE starts on Valentine's Day!

Today's February 13 edition of ESPN Today Night Fights presented by Corona Extra and ESPN Deportes' Noche de Combates presentado por Corona Extra will feature the quarterfinals of the junior middleweight portion of Boxcino 2015.

Park Square continues its 2014-2015 season with a passionate, youthful rendition of William Shakespeare's greatest love story, ROMEO AND JULIET. Adapted and directed by David Mann, this production on the Boss Stage features a limited number of public performances February 27 - March 8, 2015.

Bestselling author David Blixt ("The Master Of Verona," "Her Majesty's Will") returns with the thrilling fourth novel in his acclaimed Star-Cross'd series. Inspired as both an actor and historian, Blixt takes the real people of Dante's time and blends them with the timeless characters from Shakespeare's Italian plays. The result is a smashing novel of historical fiction, alternately hilarious and harrowing. Set in the year 1328, the city of Verona has just won its decade-long war with Padua, but lost an even longer war with the stars. Heartbroken from the events of "Fortune's Fool" (2012), young prodigy Cesco turns his troubled brilliance to darker purposes, embracing a riotous life and challenging not only the lord of Verona and the Catholic Church, but the stars themselves. Protecting him is Dante's son Pietro, who welcomes the plots and intrigues of the Veronese court, hoping they will shake the young man out of his torpor. But when the first body falls, it becomes clear that this new game is deadly, one that will doom them all. "The Prince's Doom" is available now in trade paperback from Sordelet Ink, and will be released on Amazon Kindle on February 24th, 2015. Sharon Kay Penman, acclaimed author of "The Sunne In Splendour," says of Blixt, 'For anyone who has yet to read David's novels, you are about to hit the literary lottery. Yes, he's that good.' C.W. Gortner (The Last Queen) says, 'David Blixt is a master of historical fiction. Dramatic, vivid, superbly researched, this series captures Renaissance Italy in all its heady glamour and lethal intrigue.' Blixt's previous novel, "Fortune's Fool," was the Editor's Choice of the Historical Novel Society: 'This is one of the most exciting, and satisfying, reads that I have immersed myself in for a long time. David Blixt is a gem of a writer.' Born in Ann Arbor and now a Chicago actor, director, and playwright, David Blixt has been seen on the stages of the Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, First Folio Shakespeare, Northlight, Lifeline, Griffin, as well as the Shakespeare Theatre of DC. He is a longtime Artistic Associate of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, and founding member of A Crew Of Patches Theatre Company. This is his seventh novel.

Philadelphia Theatre Company's continues its 40th Anniversary season with the Tony Award-nominated play Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally tonight, February 6, through March 8. Directed by Wendy Goldberg, the cast features Hugh Kennedy, Emmy Award-winning actress Michael Learned, James Lloyd Reynolds, and Patrick Gibbons and Jacob D. Wilner in alternating performances.

Believing that anything is possible, believing that magic can be found anywhere, and above all believing in oneself are all lessons to be found in ArtsPower National Touring Theatre's new musical version of the beloved children's classic The Little Engine That Could Earns Her Whistle. The Little Blue Engine, against all odds, finds a way to conquer her fears and demonstrate the extraordinary strength of 'I think I can!' This original production is being presented at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts today, February 6.

The Old Globe's West Coast Premiere of The Twenty-seventh Man by award-winning novelist Nathan Englander, directed by Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, will now play an extra week of performances -- through March 22 -- due to ticket demand for the originally announced run. Tony and Emmy Award winner Hal Linden ("Barney Miller," The Rothschilds) leads a cast of Broadway and Globe veterans including Ron Orbach, Robert Dorfman, Eli Gelb, James Shanklin, and Lowell Byers. The Twenty-seventh Man will run February 14 through March 22 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run February 14-18. Opening night is Thursday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m.

Happy Birthday, John Guare! He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body. Guare has also been involved with musical theatre. His libretto with Mel Shapiro for the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona was a success when it premiered in 1971 and was revived in 2005 at the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park. It won the two men the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. He wrote the songs for Landscape of the Body. In 1999, he revised the book of the Cole Porter musical comedy, Kiss Me, Kate for its Broadway revival. He also wrote the book for the Broadway musical Sweet Smell of Success.