David Alan Grier has been cast as Cogsworth in ABC's upcoming animated and live-action blended special, “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration.” Grier will join the previously announced H.E.R. in the role of Belle, Joshua Henry as Gaston, Josh Groban as the Beast, and Rita Moreno as the Narrator.
Stars from Broadway and West End will pay tribute to 8-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken on September 23rd with a concert and on September 24th with a concert and award ceremony where the acclaimed composer and songwriter will be honored with the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award by the city of Vienna.
At the opening night performance of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on April 23, Artistic Director Joseph C. Walsh announced Garden Theatre’s upcoming 15th season. Current subscribers may renew their subscriptions immediately. New subscriptions begin at $96 and go on sale May 24. All single tickets go on sale July 6.
A tale as old as time comes to Winter Garden! Featuring Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and a Book by Linda Woolverton, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast will captivate audiences of all ages with the story of Belle and the Beast’s magical castle. Directed by the Garden’s Artistic Directing Consultant Roberta Emerson, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast runs April 22 - May 22, 2022.
David Archuleta has revealed his latest single & video, “Beast”, it’s one of his more personal songs to date. The new track comes on the heels of his most recent release, “Movin’” which featured not one, but two versions of the song. Watch the new music video now!
In his one-man show, Menken will lead the audience through a journey of more than 35 years of hit songs, movies and musicals – Little Shop of Horrors, Sister Act, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, Enchanted, Tangled and many more!
Laura Benanti reprised her role as First Lady Melania Trump one last time on lastnight's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The Walt Disney Family Museum will host Oscar-, Grammy-, Tony- and Golden Globe-winning composer and songwriter Alan Menken for an intimate evening of music and storytelling. Streamed live on Thursday, August 6th, this special event will be presented in two partsa?"a paid fundraising program followed by a free musical performance.
When you wish upon a star, once in a lifetime you'll hear a song as unforgettable and beloved as a?oeUnder the Seaa??, a?oeBe Our Guesta??, a?oeSeize the Daya??, a?oeA Whole New Worlda??, or a?oeI See the Lighta??. When you wish upon New York-songwriter and film composer Alan Menken, you experience the genius and imagination of his musical works a hundred lifetimes over. This year, Hollywood in Vienna CEO & Founder Sandra Tomek is pleased to announce that the incomparable Alan Menken will be recognized by the City of Vienna with this year's Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award.
On May 15 Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) will release his 5th studio album, Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, via Matador Records. Today, he shares the first single, “Describe,” a track that captures a sense of living in the moment through a heavy fog of grisly distortion and tumbling slide guitars. Hadreas notes, “it started as a really somber ballad. It was very minimal and very slow. And then it turned into this beast of a song. I started writing about when you are in such a dark place that you don't even remember what goodness is or what anything feels like. And so, the idea was having someone describe that to you, because you forgot or can't get to it.” Its accompanying video, self-directed by Hadreas, envisions “an end of the world where there are no boundaries, there are no edges, no rules, or the rules are completely new with how you interact with each other and the space around you.'
Grammy-nominated rock band Avenged Sevenfold have released their platinum-certified CD, Diamonds in the Rough, digitally for the very first time today via Warner Records. Originally released in 2008 as a compilation CD of B-sides recorded during the making of the band's self-titled debut, the new digital version is expanded by five new tracks, including recently-released track “Set Me Free,”as well as other hard-to-find tracks such as “St, James,” “4AM,” “Lost It All,” and the band's cover of Black Sabbath's “Paranoid.” Diamonds In The Rough is also available on limited edition clear vinyl starting today. On March 6, the audio from Live In The LBC, which was originally released as a live DVD from the band's 2008 show at Long Beach Arena, will be released digitally.
In addition to the previously announced world premières of Milky Peaks and For The Grace of You Go I, Tamara Harvey and Liam Evans-Ford, Artistic Director and Executive Director of Theatr Clwyd today announce further programming for their 2020 season, which will include a major revival of Steve Waters' The Contingency Plan a?" in a co-production with the Donmar Warehouse, the world première of Project Hush, and Beauty and the Beast, the company's twenty-third annual rock 'n' roll pantomime, which sees Harvey make her pantomime directorial debut. The company today also announces the full cast and tour dates for Seiriol Davies' Milky Peaks.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST opens on November 29 at Garden Grove's historic GEM THEATRE presented by the award-winning One More Productions - one of Southern California's leading musical theater companies.
The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts' annual production of The Nutcracker is undergoing a major design transformation made possible by a gift of $202,000 from Mary C. DeFeudis, honorary director of the theatre's board of directors and an original founding member from the theatre's 2008 opening. Audiences will be the first to experience all-new scenic and lighting designs by Broadway's Christine Peters and Paul Miller.
Disney has officially been making magic on Broadway for 25 years! As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Disney on Broadway is partnering with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS to put on a special benefit to celebrate the momentous occasion. We're getting in on the celebration by looking back at Disney's show-stopping productions, from classics like Beauty and the Beast and Newsies to current favorites like Aladdin and Frozen. Check it all out!
