Rob McClure, who originated the role of Chaplin at the La Jolla Playhouse, will star in the title role of the new Broadway musical CHAPLIN. A new musical depicting the life of film icon Charlie Chaplin, with music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis and book by three-time Tony Award-winner Thomas Meehan (Annie, The Producers, Hairspray) and Christopher Curtis, CHAPLIN will open on Broadway on Monday, September 10, 2012 at the Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street). Previews will begin Tuesday, August 21, 2012. Acclaimed director/choreographer Warren Carlyle (Finian's Rainbow, Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway) directs and choreographs the production. Additional casting and additional creative team to be announced soon.
Sutton Foster took time out from her busy filming schedule on the LA set of BUNHEADS to chat about why she made the decision to take on a TV role at this point in her career and her future plans to return to the Broadway stage.
Christian Borle, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for PETER AND THE STARCATCHER
'It's been an awfully nice morning! I'm happy and just so very proud of the show. It's been a few years leading up to now. This is just enormously gratifying. I woke up this morning and turned on NY1 and watched. I just got a new sound bar for my TV so I think I'm going to sit down and watch 'The Empire Strikes Back.' That will be my celebration for the day!'
We're pleased to bring you Seth's latest candid chat with Broadway favorite Melissa Errico. After a sold out previous appearance at JOE'S PUB, 'Melissa Errico Back for More!' returns to the famed venue on April 17th at 7pm, directed by Richard Jay-Alexander and with musical direction by John Oddo.
Yesterday, March 21, Broadway favorite Rosie O'Donnell celebrated her 50th birthday, and she got a very special birthday message from some of Broadway's biggest stars- including: Chita Rivera, Ricky Martin, Joel Grey and more. Click below to check it out!
Broadway Theatre Project (BTP), which has spent the past two decades helping thousands of young, aspiring actors, singers and dancers to realize their potential in the performing arts, gets a taste of another vehicle with a similar purpose, FOX's American Idol, when the television series' Associate Musical Director, Michael Orland, and Vocal Coach, Peisha McPhee, visit the Tampa-based summer musical theatre intensive this summer.
BASE Entertainment has just announced that DINER, a new musical based on the critically acclaimed 1982 film with a book by Academy Award winner and original DINER screenwriter Barry Levinson and music & lyrics by 9-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, will have its pre-Broadway world premiere at San Francisco's SHN Curran Theatre (445 Geary Street). Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, DINER will play a strictly limited four week engagement from Tuesday, October 23, 2012, through Sunday, November 18, 2012, with an opening night of Friday, November 2, 2012. Due to these confirmed San Francisco dates DINER will now bow on Broadway in the spring of 2013, instead of the fall of 2012 as previously announced. Design team and casting will be announced at a later date.
The 15th and grand finale edition of THE BROADWAY BEARS, the annual auction of handmade, one-of-a-kind, theatrically costumed teddy bears, raised a record-setting $198,300 on Sunday, benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Broadway lovers and teddy bear collectors came together yesterday, March 18 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill (237 West 42nd Street) for one last time to bid on - and bid adieu to - museum-quality bears representing legendary theatrical characters and autographed by the stars who made those characters famous.
The cumulative fundraising total for the 15 editions of THE BROADWAY BEARS auctions is a remarkable $2,048,427. The previous fund-raising record was $170,000 set in 2002.
