Comedy in Music Photos - West End

What did our critic think of WEST SIDE STORY at Porthouse/Kent State University? In the fall of 1957, I had a mind-blowing experience. I saw the newly opened Broadway production of WEST SIDE STORY. At the time, all I knew about the show was that it was based on ROMEO AND JULIET and it had opened to positive reviews two days before.

Theatre at the Center's production of The Pajama Game had its opening night performance on Sunday, September 15 at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster.  Artistic Director Linda Fortunato cast Curtis Bannister as Sid, Elizabeth Telford as Babe, Cynthia Carter as Mabel, Kelly Felthous as Gladys, Jason Grimm as Hines, Dan Klarer as Prez, Rick Rapp as Pop and Steve Silver as Mr. Hasler in the musical comedy romance The Pajama Game.

Meredith Wilson's 'The Music Man' is one of American musical theatre's most produced shows. Professional, community and educational theatres stage the show on a regular basis. The songfest, which is as American as apple pie and a Fourth of July fireworks display, is now on stage at Porthouse Theatre.

Kentwood Players, the community theater group based at the Westchester Playhouse, was founded in December 1949 by Jan and Arky Marcom, for whom the group's annual Marcom Masque Awards are named. The first Marcom Masque Awards were presented for the 1957-1958 season with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof winning the award for Best Play. The 2018-2019 season included the following six productions: Match, Daddy's Dyin', Who's Got the Will?, Dangerous Obsession, Disney's The Little Mermaid, Our Town, and Sunday in the Park with George. Awards are determined by all Kentwood Players members who voted by secret ballot in several artistic categories after seeing each show, Season Subscribers, and production teams for all shows.

Strike up the band: Riverdale Repertory Company, Riverdale Rising Stars, and Riverdale Junior Rising Stars proudly present THE MUSIC MAN at the Riverdale YM-YWHA. The limited engagement continues through Sunday, November 18, 2018.

WEST SIDE STORY, the Jerome Robbins (concept development), Leonard Bernstein (Music), Arthur Laurents (book), and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), had an interesting road from idea to Broadway production to revivals. The script is now in production by the Baldwin Wallace Department of Theatre and Dance and the Conservatory of Music's Musical Theatre Program.

The Public Theater will begin previews for the Mobile Shakespeare Unit's THE COMEDY OF ERRORS on Sunday, November 1. Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, the sit-down run of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS follows a three-week tour to the five boroughs, bringing free Shakespeare to audiences who have limited or no access to the arts. The Shakespeare comedy will run at The Public Theater through Sunday, November 22, with an official press opening on Thursday, November 5. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Mercury Theatre, Colchester, Brian Eastman and Christabel Albery present a new musical comedy based on the StudioCanal Peter Sellers/Margaret Rutherford film The Smallest Show on Earth.  The stage show, which has a book by Thom Southerland and Paul Alexander, contains some of Irving Berlin's greatest songs, including Blue Skies, Shakin' the Blues Away, Let Yourself Go, Steppin' Out with my Baby and How Deep is the Ocean, as well as some rediscovered gems.

The real-life acting couple Keir Dullea (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY) and Mia Dillon (CRIMES OF THE HEART, Broadway original cast) will be joined by actors Todd Cerveris, Cameron Clifford, Don Noble and Christa Scott-Reed in the BUCKS COUNTY PLAYHOUSE production of Ernest Thompson's comedy ON GOLDEN POND, running July 10 to August 2, at the Playhouse, located at 70 S. Main Street in New Hope, Pa. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal below!

The Theatre Group at SBCC will open the 2015/16 anniversary season with the well-loved musical, Meredith Willson's THE MUSIC MAN, Book, Music and Lyrics by Meredith Willson, Story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey.  Directed by R. Michael Gros and Musical Direction by David Potter, The Music Man will perform July 10-25, 2015 in the beautiful Garvin Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast below!

Nino, an Italian film maker with a strong resemblance to Federico Fellini, is in an artistic crisis. Every new work is, for him, an artistic crisis. So he goes to bed with a multitude of women, seeking ideas and stimulation, feeding on them both humanly and artistically. Nino is sexually impotent until he gets a good idea, and then he's hellfire. But his sexual partners, all artists in their own right, are not satisfied. Rallied by a wealthy feminist American widow, they decide that to be a muse is to be exploited. So they exact revenge by making a movie of Nino's life and fantasies, Candid Camera-Style. Thus unfolds 'Six Passionate Women' by Mario Fratti, a play inspired by the playwright's personal acquaintance with Fellini, whom he covered closely as a journalist in the late 1950s. It combines a serious disquisition on the creative mind with recurring themes of Fratti's plays: betrayal, jealousy and sexual politics. Theater for the New City will present the piece October 9 to 26, directed by Stephan Morrow. Dennis Parlato, as the film maker, heads a cast of eight that is peppered with Broadway vets. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast below!

'Days of Our Lives' star Kevin Spirtas leads a cast of 13 in the new musical comedy MR. CONFIDENTIAL, presented as part of the 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival. Directed and choreographed by Stephen Nachamie(director of NYMF's award-winning 2012 production of Foreverman), MR. CONFIDENTIAL features book and lyrics bySamuel Bernstein (Bobbie's Girl) and music by David Snyder. The production plays five performances July 21-27 at theAlice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 W. 42nd St.), as part of the 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

'Days of Our Lives' star Kevin Spirtas leads a cast of 13 in the new musical comedy MR. CONFIDENTIAL, presented as part of the 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival. Directed and choreographed by Stephen Nachamie (director of NYMF's award-winning 2012 production of Foreverman), MR. CONFIDENTIAL features book and lyrics by Samuel Bernstein (Bobbie's Girl) and music by David Snyder. The production plays five performances July 21-27 at theAlice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 W. 42nd St.), as part of the 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal!

ANNIE, the new production of the Tony Award-winning musical, went into rehearsal today in New York City with its full company. The production begins previews October 3, 2012 and opens November 8, 2012 at the Palace Theatre (Broadway at 47th Street). Meet the full cast below!

Stephen Sondheim, Harold Prince, James Gandolfini, Patti LuPone, Liz Smith, Christine Ebersole, Lesley Stahl, Joni Evans, Cynthia McFadden, and Michael Feinstein were just a few of the stars who gathered at the Carlyle Hotel last night to celebrate the 85th birthday of its most famous resident, Elaine Stritch. In honor of the event, Stritch herself celebrated with an hour long performance of 'At Home At The Carlyle: Elaine Stritch Singin' Sondheim...One Song At A Time.'