Debut - 1956 - Broadway Articles Page 19

Palo Alto Players opens its 2017-18 season with the South Bay regional premiere of Million Dollar Quartet, the high voltage Broadway musical inspired by the famed recording session that brought together rock 'n' roll legends Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins for one unforgettable night of musical magic.  Million Dollar Quartet is directed by Jeffrey Bracco, musically directed by Katie Coleman, and features a cast of local Bay Area actors and musicians playing instruments live on stage as their iconic characters.  Million Dollar Quartet runs September 15 - October 1 at the Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. For information or tickets, visit paplayers.org or call 650.329.0891.

Repertorio Español - one of Off-Broadway's longest-running, continuous theaters, and the ONLY company that presents Spanish-language/English-translated plays in true repertory in NYC - will mark its 50th anniversary during the 2017-18 season with a roster of plays that demonstrate the company's ongoing commitment to presenting works that represent the diversity of its own 50-year canon, and the diversity of playwriting voices among contemporary and oft-forgotten writers of Spanish drama and literature worldwide.

Drayton Entertainment will bring their popular production of the world-wide smash-hit musical MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET to Toronto. Written by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux, the Drayton Entertainment production is directed by Alex Mustakas, the company's artistic director.

Washington National Opera (WNO) opens its 2017-2018 season with a new production of Verdi's grand Egyptian epic Aida, September 9-23, 2017, in the Kennedy Center Opera House.

KRAVIS CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Announces 26th Annual Season of Spectacular Concerts, Blockbuster Performances and Smash Hits from Broadway

Imagine a room filled with four of the greatest rising stars of the music industry today. It's hard to think of only four standout artists, but on December 4, 1956 in a small auto shop-turned-recording studio, Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Records, found himself in the company of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Million Dollar Quartet chronicles this impromptu recording session with four of the hottest artists of the time, taking liberties and dramatizing the one act musical to make a plot of a single night worthy of a Broadway stage.

Pittsburgh CLO presents the rock 'n roll hit MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET for the first time, August 8 - 13 at the Benedum Center.

Washington National Opera (WNO) announces the roster of emerging artists engaged for the 16th season of its Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, which begins in September.

Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, and RCA Records will release Elvis Presley - A Boy From Tupelo - The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings today, July 28.

The New York Philharmonic will return to Bravo! Vail in Colorado, celebrating its 30th season, for the Orchestra's 15th annual summer residency, July 21-28, 2017. The residency will include six orchestral concerts that honor the Philharmonic's legacy on the occasion of its 175th anniversary season and the conclusion of Alan Gilbert's tenure as Music Director.

Pittsburgh CLO presents the rock 'n roll hit MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET for the first time, August 8 - 13 at the Benedum Center.

The New York Philharmonic will return to Bravo! Vail in Colorado, celebrating its 30th season, for the Orchestra's 15th annual summer residency, July 21-28, 2017. The residency will include six orchestral concerts that honor the Philharmonic's legacy on the occasion of its 175th anniversary season and the conclusion of Alan Gilbert's tenure as Music Director.

Juilliard Drama, celebrating its 50th anniversary, announces its 2017-18 season of fully staged productions featuring Juilliard's Group 47 acting students in their fourth and final year in the drama program.

Gloucester Stage Company continues its 38th season of professional theater on Cape Ann with N. Richard Nash's moving American classic The Rainmaker from July 14 through August 5 at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. Set in the time of a paralyzing drought in Depression-era America, The Rainmaker tells the story of a pivotal hot summer day in the life of spinsterish Lizzie Curry, whose father and two brothers are worried as much about her marriage prospects as they are about their dying cattle. Enter Starbuck, the consummate con man, who promises to solve all their problems, for a fee. Directed by Gloucester Stage Artistic Director Robert Walsh, The Rainmaker cast features Brian Homer as Starbuck; Jessica Bates as Lizzie Curry; David DeBeck as H.C. Curry, the patriarch of the Curry family; Joe Short and Sean McCoy as the Curry brothers; Dave Rich as File and longtime Gordon College Professor of Theater Arts Norm Jones as Sheriff Thomas. N. Richard Nash's most celebrated play, The Rainmaker, appeared in all three mediums; on Broadway in 1954, as a motion picture starring Katharine Hepburn in 1956, and as a television production in 1982. A musical version of The Rainmaker, entitled 110 Degrees in the Shade, debuted on Broadway in 1963.

The Hollywood Bowl has announced that Sarah Uriarte Berry, Philip Boykin, and Jonathan Groff will complete the cast for a benefit performance of SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, conceived and directed on Broadway by James Lapine.

I recall with reverence the illustrated cover of the original cast album of MY FAIR LADY by the acclaimed caricaturist, the late Al Hirschfeld (who has a Broadway theater named in his honor). It featured the author of 'Pygmalion' which MY FAIR LADY is based on, George Bernard Shaw, overlooking a cloud in heaven with puppet strings holding up the two lead characters in the show, Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, It's a true classic. So was the original cast which opened on Broadway in 1956 and starred Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison and later became a smash movie with Harrison and Audrey Hepburn in 1964. I recall having a reserved seat ticket for the film.

During her recent appearance on THE TONIGHT SHOW, actress Julie Andrews revealed the complicated and messy way they filmed the iconic opening hilltop scene in THE SOUND OF MUSIC. 'We were out there for ages because the weather was not kind to us,' revealed the legendary star.

Sire Records has signed rock 'n' roll phenomenon King Leg. Born in Nebraska, 'discovered' in Nashville and now occupying Los Angeles, King Leg's debut single 'Great Outdoors' is available beginning today.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Maine's Ogunquit Playhouse will produce the world premiere of Heartbreak Hotel, on stage August 30 to September 30. This brand new tribute to the King of Rock 'n' Roll is the prequel to Tony-winning, record-setting, smash hit Million Dollar Quartet that became the greatest selling show in Ogunquit Playhouse history.

Berkshire Theatre Group announces the final production of its upcoming 2017 Summer Season will be Mark Medoff's Tony, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Award-winning play, Children of a Lesser God, which began performances on Thursday, June 22 at The Fitzpatrick Main Stage. Opening night is set for tonight, June 24 at 8pm.

Based in Israel, Roy Assaf Dance makes its U.S. debut with a program of clever and heartfelt works in the Doris Duke Theatre July 12-16. A rising choreographic star, Assaf has been commissioned by companies across the globe including Batsheva Dance Company, The Royal Swedish Ballet, National Dance Company Wales, and LA Dance Project. The program opens with Assaf's embracing duet Six Years Later which is praised for its "beauty, nuances, and intricate, astute movements" (Ora Brafman, Jerusalem Post), and closes with his powerful all-male trio The Hill, inspired by veterans' experiences and based on the Hebrew song "Givat Hatachmoshet".

The Hollywood Bowl has announced the cast and creative team for a benefit performance of SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, conceived and directed on Broadway by James Lapine.

The piano at at Berkshire Theatre Group's  Unicorn Theatre will never be the same after Jerry Lee Lewis (Gabriel Aronson) of MIllion Dollar Quartet finished playing and gyrating on it last night at the opening of this Tony Award-Winning Musical, and Broadwayworld was there.

The Old Globe today announced the full cast for Guys and Dolls, a musical fable of Broadway.

Kelsey Grammer will make his LA Opera debut in the company's 2018 production of Candide, composer Leonard Bernstein's 1956 Broadway classic.