Nicole Rosky - Page 183

Today in 2009, Next to Normal opened at the Booth Theatre, where it ran for 733 performances. Next to Normal is a rock musical with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. Its story concerns a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effect that her illness has on her family. The musical also addresses such issues as grieving a loss, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and suburban life. It was nominated for eleven 2009 Tony Awards and won three, Best Original Score, Best Orchestration and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Alice Ripley. It also won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, becoming just the eighth musical in history to receive the honor.

Today in 1992, the second Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls opened at the Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre), where it ran for 1143 performances. Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on 'The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown' and 'Blood Pressure', two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, most notably 'Pick the Winner'. Premiering on Broadway in 1950, the original production ran for 1200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical has had several Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine.

Today in 2000, The Wild Party opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 68 performances. The Wild Party is a musical with a book by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe and music and lyrics by LaChiusa. It is based on the 1928 Joseph Moncure March narrative poem of the same name. The Broadway production coincidentally opened during the same theatrical season (1999-2000) as an off-Broadway musical with the same title and source material. Its plot centers on a party - fueled by bathtub gin, cocaine, and uninhibited sexual behavior - hosted by Queenie and Burrs, whose relationship is disintegrating. The cast included Toni Collette (making her Broadway debut) as Queenie, Mandy Patinkin as Burrs, and Yancey Arias as Black.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce celebrated Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein, the creators of the hit Broadway musical Kinky Boots, with the 2,577th and 2,578th stars, respectively, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the historic Pantages Theatre yesterday, April 11, 2016. Hollywood Chamber President/CEO Leron Gubler emceed, and unveiling the star were guest speakers Sharon Osbourne on behalf of Lauper, and Marissa Jaret Winokur on behalf of Fierstein. KINKY BOOTS producer Hal Luftig and director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell were also on hand to celebrate. Go behind the scenes of the big day below!

Today in 2001, the first Broadway revival of Bells Are Ringing opened at the Plymouth Theatre (now the Gerald Shoenfeld Theatre), where it ran for 68 performances. Bells Are Ringing is a musical with a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne. The story revolves around Ella, who works at an answering service and the characters that she meets there. The original Broadway production, directed by Jerome Robbins and choreographed by Robbins and Bob Fosse, opened on November 29, 1956 at the Shubert Theatre, where it ran for slightly more than two years, and starred Judy Holliday as Ella and Sydney Chaplin as Jeff Moss.

Broadway Bares, the unrivaled evening of sexy striptease that benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will return for its 26th edition on Sunday, June 19 (9:30 pm & Midnight) at the Hammerstein Ballroom (311 West 34th Street, NYC). Check out a just-released teaser for this year's event below!

Today in 1991, Miss Saigon opened at the Broadway Theatre, where it ran for 4092 performances. Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The musical premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London on 20 September 1989, closing after over four thousand performances, on 30 October 1999.The musical represented Schonberg and Boublil's second major success, following Les Miserables in 1985.

Earlier this week, MCC Theater's Miscast gala, an annual highlight of the New York theater season, honored Oscar winning star of stage and screen and MCC alum Marisa Tomei. The gala featured show-stopping performances by Emmy Award nominee Tituss Burgess; Tony Award winners Lea Salonga and Linda Lavin; Tony Award nominee Keala Settle; and stage and screen stars Aaron Tveit, Beth Behrs, Cynthia Erivo, Ana Villafañe, and Shanice Williams. Below, check out some highlights from the show, which included songs from everything from Hamilton to Oliver!

The celebrity appearances keep coming at DISASTER! Just last night, Rosie O'Donnell stopped by the Nederlander Theatre to perform what else, but "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" with rewritten parody lyrics by Seth Rudetsky lampooning the one and only, Donald Trump. Check it out below!

THE FATHER, a new play by Moliere Award winner Florian Zeller, in a translation by two-time Tony Award winner Christopher Hampton (Sunset Boulevard, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, God of Carnage), is currently in previews for an opening on Thursday, April 14, 2016 on Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

What makes the search for a new bra a little bit more interesting? Turning it into a musical!  That's right, composer extraordinaire Jason Robert Brown wrote a musical commercial for Triumph Lingerie, which features the voices of Betsy Wolfe, Leslie Kritzer, J.Elaine Marcos and Ta'Rea Campbell. Check it out below!

Today in 2003, the first Broadway revival of Nine opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it ran for 283 performances. Nine is a musical with a book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. The story is based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½. It focuses on film director Guido Contini, who is dreading his imminent 40th birthday and is facing a midlife crisis, which is blocking his creative impulses and entangling him in a web of romantic difficulties in early-1960s Venice. The original Broadway production opened in 1982 and ran for 729 performances, starring Raul Julia. The musical won five Tony Awards, including best musical, and has enjoyed a number of revivals.

Today in 1957, Brigadoon opened at the Adelphi Theatre, where it ran for 47 performances. Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Songs from the musical, such as 'Almost Like Being in Love' have become standards. The story involves two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years. Tommy, one of the tourists, falls in love with Fiona, a young woman from Brigadoon. The original production opened on Broadway in 1947 and ran for 581 performances. A 1954 film version starred Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse. A 1966 television version starred Robert Goulet and Peter Falk.

Today in 1990, Aspects of Love opened at the Broadhurst Theatre, where it ran for 377 performances. Aspects of Love is a musical with a book and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. Based on the novella of the same name by David Garnett, the piece focuses on the romantic entanglements of actress Rose Vibert, her admiring fan Alex Dillingham, his underage cousin Jenny, his uncle George, and George's mistress, sculptress Giulietta Trapani, over a period of 17 years.

Today in 2011, the third Broadway revival of Anything Goes opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, where it ran for 521 performences. Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London. Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress Hope Harcourt, who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy #13 Moonface Martin aid Billy in his quest to win Hope. The musical introduced such songs as 'Anything Goes', 'You're the Top', and 'I Get a Kick Out of You.'

On this week's episode of OPRAH: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?, Audra McDonald talks candidly about depression and her attempted suicide while attending Julliard, how she nearly left New York before getting her first big role, and what she finds most challenging about acting for television versus Broadway.

Broadway legend Chita Rivera will make her Cafe Carlyle debut later this month with An Evening of My Favorite Songs, an engagement that was postponed earlier this year due to an injury. Now she's ready to take the stage and she's chatting with BroadwayWorld's own Richard Ridge to tell him out about it! An Evening of My Favorite Songs is a a two-week engagement, running April 19-30. For tickets, visit: http://www.ticketweb.com

Today in 1964, The Crucible opened at the Belasco Theatre, where it ran for 16 performances. The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. It was first performed at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway on January 22, 1953. The production won the 1953 'Best Play' Tony Award. It is a central work in the canon of American drama.

Below, BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you an exclusive video of one of the evening's most jaw-dropping performances from one of Broadway's newest superstars. Watch as THE COLOR PURPLE's Cynthia Erivo performs 'A Piece of Sky' from YENTL.

Broadway stages, concert halls, network TV... Jay Armstrong Johnson has conquered them all, and he's about to add even more to his list of accomplishments.