You Never Know 1938

Grover's Corners, here they come! The new Broadway production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town directed by Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon, just announced that the play will feature 28 actors. We have all of the details!

They may be mysterious and spooky and all together ooky, but they’re coming to Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre February 23-March 30. The Addams Family musical comedy first hit Broadway in 2010. Ford Haeuser, the choreographer for this production, shared some insights into this kooky family.

The journey through these two discs, though, is not only enjoyable, it is an education.

On its West End debut, The Addams Family musical makes the most of its graveyard humour and kooky characters, even if the star casting is questionable.

Check out a full list of what's to come on Broadway in 2024 and be sure to check back as more engagements are added to the list!

Next up for The Group Rep, John Murray and Allen Boretz’ zany comedy Room Service opening September 8, 2023, at their Lonny Chapman Theatre. Mareli Mitchel-Shields directs the large cast of Fox Carney, Joe Clabby, Joseph Eastburn, Tommy Jacobs, Jessica Kent, Sam Logan, Will Maizel, Matthew McLaughlin, Jackie Shearn, Bonnie Snyder, Axel Truitt, Sal Valletta, Grant Velarde, Timothy Willard and Chris Winfield. Chris graciously put down his hammer to answer a few of my queries.

For those of us for whom she represents more than kitsch, this album is an essential.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw will continue Gingold Theatrical Group's 18th season of Project Shaw.See who is starring and learn how to purchase tickets!

During the Roaring 1920s until its closing on July 27, 1959, West Hollywood’s landmark Garden of Allah Hotel on Sunset Blvd. hosted the Hollywood elite looking to have a great time socializing and mingling without the prying eyes of the media or autograph seekers in their faces, or their beds for that matter. I decided to speak with Romy Nordlinger, the playwright and performer of Garden of Alla in which she shares the life of Alla Nazimova, a Jewish immigrant from Tsarist Russia who became a Broadway and silent film superstar, visionary Hollywood director and producer, LGBTQIA trailblazer, and creator of the hotel which became world famous on many levels, both famous and infamous.

It was in Fall 1995 that I first was introduced to the gospel singing Sanders Family of “up near Siler City, North Carolina,” in a production of Smoke on the Mountain at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. In 2023, the family returns again, as if by magic or perhaps accompanied by flights of angels, in a warmly nostalgic, sweetly sentimental and altogether lovely production from Studio Tenn -- playing through April 2 -- at the historic sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Franklin, which stands in quite nicely for the First Baptist Church of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, on a Saturday night in 1938.

Modern-day vaudevillian Bryce Edwards is the man that people want to see.

With guest vocals of Maria Muldaur on “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and Evan Price’s violin on two tracks, the album covers 14 standards composed by the likes of Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, George Gershwin and Louis Armstrong, brought to life by the unique voice and character of the one and only Taj Mahal.

Forte Theatre Company is about to bring one of the most-beloved musicals of all time to Franklin's Saber Center for the Performing Arts. 'The Sound of Music' runs October 7–16, 2022.

Paper Mill Playhouse has announced casting for On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan, the first production of Paper Mill’s 2022-2023 season. The production will feature Linedy Genao (On Your Feet! on Broadway) as Gloria, and Brandon Espinoza (Broadway’s SpongeBob SquarePants) as Emilio.

FringeArts has announced the full roster of programming for the 26th Annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival, a city-wide celebration of progressive, world-class art that expands the imagination and boldly defies expectations. The Festival will take place on September 8 through October 2.

For two weeks now Brunswick’s Pickard Theater has been “alive with the sound of music,’ but on June 15 Hanley Smith and Will Ray, the stars of MSMT’s brilliant new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s THE SOUND OF MUSIC, joined MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark and BWW Maine Regional Editor Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold to celebrate the joy, inspiration, and continued resonance of this timeless musical at the first Peek Behind the Curtain program in three years. The popular panel discussion series held at Curtis Memorial Library returned to an enthusiastic, capacity audience for an hour of conversation about what Clark called “the quintessential American musical and the perfect show to launch post-pandemic MSMT’s Revival Season.”

This week, FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

“Marc Robin ‘s vision for this production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC is that of a joyful, hopeful child,” says Hanley Smith, the actress who makes her debut as Maria von Trapp this week as Maine State Music Theatre kicks off its “Revival Season.” Describing the lens through which director/choreographer Robin views the piece, she continues, “This production comes from a very joyful, youthful place at the same time that there is an awareness of the weight and import of the story. In the face of deep darkness in the world, the light becomes all the brighter. Marc knows how to create both those worlds and the battle between them and make you really want the light to win. And you believe it CAN win. And that is not naïveté; that is an act of courage.”

The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Our Town is a triumphant production of vitality, and consequence. Thornton Wilder’s classic—a work that captures the universal experience of being alive—takes on new resonance and depth in the capable hands of an extraordinary ensemble. This play is immediate—one to see and share and talk about.

This week I saw productions of two decades-old musicals, each written by one of theatre's great composer/lyricists, which, in their original productions, ran a combined total of nine performances on Broadway.

Theater J has announced Theater J’s 32nd season, which includes five plays and a bonus return engagement of a musical masterpiece.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts wants you to start your new year with some unforgettable experiences and extraordinary entertainment!  

The Lantern’s first collaboration with nationally prominent director and playwright Steve H. Broadnax III, this world premiere play with music shows the dramatic confrontation between the great American blues musician Robert Johnson and the Devil from whom, legend has it, Johnson received his extraordinary talent.

Returning to lead the cast are Shereen Ahmed as Eliza Doolittle, Laird Mackintosh as Professor Henry Higgins, Leslie Alexander as Mrs. Higgins, Adam Grupper as Alfred P. Doolittle, Kevin Pariseau as Colonel Pickering, Gayton Scott as Mrs. Pearce, and Sam Simahk as Freddy Eynsford-Hill.

Though there are not may hills in the Argenta District, North Little Rock was definitely filled with the SOUND OF MUSIC this weekend, as the cast brought the Von Trapp family story to life at the Argenta Community Theater, 405 Main St, North Little Rock. This is the first partnership with Wildwood Park for the Arts, and I hope there will be many more, because this show is so good. Seriously, I will try to verbalize how great everyone is, but honestly, you need to go see it for yourself.