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Theater suffered a huge loss this week when the playwright Terrence McNally died at 81, of complications of our current plague, the coronavirus. It was a sad irony since many of McNally's plays dealt with the effects of a previous plague, AIDS, in the 1980s.

We're taking a closer look at just a few amazing interviews from throughout his incredible career.

The Broadway community reacts to the passing of legendary playwright, Terrence McNally.

As BroadwayWorld sadly reported earlier today, legendary Broadway playwright Terrence McNally passed away today, March 24, from complications due to coronavirus. Terrence was a lung cancer survivor who lived with chronic COPD. He was 81 years old. Now we're taking a closer look at some of his greatest work...

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that legendary Broadway playwright Terrence McNally passed away today, March 24, from complications due to coronavirus. Terrence was a lung cancer survivor who lived with chronic COPD. He was 81 years old.

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, America's longest running festival of new orchestral music, celebrates its 58th season July 26 - August 9, 2020, with a remarkable season of timely, topical, and thought-provoking new works.

This Month, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts is offering several of Broadway's biggest hits, plus amazing concerts and memorable special events for every entertainment preference, from classical music to political comedy, plus international superstars like Diana Ross to Kenny G to Chita Rivera, along with several fascinating talks and lectures throughout the month of March.

Today's top stories: Read the reviews for West Side Story, and more!

Broadway's master songman, Mandy Patinkin, accompanied by Adam Ben-David on piano, will bring his newest theatre concert Mandy Patinkin in Concert: DIARIES, to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall for one performance only on Sunday, February 16 at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.

Horizon Theatre Company opens its 36th season with one of the most critically acclaimed musicals of recent history, Once. Recipient of eleven 2012 Tony Award nominations, and winner of eight including Best Musical, Best Actor and Best Book, Once is a musical based on the 2007 film of the same name by John Carney. Like the film, music and lyrics are by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, including the Academy Award-winning song 'Falling Slowly.' With book by Enda Walsh. Horizon Theatre Company's Atlanta premiere starts performances January 31 (Press Opening February 7, 2020) and runs until March 8, 2020 in Little Five Points/Inman Park (1083 Austin Avenue N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307). The show is directed by Horizon Theatre Artistic Associate Heidi McKerley, who directed the 2019 Horizon hit The Wolves. Musical direction is by Ed Thrower who recently led the creative team for Serenbe's production of Hair.

Acclaimed singer and actress Erin Leddy (Ghostlight the musical; Anything Goes; The Great Gatsby) and multiple award-winning performer of stage and screen Tim Realbuto (who recently won The Hollywood Moving Image Award for Best Leading Actor for the motion picture YES) will bring their new concert From Broadway With Love to The Laurie Beechman Theatre at the West Bank Cafe on West 42d Street, right in the heart of midtown. The concert will take place at 7:00 PM on Thursday, February 13th, just in time for Valentine's Day. The two best friends are teaming up again after a very successful concert called Crossroads that they performed in 2018 at The Green Room 42.

Broadway's master songman, Mandy Patinkin, accompanied by Adam Ben-David on piano, will bring his newest theatre concert Mandy Patinkin in Concert: DIARIES, to Detroit's Fisher Theatre for one performance only on Thursday, February 6, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.

Eisemann Center Presents Broadway's master songman, Mandy Patinkin, accompanied by Adam Ben-David on piano, will bring his newest theatre concert Mandy Patinkin in Concert: DIARIES, to the Eisemann Center 2351 Performance Drive in Richardson, Texas for one performance only on Friday, January 17, 2020 at 7:30 pm in the Hill Performance Hall.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Michael Stotts- Managing Director), recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award, begins the new year with the world premiere Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and written with Richard Curtis. Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber begins performances Thursday, January 30, 2020, and will continue through Sunday, March 1, 2020 at Paper Mill Playhouse (22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, NJ). JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the major sponsor of Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Paper Mill Playhouse's 2019-2020 season is proudly sponsored by Investors Bank. Opening Night is Sunday evening, February 9, 2020 at 7:00pm.

West Side Story is officially in previews on Broadway! The new production is directed by Tony Award winner Ivo van Hove; and for the first time ever in the United States, will feature all-new choreography by the internationally acclaimed Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. West Side Story will begin previews on December 10, 2019 and open February 6th, 2020 at the Broadway Theatre.

Tony-nominated composer Paul Gordon is one of those rare musical theater creators who, like Lin-Manuel Miranda, can write the whole show a?" book, music and lyrics. Gordon's latest work is the musical a?oePride and Prejudicea?? soon to start its world premiere run at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. He has formed a close relationship with the company over the years, including hit productions of his shows a?oeJane Eyre,a?? a?oeEmma,a?? a?oeBeing Earnest,a?? and a?oeDaddy Long Legs.a?? Interestingly, Gordon initially found success as a composer of pop music writing for, and collaborating with, numerous recording artists, including Bette Midler, Quincy Jones, Alanis Morissette, Smokey Robinson and Dionne Warwick. An abiding love for musical theater led to a fortuitous meeting with esteemed director John Caird that opened up a whole new career for Gordon. BroadwayWorld caught up with him while he was still in the thick of the rehearsal process for his new show, which can be a very stressful time. In conversation, Gordon appeared surprisingly calm as he chatted about the development of a?oePride and Prejudicea?? and his plans to build new audiences for musical theater.

Syracuse Stage rings in the holiday season with the family musical a?oeDisney's Beauty and the Beast,a?? directed by Donna Drake and choreographed by Anthony Salatino with musical direction by Brian Cimmet. Preview performances begin Nov. 22. Opening night is Nov. 29, with performances scheduled through Jan. 5. Excellent seats remain for many performances and are available through the Box Office (315-443-3275) and at www.SyracuseStage.org.

