Kwamina

The De Mille Working Group presents 'Agnes de Mille and the Intrinsic American,' an evening of discussion and performance at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on October 2, 2023. Celebrating the 80th anniversary of Agnes de Mille's ballet 'Rodeo.'

The Immigrant Song Free Father's Day Concert in the Park will honor Our Fathers and Forefathers, Sunday, June 18, 2023, at 4:00pm at Kirkwood Park Lions Club Amphitheater.

Music as the Message: It Takes a Village!, a hybrid concert experience featuring virtual and in-person performances of new and familiar songs, returns for its third season on Sunday, November 20th at 4 PM Eastern. The program is created and hosted by Emmy Award-winning soprano Adrienne Danrich (Broadway's Intimate Apparel) and highlights the work of local and national charities and the importance of community action.

Ballet West is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the premiere of Agnes de Mille's Rodeo, which was at the Metropolitan Opera House on October 16, 1942.

Music as the Message: It Takes a Village!, a hybrid concert experience featuring virtual and in-person performances of new and familiar songs, returns for its third season on Sunday, November 20th at 4 PM Eastern.

What to streamThis March, Broadway fans will be treated with several new albums, concerts, and television shows to binge. From Steven Spielberg's acclaimed film adaption of West Side Story to new episodes of Central Park, check out what's coming to streaming services this month!

Today's top stories include the postponement of the off-Broadway runs of Romeo & Bernadette and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In happier news, casting and dates have been announced for the National Tour of An American In Paris.

She made her Broadway debut replacing Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady, and went on to perform in other Broadway productions including Kwamina, Brigadoon (Tony Nomination), What Makes Sammy Run?, and James Joyce's The Dead (Drama Desk Award).

Check out the latest in upcoming releases of Broadway and theatre related CDs for January, 2020.

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that composer and orchestrator Sid Ramin, best known for his work on West Side Story, has died, according to The New York Times. Ramin was 100 years old.

Following the critically acclaimed 'Lost West End' album series, Stage Door Records present the launch of 'Lost Broadway', a new series of albums that will focus on celebrating Broadway's forgotten and obscure musicals. With each album dedicated to specific years in Broadway history, the 'Lost Broadway' series launches with 'Lost Broadway 1961', a particularly abundant year in the Broadway calendar for musicals whose residencies were short lived but deserve not to be forgotten.

BMCC's Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street, in partnership with New Federal Theatre, will present 'Hatitudes 2019: A Tribute to the Grace and Style of Our Mothers,' a benefit for Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre, on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 3:00 PM.

It has been reported that veteran actor of stage and screen. Ethel Ayler, passed away last month at her home in California. She was 88 years old. 

Alex Groth, Riley Walker and Chris Loving are three names to watch in this marvelous production.

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today's top stories: Ben Platt and Patti LuPone will perform a tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Leonard Bernstein on the Grammy Awards, and more!

Looking back at Cole Porter's Happy New Year. The joys of resolutions. Discussing Applause and the length of those songs. Fangirling on social media. Saraving Under The Influence. The backstage saga of Kwamina. Richard Adler and Sally Anne Howes have some 'creative differences.' Party lines are not so fun. Finding a Law and Order with a laugh track. Charlotte Rae wants to love Little Miss Pioneer. Lainie Kazan gets dumped for Katherine Helmond while Jean Stapleton stands by. George S. Irving sings a solo and 142 Tickets on the Aisle.

In today's Variety, playwright Aaron Sorkin (A FEW GOOD MEN) penned a touching tribute to the late actor. You may read it in full below

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Robert Guillaume, the stage's first African American 'Phantom', passed away today, October 24, 2017, due to complications of prostate cancer. He was 89.

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Robert Guillaume, the stage's first African American 'Phantom', passed away today, October 24, 2017, due to complications of prostate cancer. He was 89.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the complete company for The Pajama Game directed by Alan Paul in his Arena Stage debut, with music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, and book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell.