The 15th and grand finale edition of THE BROADWAY BEARS, the annual auction of handmade, one-of-a-kind, theatrically costumed teddy bears, raised a record-setting $198,300 on Sunday, benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
It is a rare enough occurrence for a genuine born and bred Broadway star to emerge post-millennium, but one as astonishingly versatile as Raul Esparza, having scored accolades since his blazing debut in a string of hit plays and musicals, ranging from Mamet and Sondheim and Pinter to CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG and his aforementioned Broadway bow in THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, is a downright cause for celebration. Esparza makes his grand return to the Broadway stage in a musical with his upcoming starring role in Alan Menken & Glenn Slater's adaptation of the Steve Martin film LEAP OF FAITH, featuring a country and gospel influenced score and a spirited, energetic production by Christopher Ashley (who, incidentally, helmed Esparza's first Broadway show, ROCKY HORROR). While Esparza has been seen in many - most, if not quite all - Broadway seasons in the decade since 2001, he has also scored in leading roles in regional productions such as 2002's spectacular SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE and MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG revivals, part of the unprecedented Sondheim Celebration, as well as the Cincinnati Playhouse COMPANY, directed by John Doyle, which transferred to Broadway and was subsequently preserved on DVD and Blu-ray, in addition to being presented on PBS as part of Great Performances. Besides Esparza's many notable musical revival performances (lest we forget his essaying of the Emcee in CABARET), he also created the Broadway iterations of his roles in the controversial and brilliantly scored TABOO, produced by Rosie O'Donnell and composed by Boy George, as well as the stage adaptation of the hit family classic CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, as well as originating the lead role in TICK, TICK...BOOM! Having played three of Sondheim's most memorable male roles was not enough, though, apparently, for Esparza recently took on the part of the hapless Hapgood in Sondheim's ANYONE CAN WHISTLE when it was revived at City Center's Encores! - with Tony-winners Donna Murphy and Sutton Foster his co-stars, no less - with much success. Yet, in one of a myriad of examples of the broad spectrum of Esparza's abilities, it is instructive to remember he first made a name for himself with the role of Che in an Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice show, directed by no less than the ultimate man of the theatre himself, Harold Prince - EVITA, which, of course, is being revived this season with Ricky Martin in the role of Che. Besides Esparza's many musical roles throughout the past decade and prior, he has also carved out a seriously impressive straight drama resume, having appeared in plays by the great playwrights of our age, such as Pinter (THE HOMECOMING), Mamet (SPEED-THE-PLOW), Stoppard (ARCADIA) and, the greatest of all, Shakespeare (AS YOU LIKE IT, part of Shakespeare In The Park). ROCKY HORROR to ARCADIA to, now, with LEAP OF FAITH, Esparza constantly and consistently surprises fans and audiences alike with his audacious choice in roles and electrifying performances that are indelibly enjoyable in their uniqueness, variety and sheer breadth of emotion - time and time again. Yes, indeed, Raul Esparza is the best of the best Broadway has to offer, so let us hope LEAP OF FAITH is the ideal star vehicle for one of the most charismatic and multi-talented leading men of the 21st century and that it brings him his well-deserved Best Actor Tony at last.
Alfred R. Kahn, in association with Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director), will present the Off-Broadway Premiere of Out of Iceland by Drew Larimore, directed by Josh Hecht. Michael Bakkensen, Jillian Crane and Lea DeLaria star. Out of Iceland will begin previews March 24th Off-Broadway at Walkerspace (46 Walker Street, between Broadway and Church). Opening night is set for Sunday April 1st (7pm). This limited engagement runs through Sunday April 22nd.
Celebrity judges for the sixth annual The Broadway Beauty Pageant have been announced. Jackie Hoffman (The Addams Family), pop culture columnist Michael Musto, and Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change) have been tapped to judge the event which will take place on Monday evening, March 19th, at 8p.m. at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th St.). The popular event is the annual benefit of New York's Ali Forney Center.
Coming to the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre direct from Broadway for six weeks only, the Kennedy Center's critically acclaimed Broadway production of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's "Follies," has now completed casting. "Follies" stars four-time Tony Award nominee Jan Maxwell as Phyllis Rogers Stone, Tony Award winner Victoria Clark, two-time Tony Award nominee Danny Burstein as Buddy Plummer, three-time Emmy Award nominee Ron Raines as Benjamin Stone and Olivier Award winner Elaine Paige as Carlotta Campion. Maxwell, Burstein, Raines and Paige are all returning to the roles they originated on Broadway.
