Leave It to Me! 1938 - Articles Page 36

An official selection of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, ME @THE ZOO tells the story of one young man's coming of age, revealing how video sharing and social platforms shape the way people tell their stories and mediate their lives today.

Today we are talking to a two-time Tony Award winning lyricist and book writer who was responsible for the 2010 Best Musical winner, MEMPHIS, and who has since written the libretto of the Gershwin revue NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET and received a well-earned Tony nomination for his efforts; one of the show's ten nods - Joe DiPietro. In this concluding portion of our conversation, DiPietro and I break down the process of creating NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT and he comments on the starry cast - including Matthew Broderick, Kelli O'Hara, Judy Kaye and Estelle Parsons - and the process of collaboration in bringing the 2012 Tony Awards top nominee to the Broadway stage. Additionally, DiPietro fills us in on the future for THE TOXIC AVENGER and its tentative Broadway plans, as well as the upcoming West End mountings of MEMPHIS and, hopefully, NICE WORK - and, a look ahead to his next David Bryan collaboration, CHASING THE SONG, as well. Plus, a glance back at his work on I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT NOW CHANGE, F*CKING MEN and ALLEGRO and his favorite current pop acts.

In April of 2012, Peter Lockyer joined the U.S. Tour cast taking over the role of Jean Valjean. Peter Lockyer played Marius on Broadway many years ago and now has this new opportunity to play Jean Valjean. I recently interviewed Peter and learned a lot about his career and how he feels about being part of musical history.

Musicals Tonight has announced that its upcoming season will include the following shows.

In April of 2012, Peter Lockyer joined the U.S. Tour cast taking over the role of Jean Valjean. Peter Lockyer played Marius on Broadway many years ago and now has this new opportunity to play Jean Valjean. I recently interviewed Peter and learned a lot about his career and how he feels about being part of musical history.

Musicals Tonight's 2012-2013 Season includes Fade Out - Fade In by Comden & Green and Jule Styne, Strike Up the Band George & Ira Gershwin, Same Time, Next Year - The Musical a Premiere and Leave It to Jane by Jerome Kern. See full details below.

Actor and daughter of the late ITC Board Member Barbara Manuell, Lynn Manuell wrote the following as a plea to help the Illinois Theatre Center finish its season before its impending closure.

Director Elizabeth Hayes' staging of the play-which is based upon a work that proved to be Bixby's final story-is confident and creative, her expert handling of her ensemble heartfelt and thoughtful. In fact, it's Hayes' complete understanding of the play which elevates it far beyond what appears on the page. Her artful approach to the material allows it to transcend the obvious manipulation and sentimentality that pervades the script, adapted by Schenkman from Bixby's film script (his final one, he supposedly finished the script on his deathbed, after starting it in 1960) which he filmed on a shoestring budget in 2007.

Blue October will be playing around NYC - at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, NY on April 4 and again at the House of Blues in Atlantic City on April 7 - supporting their 7th full-length studio LP, Any Man in America. A personal album from singer Justin Furstenfeld, these shows bring the music from the new LP to life along with tracks from their catalogue of rock & roll.

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced that critically acclaimed Broadway actress Rachel York will star as "Reno Sweeney" in the national tour of the 2011 Tony® Award winning Anything Goes. Presented by Roundabout Theatre Company, the national tour will set sail in Cleveland this fall. Anything Goes is the winner of three Tony® Awards including Best Musical Revival.

Blue October will be playing around NYC - at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, NY on April 4 and again at the House of Blues in Atlantic City on April 7 - supporting their 7th full-length studio LP, Any Man in America. A personal album from singer Justin Furstenfeld, these shows bring the music from the new LP to life along with tracks from their catalogue of rock & roll.

New Feet Productions will present Leave the Balcony Open, a new play about learning how to live with loss written by Maya Macdonald.

New Feet Productions will present Leave the Balcony Open, a new play about learning how to live with loss written by Maya Macdonald.