Six-time Tony Award-winning costume designer CATHERINE ZUBER and legendary scenic designer TONY STRAIGES are among the 2017 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients which were just announced by Theatre Development Fund (TDF), a not-for-profit service organization for the performing arts.

On May 24, The Lorraine Hansberry Awards, presented by Goodman Theatre Resident Director Chuck Smith and Woodie King, Jr., New Federal Theatre Artistic Director, will honor five women: Micki Grant, Lynn Hamilton, Shauneille Perry, Dr. Glory Van Scott and Camille Yarbrough.

M.A.D. likes to push the envelope, and with Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell's humorous cult classic, they have gleefully ripped up that envelope and stomped it to the ground.

West Palm Beach's only professional multi-award-winning resident theatre, Palm Beach Dramaworks, will launch Dramalogue --- a new series that explores working in the theatre --- beginning Tuesday, December 10 live onstage at The Don & Ann Brown Theatre (201 Clematis Street). Produced by Mark Perlberg and Sponsored by Nancy and Jay Parker, this new series will consist of conversations and presentations spotlighting iconic theatre artists and professionals. Presentations will include a range of scene readings, video clips and, where applicable, musical numbers, as well as one-on-one interviews. The series will run on select Tuesdays thru April 8th, 2014.

According to DNAinfo.com, the $22 million estate of DAMN YANKEES composer Richard Adler is at the center of a tax dispute between his widow and only son, neither of whom wants to pay the estimated $1 million owed in state taxes and other costs.

A human ball of silver glitter hanging from a cord is lowered above what looks like a bungalow-sized muffin top.  (It's supposed to represent a turtle shell.)  Before the glitter ball makes its landing the cover is removed to reveal what looks like a tribe of humanish amphibians bouncing on trampolines and twirling on the muffin/turtle's frame.  Shortly after, a sleazy-looking clown in a tropical shirt tosses a condom to a woman in the front row and says, 'Call me!'  Yes, dear readers, Cirque du Soleil is back in town.

As BroadwayWorld reported last week, composer-lyricist and Broadway legend, Richard Adler, died Thursday, June 21st at his Southampton, New York home. He was 90. We celebrate the composer with a photo tribute below!

Looking for a quick roundup of this week's events in the theatre world? Look no further - here are some of the best articles the week had to offer!

On Thursday, three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Richard Adler passed away at the ripe old age of 90. Responsible for two of the biggest Broadway smash hits of the 1950s, THE PAJAMA GAME and GAMN YANKEES, Adler never quite managed to equal his career-high double-hitter of that era, yet his earlier work with Tony Bennett ('Rags To Riches'), Doris Day ('Everybody Loves A Lover') and Marilyn Monroe (the iconic 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President') surely shall solidify his place in the firmament of entertainment history along with his two classic musicals from the Golden Age. Winning both Best Score and Best Musical for both THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES, Adler's partnership with lyricist Jerry Ross - which began on Broadway in 1953 with JOHN MURRAY ANDERSON'S ALMANAC - was tragically cut short just months after the DAMN YANKEES premiere when Ross was diagnosed with lung disease and passed away soon thereafter. Yet, thanks to the beloved film versions of THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES and continued interest in the entities as expressed in the revivals and reappraisals of both onstage from Broadway to Biloxi to Bombay year after year, the snappy, snazzy tunes of Adler and Ross live on eight times a week all around the world - even now, more than fifty years after they premiered. Unfortunately, Adler's subsequent shows with other collaborators post-1955 failed to capture the early magic of his previous projects with Ross and his earlier musical and theatrical endeavors in the pop arena, with the racially charged KWAMINA flopping on Broadway in 1961 (though he took home a Best Composer Tony Award for his efforts anyway) and the awkwardly titled MUSIC IS failing to recreate the magic of its source material, Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, in 1976. A MOTER'S KISSES, starring Bea Arthur and a young Bernadette Peters, died on the road, as well. In the intervening years, Adler attempted musical adaptations taken from a number of intriguing sources - OF HUMAN BONDAGE and others among them - though only his ballet scores seemed to reach an audience; particularly his last, commissioned for a new production of Lorca's THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA in 1998. Of course, THE PAJAMA GAME has had two Broadway revivals - most recently the rapturously received Kathleen Marshall-directed production starring Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara; and DAMN YANKEES famously returned to the Great White Way with much ado in 1994 starring Victor Garber. Now seems particularly ripe for remounting YANKEES, as we approach twenty years in its absence - especially given the musical's seriously smashing showing at Encores! in 2007. Who knows, perhaps some risky producer will even take a chance on a new production of KWAMINA, MUSIC IS, A MOTHER'S KISSES or one of the bottom drawer shows someday soon to see if they possess any of the limitless potential shown by Adler's earlier work. Or maybe a stage treatment of his TV musical GIFT OF THE MAGI (originally composed for then-wife Sally Ann Howes)? Or, better yet, how about a revue? What a stupendous songstack Adler created over the course of his career - 'Whatever Lola Wants' to 'Hey There' to 'Hernando's Hideaway' to 'You Gotta Have Heart' to 'Steam Heat' to the aforementioned Bennett, Day and Monroe standards and so many more chestnuts.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, composer-lyricist and Broadway legend, Richard Adler, died Thursday, June 21st at his Southampton, New York home. He was 90. We celebrate the composer with some of his best-known works below!

