Louisa Brady - Page 36

Ahrens and Flaherty's 'Nice Fighting You: A 30th Anniversary Celebration Live At 54 BELOW' will be released today, June 3rd, 2014.

Earn your blood at the tag team match of the century, with the survival of two families in the balance. The Echo Theater Company presents the world premiere of an outrageously violent, seriously dark and surprisingly funny new play about backyard wrestling. Larry Biederman directs Backyard by Mickey Birnbaum, opening May 31 at the Echo's new home, Atwater Village Theatre.

The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out, comes to the legendary Birdland Jazz Club in June to celebrate its first anniversary with a live show! Hosts Mo Brady and Nikka Graff Lanzarone have invited some of their favorite Broadway performers to the stage to celebrate their ensemblist experiences. Click below to watch the announcement for the concert!

Our American republic has weathered political strife, assassinations, even a civil war - but what if the conspiracy came from the top? It happened in Rome on March 15th, 44 BCE, and the most powerful country on earth -a republic that had endured for more than 400 years - slipped in the waiting arms of an empire. The Guerrilla Shakespeare Project takes Shakespeare's version of that infamous moment in history - as told in Julius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra, and Coriolanus - and strips them down before rebuilding them from the ground up to examine the ramifications of the assassination of a President by setting original text against a contemporary 24-hour news cycle.

Jordan Reeves, the artistic director and co-founder of the Guerrilla Shakespeare Project, is currently in previews for the company's most recent production: AND TO THE REPUBLIC. This play is a collaboration and modern reimagining of Shakespeare's tragedies Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. All performances are being held at the Workshop Main Stage (for tickets, click here). Reeves took the time to chat with us this weekend, in anticipation of the production's official opening night this Thursday, May 29th. He gave us insight on the creation and collaboration of the play, as well as background on the Guerrilla Shakespeare Project.

In the video below, go inside the rehearsal room for JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR: Arena Spectacular. The show is being produced through the famous 3 Mills Studios in London. The North American tour of the show begins on June 9th.

Whether you've been living under a rock for the past week or you're just in the mood for a recap, BroadwayWorld's 'This Week in Pictures' is here to satisfy your end-of-the-week fix! Take a look below to catch up on the latest happenings from the Great White Way to The West End (and everywhere in between) with coverage of press events, rehearsals, opening nights and more. Highlights this week include a first look at 'Just Jim Dale,' the Stars in the Alley concert, the cast of 'Submissions Only' at 54 Below, and more!

Today's New York Times featured a piece written by 2014 Tony Award Nominee Harvey Fierstein (Casa Valentina). The piece tells the horrifying story of a teenage girl (referred to as simply Jane Doe to protect her identity as a youth) who has been sexually and physically abused by family members as well as staff members of various institutions and residencies she's been placed in. Fierstein hypothesizes that the reasoning behind these attacks on this girl is because she is transgender.

Brighton's legendary, long running, satirical comedy sketch show THE TREASON SHOW is now in its 14th year. Brighton's much loved, resident satirical sketch show is the one festival show you can't afford to miss. According to the Argus, 'Brighton is rightly very proud of this company.'

PASSAJJ Productions is proud to present Once/Twice, two musical adaptations by veteran composer and lyricist Paul Dick (A For Adultery, Madame Bovary). Once is an adaptation of the short play A Sunny Morning by Serafin and Joaquin Quintero, while Twice is based on The Bear by Anton Chekhov. Once/Twice will be directed by Celine Rosenthal, with music direction by Ming Aldrich-Gan. This production will open tonight, May 16th at 8pm and run through June 1st at Roy Arias Stage IV at the Times Square Arts Center, 300 West 43rd Street in New York City.

Current cast members of Broadway's long-running Stephen Schwartz musical Wicked, Tiffany Haas (standby: Glinda) and Michael McCorry Rose (understudy: Fiyero) are preparing for a second performance of their concert CHEEK TO CHEEK: A BROADWAY ROMANCE which debuted in February at 54 Below. Directed by Stephen Sposito with musical direction by Steven Ray Watkins, CHEEK TO CHEEK will be performed this Monday, May 19th at 7pm at Birdland. (For tickets, click here.)

Take a look at the West End's Kerry Ellis singing 'Dust in the Wind,' accompanied by Queen guitarist Brian May at this year's Wildlife Rocks. According to their website, Wildlife Rocks is 'Wildlife Rocks is an event that celebrates the wildlife that surrounds us. It is a fantastic day to share wildlife experiences with fellow wildlife enthusiasts through music and talk and fun.'

Tony-Award winning actress Michelle Pawk (Hairspray, Hollywood Arms, Crazy for You) is returning to the stage this spring in the world premiere of 17 Orchard Point, an off-Broadway play co-written by Anton Dudley and Stephanie DiMaggio (DiMaggio also co-stars in the play with Pawk). Opening night is scheduled for this Sunday, May 4th, and the show is set to close on May 24th. Pawk took the time to chat with BroadwayWorld just after her first weekend of preview performances and told us a bit more about the play, as well as her impressive performance career and her current job as a professor at Wagner College.

Laura Benanti performs with The Skivvies (Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley) as 'Sexy Fosca' from Sondheim's 'Passion.' The mashup includes Sondheim's 'I Read', 'Loving You', 'No One Has Ever Loved Me', Beyonce's 'Pretty Hurts', Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful', and James Blunt's 'Beautiful.'

BroadwayWorld is sad to report that according to multiple sources, Tony Award-nominated director Nicholas Martin passed away yesterday, April 30th at the age of seventy-five.

Brighton's legendary, long running, satirical comedy sketch show THE TREASON SHOW is now in its 14th year. Brighton's much loved, resident satirical sketch show is the one festival show you can't afford to miss. According to the Argus, "Brighton is rightly very proud of this company.'

According to the Wall Street Journal, audience members seated in the orchestra of the upcoming Broadway musical, 'Holler If Ya Hear Me,' will have a movie-theatre-esque experience. The production is spending $200,000 to alter the arrangement of seats in the orchestra, with hopes of augmenting the theatre's sense of intimacy.

Ahrens and Flaherty's 'Nice Fighting You: A 30th Anniversary Celebration Live At 54 BELOW' will be released on June 3rd, 2014. The double CD set is now available for pre-order at http://amzn.com/B00JPWSJOI. This star-studded double album features performances by (in alphabetical order): Lynn Ahrens, Annaleigh Ashford, Stephanie J. Block, Liz Callaway, Kevin Chamberlin, Quentin Earl Darrington, Stephen Flaherty, Lewis Grosso, Julie Halston, Jeremy Jordan, LaChanze, Kecia Lewis, Rebecca Luker, Marin Mazzie, Sean McCourt, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jessica Molaskey, Bobby Steggert and Mary Testa.

Broadway and West End superstar Elaine Paige is set to release a career-spanning collection of her most memorable recordings on Monday, April 24th. The album will be titled ELAINE PAIGE: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION. The track listing for Paige's album was recently revealed.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick will be honored and will perform with the largest-ever reunion of original, revival and film cast members as part of an all-star benefit concert for The National Yiddish Theatre - Folksbiene on Monday, June 9th, at New York's Town Hall.