Play On! - 1997 - Broadway Articles Page 4

Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation’s premier ensemble theater company, is pleased to continue its 50th Anniversary Season with August Strindberg’s master class in marital warfare The Dance of Death, adapted by Conor McPherson, directed by ensemble member Yasen Peyankov and featuring an all ensemble cast. 

Go Live Theatre announced a special event West End Memories - Rosalyn Wilder in conversation with Patricia Hodge taking place on Monday 9 March 2026 at 7pm at The Theatre at the Hippodrome Casino.

It’s… Hairspray! BroadwayWorld is taking a look back at what the cast of this beloved musical has been up to since the show first graced the Broadway stage!

Ruth Eckerd Hall will host the 4th Annual Clearwater Smooth Jazz Jam on May 30 and 31, featuring top jazz artists. Tickets for the event will go on sale this Friday.

With Ariana Grande returning to the stage in Sunday in the Park with George, here is our roundup of theater “kids” who we would love to see return to their stage roots!

The Lion King will welcome Andrea Guzman as “Young Nala” and Firo Oliva as “Young Simba,' alternating in the roles with current cast members Emma Origenes and Caleb Beltran.

Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC, O-Town, BBMAK, Ryan Cabrera and LFO will return to Indian Ranch as part of the highly successful Pop 2000 Tour on Sunday, July 19th, 2026.

Tickets for the return engagement of Disney’s The Lion King in Cleveland will go on sale to the public. Cleveland’s most eagerly awaited return will once again leap onto the KeyBank State Theatre stage at Playhouse Square.

Tanglewood has revealed the details of its 2026 season, opening in late June and continuing to Labor Day weekend. The schedule brings many of the world’s most exciting musicians to the beautiful Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts.

The reason the play works at all is because of the sheer strength of its production values and the commitment of its cast. When you look at all the design elements – sets, lighting, illusions, choreography – and combine it with performers who move through that space with the same ease as one breathes, it create a cohesive, immersive world that feels both magical and meticulously controlled.

Feminist punk group Bikini Kill has announced a 2026 North American fall tour, which will kick off September 6 in Portland with stops in NYC, LA, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland and more.

From 10 March 2026, a host of new faces will join the cast of Hadestown at the Lyric Theatre, London as the critically acclaimed production heads into its third year in the West End. 

Indie rock group Death Cab for Cutie has announced a summer headlining tour, which begins July 10 in Minneapolis and includes a two-night run at The Greek in Los Angeles.

During and prior to the Golden Age of Broadway, songs regularly premiered on stage and then charted, spending time on the radio and becoming popular worldwide. In the 1960s, Broadway songs and popular music diverged, and work from musicals was no longer synonymous with chart hits. There have certainly been a good share of exceptions since that decade, as Broadway has evolved to mirror popular, current music genres. Several of the songs that have broken through to the Billboard charts can be heard on Broadway! 

The history of shows that have transferred from off-Broadway to Broadway is well documented. Hundreds of Broadway plays and musicals started out off-Broadway before making the leap to a Broadway house. But much more rare is the circumstance of a show starting out off-off-Broadway (that’s right, two ‘off’s!) and traveling all the way to the main stem. One of these shows is playing right now, and is a major theatre success story with off-off-Broadway roots!

The Broadway production of Ragtime was a glorious accomplishment, a riveting testament to the original American musical and to all that America itself could be. The show ran for 834 performances at the Ford Center, closing in the final year of the 20th century. It was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, taking home four.

This interactive murder mystery invites the audience to help solve the mystery. Clue The Musical asks audiences at Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre whodunit January 9-February 7.

Looking back over 2025, it appears I sat in a dark room and wrote barely legible thoughts into a notebook on about 150-odd occasions. By the grace of God and the BroadwayWorld UK editor, I saw a real smörgåsbord of delights, everything from highly anticipated West End theatre to opera, dance, circus, cabaret, comedy and immersive theatre.

Brief Cameo Productions has announced complete casting for its 2026 production: Side Show: In Concert. Performances of Side Show will take place at The Centerbrook Meeting House, 51 Main Street, Centerbrook, CT.

It wasn’t until later on in theatre history that revivals began including shows that weren’t initially well received or financially successful in their initial engagements. As musical theatre continued to evolve, and more shows entered the canon, a consensus began to grow about shows being worthy of additional exploration even if they hadn’t been hits the first time around. What about musicals that had been ahead of their time, musicals that had fallen prey to circumstances, early works by writers who became successful later on, and of course, shows that found an audience after closing via their cast recordings?

The idea of the concept album took flight at the same time as the idea of the rock musical. A concept album introduces audiences to the score of a musical by deliberately releasing an album of the songs before any live production exists at all. The concept album ostensibly stands on its own terms.

This season, three plays are receiving Broadway debuts which already made significant noise off-Broadway in their original productions, years ago. Becky Shaw, Bug, and Marjorie Prime will all be opening on Broadway in early 2026 in brand new productions. The first and last are spending time on Broadway at the Hayes under the auspices of Second Stage while Bug is being presented by Manhattan Theatre Club at their home, the Friedman. 

Two-time Tony Award nominee Kate Baldwin (Hello, Dolly!, Finian’s Rainbow) has extended her run in the role of Roxie Hart in Broadway's Chicago. Originally scheduled to depart on January 11, the star will now continue in the long-running revival through February 1, 2026.

The Paris revival remains polished and efficient, but once again raises a familiar question: has Chicago become more concert than theatre?

Next week, 54 BELOW will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond, including 54 Celebrates Hanukkah, Jantzen Theatrical’s Christmas in New York and more.