Photo Flash: CINDERELLA Enchants at the Muny
Get a first look at The Muny’s fourth production of its 101st Season,Rodgers Hammerstein’sCinderella.
Sutton Foster to Play The Grove at Germantown Performing Arts Center This Fall
Tony Award winner Sutton Foster, who currently stars on the TV Land series Younger, will appear in concert at the Germantown Performing Arts Center in Germantown, Pennsylvania, October 4 at 8 PM.
Foster is also set to star as The Baker’s Wife in the upcoming Hollywood Bowl concerts of Into the Woods, July 26–28, and will join Tony winner Hugh Jackman in the 2020 Broadway revival of The Music Man.
A Tony Award winner for Thoroughly Modern Millie and Anything Goes, Foster has also starred on Broadway in Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, and Shrek.
Click here for tickets to the October concert.
Foster has been a special guest on Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas cruises. Cabins are now on sale for Broadway in the Great Northwest, Playbill Travel’s first domestic cruise that will bring passengers on a journey through the Pacific Northwest from April 26–May 4, 2020, and for Broadway on the Mediterranean(August 31–September 7, 2020), featuring Audra McDonald, Will Swenson, Gavin Creel, Lindsay Mendez, and more to be announced. Playbill Travel is currently accepting waitlist travelers for its sold-outBroadway in Bordeaux With Michael Feinstein (September 1–9, 2019). Call Playbill Travel for tickets at 866-455-6789 or visit PlaybillTravel.com.
Wake Up With BWW 7/8: INTO THE WOODS at Town Hall, and More!
Today’s top stories Tonight, Alice Ripley, Tony Yazbeck, Betsy Wolfe, and many more Broadway stars take the stage in Into The Woods at Town Hall
Isaac Gomez’s The Way She Spoke Begins Previews July 8
Audible’s newest production, the way she spoke, begins previews July 8 at Minetta Lane Theatre.
Portrayed by Kate del Castillo, an actor walks on stage and begins to read a script written by her friend about the recent femicide in Juárez, Mexico.
Written by Isaac Gomez and directed by Jo Bonney, the way she spoke is a look at how stories can impact a performer.
READ: How Art and Real Life Collide in the way she spoke
The creative team includes Riccardo Hernandez (scenic design), Emilio Sosa (costume design), Lap Chi Chu (lighting design), Elisheba Ittoop (sound design), and Aaron Rhyne (projection design).
The way she spoke officially opens July 18 and is scheduled to run through August 16. Audible will record and release the way she spoke as an audio play, due some time after closing.
See the Cast and Creative Team of Off-Broadway’s the way she spoke Meet the Press
VIDEO: Meet the Ensemble Cast of THE CHER SHOW!
The Cher Show is celebrating its fabulous ensemble members The official Twitter account for the hit musical has shared a video highlighting everyone who performs in the show’s ensemble.
How a Real-Life Sisterly Bond Fuels Frozen’s Broadway Princesses
As Young Elsa and Anna build a snowman before a Broadway audience with their imagination (and a touch of cryokinesis), their older counterparts have their own offstage fun. At the top of nearly every performance of Frozen, Arendelle’s royals can be found in a second-floor dressing room dancing.
Caissie Levy and Patti Murin, who continue to take center stage as Elsa and Anna, respectively, in the Disney musical, have turned the precious few minutes before their entrances into a nightly ritual in Levy’s dressing room. After some stretching and antics (or, on mellower days, meditation), Murin leaves so they can both get into costume. A quick hug in the wings, and they’re on.
“It allows us to shake off our respective days—to reconnect, to laugh, to hug, and to remember that ultimately, we’re in this together,” Levy says of their routine. “We’ve just developed such a specific thing,” Murin adds. “It’s nice to see each other before we start the craziness.” (“Craziness,” here, is a catch-all for freezing over an entire kingdom, accidentally casting ice spells, and lots and lots of belting.)
Like sisters, the two have come to learn each other’s tastes and idiosyncrasies. Murin knows Levy won’t turn down chips; Levy knows Murin likes her post-show wine. They find each other texting about the performance after leaving the theatre, even if one of them wasn’t on.
READ: Frozen Star Patti Murin’s 5 Most Memorable Nights Onstage
“All it takes is a look, and we know what the other one is thinking,” Levy says. “When one of us feels shaky, the other is solid.” Murin raises the stakes of their trust beyond emotional stability: “Hopefully it won’t have to be put to the test, but I know she would fight people for me. It’s a fiercely loyal relationship that we have.”
As their offstage sisterhood evolves, so do their respective performances at the St. James Theatre. Both assure that despite having been in these roles for over two years (from labs to a Denver tryout to Broadway), there are still layers to unearth. Levy likens the challenge to yoga: “You go through the same postures every class, but it’s different every time, because you’re different every time.”