The contestants for the sixth annual The Broadway Beauty Pageant have been announced. Participants include Andrew Chappelle (Mamma Mia!), Wilkie Ferguson (Porgy and Bess), Corey Mach (Godspell), Jesse Swimm (Mary Poppins), and Anthony Wayne (Priscilla Queen of the Desert). Brent Barrett (Chicago) and past Pageant winners Frankie James Grande (Mamma Mia!) and Michael Cusumano (Chicago) are set to perform. As previously announced, four-time Tony nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning actress Tovah Feldshuh will host the event which will take place on Monday evening, March 19th, 8p.m., at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th St.). The popular event is the annual benefit of New York's Ali Forney Center.
According to the New York Times, Playwrights Horizons will present FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath), in Spring 2013. The show will also play Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer. The musical was adapted from the acclaimed, award-winning 2002 Focus Features/Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes.
Four-time Tony nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning actress Tovah Feldshuh has been announced as host of The Broadway Beauty Pageant. Tickets go on-sale today for Broadway's sixth annual beauty contest, set for Monday evening, March 19th, 8p.m., at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th St.). The popular event is the annual benefit of New York's Ali Forney Center.
Acclaimed actress Jessica Chastain, winner of 2011 New York, Los Angeles and Chicago Film Critics and National Board of Review Awards and recently nominated for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, will make her Broadway debut starring in the Tony Award®-winning play The Heiress.
Hugh Jackman will return to Broadway during the 2013/2014 season starring as America's greatest showman in HOUDINI, an original musical. Making his Broadway debut as librettist, Academy Award and six-time Emmy Award winner Aaron Sorkin will collaborate with three-time Academy Award and four-time Grammy Award winner Stephen Schwartz. Directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien, HOUDINI is presented by film and theatre producer Scott Sanders and David Rockwell. Mr. Rockwell will also design the sets for HOUDINI. Additional HOUDINI casting, creative team and design team to be announced at a later date.
Tony Award-winner Hugh Jackman will close the successful BACK ON BROADWAY limited engagement today.
This year's Children's Theatre season has been one of the biggest ever, having, for the first time, brought a Disney production to the Way Off Broadway stage with Disney's 101 Dalmatians at the beginning of the year and a regional theatre premiere of Dora the Explorer Live! Dora's Pirate Adventure this past fall.
Casting for the Los Angeles engagement of Follies has not yet been announced, and while it is presumed that at least some of the cast will be heading west, one star who will not make the trip is Bernadette Peters, who plays Sally Durant. A spokesperson for Peters tells BroadwayWorld that the star has concert obligations she must fulfill next spring, which will prevent her from continuing with the production. Peters will, of course, finish out the Broadway run through January 22.
The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell Bernard, Trustee) has just announced that its 2011 donation to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS will total $1.2 million dollars, marking the largest single contribution in BC/EFA history. The foundation, which is funded by royalties from the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb's vast catalogue of work, makes an annual donation to BC/EFA. This contribution tops last year's donation of $1 million dollars which was, at the time, the largest single contribution in BC/EFA history.
Producers Hal Luftig and Scott Sanders have announced additional casting and the creative team for the new production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's landmark musical EVITA, opening April 5, 2012 at the Marquis Theatre (1535 Broadway). Previews begin Monday, March 12, 2012. Joining the previously announced stars of EVITA - world renowned music artist Ricky Martin as Che, Olivier Award-winning Argentinean actress Elena Roger in her Broadway debut as Eva Peron and Tony Award-winner Michael Cerveris as Juan Peron - are Max Von Essen as Magaldi, Rachel Potter as the Mistress, and Christina DeCicco as the alternate/standby for Eva Peron. Alternate performances to be announced.
After triumphing on Broadway and in the Bay Area with Brief Encounter, Kneehigh Theatre Company is back.
Tony Award-winner Hugh Jackman is currently starring in Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway, playing through January 1 2012 at The Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). Accompanied by an 18-piece orchestra, Hugh Jackman performs a personal selection of his favorite musical numbers that reflect on the stage and film star's remarkable life and career, from The Boy from Oz to Hollywood.
Jackman recently visited ANDERSON, where he was introduced to Cooper's stage manger, who also happens to resemble the Aussie. Click below to watch the video!
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