Whistle Down The Wind - 2006 - West End Articles Page 8

This August, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh will take the extraordinary step of closing down THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, the longest-running show in Broadway history, for four performances to install a brand-new Digital Sound System to bring the production's sound design technology into the 21st Century. The producers are investing an estimated $750,000 into installing the state-of-the-art system. Now in its phenomenal 21st Year at The Majestic Theatre (247 West 44th Street), the record-breaking production, directed by Harold Prince, continues to play with no end in sight.

Westport Country Playhouse announces its summer roster of shows, featuring Tony Award winner James Naughton directing a Cole Porter musical revue; 'Saturday Night Live's' Rachel Dratch appearing in David Wiltse's 'tour de farce' office comedy; and Playhouse favorite Mark Shanahan ('Sedition,' 'David Copperfield,' 'Journey's End') performing in a thriller.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is to be presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service for his many years of distinguished service to the arts through music.

Alexia Khadime, currently starring as 'Nala' in Disney's The Lion King, is to star as Elphaba in WICKED at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre from Monday 9 June until Saturday 29 November 2008.

Announced during tonight's live broadcast, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber will appear along for one of the hit TV show theme weeks. Other mentors/stars scheduled to appear on other weeks will be Dolly Parton, Mariah Carey and Neil Diamond.

On March 3rd at 7:30PM the University of Michigan Entertainment Coalition (UMEC) and the U of M Club of New York will present Bravo Blue! This 'Musical Homecoming' Concert will feature over 40 U of M alumni professionals and friends in a fast paced sampler of musical theatre, classical and contemporary music, jazz, opera, and dance. The performance will be held at the Peter Norton Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia on Broadway at 95th St at 7:30PM.

Casting has been announced for the London production of Jersey Boys, the Tony Award award-winning Broadway musical. The show will open in London's West End at the Prince Edward Theatre on Tuesday March 18, 2008, following previews from February 28, 2008. The London cast will be headed by Ryan Molloy as Frankie Valli, Stephen Ashfield as Bob Gaudio, Glenn Carter as Tommy DeVito and Philip Bulcock as Nick Massi.

In a Broadwayworld.com exclusive, hot budding star Francesca Jackson, set to play lesbian lawyer Joanne opposite Denise van Outen's Maureen in the upcoming West End 'Remix' of Rent, talks to Robert Gould about her career and her role in the Jonathon Larsen musical.

The 5th Avenue Theatre announces new dates for two of its 2007-2008 season musicals.

Atlantic Theater Company, in association with Tom Hulce and Ira Pittelman, have announced complete casting and dates for 10 Million Miles, the second world premiere musical in Atlantic's history and the final main stage production of its 2006-2007 season.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company will continue its 2006-2007 season with its first-ever production of William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.

London Mary Poppins star Laura Michelle Kelly will play the elven queen Galadriel in the upcoming London production of The Lord of the Rings, which opens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on June 19th, 2007

With the October 31 release of Bat Out of Hell III Meat Loaf sat down with BroadwayWorld.com to reflect on his time in the theatre, the new CD, theatrical ghosts, future stage possibilities, his Bat Out of Hell on Broadway Concert November 2nd at the Palace Theater and much more.

Annie Golden, Andrew Lippa and more will perform at Ars Nova, from September 11th through October 1st, as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival

Meat Loaf's new album Bat Out of Hell III will feature songs by Dance of the Vampires songwriter Jim Steinman

Nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Manoel Felciano gives us the scoop on Sweeney Todd.

A Chorus Line, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning musical, proudly announces the 2006 cast.

These days the West End is booming, with one of the busiest slates of shows to open in recent memory. To shed some light on what's hot right now in London, as well as on the business side of the ticket broker industry - on both sides of the pond - I sat to chat with Tracy Schiller, the Managing Director for Keith Prowse, one of the leading authorized ticket agencies in the world.

Wicked, Avenue Q, Caroline or Change, Evita and Spamalot join a long list of musical productions opening in 2006..

The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Whistle Down the Wind will be seen at the West End's Palace Theatre from March 15th through August 12th, after the closing of The Woman in White and before the opening of Spamalot

Bill Kenwright and Marla Rubin announce that they will present the Almeida Theatre production of FESTEN, the hugely successful London play about a family with a dark secret, on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre (239 W. 45th St.), with performances beginning Thursday, March 23. Larry Bryggman, Michael Hayden, Ali MacGraw and Julianna Margulies have been cast in the Broadway production. Directed by Rufus Norris, in a dramatization by David Eldridge from the Danish 1998 film, FESTEN will have its official press opening on Sunday, April 9.

Davis Gaines will continue in the Broadway on Ice tour, also featuring Dorothy Hamill, through February 2006