Are You There? - 1913 - West End Articles Page 1

xBroadway’s current theater capacity rules have not always been how they are now. The distinctions between Broadway, off-Broadway, and other types of venues have changed over the decades as the industry has evolved. 

Our 41 Broadway theaters provide a home for every production that hits the Great White Way. From our oldest continually operating Broadway house, the Lyceum, to our newest reopened and functioning Broadway house, the Hudson, the Broadway theaters are all located in midtown Manhattan. Who are all of our current Broadway houses named for...? 

While Austin stages overflow in December with CHRISTMAS CAROLS (three!), TUNA CHRISTMASES (two!), and all manner of holiday theatre cheer, a brilliant star shines at Ground Floor Theatre: Alfred Uhry’s PARADE. First produced in 2015 during GFT’s inaugural season, this remount stands as a striking full-circle moment in the company’s decade-long evolution into Austin’s leading inclusive theatre.

For their Christmas show this year, The Mill at Sonning is putting on My Fair Lady, the 1956 Broadway musical written by Alan Jay Lerner (Lyrics and Book) and Frederick Loewe (Music). For those unfamiliar with the venue, it is an intimate, 217-seat theatre in the semi-round that operates as a dinner theatre, where audiences have a lovely two-course meal before the performance begins.

David Kwong loves words the way chefs love food: obsessively, indulgently and with a eagerness to serve ever more and more of their treasured discoveries. In The Enigmatist, his puzzle-box of a show, that affection becomes both the engine and the anchor.

Now playing at Roundabout Theatre Compny is Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke, directed by Darko Tresnjak. The new play just opened  at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. See what the critics are saying.

That a show as powerful as Parade can soar in a small theater is a testament to both the talent of its director and the strength of its cast, of which there isn’t a weak link in the bunch.

The National Touring production of the Broadway musical SUFFS, now playing at ASU Gammage until October 19, didn’t arrive on the stage quietly. Like its subject matter, it gathered like a movement and was shaped by persistence. The show, written, composed, and, on its Broadway opening, led by Shaina Taub, is a reclamation of voices long overlooked and of equality battles still to be won. 

Dear Readers, lately it feels like our most basic and dearly held civil liberties are being stripped away. And so, it’s good for us to recall how we got some of those rights. Along comes “Suffs”, a new musical with book, music, and lyrics by Shaina Taub, all about the Women’s suffrage movement, and if you weren’t motivated to demand more from our government before seeing the show, you will be after.

Today’s subject Talia Suskauer is currently living her theatre life on tour playing the role of Lucille Frank in the Jason Robert Brown/Alfred Uhry modern day musical theatre masterwork Parade. The tour will make it’s final stop in the Eisenhower Theater at Kennedy Center from August 19th to September 7th.

I interviewed WICKED Broadway veteran Talia Suskauer about her leading role as Lucille Frank in the current national tour of Jason Robert Brown's PARADE — a tour staging of the 2023 Broadway revival starring Ben Platt and Michaela Diamond. 

PARADE asks a lot of its audience. There are moments when a song is so rousing and well-sung, but then you realize the material is uncomfortable, and you wonder if you should cheer or stay absolutely quiet.

Who doesn’t love a good transformation story? Dowdy bookkeeper Loretta Castorini morphing into Cher in Moonstruck or the streetwise prostitute becoming the elegant Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman are contemporary examples.

It's a true story. It's a dramatization about a man who moves to Marietta, Georgia, and is falsely convicted of murder. It's his journey of trying to prove his innocence, while simultaneously we see and follow this love story between him and his wife, Lucille.

Two of the most famous lawyers in modern history are Ross Cellino Jr. and Steve Barnes. A hilarious dark comedy about the law partners, titled Cellino v. Barnes, has been running off-Broadway since last summer, starring Eric William Morris and Noah Weisberg and written by Mike B. Breen and David Rafailedes. 

This time, the reader question was: There are only three states in America without known Broadway musicals set within their borders. Can you guess which three? WE're breaking it down state by state.

The Tony Award winning musical revival PARADE is now playing at The Fox Theatre through April 6th. BWW caught up with Jack Roden who plays Frankie Epps in this production and discussed his experience.

NYC's theatre district is full of amazing places for eating, drinking, and shopping, but if you are looking to see all you can in a short window of time, there are plenty of sights within walking distance of all 41 Broadway theatres. From outdoor pitstops to guided tours and museum visits, check out 13 activities to add to you midtown sight-seeing itinerary. ​

As a Yeshiva boy with Ashkenazi DNA, my reaction to PARADE may have been more visceral than that of people who dislike OUR TOWN staging, see no reason for Leo Frank's lynching to become a big musical, or simply don't have Jewish skin and blood in the game.

“Bring tissues,” said absolutely everyone when I told them I was seeing Parade at Mānoa Valley Theatre. I waved off their warnings, as I was already familiar with the show, as well as the true story of the contentious 1913 trial of Leo Frank on which the show is based. My hubris, however, was no match for this stunningly beautiful production, but my watery eyes were not the result of the tragedy of the protagonists, nor of the cruelty and bigotry at the forefront of the story.

What did our critic think of PARADE at Emerson Colonial Theatre?

From now through Sunday, March 9th, the recent acclaimed revival of the Broadway musical Parade will be featured at the Fisher Theatre. Parade made its Broadway debut in 1998, originally winning Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical at the 1999 Tony Awards. Then, in 2023, Parade was revived on Broadway and won Best Revival of a Musical as well as Best Direction of a Musical. The production currently in Detroit is fresh from Broadway, with Detroit being one of the first engagements on their tour. 

Jason Robert Brown, one of America’s most celebrated composers and lyricists of this new millennium, is currently enjoying a resurgence with two of his finest musicals. THE LAST FIVE YEARS, an off-Broadway hit that was later adapted into a film starring Anna Kendrick, is making its return to Broadway this year starring Joe Jonas and Adrienne Warren. Meanwhile, PARADE, which originally debuted on Broadway in 1998, had a triumphant revival last year starring Ben Platt and won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts will present the world premiere of LADIES, HOW DARE YOU!, a musical comedy set in 1913 during the Women's Suffrage Movement. Learn how to purchase tickets.

This time, the reader question was: What are some of the most famous Broadway ghost stories? Some Broadway houses have many haunted tales… and others seem to have no ghostly spirits at all! Let's unpack!