August Wilson News

Yesterday, May 24, New Dramatists honored two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters with their 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award at its 63rd Annual Spring Luncheon tribute at the New York Marriott Marquis. Among those who offered tributes were Emmy Award-winner Mary Tyler Moore, Peters’ Tony Award-winning A Little Night Music co-star Elaine Stritch, and New Dramatists Artistic Director Todd London. Tony and Academy Award-winner Joel Grey and Peters’ Tony-nominated Gypsy co-star John Dossett offered musical tributes. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the event and brings you photo coverage below! (more...)

Happy Birthday Leslie Uggams! Uggams starred in Hallelujah, Baby!, which premiered on Broadway in 1967, and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical. She appeared on Broadway in the revue Blues in the Night in 1982 and in the musical revue of the works of Jerry Herman, Jerry's Girls in 1985. Later Broadway roles include Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003 - 2004) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond at the Kennedy Center in 2004 and on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 2005. In 2001 she appeared in the August Wilson play King Hedley II, receiving a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. (more...)

Rubicon Theatre Company kicked off its 2012 Annual Fund Drive on May 16 at the first preview performance of their latest production Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. As a non-profit organization, ticket sales from productions like Gem of the Ocean cover only 45-50 percent of Rubicon’s annual operating budget. The balance must come from community contributions. Leading Rubicon’s 2012 Annual Fund Drive as Honorary Chairs are three respected members of the Ventura community: Trudy Arriaga, Doug Halter and Jim Monahan. During the Annual Fund Drive, titled Gem by the Ocean, those who are able to support Rubicon with a donation of $250 or more will be entered to win a one-of-a-kind, ocean-inspired piece of fine art created by local glass artist Frances Elson. (more...)

This summer, theatre fans in Southern California have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson with productions at two of the region’s acclaimed theatres – Rubicon Theatre Company and Pasadena Playhouse. Rubicon Theatre presents the company’s first Wilson with Gem of the Ocean, opening this Thursday, May 24 and continuing through June 10. South Coast Repertory’s production of Jitney arrives at Pasadena Playhouse June 21, continuing through July 15, meaning that theatre patrons in Southern California can see two August Wilson plays within two months. (more...)

Manhattan Theatre Club will celebrate Artistic Director Lynne Meadow’s 40th anniversary as the visionary and artistic leader of the organization with a special tribute on Monday, June 18. The event will begin at 6:30 PM with a VIP cocktail reception, followed by a 7:30 tribute event at the Samuel J. Friedman (261 West 47th Street). Immediately after the Friedman tribute event, a party will follow at Copacabana (268 West 47th Street). (more...)

Timing just seems right for the four men who make up Under the Streetlamp—the quartet that’s taking American stages by storm this summer—to share their mantra that “retro never sounded so now!” with the legions of fans of “The American Radio Songbook of the ‘50’s, ‘60’s and ‘70’s” while bringing a whole new audience over to their side of the musical dial. The four—Christopher Kale Jones, Shonn Wiley and the two Michaels: Cunio and Ingersoll—will be singing to the faithful when their first national tour brings them to Nashville’s Tennessee Performing Arts Center for a June 14 performance (curtain’s at 7:30 p.m.) at the James K. Polk Theatre. (more...)

Actor Isiah Whitlock, Jr. who has received high praise for his work on HBO's The Wire, took time out of his busy schedule to catch the Off-Broadway production of William Luce's BRONTË A Portrait Of Charlotte, starring Maxine Linehan as the author of Jane Eyre. Whitlock met both Maxine and her director, Timothy Douglas, pictured below! He is scheduled to begin shooting a new film in New York in June. (more...)

Yet another Broadway casualty was announced last week- PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT will take its final bow at the Palace Theatre on June 24. Make sure you get to New York City's Theatre District soon if there are any productions that you still haven't made it to! Who knows what else might be going soon.. (more...)

