by Webmaster | Jun 1, 2021 | New Musical News Feed
Read on for more theatre news you may have missed in today’s headlines.
Will Swenson and Aubin Wise Join Ensemble of Netflix’s First Kill
Full casting has been announced for First Kill, the upcoming YA vampire drama series from Netflix. The series is based on a short story by best-selling author Victoria “V. E.” Schwab and is written by Schwab and Felicia D. Henderson. The story pits a teen vampire (Sarah Catherine Hook) from a powerful vampire family, the Fairmonts, against teen vampire hunter (Imani Lewis), from a family of celebrated vampire killers, the Burns. Tony nominee Will Swenson (Hair, Waitress) will sink his teeth into the role of Sebastian Fairmont, as Aubin Wise (Hamilton) will no doubt slay as Talia Burns.
Rachel Bay Jones Will Recur on The United States of Al
Tony winner Rachel Bay Jones (Dear Evan Hansen) has landed a recurring role on CBS comedy The United States of Al, Deadline reports. The series centers on Riley, a Marine combat veteran, and Al, his unit’s interpreter from Afghanistan, as they restart their lives in Ohio, played by Parker Young and Adhir Kalyan respectively. Jones will play a divorcee who catches the eye of Riley’s father Art, played by Dean Norris. The series is written and created by David Goetsch and Maria Ferrari. Jones makes her first appearance in the June 3 episode.
Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Seize The King Finds Its Cast
Carson Elrod (Peter and the Starcatcher), RJ Foster, Ro Boddie, Andrea Patterson, and Alisha Espinosa will star in Classical Theatre of Harlem’s outdoor premiere of Seize The King beginning July 6 at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in NYC’s Marcus Garvey Park. Carl Cofield directs the Will Power play, a modern reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Performances run through July 29. Tickets are free, but reservations are required. Click here for more information.
Blindness Continues an International Run With Canadian Premiere
The Donmar Warehouse production of Blindness, a socially distanced sound installation, will make its previously reported Canadian premiere at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre beginning August 4. Inspired by José Saramago’s dystopian novel and adapted by Simon Stephens, the piece charts perhaps familiar territory—a sudden global pandemic—that leaves its victims without sight. Audiences experience the story, as narrated by Olivier winner Juliet Stevenson, through binaural headphone technology while immersed in an atmospheric design. Walter Meierjohann directs with immersive binaural sound design by Ben and Max Ringham. David Mirvish produces the Canadian production.
Bonnie Comley Named Drama League Board President
Three-time Tony Award-winning producer and CEO and founder of BroadwayHD Bonnie Comley has been elected the new board president of The Drama League. Comley has served on the board since 2009 and has served three terms as vice president. This move marks the first time in over 50 years that a theatre industry leader will take the presidential seat, as the position is usually held by a person outside of the industry. Comley succeeds Stan Ponte, who will remain on the board. Additional officers of the board for this term will be Vice Presidents Joseph Pizza and Arthur Pober, Secretary Donna Daniels, and Treasurer Tony Benten. The Drama League was founded in 1916 and is the country’s oldest theatre non-profit organization, dedicated to advancing American theatre through initiatives to promote artistic development and audience engagement.
by Webmaster | Jun 1, 2021 | New Musical News Feed
Actors Equity Association has released a statement in response toPresident Joe Biden proposing a new National Endowment for the Arts budget of201 million. Theproposedincrease of33.5 millionisarecord-highfor the agencyand an important step towards fully funding the NEA at 1 per capita, or 331 million.
by Webmaster | May 30, 2021 | New Musical News Feed
On this day in 2018, Matt Crowley’s seminal play, The Boys in the Band, opened at Broadway’s Booth Theatre.
by Webmaster | May 30, 2021 | New Musical News Feed
1946 Orson Welles circumnavigates the stage in Around the World, a musical he adapted from Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days. Cole Porter wrote the music and lyrics for the production, mounted at the Adelphi Theatre.
1978 Waiting for Godot is produced at the Lepercq Space of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Playwright Samuel Beckett has his assistant, German director Walter D. Asmus, recreate Beckett’s 1975 staging at the Schiller Theater in Berlin. Sam Waterston and Austin Pendleton star as Vladimir and Estragon, respectively.
1979 Liv Ullmann won’t be forgotten as she headlines the musical I Remember Mama at the Majestic Theatre. Cy Feuer directs the adaptation of John Van Druten’s 1944 play, with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and book by Thomas Meehan. The cast plays 108 performances.
