The Time of Your Life Photos - Broadway

Director Lisa Leguillou’s tweeked version of Joe Mantello’s original production of Stephen Schwartz (Music and Lyrics) and Winnie Holzman’s (Book) multi-award winning WICKED arrives in Sydney for the 20th Anniversary of the multi award winning musical’s opening on Broadway.

Two River Theater will continue their series of online benefit play readings with On Borrowed Time, a live two-act event; Act 1 on Wednesday, August 5 and Act 2 with a live Q&A with the artists on Thursday, August 6 at 7:00PM EDT.

The wait is almost over until the premiere of the new stage play By The Waters Of Liverpool opens at the Liverpool Empire in less than two weeks.

This October, New Conservatory Theatre Center presents the return of Douglas Carter Beane's sophisticated wit and thrilling theatrical ambition with the regional premiere of The Nance. After hit productions of Beane's The Little Dog Laughed and As Bees in Honey Drown, NCTC bring his latest and "finest" (Time Out NY), what The New York Times calls "a heartfelt new play set in the twilight of burlesque." This "bold, brave play" (Backstage) - which debuted at Lincoln Center Theater on Broadway in 2013 - recreates the naughty, raucous world of burlesque's heyday and tells the backstage story of headliner Chauncey Miles, who plays "the nance," a flamboyantly effeminate stock character - usually played by a straight man. Set amid Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's crackdown on burlesque before the 1939 World's Fair, a time when it was easy to play gay yet dangerous to be gay, Chauncey's uproarious antics on the stage stand out in marked contrast to his offstage life.

Broadway fans had plenty of reasons to celebrate this year, with dozens of shows having opened since January, hundreds of actors having made their debuts, and many more having returned to the stage for critically acclaimed performances. Not all news was good though, as we also suffered a loss of an incredible amount of talent. Below, BroadwayWorld sends a fond farewell to those who passed away in 2014.

First produced in 1939, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE by American playwright Joseph Kesselring is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster family, descended from the 'Mayflower,' but now composed of insane homicidal maniacs. This classic play has been produced around the world and will continue to be done as long as audiences love to laugh at the outrageous situations and over-the-top characters, especially the eccentric, and frequently murderous and disturbed, family.

I used to believe the cyclone that dropped Dorothy's house on Munchinkland was a random disaster. Thanks to novelist Gregory Maguire, I now know better. Last night, when Director Joe Mantello brought this splendidly-imagined backstory to life on stage at the Orpheum, it once again brought down the house.

Based on the 1939 MGM movie musical, this production includes all your favorite songs and characters from the film, including 'Over The Rainbow' and 'We're Off To See The Wizard' and features a cast of 36 professional and local actors of all ages, presented with full sets, costumes brilliantly designed by Diana Mann, and spectacular lighting effects out on the baseball field.

FREUD'S LAST SESSION, the off-Broadway runaway hit by Mark St. Germain, is now playing at The Cell - home of the Fusion Theatre Company - and I urge you not to miss it!

Westport Country Playhouse (Joanne Woodward and Anne Keefe, artistic directors, Jodi Schoenbrun Carter, managing director) will stage John Steinbeck's classic drama, 'Of Mice and Men,' directed by Mark Lamos. Peformances began October 7th and will run through November 1. Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 and the Pulitzer Prize for his 1939 novel 'The Grapes of Wrath.' The production will honor the late Paul Newman, who was married to Westport's Artistic Director Joanne Woodward and who participated in many Westport Playhouse productions.

A NIGHT AT THE OPERETTA on July 14th featured the sounds of Broadway music one rarely gets to hear anymore - Operetta - including music by Sigmund Romberg, Rudolph Friml and Victor Herbert. A NIGHT AT THE OPERETTA featured Alexander Gemignani, Lisa Howard, William Michals, Jennifer Hope Wills, Christine Andreas, Bill Daugherty, Brian Charles Rooney, Karen Murphy, John Easterlin, Jason Graae and Milla Ilieva. The show featured the dance talents of Eric Sean Fogel, J. Austin Eyer, Billy Harrigan Tighe, and Ben Franklin. The show is under the direction of Dan Foster with musical direction by Fred Barton