Composer-lyricist and Broadway legend, Richard Adler, died Thursday, June 21st at his Southampton, New York home. He was 90.

Damn Yankees is headed to The 5th Avenue Theatre! This musical comedy is the story of an aging baseball fan who makes a deal with the Devil so his beloved hometown team can beat the Yankees in the race for the pennant. From the songwriting team of The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees is filled with hit songs including "Two Lost Souls" and the sultry favorite, "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets." The Paper Mill Playhouse production will slide into Seattle this April. The creative team includes direction by Mark S. Hoebee (Paper Mill's Producing Artistic Director), music direction by Ben Whiteley, and choreography by Denis Michael Jones.

Damn Yankees is headed to The 5th Avenue Theatre! This musical comedy is the story of an aging baseball fan who makes a deal with the Devil so his beloved hometown team can beat the Yankees in the race for the pennant. From the songwriting team of The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees is filled with hit songs including "Two Lost Souls" and the sultry favorite, "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets." The Paper Mill Playhouse production will slide into Seattle this April. The creative team includes direction by Mark S. Hoebee (Paper Mill's Producing Artistic Director), music direction by Ben Whiteley, and choreography by Denis Michael Jones.

'Cute' is probably not the adjective that Robert Lopez, Matt Stone and Trey Parker were going for when they co-authored the book, music and lyrics of The Book of Mormon.  Neither is 'cute' a word I'd expect to use when describing a musical where genital mutilation and the belief that having sex with an infant will cure an adult of AIDS figure significantly in the plot and the big Act I showstopper has a chorus of villagers happily singing, 'Fuck you, God!'  But The Book of Mormon - which absolutely should be praised for its non-traditional material that, to borrow what Brooks Atkinson wrote of Pal Joey, attempts to draw sweet water from a sour well - sets us up for intriguing social satire and then settles for being well-structured, sharply mounted, terrifically performed innocuous entertainment.

Altovise Joanne Gore Davis, the widow of legendary entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., died Saturday in Los Angeles at age 65 after suffering what appeared to be a stroke.

In this edition: MAF in final weekend, Chekhov at Spotlighters, Music Man at Cockpit, The Baltimore Playwrights Festival, plus - a day in New York.

Performances of THE PAJAMA GAME will begin Friday, January 27th on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre with the official opening set for Thursday, March 2nd. The limited engagement is scheduled to run 20 weeks through June 18th, 2006.