August Wilson’s Jitney, a play about a ragtag group of drivers of gypsy cabs—known as jitneys—closes out SCR’s 2011-2012 season, with an all-star cast led by Charlie Robinson, who last wowed SCR audiences in another Wilson hit, Fences. Ron OJ Parson, who has previously directed Jitney at St. Louis Black Rep, directs the show, which runs on the Segerstrom Stage now through June 10. See photos of Charlie Robinson and the cast of JITNEY on stage below! (more...)

The JERSEY BOYS Chicago cast recently sang a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem at a White Sox game at Cellular Field. (more...)

Stage and screen stars Brooke Shields and Richard Chamberlain will take on the iconic roles of Chris MacNeil and Father Merrin in playwright John Pielmeier’s world premiere of The Exorcist at the Geffen Playhouse. Helmed by acclaimed director John Doyle, who won a Tony Award for his striking reimagining of Sweeney Todd, this stage adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s famous 1971 novel transforms the unsettling battles of good versus evil, faith versus fact and ego versus ethos into a uniquely theatrical experience as sophisticated as it is suspenseful. (more...)

Original Four Seasons frontman Frankie Valli recently visited WCBSFM, where he chatted about the Broadway hit JERSEY BOYS making its way to the big screen. While he was there he revealed that the film, set to feature a screenplay by John Logan, will begin filming next year and will be released by the end of 2013. Check out what he had to say about casting the film, the Broadway leading men, and more in the video below! (more...)

Following an acclaimed season which included the world premiere of Paul Weitz’s Lonely, I’m Not and a critically lauded second staging of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winner, How I Learned To Drive, Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) has just announced two of the four mainstage productions in the company’s upcoming 34th season. For subscription or ticket information, please call the Second Stage Box Office at 212-246-4422 or visit the company’s website, www.2ST.com. All productions are staged at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theatre, 305 West 43rd Street (just west of Eighth Avenue). (more...)

The 2012 Drama Critics Circle aAards were presented at a cocktail reception last night, May 14, at Angus McIndoe Restaurant. Sons of the Prophet, written by Stephen Karam, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2011-2012 season. The award for Best Foreign Play went to Tribes, written by Nina Raine. Once received the award for Best Musical. BroadwayWorldd brings you photos from the ceremony below! (more...)

NEW DRAMATISTS, Tony Honor recipient and the nation's premiere playwright development workshop, today announced that two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters will be honored with their 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award at its 63rd Annual Spring Luncheon tribute, to be held Thursday, May 24th at the New York Marriott Marquis. Among those on the program offering tributes will be Emmy Award-winner Mary Tyler Moore, Peters’ Tony Award-winning A Little Night Music co-star Elaine Stritch, and New Dramatists Artistic Director Todd London. Tony and Academy Award-winner Joel Grey and Peters’ Tony-nominated Gypsy co-star John Dossett will offer musical tributes. (more...)

Rubicon Theatre continues its 14th season May 24 with August Wilson’s powerful and poignant drama GEM OF THE OCEAN. Ahead of the first preview tomorrow, May 16, check out these production shots of Lillias White and the rest of the cast in action. (more...)

While the Tony nominated LEAP OF FAITH took its final Broadway bow yesterday, yet another casualty is coming up on Sunday. HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING will close after spending over a year at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Get your Broadway tickets now before more shows close, and be the first to catch HARVEY- which begins previews on Friday! (more...)

Today in 1988, Carrie opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 5 performances. Carrie: The Musical is a musical with a book by Lawrence D. Cohen, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and music by Michael Gore. Adapted from Stephen King's novel Carrie, it focuses on an awkward teenage girl with telekinetic powers whose lonely life is dominated by an oppressive religious fanatic mother. When she is humiliated by her classmates at the high school prom, she wreaks havoc on everyone and everything in her path. (more...)

New Haarlem Arts Theatre (NHAT), the professional theater company of City College of New York (CCNY), will open its second season June 14 to July 8 with "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" by August Wilson, directed by Eugene Nesmith and starring Johnnie Mae as Ma. (more...)

Representing Los Angeles and Center Theatre Group, Tyler Edwards, a senior at the Orange County High School of the Arts, placed third at the National Finals of the fourth annual August Wilson Monologue Competition (AWMC) on Monday, May 7, 2012, at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre in New York City. (more...)