1984 John Malkovich and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago bring Lanford Wilson’s Balm in Gilead to New York City at the Circle Repertory. Under the direction of Malkovich, Terry Kinney, Tanya Berezin, Gary Sinise, and Glenne Headly star in the play set in a Broadway coffee shop.
1998 Natalie Portman, who made her stage debut as the star of the Broadway revival of The Diary of Anne Frank, leaves the production at the Music Box Theatre to resume her movie career and be immortalized as Princess Leia’s mother in the Star Wars prequel films. Nathalie Paulding replaces her as Anne.
2002 Bombay Dreams begins performances in London. The musical, set in the world of Indian cinema, is composed by A.R. Rahman and produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The production opens on Broadway two years later.
2003 Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel’s musical The Light in the Piazza makes its world premiere at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre. The cast includes Victoria Clark as Margaret, Celia Keenan-Bolger as Clara, and Steven Pasquale as Fabrizio. The musical opens on Broadway in spring 2005 and wins six Tony Awards, including Best Actress in a Musical for Victoria Clark and Best Score.
2013 Jean Stapleton, a seasoned stage and film actor who found lasting fame as the dimwitted and big-hearted wife of Archie Bunker on the 1970’s social sitcom All in the Family, dies at age 90. Stapleton’s Broadway appearances included roles in the original productions of Damn Yankees, Bells Are Ringing, Juno, and Funny Girl.
2015 The world premiere of Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich’s musical Ever After, based on the 1998 film, opens at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Kathleen Marshall directs a cast that includes Christine Ebersole, Tony Sheldon, James Snyder, and Margo Seibert.
2018 Mart Crowley’s groundbreaking 1968 play The Boys in the Band makes it Broadway debut at the Booth Theatre. Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, and Andrew Rannells star in the show about a group of gay men who gather in a New York City apartment for a friend’s birthday party. Joe Mantello directs the limited engagement.
Today’s Birthdays: Margalo Gillmore (1897–1986); Don Ameche (1908–1993); Brooke Shields (b. 1965); Matt Cavenaugh (b. 1978).
Watch highlights from the 2015 musical Ever After:
by Webmaster | May 29, 2021 | New Musical News Feed
President Biden has proposeda 20 percent increase in the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts to 201 million.
by Webmaster | May 28, 2021 | New Musical News Feed
1951 Performer Fanny Brice dies in Hollywood at age 60. Her showbiz career began with wins in a series of amateur nights at vaudeville theatres in Brooklyn, before a foray into burlesque as a Yiddish-dialect comedian. She was the first female comic hired by Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. for his legendary Follies series. She made her debut in 1910 and became one of the Follies’ signature acts. She starred in her first film in 1928, but did not pursue a movie career. She created the character Baby Snooks on stage, and it later became the centerpiece of her long-running radio show. Her life was immortalized in the Broadway musical Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand.
1951 Oklahoma! returns to New York, exactly three years after its original production closed on Broadway. The national tour of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which visited 114 cities since its start in 1943, opens a limited 100-performance engagement at the Broadway Theatre.
1959 Comedian-singer Max Bygraves spends 328 performances Swinging Down the Lane at London’s Palladium Theatre.
1963 Bob Fosse stars in the New York City Center Light Opera Company’s revival of Pal Joey, presented as part of the company’s spring season dedicated to the musicals of Richard Rodgers. The cast also includes Viveca Lindfors as Vera Simpson, Jack Durant as Ludlow Lowell (re-creating the role he played in the musical’s original Broadway production), Elaine Dunn as Gladys Bumps, and Rita Gardner as Linda English. The New York Times hails Kay Medford, writing that in the role of reporter Melba Snyder she “brings down the house” with her performance of the song “Zip.”
1998 Kevin Knight, who directed the London premiere of Birdy, brings the American premiere to the Philadelphia Theatre Company. Naomi Wallace’s adaptation of William Wharton’s novel is set in Philadelphia just after World War II, and examines the friendship between the sensitive, bird-obsessed Birdy and body building-obsessed Al and their struggle with identity.
Today’s Birthdays: Beatrice Lillie (1894–1989). Bob Hope (1903–2003). Kevin Conway (1942–2020). Annette Bening (b. 1958). Rupert Everett (b. 1959). Anthony Azizi (b. 1969). Mel B. (b. 1975). David Burtka (b. 1975). Rachel Tucker (b. 1981).
