After Ashley - 2005 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 1

Long Wharf Theatre announces the full cast for Arthur Miller's THE PRICE in an inaugural partnership with Legacy Theatre. The production features Alexis Camins, Mark Nelson, Carman Lacivita, and Jennifer Lim.

Melissa Etheridge will receive the 2026 Hope Award at the Hope for Depression Research Foundation's 20th annual luncheon seminar, honoring her advocacy work and her foundation's support of psychedelic medicine research.

Director Telly Leung discusses DRACULA: A COMEDY OF TERRORS at Theatre Raleigh, starring Nick Adams, his return to the company after directing YELLOW FACE, and the immersive BITE ME Bar pre-show experience.

Vince Gill was honored with the Nashville Songwriters Association International's prestigious Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ryman Auditorium, with performances by Chris Stapleton, Rodney Crowell, Ashley McBryde, Ricky Skaggs, Sonya Isaacs, and Andrea Zonn.

On September 17th, we lost Duncan Sheik, a major composer and influence on 21st century theatre, whose music for Spring Awakening pushed the art form forward. Sheik was impressively prolific. While the headline of his theatre career may be the impactful Spring Awakening, his career was filled with over a dozen other varied and worthwhile theatrical projects, in addition to his achievements in popular music. He wrote music and sometimes lyrics for an impressive slate of musicals in addition to composing music for plays, and amassed a notable collective of collaborators on his many shows. 

The discourse surrounding reasons for reviving musicals on Broadway is a relatively recent phenomenon. These days, if a show is announced for a revival, a sentence that often follows is: “Why are they reviving it?” 

Full casting announced for the world premiere of Simon Reade's stage adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's TWENTY THOUSAND STREETS UNDER THE SKY, directed by Matthew Iliffe at Southwark Playhouse Borough.

West End and Broadway star Ruthie Henshall will release her new memoir, The Showgirl and the Prince, detailed her secret relationship with Prince Edward in the 1980s. Learn more here.

Much has been written about the proliferation of pop singer-songwriters writing new musicals for Broadway and off-Broadway. Less covered is the trend of pop singers performing on Broadway, which has made for a number of memorable appearances in current and recent seasons. 

xThe LA Phil has unveiled the 2026 season at The Ford, its hillside open-air venue, running from May 8 to October 31. The 2026 season brings together a multidisciplinary mix of music, dance, film, theater, comedy and spoken word.

Perhaps the most well-known instance of a show changing titles during the development process belongs to the groundbreaking 1943 phenomenon, Oklahoma! The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that changed the art form in terms of subject matter, integration of elements, and more was originally titled Away We Go! when it went out of town for a New Haven tryout. Oklahoma! is far from the only instance where a musical changed its title along the development road.

Musicals and plays based on movies? Many. Based on books? Also plentiful. Based on true stories? Of course. But musicals and plays based on or inspired by magazine articles? These are a rare breed. One recently opened on Broadway at the August Wilson Theatre.

What did our critic think of CLYDE'S at Burbage Theatre Company?

Broadway has a long history of one-person shows, including many that have been added to the canon in this century.  Seeing one actor powerfully create a whole world on stage can be an exceptional experience. Of course, one handers are hardly one-person projects; while there may only be one actor on stage, they are collaborating with an entire team of creatives, designers, and behind-the-scenes personnel to bring a show to life. 

Next month, 54 Below will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond for Women's History Month, including Linda Eder, Kate Baldwin, Jenn Colella and more. 

Good theatre can be socially and emotionally regulatory. Finding a safe space to talk about heavy things in a nice way, in an ugly way, straight forward, or hidden in plain sight—The Bent’s production of In the Wake by Lisa Kron offered this in a really good piece of theatre.

Current star of Masquerade Telly Leung discusses with Jennifer Ashley Tepper playing the Phantom in the immersive production, the full circle from Rent fan to Rent actor, Gavin Creel’s leadership during a production that never was, and much more. 

CIRCA Pintig will present THE ART OF BELONGING, a multidisciplinary theater and film project exploring Filipino immigrant life in the Midwest, at the Rizal Center in Chicago.

This history gives context to the legacies of theatrical dynasties—considered to consist of at least three subsequent generations of theatre creators. In 2026, there is a stigma around any successful professional who follows a parent into their line of work, with this being seen as a pattern of nepotism.

The history of shows that have transferred from off-Broadway to Broadway is well documented. Hundreds of Broadway plays and musicals started out off-Broadway before making the leap to a Broadway house. But much more rare is the circumstance of a show starting out off-off-Broadway (that’s right, two ‘off’s!) and traveling all the way to the main stem. One of these shows is playing right now, and is a major theatre success story with off-off-Broadway roots!

The Broadway production of Ragtime was a glorious accomplishment, a riveting testament to the original American musical and to all that America itself could be. The show ran for 834 performances at the Ford Center, closing in the final year of the 20th century. It was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, taking home four.

One of the most powerful love stories of modern times arrives on Brazilian stages. Brokeback Mountain makes its São Paulo debut at Teatro Itália on January 14, marking only the second official stage production of the work worldwide. Adapted by Ashley Robinson from Annie Proulx’s acclaimed short story, the musical revisits the intense, unspoken romance between cowboys Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar in 1960s rural America. Directed by Moacyr Góes, the Brazilian production stars Marcéu Pierrotti and Júlio Oliveira and features an original score by Dan Gillespie Sells. Following a highly praised London run, the show blends music and drama to explore love, repression, intolerance, and the lasting cost of silence.

While different tryout theaters have different relationships to the development of new shows, it’s worth looking at both which commercial rental theaters and which non-profit theaters have had the most Best Musical Tony Award winners come from their stages.

Diane Keaton made her Broadway debut in the original Broadway production of Hair at the age of 22. The landmark musical started out at the Public Theater off-Broadway in 1967 before transferring to the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway in 1968. Keaton joined the cast for the Broadway run, originating her track in the show.

Three staged readings of ICEWORLD, A Life After Life Musical with book and music by Andrew Monohan and book and lyrics by June Rachelson-Ospa, will be presented at OPERA America's National Opera Center.