Sara Gettelfinger may have a resume that other actresses covet-now starring as the mysterious, intriguing, maybe even a little bit frightening Morticia Addams in the national tour of The Addams Family, she's been on Broadway in A Free Man of Color, Seussical the Musical, The Boys from Syracuse, Nine and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and she's toured in Fosse and 101 Dalmatians-but, truth be told, the highlight of her resume for me, at least, is a stint on the storied, now lamented and defunct, CBS soap opera Guiding Light.

Singer Lyn Stanley will appear at Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's on Sunday November 27. She has an amazingly diversified background to share with us. Tell me about your background, which, I understand has taken a shift twice in totally divergent directions, from businesswoman to pro champion dancer to singer.

When a person handles public relations for legitimate productions that are running in New York City or elsewhere, they are accustomed to setting up in-person interviews with various cast members of their shows and the media. These interviews result in positive exposure and become a vital form of publicity for the vehicle which is being promoted.

JetBlue Airways just announced that Broadway's high-flying musical CATCH ME IF YOU CAN will give a special performance on Thursday, August 11, post-security at Terminal 5 (T5) at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. As the show's Official & Exclusive Airline Partner, JetBlue's Live from T5 summer performance, available to ticketed customers, will complement T5's state-of-the-art design and JetBlue's industry-leading customer experience.

JetBlue Airways just announced that Broadway's high-flying musical CATCH ME IF YOU CAN will give a special performance on Thursday, August 11, post-security at Terminal 5 (T5) at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. As the show's Official & Exclusive Airline Partner, JetBlue's Live from T5 summer performance, available to ticketed customers, will complement T5's state-of-the-art design and JetBlue's industry-leading customer experience.

Even with all the bases covered and loaded given this stupendous creative team, a cast of veritable Broadway all-stars and a surprise bottom of the ninth pop fly play courtesy of Norbert Leo Butz's fresh Tony win, CATCH IF YOU CAN can't seem to get the break it deserves on Broadway. Sure, it just passed the hundred performance mark and it is alive and well, but it deserves far more praise than it has been given. After all, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's score is every bit as ingratiating and endearing as their work on the Tony-winning Best Musical HAIRSPRAY and for that fact alone CATCH ME IF YOU CAN commands the utmost attention from any cast album collector or Broadway baby interested in keeping up with all the scores and stats of Broadway‘s best. And, yes, indeed, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN possesses a score among the very best of the 21st century and the best new score on Broadway this season. The songstack as represented on the brand new Original Broadway Cast Recording is even more entertaining and enlivening than the show's songs onstage - although they have all their own allure there - and that is a huge credit to the fiercely talented songwriting team who knocks each and every pitch clear out of the park; here, just as always. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is a fully-decked game of far-flung, fun, and not-so-frivolous fantasy ably aided by some of the most inspiring leading male performances in musical theatre in many years thanks to the wonderful work by the aforementioned Butz, plus impossibly charismatic leading player Aaron Tveit and a sensitive and suave Tom Wopat.

You wouldn't know it from his youthful looks, but actor Ethan Le Phong has been a longtime global chameleon for quite some time. His past roles have taken him from Germany to New York, from London to Los Angeles. And for almost a year now, he has been spicing things up as Pepper in the 2nd National Tour of the global hit musical MAMMA MIA. Before the show makes its anticipated return to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County for a week-long engagement from June 21 - 26, the actor paused for a brief chat with BroadwayWorld's Michael Lawrence Quintos to talk about his role in the hit ABBA-rific musical, his influences as a kid, and his wish to see more Asian-Americans on the Broadway stage.

