Several Broadway shows are dropping vaccine requirements in May, however mask mandate have been extended to at least May 31st.

The Shubert Organization, which operates theaters for popular shows like Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Mrs. Doubtfire, Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera and To Kill a Mockingbird,  no longer require proof of vaccination to enter its theaters in May. Theatergoers will not be required to be vaccinated to attend a performance of Aladdin after May 1, according to the show. The Nederlander Organization, which has Hamilton, Wicked, SIX and The Lion King hasn’t yet decided about its policy going forward. The other theatre’s have also not decided. Roundabout Theatre Company will maintain the vaccine mandate at its American Airlines Theatre for the run of Birthday Candles, which is currently set to close on May 29. The theater owner is allowing its other tenants to decide whether to require proof of vaccination after April 30. Mrs. Doubtfire, playing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, will drop its vaccination requirement.

The nominations for the 66th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be announced on May 2, 2022. The year’s cutoff for Drama Desk Award consideration is May 1. The ceremony will return this year, and further details will be announced at a later date.

The Drama Desk Awards are the only major New York City theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway compete against each other in the same categories.

“The Drama Desk Awards are a celebration of what’s outstanding at all levels of professional theater in New York City,” said David Barbour and Charles Wright. “The awards show honors the variety, creativity, and sheer talent that New York City theater offers; and after an uncertain time in the industry, it’s exciting that live theater is back and thriving.”

The Drama Desk Awards, which are presented annually, honor outstanding achievement by professional theater artists on Broadway, Off Broadway, and Off Off Broadway. What sets the Drama Desk Awards apart is that they are voted on and bestowed by theater critics, journalists, editors, and publishers covering theater. The Drama Desk Awards reflect enthusiasm for all aspects of New York’s professional theater.

On Monday, May 9 at 7:30pm two-time Tony and Olivier Award winner Patti LuPone will return to the Vivian Beaumont Theater to sing Songs From A Hat, a concert to support Lincoln Center Theater’s productions and education programs. The Gala evening will honor LCT Board Chairman Eric M. Mindich and will be co-chaired by Brooke Garber Neidich & Daniel Neidich and Laura Speyer & Josef Goodman.

Accompanied by Music Director Joseph Thalken, Ms. LuPone will perform an intimate evening of songs, with the titles randomly chosen from a hat. The concert will include performances of her signature songs as well as a few surprises along the way.

Benefit tickets (starting at $2,500) and tables, which include a post-performance dinner at Lincoln Center, can be purchased by contacting Karin Schall at schall@lct.org or Dana Jones at jones@lct.org.

A limited number of seats to the performance only, priced at $75 and $150, are now available at the Lincoln Center Theater box office, on telecharge.com and at lct.org. In addition, a limited number of $30 seats will be available via a digital ticket lottery, which will open Monday, May 2. For details visit lct.org.

A creative team of New Jersey natives have adapted the landmark Broadway stage play, Dead End, as a musical and produced it as a concept album available for digital download on May 1^st 2022. Neil Fishman (Music), Harvey Edelman (Lyrics), and Peter C. Palame (Book), began this dream project years ago and after a saga worthy of a Broadway musical of its own, have brought it to fruition..

The play, Dead End was written by the legendary playwright Sidney Kingsley, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and member of the Theater Hall of Fame.

Dead End the Musical, set amongst the East Side tenements of Depression era New York, is a powerful and entertaining show that shines a light on the social ills of a time and place that still resonate today: hunger, poverty, crime, class struggle, and economic and social inequality. Based on the landmark 1935 play, subsequently made into an Academy Award nominated film starring Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor, Joel McCrea, and Sylvia Sidney, Dead End was also the genesis for the iconic Dead End Kids, spinning off a hundred movies and serials.

This gritty, realistic story of a young woman seeking a better life for her and her teenage brother, an out of work architect envisioning a better world, a kept woman who clings to a rich man lest she slip back into poverty, and a wanted gangster returning to recapture the innocence of his childhood. All the while, a group of rich folks literally look down on this neighborhood from their adjacent luxury tower, as the neighborhood “Dead End Kids” provide the antics and fleeting escapist innocence.

The concept album of Dead End the Musical, to be released on a digital platform, has a cast of 16 Broadway performers. The cast includes Lisa Livesay, Michael Isaac, Michelle DellaFave, David Edwards, Chelsea Lynne Myers, Claire McPartland, Jeff Essex, Michael Coppola, Barrett Leddy, and John E. Brady, as well as Nick Williams, Declan Skaggs, Jake Stabinsky, Marco Velasquez, Tre Moore, and Aidan Perkins, as the Dead End Kids. The show features twenty fully-orchestrated musical numbers, dramatic scenes, sound effects, and musical underscoring.

For more information, see www.deadendmusical.com

Paradise Square is getting an original Broadway cast recording, The cast and Broadway orchestra are gathering at Power Station at BerkleeNYC for four days of sessions during the weeks of April 18 and April 25. The recording will receive a digital release in May and a physical release this summer.

The recording will be produced by Jason Howland and Billy Jay Stein, who won the 2015 Grammy Award for the Original Broadway Cast Recording for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Three-time Tony Award winner Garth H. Drabinsky serves as Executive Producer, with Craig Haffner, Sherry Wright, and Jeffrey A. Sine as Co-Executive Producers.

Howland composed the show’s music, with lyrics by Nathan Tysen and Masi Asare. Additional music is by Larry Kirwan, inspired by the songs of Stephen Foster. Musical direction, musical supervision and orchestrations are by Howland, with arrangements by Howland and Kirwan.

Paradise Square will resume Broadway performances on Tuesday, April 19 at 7:00 pm at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street), after pausing performances from April 7 due to positive COVID cases in the company.

Tony Award nominee Joaquina Kalukango leads a cast that also stars Chilina Kennedy, Tony Award nominee John Dossett, Sidney Dupont, A.J. Shively, Nathaniel Stampley, Gabrielle McClinton, Jacob Fishel, Kevin Dennis and Matt Bogart.