Leigh Scheps

All Donna McKechnie needs is the music (a mirror) and she'll still dance for you. The 75-year-old is currently starring as Joanne in the original musical, Half Time, at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey.

Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell is going full out these days. Not only is he directing and choreographing the original musical, Half Time, at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, but he's also about to begin rehearsals as the director and choreographer for Broadway's Pretty Woman.

First there was Grease: You're the One That I Want! On NBC in 2007. Then on MTV came Legally Blonde: The Search for the Next Elle Woods on Broadway in 2008. Soon, theater fans will be excited to watch the next Broadway-themed reality show.

Before his guest starring role on Young Sheldon, last season's off-Broadway production of The Portuguese Kid and of course nearly a decade as George Costanza on Seinfeld, Jason Alexander was a song and dance man on Broadway. He made his Broadway debut in Merrily We Roll Along in 1981, followed by a continual decade of shows: The Rink, Broadway Bound, Jerome Robbins' Broadway (in which he won a Tony Award for his performance) and Accomplice. Highlights of how his Broadway career began will be hilariously re-told next week, as his tour heads back to his home state of New Jersey to perform with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at NJPAC in Newark and the State Theater in New Brunswick. Newark is actually where Alexander was born before growing up in Maplewood and Livingston.

The musical, The People in the Picture, is getting a makeover as a new production is being mounted at 3Below in San Jose, California with performances beginning April 26th. Making its west coast premiere, it's the first time the show has been back on stage since its 2011 debut on Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company's Studio 54 starring Donna Murphy, who was nominated for a Tony Award for her role as Bubbie/Raisel.

She's the Marcia F***ing Brady of the Upper East side and proud of it. 'For me, I get to play my first villain,' actress Lauren Zakrin tells BroadwayWorld's Leigh Scheps. 'This time I get to play the bad girl, so I get to explore different side of myself which is really cool.'

Broadway shows have been preserved for decades thanks to one pioneer with a passion. Betty Corwin was working in a hospital in 1969 when she came up with a brilliant idea to record them for history. It enabled legendary performances including Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire to be forever on tape.

'Tragedy, tomorrow. Comedy Tonight.' Except in Iris Bahr's one-woman show, I Lost You There A Humorous Exploration of a Most Unfunny Subject, it's both in one night. 'I like to tackle everything with humor and pathos -- one minute people are laughing, crying the next,' the actress explains.

There's not a day that goes by when someone doesn't mention The Birdcage to Nathan Lane. It's become such a loving film for so many people. This week, the Broadway veteran is getting ready for a screening of the 1996 film (based on the musical, Les Cage Aux Folles) with music by Stephen Sondheim at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, which will be followed by a Q&A session.

She was given months to live. So now, five years later after being diagnosed with an incurable disease, Valerie Harper isn't letting life slip by. I am feeling good today, Harper, 78, tells BroadwayWorld's Leigh Scheps by phone. The actress most famous for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on the Mary Tyler Moore Show is starring in a new short film, My Mom and the Girl, which recently qualified for Academy Award consideration.

At 21-years-old and fresh out of college, Cheech Manohar's got it pretty grool. He's about to make his Broadway debut as suave virgin North Shore mathlete, Kevin Gnapoor, in the new musical Mean Girls, an adaption of the 2004 film of the same name.

It's a story about a plus-sized girl, a one-eyed guy and a closeted gay teen. Some describe it as 'John Hughes-esque.' But Molly Ringwald isn't in this modern day ugly duckling love affair.

'It's a gift to come back. Shakespeare's hard,' Grant says of her return to theater. She hasn't performed Shakespeare since 2011 and hasn't been on a stage since 2014. 'I feel like an artist again.'

The new musical, Hit Her with the Skates, by Christine Rea & Rick Briskin, directed by Michael Schiralli with musical direction by Brandon Ethridge and choreography by Gina Ventura, opened last weekend at Hamilton Stage (UCPAC, Rahway, NJ) from May 12 - 27, 2017. BroadwayWorld's Leigh Scheps talks with star, Amy Toporek, about her involvement with the show since inception plus what it's like performing on stage with Broadway's John Treacy Egan.

Derek DelGaudio has got magic to do. The creator and star of the hit show, In & Of Itself, is currently wowing audiences in New York City until September 3, 2017 after a successful run in Los Angeles. The show is directed by Frank Oz, who is known for voicing both Yoda and Miss Piggy, and executive produced by Tony Award winner Neil Patrick Harris.

While Roger Bart is known for his comedic chops in shows like Disaster!, Young Frankenstein and The Producers, he knows how to make people laugh even in some of his more serious roles.

It's been nothing but 'memories' for Betty Buckley this theater season. She won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Grizabella, the glamour cat, in Cats when it opened in 1982 and replaced Glenn Close as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Both shows are in revival runs right now on Broadway.

'It's possible.' Especially for Broadway's original Cinderella, Laura Osnes, who is busier than ever these days rehearing for multiple shows and benefit concerts. On Sunday, February 19, the Tony Award nominated actress will play Polly Baker in Manhattan Concert Productions' one-night only 25th anniversary performance of Crazy for You at Lincoln Center.

The inspiration behind the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company says he's never actually eaten there. Mykelti Williamson, the actor who played Forrest Gump's best friend Bubba in the 1994 Academy Award-winning film, admits he's never been to the restaurant featuring his character's name, despite performing only a few blocks away from its Times Square location.

If Max Bialystock used to be the king of Broadway, Seth Rudetsky has since taken over the throne. Not only was he juggling the album release of Disaster! on the day we met for this interview in a (noisy from construction) park on the Upper West Side, but at the same time, spearheading a dance remix video to Broadway for Orlando's 'What The World Needs Now Is Love.' 'We are filming a whole video with the ladies who did Beyonce's 'Single Ladies,' Seth explained. 'We are hoping that raises more money and more awareness.'