Williamstown Theatre News

Williamstown Theatre Festival honored Award-winning director and frequent WTF collaborator Scott Ellis, at last night's benefit at the Edison Ballroom in New York City. The evening was hosted by Julie White, who won a Tony Award for her performance in the Ellis-helmed production of The Little Dog Laughed, and included appearances by Tony Award-winners Chita Rivera, Susan Stroman, Rupert Holmes and more. BroadwayWorld was there for the special night and you can check out photos from inside the event below!

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University and the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research (formerly known as the Du Bois Institute), in conjunction with Hilton Als of The New Yorker, will present a staged reading of Alice Childress's Wedding Band: A Love-Hate Story in Black and White, co-directed by Hilton Als and A.R.T. Artistic Associate Shira Milikowsky. It takes place at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, starting at 7:30pm, and will be followed by a post-reading discussion.

Williamstown Theatre Festival's 2013 benefit will honor Award-winning director and frequent WTF collaborator Scott Ellis, today, Monday, November 18th at 6:30 p.m. at the Edison Ballroom in New York City (240 West 47th Street). The evening is hosted by Julie White, who won a Tony Award for her performance in the Ellis-helmed production of The Little Dog Laughed, and includes appearances by Tony Award-winners Chita Rivera, Susan Stroman, Rupert Holmes and more.

Holiday cheer will abound at Cleveland Play House (CPH) with an all-new production of the beloved holiday classic, A Christmas Story running from Nov. 29th - Dec. 22nd in the Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the unforgettable film, CPH enthusiastically breathes new life into this classic story about Ralphie and his ultimate Christmas wish. Having delighted audiences for 30 years on both the big and small screens, this incredible production is brought to vivid life on stage for Northeast Ohio audiences. Tickets are on sale now and may be purchased by calling (216) 241-6000 or online at www.clevelandplayhouse.com. CPH is pleased to have University Hospitals as the Presenting Sponsor of A Christmas Story, along with Benesch, Nordson and FirstMerit as Supporting Sponsors.

Move over Grinch; Santa Claus is coming to town and taking up residence at Rubicon Theatre in Ventura! Rubicon's November/ December HOLIDAY CENTRAL calendar offers a sparkling array of more than 35 shows and events for all ages. The festivities begin with the return of a holiday revue with six Broadway singers and a local children's chorus; followed by a late-night adult comedy presented in a cabaret setting; a poetic reading of wartime love letters; and culminating with an enchanting new musical from the Tony and Olivier Award-winning director of Les Miserables and Nicholas Nickleby and the creators of Jane Eyre and Daddy Long Legs, who will have a five-week residency at Rubicon during the holidays.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced their zesty line-up of impressive talent for the month of December 2013. Featuring: Michael Feinstein, Stacey Kent, Jazz Stories with Eddie Gomez, Kenny Barron, Al Foster, Wallace Roney, Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Cabaret, Cheyenne Jackson, Donna McKechnie, Frank Wildhorn & Friends with Jeremy Jordan, Laura Osnes, Jane Monheit and more, A Swinging Birdland Christmas, Native Soul, Victoria Shaw, Natalie Toro, Shoshana Bush, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more!

Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce will return to the hysterically funny and affecting new play “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” this time directing the play which earned him his most recent Tony nomination. Christopher Durang's Tony-winning farce will be performed at the Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum, January 29 through March 9, 2014, and will feature two Tony-nominated members of the Broadway cast.

The Vineyard Theatre world-premiere production of the musical THE LANDING - with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, music by John Kander and directed by Walter Bobbie - will conclude its acclaimed run with a special VIP benefit reception for patrons following the final performance on Sunday, November 24 at 3 p.m. at The Vineyard. (108 E. 15 St.) A $200 VIP ticket includes premium seating for the show as well as a champagne toast with the musical's cast and creative team onstage after the performance. For reservations and information contact Julie Erhart at 212-353-3366 or jerhart@vineyardtheatre.org.

Asolo Repertory Theatre is proud to add I LOVED, I LOST, I MADE SPAGHETTI to its 2013-2014 season. Jacques Lamarre's saucy stage adaptation of Giulia Melucci's memoir will star Antoinette LaVecchia as Melucci, an Italian-American writer living in Brooklyn with an entertainingly unsuccessful love life. Previews for the show will be held May 18 and May 20, 2014 and the show will run from May 21 through June 15, 2014 in Asolo Rep's Cook Theatre.