The first clue that ANASTASIA was going to be different than what I expected was a note on the title page reading, “Inspired by the Twentieth Century Fox Motion Pictures.” Plural? A savvy journalist, I quickly asked Siri to bring up the imdb page for “Anastasia”. Turns out Fox made ANASTASIA twice, the 1997 animated movie and a 1957 film that scored Ingrid Bergman's second Oscar and marked Helen Hayes' transition to the big screen. And it turns out the musical version has more in common with LES MISERABLES and RAGTIME than BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Gone is the hell-wizard Rasputin, his talking fruit bat sidekick, and the singing demon caterpillars. At intermission, I asked my third grade niece, Adalyn, how she was liking it. “It's awesome…it's real people, like no Beast or anything. No animals.” We decide that Disney staged musicals are great but more it's more impressive when you can achieve the magic without a story that departs from reality. ANASTASIA is historical fiction hypothetical. It poses a “what if…?” that a daughter of the last czar of Russia (The Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna) escaped when the czar's family was executed in 1918. Rumors persisted for decades that Anastasia did, in fact, escape. In 2007, DNA testing confirmed the remains of all four Grand Duchesses were in the Imperial grave. In this version, Terrence McNalley's book follows Anastasia's rediscovery of her identity after surviving the attack on her family and sustaining some plot enabling amnesia. Renamed “Anya” she grows up and makes a life in post-Revolution Russia. Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress (in a staggeringly moving performance by Joy Franz) has fled to France and offered a cash reward for anyone escorting the rumored alive Anastasia to Paris. The wily duo Vlad (Edward Staudenmayer) and Dmitry (Jake Levy) pull a My Fair Lady style makeover on Anya to collect the Dowager's prize. They are pursued by Gleb (Jason Michael Evans). A Soviet officer drawn to Anya romantically but tasked with finding and eliminating the last Romanov. Anya's memory becomes somewhat coaxed back, but the Dowager has stopped seeing Anastasia claimants after too much heart-break from countless frauds. It sounds dark, but with high-tech digital scenery and inspired performances across the cast it is delightful. Stephen Flaherty (Music) and Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics), responsible for bringing us RAGTIME, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, LUCKY STIFF, as well as the Oscar nominated songs carried over from the animated film. ANASTASIA is a perfect context for this pair. “Stay, I Pray You” (my favorite song of the evening) is evocative of RAGTIME's “New Music”. The two songs literally race my heart in a strangely specific way. My real test of a National Tour at Gammage is how fast I get the music playing in my car on the way home. At ANASTASIA I was already finding, “Stay, I Pray You” walking through the parking lot. The rest of the score is similarly haunting. Lila Coogan, as Anya/Anastasia, powers through the score with nuance, clarity, and passion. Tari Kelly, as Countess Lily, and Stadenmayer (Vlad) were Adalyn's favorite performances and I have to agree. This incredibly gifted pair take the “triple threat” designation (singer, dancer, actor) and go quadruple with the addition of flawless comic timing. The choreography by Peggy Hickey is masterful. It somehow combines inventive and traditional throughout and the ten-minute slice of “Swan Lake” infused into “Quartet at the Ballet” is the highlight of the second act. It's a fun-size version that gets an under-represented art form onto the plate. This kind of trope often means the plot putting the plot on hold. But here, it is the connective tissue between Anya, Dmitry, the Dowager, and Gleb as they each bring us up to speed heading into the show's climax. Ultimately, the show's success comes from applying a higher artistic standard to the “previously-animated-film-now-theatrically-staged” genre. It cashes in on the name draw of the 1997 film then gives the viewer something much more enriched than what they think they are coming to see.

Goodspeed Musicals has announced this year's cast of A Connecticut Christmas Carol - the musical treat infused with Connecticut flavor by LJ Fecho and Michael O'Flaherty. Perfect for the holidays, A Connecticut Christmas Carol, the family-friendly take on the Dickens classic, will return to The Terris Theatre December 4 - 28, 2019. This production is supported in part by the Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Masonicare at Chester Village and GKN Aerospace Services Structures Corporation.

Broadway's master songman Mandy Patinkin, accompanied by Adam Ben-David on piano, will bring his newest theatrical concert MANDY PATINKIN IN CONCERT: DIARIES to D.C.'s National Theatre for one performance only on Black Friday, November 29, 2019 at 8pm.

Broadway's master songman Mandy Patinkin, accompanied by Adam Ben-David on piano, will bring his newest theater concert, Mandy Patinkin in Concert: DIARIES, to Musco Center for the Arts for one performance only on November 24, 2019 at 4pm.

Today's top stories: read the reviews for Linda Vista, and more!

Zoe Kazan's latest play, After the Blast, is set to take the Black Box Stage as part of the new Firestone Theatre season.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley rings in the holidays with the new musical Pride and Prejudice, the 2019 Tony-winning company's 70th World Premiere. Based on Jane Austen's iconic novel, this engaging work features book, music, and lyrics by Paul Gordon, whose musicals include TheatreWorks favorites Jane Austen's EMMA, Daddy Long Legs, and the Tony-nominated Broadway musical Jane Eyre. Pride and Prejudice follows delightfully liberated Lizzie Bennet and dashing, disdainful Mr. Darcy as they discover the irresistible power of love. A favorite from TheatreWorks's 2018 New Works Festival, this brand new musical romantic comedy will be directed by TheatreWorks's Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley.