Largely New York

This month, the reader question was: Have any Broadway plays ever closed before they opened? Check out the second part of this historical deep dive!

Broadway historian and self-proclaimed theatre nerd Jennifer Ashley Tepper is here to help with her new series, Broadway Deep Dive. This month, the reader question was: Have Any Broadway Musicals Ever Closed Before They Opened?

Pasadena Playhouse Producing Artistic Director Danny Feldman announced the latest news for the theater’s upcoming six-month-long celebration of the works and impact of Stephen Sondheim January 26 through June 11, 2023. 

The National Tour of Aladdin recently launched at Proctor's in Schenectady, NY. Read the reviews for Aladdin here!

NAATCO will present the inaugural production of the NAATCO National Partnership Project, Queen, written by playwright and screenwriter Madhuri Shekar (House of Joy) and directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar, which will begin performances Friday June 10th at the A.R.T./New York Mezzanine Theatre (502 West 53rd Street), continuing through July 1st only. 

NAATCO's inaugural production of the NAATCO National Partnership Project, Queen, written by playwright and screenwriter Madhuri Shekar (House of Joy) and directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar, will open tonight, May 19th at Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre (222 Sargent Drive, New Haven).

NAATCO's inaugural production of the NAATCO National Partnership Project: Queen, written by playwright and screenwriter Madhuri Shekar (House of Joy) and directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar, will being performances tonight, May 17th at Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre (222 Sargent Drive, New Haven).

NAATCO today announced the inaugural production of the NAATCO National Partnership Project: Queen, written by playwright and screenwriter Madhuri Shekar (House of Joy) and directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar.

Having planned a full, pre-pandemic-scale season for 2021-22, Kent Tritle, who is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Music Director of both the Oratorio Society of New York and Musica Sacra, and Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music, led or performed in a dozen concerts in the season’s first half, with only one event being canceled.

Kent’s spring concert schedule has undergone a few shuffles, but is going ahead largely as planned, featuring Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Oratorio Society of New York and soloists Susanna Phillips, Lucia Bradford, Isaiah Bell, and Justin Austin at Carnegie Hall (May 9) and more.

​​​​​​​The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will present a diverse array of in-person and online programming this August to include film screenings, live concerts, virtual lectures, and family-friendly entertainment.

The LCT SPOTLIGHT SERIES, Lincoln Center Theater’s free program of digital events, will continue on Thursday, April 29 with an audio performance of Bill Gunn’s 1989 play, THE FORBIDDEN CITY.  Directed by Seret Scott, THE FORBIDDEN CITY’s cast of 11 will feature James T. Alfred, Spencer Scott Barros, Derrick Baskin, Kyle Beltran, and more.

On Tuesday, March 9, Dress Circle Publishing will release of THE UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY, VOLUME 4, the latest in a series by acclaimed historian and producer Jennifer Ashley Tepper. Can't wait to get your hands on it? Let BroadwayWorld hold you over with a special sneak peek from a chapter all about The Imperial Theatre.

On Friday August 28, 2020, the Ed Mirvish Theatre will celebrate its 100th year. This storied venue opened exactly a century ago as the Pantages Theatre.

In today's episode, Ilana chats with Mira Sorvino, who forever cemented her role in popular culture with her performance as charmingly silly California beach girl Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), in which she and co-star Lisa Kudrow utter one hilarious absurdity after another. She is most recently featured on Ryan Murphy's Hollywood on Netflix.

PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project) has announced the cancellation of their 2020 Off-Broadway summer season at The Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street) in New York City. Their 34th season was scheduled to run July 7 - August 2, 2020.

Legendary label Strictly Rhythm celebrates its landmark 30th anniversary - having shaped the face of house music since its inception in New York in 1989.

Meganne George, Indiana-born beloved New York City theatre production designer, passed away on July 30th in her home on City Island. She was 52.

This morning at New York University's 187th Commencement Exercises at Yankee Stadium, playwright Terrence McNally was honored with a Doctor of Fine Arts degree, honoris causa.

Over the course of each Broadway season, unexpected and unique storylines inevitably pop up. This morning, with the announcement of the 2019 Tony Award nominations, a number of new narratives have come to life.

With its initial and extension runs now largely sold out, The Marsh San Francisco has added six additional Wednesday performances of Border People, the newest solo show by award-winning actor and playwright Dan Hoyle.

The University of Washington has announced the complete roster of artists who have been selected as Creative Research Fellows as part of its first three-year Creative Fellowships Initiative. Funded by a $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the interdisciplinary initiative will advance the field of performing arts by supporting artists in the development of new works and by integrating the performing arts disciplines into a broader context academically, artistically, and socially.

In 1989, Jonathan Larson, a 29-year-old composer, began working on a musical adaptation of Puccini's La Boheme. Set amid the late 1980's, early 90's in New York City's East Village the musical would tell the story of a makeshift bohemian family of artists navigating poverty, homelessness, gay life, drug addiction and the AIDS epidemic.

There are few entertainments as popular as Miss Saigon (36 million attendees worldwide since it premiered on London's West End in 1989), and few that have occasioned as much controversy. Despite all that popularity, this reviewer had happened never to see the show until the current national tour surfaced this last week at Washington's Kennedy Center. Miss Saigon's reputation for controversy had preceded it, however, and I was on the lookout for offensiveness. But what I saw was a well-honed crowd pleaser with spectacular stagecraft and spectacle, excellent singing, a few catchy tunes, and a compelling plot. Some of the provocations complained of in earlier productions are no longer in evidence. In other instances, I would dispute that the material was ever objectively offensive. I'll discuss all this below, but first, some basics.

Since 1923, EAG's Annual Memorial Service has brought together members of the performing arts community on an afternoon in November to celebrate the lives and work of our colleagues who have passed away in the previous year. This unique event features music, reflection, and a reading of the names of those being remembered, which is always followed by a heartfelt standing ovation.