Everything

ANASTASIA is Stephen Flaherty (Music), Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics) and Terrence McNally’s (Book) musical theatre fairytale imagining of the last Romanov, inspired by 20th Century Fox Animation’s 1997 movie of the same name.

One of the operas at the top of my list for next season at the Met is the Deborah Warner staging of Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN that brings back soprano Asmik Grigorian for the first time since her 2024 debut in MADAMA BUTTERFLY. Not that there’s anything wrong with Puccini, the major composer I’ve heard her sing. The first was that Met debut with her golden-throated, heart-breaking Cio-Cio San, followed by her blonde bombshell of a Freudian Turandot (plus a recital) at the Vienna State Opera. Very recently, there was this season’s justifiable cheering from the audience--myself included--when she took on the three soprano roles in IL TRITTICO at the Paris Opera’s home at the Bastille.

From 1918 to the mid-1930s, African American artists in the United States experienced a cultural blossoming known as the Harlem Renaissance-a period in which theatre, music and literature were created by (and often for) Black Americans.

The 25/26 season at Syracuse Stage will feature a Broadway hit, fresh revivals of award-winning classics, an inspiring new American musical and a knockout world premiere play. See the full season here!

Prior to being cast as Hans, I had already been assigned to research him as part of my duties as a dramaturg. Naturally, as soon as I found out I would be playing the role, I consumed every piece of media related to him and his life that I could.

The new musical Gatsby, being given its world premiere by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge through August 3, isn’t just great, it’s spectacular.

Interracial marriage has been legal in the United States for less than six decades. To put it into perspective, sliced bread was first sold forty years earlier. Set in 1918 South Carolina, Wedding Band is a blistering portrayal of unjust laws and discrimination, of conscious and unconscious bias, of finding love inside hopeless prejudice. Alice Childress’ American classic describes a Deep South riddled with hatred and stigma, a picture that’s uncomfortably close to a certain party’s opinions and that, sixty years later, remains unfortunately topical. A white baker and a black seamstress defy public opinion in this sombre drama.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has appointed conductor Cristian Mӑcelaru as the 14th Music Director in the Orchestra’s 129-year history, succeeding Louis Langrée.

Experience the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra's Silent Film Night featuring Buster Keaton's 'Cops' and 'One Week' and Charlie Chaplin's 'A Dog's Life.'

Rise and shine, BroadwayWorld! It is November 10, 2023 and it's time to catch up on all of the theatrical happenings you may have missed in the last 24 hours: 

Next month, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) opens the first major retrospective of photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery, with black-and-white prints ranging from the 1970s to the present. Debbie Fleming Caffery: In Light of Everything is the first exhibition to include examples representative of her entire body of work, including photographs taken throughout Louisiana and Mississippi, Mexico, and France over six decades.

Funny Girl gets a Brazilian production directed by Barchilon, starring Giulia Nadruz and Eriberto Leao as protagonists. With score by J. Styne, and lyrics by B. Merrill, the semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of comedian and Broadway star Fanny Brice, featuring her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein.

Photoville, the Brooklyn-based nonprofit that brings breathtaking photography within reach of New Yorkers in all boroughs—free of charge—will present Photoville NYC 2023 (June 3 - 18).

What did our critic think of ANASTASIA at Schuster Center For The Performing Arts?

American pianist Conrad Tao is shaping the future of classical music through his rich and unique interpretations of the Classical Canon.

Chris Yarnell directs an energetic cast. The plot is channelled through effortless movement and expressive music by Paul Freeman. A smooth figurative choreography establishes a creative attitude to physical theatre. Their tale isn’t obscure or cryptic in any way, but entertaining and utterly magnetic in its accessibility.

This was a wonderful performance.

One of the most enduring of human beliefs is the idea of the existence of an afterlife. All sorts of terrors and challenges can be endured in an earthly life if one believes in a world beyond where things will be not only better but perfect. That is one of the central ideas of THE FIELDS OF AMBROSIA, a musical that is opening next week at Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven, NJ on Long Beach Island.

TFANA is currently bringing to the stage the first New York production of Alice Childress's Wedding Band since the show's premiere in 1972. Directed by Awoye Timpo, this American classic will run through May 15. Read an interview with the show's stars.

Romance, Russian espionage and a bad case of amnesia in short order sum up the plot of the latest Broadway tour to land in Buffalo as ANASTASIA took to the stage at Shea's last night. Inspired by the animated 1997 musical film of the same name and endless other films and books, the story of a Russian countess somehow surviving assassination continues to entice.

12-time Tony Award-nominated, 'A Little Night Music' made a decided splash at the Greenway Court Theatre with the highlight of being a non-traditionally gender cast production. 

Multi-awarded cabaret singer Jeff Harnar will make his Feinstein’s at Vitello’s debut with his cabaret act I KNOW THINGS NOW: JEFF HARNAR SINGS SONDHEIM September 30, 2021. With a lengthy resume as an opening act. Jeff has played some of the biggest venues, including Carnegie Hall, all over the world. Had the chance to find out what THINGS Jeff KNOWS NOW.

On January 31, 2021, the Workers Circle will present a Yiddish Schmooze featuring Zalmen Mlotek, the Artistic Director at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, which presented the award-winning Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish and whose parents were integral members of the Workers Circle and passionate proponents of Yiddish culture.

“At Good Theater we have put ourselves in mothballs, declares Executive/Artistic Director Brian P. Allen. Maine State Music Theatre’s Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark concurs, “ For me the hardest part is the feeling of treading water.” “My Grandfather taught me that life was a staircase,” Clark recounts. “He would say,’ Always make sure you are moving forward; if you have to stay on a step for a while, no big deal. Try not to take a step backwards, but if you have to, figure out why, fix it, and keep moving forward.’ Right now,” Clark says sadly, “it does not feel possible to keep climbing. Everything is stacked against us and all the people we need to help us.”” On a brisk fall day nine months into the pandemic the two are taking a moment to share their experiences in this unprecedented time of crisis – a crisis that has shuttered their theatres and forced them to engage all their energies in survival of the institutions and the art form they love.

Hershey Felder's latest livestream - one of his most deeply personal - airs this Sunday, November 22nd, 2020 at 5pm Pacific | 7pm Central | 8pm Eastern. As he prepares for the livestream, he took a few moments to talk with BroadwayWorld.com about the show and the state of theater during the pandemic.