As parents, we try to instill in our children the idea that it is what's inside a person that counts. Shrek the Musical is certainly an apropos vessel in which to deliver this message when its green, bulbous-nosed, full-of-gas star is a sensitive and clever romantic wrapped up in a gloriously hideous package. Shrek is one of the musicals that have made the successful transition from film to stage. Its Broadway opening in 2008 garnered both Tony and Drama Desk Awards. Its themes of inclusivity, pride, and resilience resonate across all ages and backgrounds, making it a story that withstands the test of time.
Well, the next step in my decluttering/digitizing journey is throwing out my Chess CDs, not that they take up much space. I only have the Original Concept Recording and the Broadway cast. I'm going to download the freaking 2008 Royal Albert Hall concert version (with Idina Menzel, Josh Groban and Adam Pascal) to try to keep this column hip. But let's all just remember two things: 1.) I am not hip; and, 2.) I'm just downloading the concert for this column, so it doesn't really count as part of my digitizing.
The 5th Avenue Theatre has announced an incredible six-show lineup for its 201920 season. First, The 5th will stage a lavish production of Austen's Pride, A New Musical of Pride and Prejudice. For the holidays, The 5th will create a brand new staging of Shrek The Musical, which premiered at The 5th in 2008. The New Year kicks off with Stu for Silverton, which continues its developmental journey as a part of The 5th's New Musical Development Program. Next comes a joyful 5th Avenue Theatre original production of Sister Act, followed by an exclusive, limited two-week engagement of Once On This Island. The season will close with an original staging of the epic masterpiece, Evita. Additionally, The 5th will host a one-week run of the national tour of Jersey Boys.
Syracuse Stage announced the shows that will make up the 2019/2020 season: six plays and musicals on subscription plus a special world premiere directed by TV, stage and film actor Taye Diggs.
City Springs Theatre, Atlanta's newest professional theatre company, presents Broadway'sWilliam Michals and Kristine Reese in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific,'the glorious classic that poetically parallels two love stories threatened by the dangers of prejudice and war. The original 1949 Broadway production, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, 'Tales of the South Pacific,' by James A. Michener, garnered 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The acclaimed 2008 Lincoln Center Theater production received seven Tony Awards, the most of any musical revival. Directed by Tony Award recipient and Broadway legend Baayork Lee, 'South Pacific'plays the Byers Theatre at TheSandy Springs Performing Arts Center (1 Galambos Way, Sandy Springs) March 8 - 17, 2019. Tickets are $30 - $62, with discounts for seniors, students, groups, and active and retired military personnel. Visit www.CitySpringsTheatre.comor call 404-477-4365 for more information.
The legendary songwriter Alan Menken comes to Chicago for a one-night-only performance at the historic Auditorium Theatre on Saturday, March 30, 2019. In his one-man show A Whole New World of Alan Menken, the man behind songs like "Under the Sea" (The Little Mermaid), "Somewhere That's Green" (Little Shop of Horrors), "A Whole New World" (Aladdin), and "Be Our Guest" (Beauty and the Beast) performs some of these beloved songs and tells stories from throughout his expansive career.
Last night (Friday, January 11, 2019) Disney Theatrical Productions hosted 'Disney Theatrical at 25: The Stars Align' at BroadwayCon in Manhattan. The lively panel was made up of some of the stars who created these indelible shows and characters in their original productions. Moderated by Disney Theatrical Productions head Thomas Schumacher, the panel was a fascinating and hilarious discussion filled with behind-the-scenes stories. Panelists included Christian Borle (Tony®-winning Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher), Ashley Brown(title role in Mary Poppins), Merle Dandridge (Kala in Tarzan), Susan Egan (Belle in Beauty and the Beast), James Monroe Iglehart(Tony-winning Genie in Aladdin), and Patti Murin (Anna in Frozen).
American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) rings in 2019 with Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Seascape. In her A.C.T. directorial debut, Artistic Director and Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon-hailed as "the most prolific of directors of Edward Albee's plays" (The Daily Beast)-continues her career-long exploration of American theater's legendary playwright. MacKinnon won the 2013 Tony Award for the Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Tracy Letts and Amy Morton.
A rowdy and rustic retelling of the familiar French fable, Beauty and the Beast features an ensemble of six actor-musicians who all play instruments whilst on stage. Devised by English/Norwegian group New International Encounter (NIE), along with Cambridge Junction and Tobacco Factory Theatres, and directed by NIE founder and artistic director Alex Byrne, this play with music weaves spellbinding narration, clever dialogue and a Jazz Age score into a ferociously fun show about love, family and the notion that beauty-and beastliness-are only skin-deep. Brimming with surprises and broad comic delights, this charming production from England features a feisty heroine, a preposterous pair of loudmouthed, spoiled sisters and an enchanted prince with some monstrously bad pick-up lines. See it for yourself on the New Victory stage from October 26 - November 11, 2018!
Madeleine Potter and Donald Sage Mackay complete the cast for the forthcoming West End Premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Sam Shepard's ferociously funny, modern classic, True West. They will join the previously announced Kit Harington - renowned for his leading role in the internationally acclaimed series Game of Thrones - and Johnny Flynn - star of the widely celebrated film Beast and US TV series Genius, and who received rave reviews for his performance in the New York transfer of Hangmen, in the first UK production of Shepard's work since his death last summer. True West will play a limited season at the Vaudeville Theatre from Friday 23 November - Saturday 16 February (Press Night: Tuesday 4 December at 7:00pm).
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