Craig Carnelia News

Newly announced prizes for the first place winners include: A virtual voice lesson with Matt Farnsworth prior to recording your single, a session with Telsey+ Company's Rachel Hoffman to hone in your audition skill, a free subscription to BroadwayWorld Edu - online classes in singing, acting, and dancing worth over $1200!

Who knew that WORKING could be so much fun?

Based on Studs Terkel's best-selling book of interviews with American workers, the musical Working paints a vivid portrait of the men and women that the world so often takes for granted: the schoolteacher, the phone operator, the waitress, the mill-worker, the mason and the housewife, just to name a few. Nominated for six Tony Awards, this classic has been updated for a modern age.

The Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF) and the American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University are seeking the nation's most talented young songwriters and writing teams for the 15th annual Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project. The free, weeklong songwriting workshop will take place June 21 to 27 on Northwestern's Evanston campus.

Acting and singing dazzle in an otherwise stale and dated WORKING.

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre's second musical of the 2019-20 season will be WORKING, based on Stud Terkel's landmark book in which he interviewed Chicagoans about their feelings toward their jobs.

A musical love letter to Paris and NYC, Forbidden Drive, the debut music album from vocal powerhouse Jen Fellman with songs from the worlds of jazz, standards, Broadway, and French chanson, is released today 9/27 by Broadway Records.

Last night six time MAC Award Winner Eric Michael Gillett ((Broadway's Sweet Smell of Success, Kiss Me Kate, The Frogs and Television's Quantico, Mysteries of Laura, Daredevil, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) returned to the stage at the Laurie Beechman Theatre with Stop This Train, his first new solo show in five years. Seen most recently as Paul Manafort on Showtime's The Loudest Voice, Gillett's Stop This Train is a wry and witty collections of songs and observations about navigating the aging process while trying to keep both your dignity and your mind intact. Featuring contemporary songwriters Dar Williams, David Yazbeck, Paul Gordon, Craig Carnelia, Peter Mills, Demi Lovato, and John Mayer, along with classic cabaret and musical theater composers Stephen Sondheim, Marvin Hamlisch, along with original songs by musical director Mike Pettry (Television's Documentary Now! Presents Original Cast Album: Co-Op)

Updated September 2023: You are an aspiring actor in NYC pounding the pavement, getting up at the crack of dawn and waiting in line to hopefully get seen. Congratulations! You are doing everything right! But what else can you do to book the gig? Take as many classes (acting lessons/acting techniques/audition prep) as you can. I mean that.

The Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival is now presenting a thought-provoking production of Working a Musical at the Merry – Go – Round Playhouse. The musical features a book by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso with additional contributions by Gordon Greenberg; music by Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Lin-Manual Miranda, Mary Rodgers and Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz, and James Taylor; and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. Producing Artistic Director of the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival, Brett Smock, directs and choreographs this simple, fresh, and relatable production.

The Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival (FLMTF) opens its fourth production this season, Working, A Musical. The show runs September 4 through September 21 at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Emerson Park.

Working, A Musical opens on September 4th at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival (FLMTF). The show runs through September 21st at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Emerson Park.

Forbidden Drive, the debut music album from vocal powerhouse Jen Fellman with songs from the worlds of jazz, standards, Broadway, and French chanson, will be released September 27 by Broadway Records.

Berkshire Theatre Group is proud to present Tony Award-nominated Working A Musical, based on Studs Terkel's best-selling book of interviews, at The Unicorn Theatre (6 East Street) in Stockbridge, MA. Working features music by Pulitzer, Tony and Grammy Award-Winner Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In The Heights, Moana); Tony Award-nominee Craig Carnelia (Sweet Smell of Success); Grammy Award-Winner Micki Grant (Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope); Tony Award-nominee Mary Rodgers (Once Upon a Mattress); Grammy and Tony Award-nominee Susan Birkenhead (Jelly's Last Jam); Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy Award-Winner Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell) and Grammy Award-Winner James Taylor.

Broadway's Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen, is currently in its third record-smashing year at the Music Box Theatre. Following the success of the Broadway production, a national tour launched soon after, bringing the story across North America. A sit-down production made its way to Toronto earlier this year, and will be followed by a West End production set to debut in October 2019 at the Noel Coward Theatre.

Unlike the vast majority of musicals granted concert productions by City Center's Encores! Off-Center, the collaborate effort known as WORKING did not play an Off-Broadway run before hitting Times Square. Instead, Chicago's Goodman Theatre production transferred to the 46th Street Theatre in 1978, where it garnered numerous Tony nominations, including best musical.

Encores! Off-Center presents Nina Faso and Stephen Schwartz's Working: A Musical, June 26-29. See what the critics are saying!

Today's top stories: The Prom film casting, and more!

"I had been looking for a reason to come back, and do another show here, so I was pleased when my managers sent me to audition for TREASURE ISLAND [A MUSICAL ADVENTURE]. Doing new work is always great; I love that process where I get to be more involved in the actual creation." Broadway star Aaron Ramey is explaining how he has come to find himself back in Maine to play the plum role of Long John Silver in MSMT's East Coast premiere of Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark's new epic musical which plays at the Pickard Theater from June 26 - July 13, 2019. Ramey had been an intern in 1997 while he was still a student at Otterbein University. "Ironically," he notes, "that was the summer of renovatios and MSMT performed at Crooker Auditorium, so this production will actually be my first time on the Pickard stage." He recalls the shows from that season: "I was in SWEENEY TODD, CAROUSEL, and TOMMY. I wasn't a good enough dancer to be in THE MUSIC MAN, but I did get to carry the pool table across stage, and in A CHORUS LINE, I played trombone in the pit," he laughs. "And then, too, I knew Michael Nigro [who plays Jim Hawkins] from a workshop we had both been in in New York, and he had urged me to audition."

Encores! Off-Center will present Nina Faso and Stephen Schwartz's Working: A Musical, June 26-29. The production stars Andrea Burns, Mateo Ferro, David Garrison, Helen Hunt, Christopher Jackson, Javier Muñoz, and Tracie Thoms.