First Lady - 1935 - Broadway Articles Page 8

Broadway fans had plenty of reasons to celebrate this year, with dozens of shows having opened since January, hundreds of actors having made their debuts, and many more having returned to the stage for critically acclaimed performances. Not all news was good though, as we also suffered a loss of an incredible amount of talent. Below, BroadwayWorld sends a fond farewell to those who passed away in 2014.

Today we salute one of Broadway's most influential artists in honor of his birthday this week, the one and only Ira Gershwin!

Ardani Artist proudly presents for the first time in the United States The Mikhailovsky Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia for a special two week engagement today, November 13 - 23, 2014 at the David H. Koch Theatre (Lincoln Center) NYC. There will be four programs for this premiere engagement performed with a live orchestra.

George and Ira Gershwin's masterpiece opera Porgy and Bess, based on the play by Dubose and Dorothy Heyward, premieres on PBS this fall with the critically acclaimed production from San Francisco Opera. THE GERSHWINS'® PORGY AND BESS airs tonight, October 17, 2014, at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) as part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival, which highlights artists and performances from around the country and invites every American to have a front-row seat and a backstage pass for the country's best arts performances.

Tony Award nominee Tony Sheldon (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) has joined the cast of the Encores! Special Event The Band Wagon in the role of Jeffrey Cordova, an egotistical British director. (Roger Rees, previously announced in the role, is no longer available.) The Band Wagon cast stars Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell, seven-time Emmy Award winner Tracey Ullman, Academy Award nominee Michael McKean, Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes, Tony Award nominee Michael Berresse and Don Stephenson. The Band Wagon will open on Sunday, November 8.

Full casting is announced for Emlyn Williams' masterpiece Accolade directed by award-winning director Blanche McIntyre. Alexander Hanson and Abigail Cruttenden lead the company as Will and Rona Trenting, with Bruce Alexander (Daker), Sam Clemmett (Ian Trenting), Claire Cox (Marion Tillyard), Daniel Crossley (Albert), Olivia Darnley (Phyllis), Jay Taylor (Harold) and Jay Villiers (Thane Lampeter). Accolade - produced by Nicola Seed - is the final production in Stage One's One Stage season at the St James Theatre.

This just in! Previously announced Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell will be joined by Tony Award winner Roger Rees, seven-time Emmy Award winner Tracey Ullman, Academy Award nominee Michael McKean, Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes, Tony Award nominee Michael Berresse, and Don Stephenson in The Band Wagon, an Encores! Special Event from November 6 - 16, 2014 at City Center. The Band Wagon will open on Sunday, November 8.

George and Ira Gershwin's masterpiece opera Porgy and Bess, based on the play by Dubose and Dorothy Heyward, premieres on PBS this fall with the critically acclaimed production from San Francisco Opera. THE GERSHWINS'® PORGY AND BESS airs Friday, October 17, 2014, at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) as part of thePBS Arts Fall Festival, which highlights artists and performances from around the country and invites every American to have a front-row seat and a backstage pass for the country's best arts performances.

Today we are listening to the hotly anticipated new jazz album by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett titled CHEEK TO CHEEK.

The toe-tapping, heartfelt musical "Always…Patsy Cline" created and originally directed by Ted Swindley is based on a true story. It opens Sept. 3 at Peninsula Players Theatre, America's oldest professional resident summer theater and Door County's theatrical icon. "Always…Patsy Cline" features more than 25 of Cline's classic songs and will run for seven weeks closing Sunday, Oct. 19 with a 4 p.m. matinee.

From September 4-14, 2014, Houston Ballet launches its 45th season with the company premiere of John Neumeier's three-act ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream. The ballet is based on Shakespeare's lighthearted play of the same name and follows the hijinks and hilarity that ensues when a well-intentioned plan with a love potion goes awry. Created in 1977, A Midsummer Night's Dream has served as Mr. Neumeier's calling card, being seen as one of his most joyous and popular creations. Houston Ballet is the first American ballet company to perform the famous work and it is the first piece by Mr. Neumeier to enter the Houston Ballet repertoire.

Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell will star in The Band Wagon, an Encores! Special Event based on the classic MGM movie of the same title, from November 6 - 16, 2014 at City Center. The show has a book by Douglas Carter Beane adapted from the screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, with music by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz. The Band Wagon will be directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall with music direction by Todd Ellison. The Band Wagon will run for 12 performances, by special arrangement with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures.