Levy often internally investigates her approach to Elsa, perhaps provoked by a new line reading or a particular moment suddenly feeling inauthentic. Meanwhile, Murin enters another year of Frozen with a more nuanced perception of the show’s lighter moments. “I’m starting to dissect and learn very specific things about the comedy,” she explains. “It ebbs and flows. After a while, you’re like, ‘[The audience] used to laugh a lot at that. Why aren’t they laughing anymore?’ It’s like a puzzle, matching their energy.”
They’ve also found the tools needed to survive several shows a week. Levy abides by “a healthy mix of denial, surrender, and chutzpah” to tackle “Let It Go” consistently. Murin has learned (in part from her co-star) to “place more of an emphasis on being kind to myself.” The Broadway veteran remains vocal about her own battles with depression and anxiety, and after some time in the role, she’s more aware of her triggers, her castmates know how to soothe her (“food is my love language”), and she has a greater sense of perspective (“every time I had to call out, it felt like a massive catastrophe, but only to me).
Braving the cold nightly may be daunting, but doing so with a sister makes it approachable—and even heartwarming. “This is my happy place,” Murin says. “That’s something that I was expecting, but not quite to this degree, how much of a home this theatre is.”
New Production Photos: Frozen on Broadway
VIDEO: On This Day, July 5- Happy Birthday, Edie Falco!
On this day, we’re celebrating the birthday of the great Edie Falco
London’s Queen’s Theatre Will Be Renamed the Sondheim Theatre
Cameron Mackintosh announced July 5 that London’s Queen’s Theatre will be renamed the Sondheim Theatre in honor of Stephen Sondheim’s forthcoming 90th birthday. The Tony-winning composer-lyricist will be the only living artist to have a theatre named in his honor both in the West End and on Broadway. (Broadway’s Stephen Sondheim Theatre is currently home to the long-running hit Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.)
The Queen’s Theatre opened October 8, 1907, with Madeleine Lucette Ryley’s The Sugar Bowl and was designed by architect W.G.R. Sprague as a pair with the adjoining corner of Shaftesbury Avenue. On July 8, 1959, the theatre reopened with John Gielgud’s Shakespearean recital Ages of Man. On July 13 the theatre will close for four months of rebuilding work both backstage and in the auditorium. This work will also restore Sprague’s original boxes and loges which, along with the entire front of house, were destroyed by a bomb in 1940 and caused the theatre to be closed for 20 years.
The newly named Sondheim Theatre will reopen December 18, 2019, with the new version of Les Misérables. Casting for that production will be announced later this summer. (As previously reported, a concert version of Les Misérables will be presented August 10-November 30 at the Gielgud Theatre.)
In a statement producer Mackintosh said, “I have been lucky enough to have been a friend and colleague of Steve’s since our first collaboration in 1976 on the musical revue Side by Side by Sondheim at the Wyndham’s Theatre. After 112 years Shaftesbury Avenue will have a theatre named after a living legend and house the world’s longest running musical, the legendary Les Misérables as it enters its phenomenal 35th year. As an innovative voice in musical theatre, his influence has no equal. Sondheim’s work will undoubtedly be performed as long as audiences want to see live theatre, so I feel honored that he has agreed to have his name on one of my Shaftesbury Avenue theatres to salute his upcoming 90th birthday. Over the decades his work has become increasingly appreciated and performed by all, both as part of the popular theatre and classical repertoires and in spaces that range from a pie shop to the Royal Opera House.
“His love of theatre is unquenchable and throughout his career he has been an exceptional champion of so many young creatives as well as supporting numerous productions worldwide, especially here in London. When Les Misérables re-opens in December with the new production, the re-built and restored theatre will be re-named the Sondheim Theatre–a perfect companion to the Gielgud Theatre next door, named after the great actor John Gielgud, and the Coward and Novello Theatres, named after the two celebrated British writers and composers. For the past 25 years I have tried to build a studio theatre in central London named after Sondheim, but it wasn’t to be. I felt this major refurbishment of a building that has housed his brilliant work was the perfect moment to put his name ‘on some marquee all twinkling lights—a spark to pierce the dark.’ Stephen Sondheim has always been that spark to all of us. Even as an eight-year-old boy dreaming about becoming a producer I could never have dreamt a dream like this or be happier.”
Sondheim added, “I have loved British Theatre since I saw my first play here in 1958. I have treasured Cameron Mackintosh’s support and friendship ever since he produced Side by Side by Sondheim in 1976. Cameron is synonymous with British Theatre, so the confluence on this occasion is truly exhilarating. I am chuffed, as you say in British English, to a degree I wouldn’t have imagined. Or as we say in American English, it’s awesome.”
Step Inside Broadway’s Stephen Sondheim Theatre