Since his arrival in Nashville, talented Jeffrey Williams has made quite the name for himself on local stages, winning over directors, producers, other actors, audience members and critics alike with his charm, dedication and remarkable talent. Seriously, he's got the goods and Nashville theater has claimed its fair share (most recently, he's been seen in Street Theatre Company's acclaimed staging of Chess in Concert, in which he sang the role of the spoiled American chess champion, and in Tennessee Repertory Theatre's hit revival of Pump Boys and Dinettes, in which he tap-danced, played an accordion and sang his heart out, surrounded by a cast of Tennessee Rep veterans), it would seem, and now young Mr. Williams is heading northeastward to check things out in New York City.

Since his arrival in Nashville, talented Jeffrey Williams has made quite the name for himself on local stages, winning over directors, producers, other actors, audience members and critics alike with his charm, dedication and remarkable talent. Seriously, he's got the goods and Nashville theater has claimed its fair share (most recently, he's been seen in Street Theatre Company's acclaimed staging of Chess in Concert, in which he sang the role of the spoiled American chess champion, and in Tennessee Repertory Theatre's hit revival of Pump Boys and Dinettes, in which he tap-danced, played an accordion and sang his heart out, surrounded by a cast of Tennessee Rep veterans), it would seem, and now young Mr. Williams is heading northeastward to check things out in New York City.

As a super-special Spring extension of BroadwayWorld's SOUND OFF column, every day until the Tony Awards on June 12 we will be presenting a spectacular new entry in the SPOTLIGHT ON THE 2011 TONY AWARDS series featuring a particularly entertaining, interesting, relevant and exciting Tony Awards-related clip from the last sixty-three years of the ceremonies (and subsequent seasons on Broadway) with a rundown and commentary on the sights, sounds and showmanship on display in each carefully chosen selection - all, of course, coming in anticipation of Broadway's biggest night, which will be broadcast on CBS this year, as always. Once again this year, BroadwayWorld is the official home of the 2011 Tony Awards and we will also be featuring exclusive interviews, articles, photos, video content, interactive features and more in the coming days and weeks leading up to the event so be sure to check back daily for your theatre fix!

Legends in their own time, ascending to the top ranks of the Hollywood and Broadway songwriting landscape, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman have accomplished and climbed to heights most of what many film fans, Broadway babies and general entertainment junkies only dream of witnessing and ascending to. Marc Shaiman's work with Trey Parker and Matt Stone on SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT prompted Stephen Sondheim - as he told me himself - to cite it as one of the best musicals of the era. And, it is - as is their Tony-winning Best Musical HAIRSPRAY, based on the film by Pope of Trash John Waters. Featuring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Queen Latifah and an all-around-amazing cast of triple-threats, the stunning Craig Zadan/Neil Meron-produced film version of HAIRSPRAY may be the greatest cinematic Shaiman and/or Wittman accomplishment so far. Then, there is CATCH ME IF YOU CAN - one of the snappiest new scores on Broadway in a strangely strong season of original scores - boasting boss Sinatra blues and sizzling Shirelles riffs and everything else that's swingin' in between. Up next for the team - onstage and off - is a stage adaptation of Roald Dahl's CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY directed by Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, in addition to what is perhaps the most exciting prospect on their impossibly cluttered horizon: the new Steven Speilberg/Craig Zadan/Neil Meron musical/comedy/drama series SMASH which has just been picked up for the Fall season on NBC! In this exclusive, extensive and exhaustive conversation we cover it all from HAIRSPRAY to CATCH ME to CHARLIE to all about SMASH and far, far beyond!

Back in Season 3 of the Fox talent search juggernaut American Idol, then 16-year-old Diana DeGarmo narrowly missed the coveted title, walking away as the first runner up. Fast forward to 2011 and the now 23-year-old is currently starring as the iconic Doralee Rhodes in the national touring company of 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL, the Dolly Parton-scored Broadway musical adaptation of the cult 1980 film. The show performs a single-week run at the Segerstrom Center of the Arts in Costa Mesa from May 10 through May 15. DeGarmo recently chatted with BroadwayWorld's Michael Lawrence Quintos to talk about Idol, early shows, and her Dolly-fied role.