Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 1/11 - HAMILTON, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and More!

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature HAMILTON, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and More!

Check out our top features from around the BroadwayWorld below! Want more great global content? Check out our "Around The World" section!

Pittsburgh: Contributor Dylan Shaffer HAMILTON, writing "The most anticipated arrival in Pittsburgh since Le'Veon's vanishing...Hamilton, the Broadway musical, has taken up shop at the Benedum Center through January 27. The musical, nominated for a record number of Tony Awards and winning 11, recounts the life of Alexander Hamilton and the birth of our nation through hip-hop and song. With lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamiltonastonishes. To quote the author, 'There are moments that words don't reach' - and Hamilton is embodies them."

Sarasota: Contributor Carolan Trbovich reviews GUITAR GIRLS at Florida Studio Theatre, writing "Guitar Girls by Richard Hopkins, Rebecca Hopkins, and Catherine Randazzo with arrangements by Jim Prosser is such a treat. I like the way they wove some story telling and factual history between the songs. That makes for a lot of great interaction with the audience. That is one of the things I like most about cabaret style performances - the intimacy and interaction between the audience and performer. Miss Randazzo, FST Associate Artist and Show Director, says it best, "Every song had a reason to be written and many told details about the artists' own humble upbringings". That is so true, especially about country music. It always tells a story, paints a picture, and draws you in."

Central Virginia: Contributor Brent Deekens A 1940s RADIO CHRISTMAS CAROL At The Swift Creek Mill Theatrewriting "Elisabeth Ashby and Tara Callahan Carroll provide strong accents and dulcet vocal work to many of the show's traditional carols and original songs penned by lyricist Faye Greenberg and composer/orchestrator David Wohl; incidentally, Shellie Johnson, A 1940s RADIO CHRISTMAS CAROL'S musical director, doubles in the role of Toots Navarre, the station's pianist and music conductor. The station's General Manager and Announcer, Clifton Feddington, is well-realized by Mike White, while sound engineers Sally Simpson (Claire Gates) and Buzz Crenshaw (Gordon Graham) successfully produce the "live" sound effects - opening/closing doors, shoes traipsing through gravel, ringing bells, etc. - with lightning-quick precision."

Phoenix Metro: Contributor Herbert Paine reviews Arizona Theatre Company Presents THE MUSIC MAN writing "David Ivers, Arizona Theatre Company's Artistic Director, has taken Meredith Willson's THE MUSIC MAN and transformed it into an eye-popping and hand-clapping two hours of nonstop jubilation. An unequivocally boffo production, the show continues its run at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix through January 27th."

Belgium: Contributor Patrick Honoré reviews NEXT TO NORMAL at Karreveld Castle, writing "After Sunset Boulevard last summer and before My Fair Lady next season, both at Karreveld Castle, Brussels is staying alive through the winter with the sound of musicals, this time with a much meatier choice by Tobiarts Productions, the Pulitzer Prize and triple Tony Awards winner Next to Normal."

Tampa/St. Petersburg: Contributor Peter Nason reviews Michael Frayn's Thought-Provoking COPENHAGEN at Tampa Rep Starts the Year Off Right, writing "The playwright, Michael Frayn, is best known for scribing my favorite farce, Noises Off. As different as they are, COPENHAGEN and Noises Off share an undeniable smartness in plot and language. And Noises off is also supremely inventive, playing with time in a way, replaying the same scene from a play-within-a-play both on the stage and behind the scenes. COPENHAGEN is equally inventive but messier, more free-flowing in its ideas, but also more unpredictable and in its own way, more enjoyable on a far deeper level. It's not as easily accessible as Noises Off, nor would you expect it to be; and it doesn't need the "perfect" set the way Noises Off does. COPENHAGEN is a play about ideas, both abstract and concrete, fantastical and historical, small as an atom and large as an atomic bomb explosion."

Long Island: Contributor Jaime Zahl reviews BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at The Gateway, writing "Emily Behny's Belle is a heroine for the modern Disney fan. Making the role her own, she utilizes her comic timing and impresses with a voice that soared across the large theatre. Many young theatre-goers - many dressed in mini yellow ballgowns in honor of their favorite princess - watched her with awe around me. "

Regional Editor Spotlight:

Jamie Zahl
Long Island Contributor

Jaime is a freelance writer with a passion for everything theatre. Her work has been featured in the The East Hampton Press, The Southampton Press, 27east.com, The Long Island Press, Buzzfeed and Elite Daily. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to cover the Long Island theatre scene, which has been a second home since her youth.

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