Verona News

The Smith Center announced today that single tickets for The National Tour of THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS, winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, will go on sale today, Feb. 21 at 10 a.m.

Great Lakes Theater (GLT), Cleveland's Classic Company, commences the second half its 2014-15 season with Ira Levin's murder mystery masterpiece, Deathtrap. The production will be performed in the company's intimate and audience-friendly home at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, today, February 21 - March 16, 2014. Charles Fee, GLT's Producing Artistic Director, directs the production.

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.

From March 7 through April 5, 2014, SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the New England premiere of the acclaimed Off-Broadway drama THE WHALE by Samuel D. Hunter.

Perhaps the most controversial opera of the 20th century makes its Southern California debut when Long Beach Opera (LBO) stages John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer on March 16 and March 22 at the Terrace Theater in downtown Long Beach. This powerful and unsettling work chronicles the 1985 hijacking of the Mediterranean cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian terrorists and the murder of disabled Jewish-American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer. LBO's production is a partner presentation of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 'Minimalist Jukebox' Festival.

Hey there, reader! Hope you're doing well. Me? I'm doing alright, thanks for asking. A few days ago? Not so great. I either had a stomach bug or food poisoning, which sucked!!! Luckily it happened on our day off so I did not vomit on my cast mates (I'm sorry to give you that visual...so disgusting) but we did come up with a fun game; throughout last night's show we tried to find the most hilarious moments for an unfortunate puking accident. It turns out that our inner musicians shined really brightly at this game because it was either always in rhythm or on the button of a song. For example, we do the song 'Saturday Night' by the Bay City Rollers so in our game it would go 'S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y *barf*'

Country superstar Darius Rucker was forced to cancel his show tonight at Giant Center in Hershey Park, Hershey, Pennsylvania due to severe weather conditions associated with the winter storm impacting the area. The concert will be rescheduled for Monday, March 3. Unfortunately True Believers Tour special guests Eli Young Band and David Nail both have conflicts on the new date, but additional acts to accompany Rucker will be announced soon.

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2014 preview performances begin tonight, February 14, and the season will open Friday night, February 21 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's The Tempest (director, Tony Taccone). On Saturday, Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (Juliette Carrillo) takes the stage, as does the classic Marx Brothers musical The Cocoanuts (David Ivers), and Sunday afternoon Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (Kent Gash) opens in the Thomas Theatre.

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston presents DEATH OF A SALESMAN, running tonight, February 14 - March 15, 2014. The play, by Arthur Miller, will be directed by Spiro Veloudos.

The Smith Center announced today that single tickets for The National Tour of THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS, winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, will go on sale Feb. 21 at 10 a.m.

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.

Sony Classical is pleased to announce the release of Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko's newest album, Arabesque, which was recorded with the NDR Sinfonieorchester

STACEY ORISTANO, currently appearing in Off-Broadway's acclaimed musical DISASTER! in the role of 'Jackie' -- and known to millions for her roles in the acclaimed TV series 'Bunheads' and 'Friday Night Lights' -- will be featured in tomorrow evening's (Tuesday, 2/11) broadcast of Bravo-TV's 'Watch What Happens Live' as the guest bartender.

According to Out, Tony nominee Norm Lewis might be heading back to the stage in a musical based on the life of Nelson Mandela, which is aiming for a future Broadway run. Michael Musto writes: 'On March 31, there will be a backer's presentation for the show about the South African leader, with Lewis in the lead role.'

Physical Theatre artist Linda Peck brings her enthralling, zany Circus of One to Ocean State Theatre in Warwick for one show only tonight, February 8, 2014.

We might have had the most entertaining performance of Disaster! yet this week, and when I say entertaining, I mean for us cast members; the audience seemed to enjoy the show but we were losing it backstage. On Tuesday nights, our curtain is usually at 7:30pm but something was wrong with the sound system so we held curtain until 8pm to give the stage management team time to fix whatever was happening (in all honesty, I have no clue what was wrong but bless our awesome sound engineer, Nissa Syverson, for dealing with the madness).

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the charming Shakespearean comedy Much Ado About Nothing, February 21 through March 8, 2014.

Great Lakes Theater (GLT), Cleveland's Classic Company, commences the second half its 2014-15 season with Ira Levin's murder mystery masterpiece, Deathtrap. The production will be performed in the company's intimate and audience-friendly home at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, February 21 - March 16, 2014. Charles Fee, GLT's Producing Artistic Director, directs the production.

Home Free, the winners of the competitive fourth season of The Sing Off, whose performances captivated millions and launched the group into the national spotlight, has signed with Columbia Records. Their major label debut album Crazy Life is available digitally now and immediately hit #1 on the iTunes country chart and #4 on the overall iTunes chart. The physical album will be available on February 18. You can download the album here: http://smarturl.it/HomeFreeIT.

Two additional performances for the world premiere of Measure for Measure at The New Victory Theater have been added on Thursday, March 6 at 7pm and Thursday, March 13 at 7pm for a total of 21 performances (14 public performances).