The Breaks

This time, the reader question was: There are only three states in America without known Broadway musicals set within their borders. Can you guess which three? WE're breaking it down state by state.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jader Bignamini release a new recording of Pulitzer Prize and GRAMMY-winning trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Wynton Marsalis's epic Blues Symphony (2009) on PENTATONE.

Gracious and groovy, singer Sheila Jordan remains a jazz fan's delight, decade after decade. Her October 16th concert was lovely.

Local Los Angeles Area theatregoers have seen veteran and award-winning actor Darryl Maximilian Robinson appear in numerous roles onstage during his 14 years as a City of Angels thespian. But usually he has performed in small and intimate venues. But this summer he will be sharing his talents in a somewhat larger forum.

Long Beach Opera continues its 2024 season with the staged West Coast premiere of trailblazing composer Kate Soper's IPSA DIXIT, a 90-minute performance that explores the integration of music, drama, and rhetoric, and was a finalist for a 2017 Pulitzer Prize.

 Long Beach Opera will continue its 2024 season with the much-anticipated staged West Coast premiere of trailblazing composer Kate Soper's IPSA DIXIT.

The Front Page will come to the New Theatre next month. Performances run 23 April - 18 May 2024.

HIT POP MUSICAL Fantastic Great Women Who Changed the World has arrived in Greater Manchester for Christmas. The cast visited Hazel Reeves' award-winning statue 'Rise Up, Women' before performing at The Lowry. The show runs until January 7th, 2024, marking the anniversary of the Representation of the People Act.

Learn how Sondheim made Sweeney sing and how Mr. Todd made his mark on mass media in Part 2 of SWEENEY TODD, A History.

It is indeed ironic that composer Alberto Hemsi, who spent much of his life rescuing music that faced extinction, should have his own brilliantly original works threatened with a similar fate.

Actor, singer and television personality Danielle de Niese will star as ‘Elle’ in a new film of LA VOIX HUMAINE, Jean Cocteau’s one-woman drama set to music by Francis Poulenc, shot on location in London and Paris. Directed by James Kent (Aftermath, Testament of Youth), with Cinematography from Laurie Rose (High Rise, Rebecca) and designed by Peter Francis (The Father, The Children Act) the film will have its UK premiere on BBC Two in the spring.

Cole Porter, the most Francophile of the big five American composers of the American songbook, with Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, and Richard Rodgers, spent almost a decade in Paris just after World War I immersing himself French language and culture and developing his craft as a composer and lyricist of sophisticated and semi-autographical ditties full of double entendre, trying them out as a dilettante pianist in the party scenes of the roaring 20s not only in Paris but also in Venice, before taking on Broadway by storm the following decade.

New York City Ballet announced today that the Company is planning to create several new works and special programs, many of which will be specially filmed onstage at the Koch Theater, for online release from February through May 2021.  

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the greatest theatrical works (non-musical) from 1920-2020; see if your favorites made the list!

In yet another spectacular triumph, global hit COME FROM AWAY has smashed the highest weekly gross income for the week ending 19 January, surpassing the weekly box office records of all other productions staged at the theatre since it opened in 1928. 

Orlando was a deeply engaging, intriguing and thought-provoking exploration whose pondering, messages, striking soundscapes and visuals reverberated and lingered long after the curtain had closed. It is a highly ambitious undertaking but Neuwirth and her colleagues were up for the challenge. What is most exciting is what has now been established for a venue such as The Wiener Straatsoper as we move into a new decade of uncertain times when it is vital that radical expressions of art and activism combined are given such a grand stage with which to proclaim their truths.

The National Ballet, under the guidance of its artistic director, the legendary Karen Kain, brought Ottawa a treat this week. Three short ballets, each with a vastly different feel, graced the stage of Southam Hall.

The brand-new, state-of-the-art rehearsal, storage and administrative building is now ready for use by the opera company

The subject matter varies, but a common theme among the works found in the new exhibition "Harrison Hurwitz: Photographer, Working" is a theme of photos made under stressful conditions. The exhibition opens Jan. 8 at the Appaloosa Library, 7377 E. Silverstone Drive, Scottsdale, and runs through Feb. 28.

After a hard day's labor in a parish workhouse for children, a nine-year-old orphan named Oliver asks for a second serving of gruel. The workhouse master, annoyed by Oliver's impertinence, sells him into an apprenticeship with a drunken undertaker and his abusive wife. Fearing for his life, the boy escapes to London, where he falls in with the Artful Dodger and a band of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin. Oliver discovers heroes and villains in all manner of strange places as he learns how to survive and thrive on the streets of the city. Including such favorite songs as "Food, Glorious Food," "Consider Yourself," and "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two," Lionel Bart's adaptation of Charles Dickens' social satire of 19th-century London remains a cherished musical for all ages.

'This is a period in history where art is rejuvenating the people. From a musical standpoint, An American in Paris depicts an interesting time in the European-American cultural exchange. The many colors of French, German, British music were being influenced by American sounds to create a new, singular musical aesthetic, and this, in turn, influenced American musicians who emulated these aspects. It became a snowball of invention.' Music Director David Lamoureux is talking about the exciting period of cultural cross contexts and artistic innovation that was Post War Paris. He is joined by two of his collaborators on the production, directed and choreographed by Jeffry Denman, which opened at the Ogunquit Playhouse on July 13: Assistant Music Director Patrick Fanning and Assistant Choreographer Ashley Marinelli. The trio waxes eloquent about the fertile, innovative artistic world of the play and its time period and the opportunity to bring this milieu and story to life at the famed playhouse which celebrates its 86th season.

Nakkiah Lui latest offering BLACKIE BLACKIE BROWN: THE TRADITIONAL OWNER OF DEATH is a hilarious superhero story all of Australia needs to see.

Playwright Mark St. Germain's 'Becoming Dr Ruth' is a tender ode to an unusual woman with an unusual life.

BroadwayWorld.com has learned that FIDDLER ON THE ROOF composer Jerry Bock passed away last night, at the age of 81. This comes just one week after the passing of FIDDLER bookwriter Joseph Stein.