Jessica Lewis - Page 237

Reports from across the pond have confirmed that the massive rebuilding plans for the West End's Westminster Theatre will be delayed until 2011. The cause for the delay, according to The Stage is stalled legal negotiations with the theater's developer.

Additional names have been announced for Chance and Chemistry: A Centennial Celebration of Frank Loesser, a concert to benefit The Actors Fund taking place at the Minskoff Theatre on Monday, October 26, 2009 at 7:30PM.

The 2009 Vivian Robinson/Audelco Recognition Awards, which recognize for Excellence in Black Theatre, have been announced. Now in thier 37th year, the awards will be presented at a ceremony at the HarlemStages/Aaron Davis Hall on Monday, November 16 at 7pm.

Actor's Express partners with the Alliance Theatre to bring Atlanta audiences a staged reading of a powerful new play,The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later (An Epilogue). Directed by Actor's Express Artistic Director Freddie Ashley, the special event takes place on the Alliance's Hertz Stage Monday, October 12, the 11th anniversary of the brutal murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.

Talk about turning the impossible into the imaginable (and a great PR stint). For most theatrical stars, recording a first solo album is a major milestone. But, for Donna Lynne Champlin (Sweeny Todd, Hollywood Arms, By Jeeves, and James Joyce's The Dead), her big moment was cast beneath the storm cloud of a $1000 budget (a mandate due to financial constraints).

The Lucille Lortel Award-winning Parker Posey has joined the cast of the new film, Highland Park, currently shooting in Detroit. This comes a couple of months after the actress dropped out of Playwrights Horizon's THIS due to a case of Lymes Disease. Parker was replaced by Julianne Nicholson in the production, which begins previews on November 6 and runs through December 2.

As a complement to its exhibition, 'Lincoln and New York,' the New-York Historical Society is presenting free performances of the original play, Mr. Lincoln, on weekends in October and November. Performances begin tonight, Oct. 9 at 7 PM at The New-York Historical Society and will continue through Nov. 15.

Hudson Stage recently announced that its fall production, the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, RABBIT HOLE, by Kimberly Akimbo and 'Shrek' playwright David Lindsay Abaire, will be its fall mainstage production. Today, the theater company has announced the cast will be completed by Susannah Schulman, who will star alongside Tony Carlin as the heartbroken parents the take center stage in the piece.

MOSTLY SONDHEIM, the long-running open mic night at the Duplex on Friday nights features Broadway guests and theme nights. The night is hosted by Kate Pazakis (Jerry Springer the Opera at Carnegie Hall, Newsical, and the new solo recording Kate Pazakis Unzipped)and Todd Buonopane (Broadway's Spelling Bee & Grease, television's 30 Rock). Previous guests have included Julie Rieber and Sarah Stiles.

The world premiere production of The Road to Qatar, starring Brian Gonzales and Lee Zarrett begins tonight, October 9th at the Lyric Stage of Irving Texas. The show is written by Stephen Cole (After the Fair, The Night of the Hunter) and scored by David Krane. The musical was inspired by Cole and Krane's real-life experience that involved writing a new musical for Middle Eastern audiences. Performances run through Oct. 24.

SAN DIEGO REPERTORY THEATRE kicks off the 2009-2010 Season with the whirlwind musical LONG STORY SHORT - written by Brendan Milburn and Valarie Vigoda of the band Groovelily - tonight, October 9th after a week of previews that began on October 3rd. The musical takes audiences on a journey through one couple's 50 year relationship.

The 2009 Theatre Hall of Fame inductees have been revealed and include such icons as actors Jim Dale, John McMartin and Lynn Redgrave; producers Roger Berlind and Ted Mann; composers Stephen Schwartz and Andrew Lloyd Webber; and, posthumously, the late playwright/actor Charles Ludlum. The Annual Theatre Hall of Fame ceremony, now in its 39th year, will be held Jan. 25, 2010, in the Gershwin Theatre's North Rotunda. Terry Hodge Taylor is producing the event.

Robin Williams will be taking his newest solo show, Weapons of Self Destruction, to New York City's Town Hall this fall. The show will be a limited engagement from November 23-December 3.

Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater will perform 'Twelfth Night (or What You Will),' the timeless Shakespearean tale of mistaken identity and misplaced matrimony, November 12 to 29, 2009 as part of La MaMa Puppet Series 3. This three-tea-tray production, adapted and directed by Vít Horejš, will feature 16 eight-inch toy marionettes and three (more or less) live performers.

Slant Theatre Project will produce MINE, a new play by Bekah Brunstetter, at the Sanford Meisner Theatre, November 12 - 22, 2009. Written by Brunstetter (OOHRAH! at Atlantic Theatre Company), the cast features Lucas Kavner, Amelia McClain (Dance Dance Revolution), and Zach Shaffer (B'way revivals of The Man Who Came to Dinner and A View From the Bridge). Wes Grantom directs.

Tomorrow, Friday, October 9th, preview performances begin for Roundabout Theatre Company's New York premiere of Theresa Rebeck's new comedy The Understudy, directed by Scott Ellis featuring Tony Award winner Julie White as 'Roxanne', Mark-Paul Gosselaar as 'Jake' and Justin Kirk as 'Harry'.

IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS, the stage adaptation of the beloved classic film, has announced casting for its National Tour visiting Omaha, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, East Lansing, St. Louis, Louisville and Kansas City in the 2009 holiday season.

They say that for every success story in show business there are a hundred suicides. T.R. Knight, who came into fame on the television hit Gray's Anatomy and who is now staring in Parade at the Mark Taper Forum is one actor who rode the very fine line between the two. The Los Angeles Times reports on Knight's rise to the big time, how he almost didn't make it, and how it was his positive attitude that tipped his scale.

The decorated set designer recently spoke with Daily News theater critic Joe Dziemianowicz about his career on stage. In an except from the article, Dziemianowicz writes:

Billboard's Top Cast Albums chart for week ending 10/10/2009.