The show that brought Ruthie Ann Miles to our attention Here Lies Lovewill open on Broadway in 2023. The musical about the rise and fall of former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, will open on Broadway this summer. Previews will begin on June 17 ahead of an official opening night on July 20 at the Broadway Theatre. …Originally a concept album, the album was adapted into a stage musical, directed by Alex Timbers, that premiered off-Broadway at The Public Theater in New York City in 2013. It starred Ruthie Ann Miles in the title role, with Jose Llana as Ferdinand Marcos and Conrad Ricamora as Ninoy Aquino. The production was a semi-immersive experience and this production will transform the venue’s traditional proscenium floor space into a dance club environment, where audiences will stand and move with the actors. Standing and seated tickets will be available throughout the theater’s reconstructed space.Tony Award winner Alex Timbers will direct. He will be joined by choreographer Olivier winner Annie-B Parson. The musical’s concept and lyrics are by Tony, Oscar and Grammy winner David Byrne with music by Byrne and Grammy winner Fatboy Slim. Additional music is by Tom Gandey and J Pardo.
Rachel Brosnahan, Oscar Isaac Photo by Catalina Kulczar
BAM (The Brooklyn Academy of Music) announces the full company and creative team for the first New York revival in 50 years of Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman at the BAM Harvey Theater beginning February 4 and opening February 23, 2023.
Oscar Isaac (Sidney Brustein) and Rachel Brosnahan (Iris Brustein) star in Hansberry’s sweeping drama of identity, idealism, and love.
Joining Isaac and Brosnahan are Gus Birney (Gloria Parodus), Julian De Niro (Alton Scales), Glenn Fitzgerald (David Ragin), Andy Grotelueschen (Wally O’Hara), Miriam Silverman (Mavis Parodus Bryson), Raphael Nash Thompson (Max). The understudy company features Joey Auzenne, Gregory Connors, Brontë England-Nelson and Amelia Pedlow.
The A Raisin in the Sun playwright invites us into Greenwich Village in the 60s, crafting a razor-sharp portrait of a diverse group of friends whose loudly proclaimed progressive dreams can’t quite match up with reality. At the center are Sidney and Iris Brustein, fighting to see if their marriage—with all its crackling wit, passion, and petty cruelty—will be the final sacrifice to Sidney’s ideals. Discover the “astonishing force” (The Chicago Tribune) of this stunning drama from one of America’s greatest playwrights when it finally returns to New York.
Following Hansberry’s meteoric debut with A Raisin in the Sun (1959), The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Windowdebuted on Broadway in 1964 just before Ms. Hanberry’s death at the age of 34. Since then, her play has never been produced on a major New York stage. Director Anne Kauffman presented an acclaimed revival in Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2016.
Tickets for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window are available at BAM.org or by calling BAM Ticket Services 718.636.4100. Ticket prices begin at $35.
Paper Mill Playhouse, recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award, has announced full casting and the creative team for the all-new musical production of Disney’s Hercules. Joining previously announced cast members Bradley Gibson (The Lion King, A Bronx Tale: The Musical) as Hercules, Tony Award winner Shuler Hensley (Broadway’s The Music Man 2022 revival, Oklahoma!) as Hades, Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin, Hamilton) as Phil, and Isabelle McCalla (PMP’s Clue, Broadway’s Aladdin, The Prom) as Meg will be Jeff Blumenkrantz (Bright Star) as Panic and Reggie De Leon (Aladdin) as Pain, alongside the Muses: Charity Angél Dawson (Waitress) as Clio, Tiffany Mann (Waitress) as Calliope, Anastacia McCleskey (Caroline, or Change) as Thalia, Destinee Rea (The Book of Mormon) as Terpsichore and Rashidra Scott (Company) as Melpomene. The ensemble of Hercules will feature Kathryn Allison (Company) as Despina, Allyson Kaye Daniel (1776) as Aunt Tithesis/Lachesis, Lucia Giannetta (Broadway and PMP’s A Bronx Tale: The Musical) as Atropos, Jesse Nager (Motown: The Musical) as Nessus, Kristen Faith Oei (Lincoln Center’s The King & I) as Hera, Dennis Stowe (Aladdin) as Zeus and Anne Fraser Thomas (PMP’s Sister Act) as Clotho, as well as Joshua Buscher (Kinky Boots), Marcus Cobb (In the Heights film), Zachary Downer (Hello, Dolly!), Ryan Fitzgerald (Matilda at the Muny), Kendall LeShanti (Lifetime’s “Bring It”), Chani Maisonet (Ain’t Too Proud), Skye Mattox (Carousel), Jason W. McCollum (Taft Theater’s Cinderella), Erin Moore (Shuffle Along), JJ Niemann (The Book of Mormon), Gabrielle Reid (PMP’s The Color Purple, Broadway’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Adam Roberts (Pippin), Ben Roseberry (The Lion King), Christine Shepard (Head Over Heels), Chiara Trentalange (Girl from the North Country) and Lamont Walker II (MJ: The Musical). Hercules features music by Oscar, Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner Alan Menken (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Newsies) and lyrics by Tony Award winner David Zippel (City of Angels, Mulan) and a book by Tony Award winner Robert Horn (Tootsie) and Kwame Kwei-Armah (Artistic Director of London’s Young Vic), based on the Disney film written by Ron Clements, John Musker, Donald McEnery, Bob Shaw, and Irene Mecchi and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. The music is supervised and arranged by Michael Kosarin (Aladdin, Broadway and PMP’s Newsies, animated film Hercules), with orchestrations by Danny Troob (Broadway and PMP’s Newsies, animated films Hercules, Beauty and the Beast) and Joseph Joubert (Caroline, or Change; Motown: the Musical), dance music arrangements by Mark Hummel (Broadway and PMP’s Newsies, Sister Act), and music direction by Ted Arthur (Moulin Rouge!, The Prom). Choreography is by Chase Brock (PMP’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Be More Chill) and Tanisha Scott (Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls). Hercules is directed by Obie Award winner Lear deBessonet (Into the Woods). The show will begin performances at Paper Mill Playhouse on Thursday, February 16, and play through Sunday, March 19, 2023. Opening night is set for Wednesday, March 1, 2023.
Award-winning Off-Broadway theater, Urban Stages, will present a special presentation of Casting Aspersions: The Backstage Tales of a Casting Director , written and performed by Jeffery Passero, and directed by Elizabeth Hayden. It will begin performances January 27 – 30 at Urban Stages (259 West 30, 2023)
A prominent casting director, Mr. Passero’s Casting Aspersions is a look back at his career on his last day in the profession as he cleans up his cluttered office. Passero’s Casting Aspersions had a run in 2019. Originally an actor raised in New York theatre, Jeffery Passero’s career has run the gamut from actor, casting director, producer, stage director, acting teacher and private coach to teacher of musical theatre audition technique. He studied with Uta Hagen and Ed Moorhouse (HB Studios), Terry Schreiber, Jill Andre (T.Schreiber Studio) and Larry Moss (Larry Moss Studio). He studied musical theatre audition technique with David Craig and was greatly influenced by Craig’s technique and his landmark book “On Singing On Stage”. For the past forty years, Jeffery has been a casting director of theatre and over 60 movies, including Poison Ivy with Drew Barrymore, Nick Cage’s Sonny with James Franco, Flypaper with Lucy Liu (which he co-produced), and The Sasquatch Gang with Justin Long for Kevin Spacey’s Trigger Street Films. He and his wife Amy were co-producers of It Shoulda Been You.
Performances:
Friday, January 27 at 7 PM
Saturday, January 28 at 7 PM
Sunday, January 29 at 3 PM
Monday, January 30 at 7 PM
The running time is 75 minutes
Tickets are $30 and can be purchased by visiting UrbanStages.org
Urban Stages is located at 259 West 30 th Street, NYC
Theatre Producers of Color (TPOC), the newly formed organization committed to supporting the next generation of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) producers by providing access to education, training, and mentorship, announced today the return of their annual educational program – “Producing 101,” where aspiring producers are able to learn the fundamentals of commercial producing, including development paths, financing, budgeting, and more, with experienced BIPOC and White ally leaders as their guides, tuition free over 11 weeks. Applications are now opening for aspiring producers.
The deadline to submit is January 30. To apply, please submit a resume and complete a short application at the following link: https://theatreproducersofcolor.org/producing-101
For more information, please visit: https://theatreproducersofcolor.org/.
Guest speakers for “Producing 101” include Jill A. Anderson, Osh Ashruf (Tony Winner), Rashad V. Chambers (Tony Winner), Samuel Dallas, Ken Davenport (Tony Winner), Ben Holtzman (Tony Winner), Toni Isreal, Nicole Javanna Johnson, Dale Mott (Tony Winner), Doug Nevin, Leslie Papa, Ilene Rosen, Matt Ross (Tony Nominee), Erica Rotstein, Heather Shields, Ron Simons, Rachel Sussman(Tony Nominee), Cynthia J. Tong, and Ava Xiao-Lin Rigelhaupt. For more information on the guest speakers and their headshots, please click HERE.
The course will meet on Mondays from 6:30-9:00pm EST beginning March 20, 2023 through June 19, 2023.
The selection panelists and final cohort will be announced in March.
TPOC is incubated and supported by Broadway For All (BFA), an organization that provides young artists and stakeholders in entertainment with the programming, community, and vision to build a more inclusive and powerful arts industry.
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