The frighteningly funny farce "The Mystery of Irma Vep- A Penny Dreadful" by Charles Ludlam opens July 30 at Peninsula Players Theatre, America's oldest professional resident summer theater and Door County's theatrical icon. The Drama Desk-and Obie Award-winning comedy is a true mix of Victorian gothic romance and Universal monster movies.

Let freedom ring withgetTV this 4 th of July, as the network presents an Independence Day double feature devoted to actress, former First Lady, and humanitarian Nancy Reagan.

Principal casting has been announced for the upcoming world premiere production of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. The cast will include Robert Fairchild as Jerry Mulligan, Leanne Cope as Lise Dassin, Veanne Cox as Madame Baurel, Jill Paice as Milo Davenport, Brandon Uranowitz as Adam Hochberg, and Max Von Essen as Henri Baurel.

Let freedom ring withgetTV this 4 th of July, as the network presents an Independence Day double feature devoted to actress, former First Lady, and humanitarian Nancy Reagan.

Trustus Theatre announced their 30th Anniversary season to a standing-room crowd at Tapps Arts Center on June 5th, 2014. Managing Director Larry Hembree and Artistic Director Dewey Scott-Wiley revealed the shows coming to the Thigpen Main Stage and Richard and Debbie Cohn Side Door Theatre in the 2014/2015 Season. This season is celebration of the tenants that have made Trustus the premiere professional theatre in Columbia: producing diverse modern theatre and original works with the highest quality casts.

Quality Hill Playhouse in Kansas City, Mo. presents Rhapsody in Gershwin, a tribute to the works of brothers George and Ira Gershwin. Commissioned in the 1920s and 1930s the brothers wrote songs for Broadway, jazz clubs, concert halls, and films. Rhapsody in Gershwin opens on June 6 on the stage at Quality Hill Playhouse.

Performance-only tickets are now on sale to the general public for ACT TWO: A SWELL PARTY WITH MOSS HART AND FRIENDS, An Evening of Songs Sketches, Scenes and More Celebrating the Genius of Moss Hart, Monday April 21 at 8pm at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). Performers scheduled to appear in the entertainment, which will serve as the centerpiece of Lincoln Center Theater's Annual Benefit and which will be directed by Bartlett Sher, are Victoria Clark, Stephen Colbert, David Garrison, Malcolm Gets, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Byron Jennings, Kelli O'Hara, Steven Pasquale, and Lewis J. Stadlen.

Ardani Artist proudly presents for the first time in the United States The Mikhailovsky Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia for a special two week engagement November 11 – 23, 2014 at the David H. Koch Theatre (Lincoln Center) NYC. There will be four programs for this premiere engagement performed with a. The casting* has been announced (below). The Mikhailovsky Ballet USA engagement is supported by the Russian Miistry of Culture. *subject to change

Ardani Artist proudly presents for the first time in the United States The Mikhailovsky Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia for a special two week engagement November 13 - 23, 2014 at the David H. Koch Theatre (Lincoln Center) NYC. There will be four programs for this premiere engagement performed with a live orchestra. The lead dancers* for the company scheduled to perform include Natalia Osipova, Angelina Vorontsova, Kristina Shapran, Oksana Bondareva, Ivan Vasiliev, Leonid Sarafanov, Victor Lebedev, and Ivan Zaytsev. The Mikhailovsky Ballet USA engagement is supported by the Russian Miistry of Culture. *subject to change

Bringing fresh hope to every bookshelf, author Yvonne Nunes invites readers to look into another angle of the remarkable story behind the most important medical event in the twentieth century. One Little Miracle, her new book released through Xlibris, tells the inspiring true tale of the seven-year-old girl whose life was saved when she became a test case for penicillin.

The Smith Center announced today that single tickets for The National Tour of THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS, winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, will go on sale today, Feb. 21 at 10 a.m.

The Smith Center announced today that single tickets for The National Tour of THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS, winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, will go on sale Feb. 21 at 10 a.m.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world's leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini's La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran, opening February 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky's one-act opera Iolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treli?ski. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartok's one-act Duke Bluebeard's Castle, also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treli?ski.