MCC THEATER today announced that Steven Boyer, previously announced to reprise his celebrated, Obie Award-winning performance in MCC's upcoming Off-Broadway premiere of Robert Askins' Hand to God, will be joined in that production by Tony Award nominee Marc Kudisch as well asGeneva Carr, Michael Oberholtzer, and Sarah Stiles. Hand to God, which first appeared in New York to great acclaim at the Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) in 2011, will be directed once again by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and begins at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on February 20, 2014. An official opening night is set for March 10, 2014.

The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell Bernard, Trustee) in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) will present the ninth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, will be presented by Joel Grey on Monday, December 2nd from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lounge of The American Airlines Theater.

Playwrights Horizons previously announced that the critically-acclaimed score for their World Premiere production of the new musical FAR FROM HEAVEN had been preserved as an Original Cast Recording and will be released by PS Classics, the label dedicated to the heritage of Broadway and American popular song, today, November 12.

For 60 years, the Tony Award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival has been Broadway's summer home, where renowned stars of stage and screen work alongside America's next generation of up and comers. This January, for the first time ever, the Festival's legendary, irrepressible Late-Night Cabaret brings some Berkshire summer to the Big Apple for four nights only (January 15 - 18, 2014), at 54 Below (254 West 54th St).

Broadway actress, writer and filmmaker Christine Toy Johnson performs for one night only at Stage 72 (formerly the Triad) tonight, November 11, 2013 at 7:00pm as the final artist in Motown The Musical director Charles Randolph-Wright's 'Three Voices' concert series, which has also featured Nita Whitaker and Dodie Pettit.

It's back - the funny, smart, and irreverent musical Nerds! Philadelphia Theatre Company revisits the musical satire Nerds with book and lyrics by Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner, music by Hal Goldberg, and a brand new cast and creative team. Directed by Casey Hushion with choreography by Joshua Bergasse, the ensemble features Stanley Bahorek, Matt Bradley, Briana Carlson-Goodman, Benny Elledge, Lexy Fridell, Raymond J. Lee, Alyse Alan Louis, Robert Morrison, Kevin Pariseau, Catherine Ricafort, and Blake Segal.

The Old Globe presents The Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program presentation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, running tonight, Nov. 9 - Nov. 17 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Opening night is tonight, Nov. 9 at 8:00 p.m.

Victor Lesniewski, in association with Plum Productions, is proud to present Cloven Tongues, the new play by Lesniewski, which will premiere at New York City's The Wild Project under the direction of Michelle Bossy. The production will star Ema Lakovi? (Displaced Wedding), Casey Biggs ('Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'), Alex Mickiewicz (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Catherine Curtin ('Orange Is the New Black').

Pittsburgh CLO has announced that the world premiere of Judge Jackie Justice - A New Musical Comedy will debut at the CLO Cabaret Theater on January 30 and will run through April 27. CMU graduates Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond are writing the musical, commissioned for the CLO's Cabaret Theater with dramaturgy by Mary Jane Brennan. The show is conceived and will be directed by Pittsburgh CLO Executive Producer Van Kaplan with choreography by Kiesha Lalama and musical direction by Michael Moricz.

At First Sight (and Other Stories) is a 90-minute compilation of some of their most celebrated works mixed with vignettes created especially for this production - written, directed, and featuring the company of BKBX- each piece designed to take the audience on a journey from epic fantasy adventure to the intimate and very real moments of everyday life. Weaving comedy and drama through the show's fabric, At First Sight (and Other Stories) will entertain as well as enlighten. The show runs Todays - Saturdays: November 7 - 9, 14 - 16, and 21 - 23 @ 7:30 p.m. Matinees: November 9, 16, and 23 @ 2:00 p.m.

In celebration of its fourth season, Sanguine Theatre Company will produce EXIT 27, a new work by award-winning playwright, Aleks Merilo and directed by Mark Karafin. Based on a true story, EXIT 27 combines the themes of rejection, survival, and redemption in exploration of the human experience. As the overwhelming winner of Sanguine's highly competitive playwriting competition, EXIT 27 brings a stirring perspective of raw human nature in its NYC premiere.