Nicole Rosky - Page 226

Just last week, Justin Guarini hosted The New York Musical Theatre Festival's Annual Press Conference at Urbo (11 Times Square, New York, NY 10036). As a part of the special presentation, cast members from Acappella, Claudio Quest, Deep Love: A Ghostly Rock Opera, Manuel versus the Statue of Liberty, The Calico Buffalo and Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera performed excerpts from the productions. BroadwayWorld takes you inside the special day below!

Jake Gyllenhaal, Ellen Greene, Taran Killam, Eddie Cooper, Joe Grifasi, Tracy Nicole Chapman, Marva Hicks and Ramona Keller star in the Encores! Off-Center concert production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's Little Shop of Horrors, running for three performances, July 1-2, 2015 at New York City Center.

Happy Birthday Audra McDonald! The actress earned three Tony Awards by the age of 28 - for her performances in Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime. She was nominated for another Tony Award for her performance in Marie Christine before she won her fourth in 2004 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun. She reprised her Raisin role for a 2008 television adaptation, earning her a second Emmy Award nomination. Her first Emmy nod came in 2001 for her performance in HBOs Wit. Fans of the small screen also recognize McDonald from her work on ABC's Private Practice. She most recently starred on Broadway in Porgy and Bess and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill- she won Tony Awards for both performances.

Today in 1985, Singin' in the Rain opened at the George Gershwin Theatre, where it ran for 367 performances. Singin' in the Rain is a musical with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, lyrics by Arthur Freed, and music by Nacio Herb Brown. Adapted from the 1952 movie of the same name, the plot closely adheres to the original. Set in Hollywood in the waning days of the silent screen era, it focuses on romantic lead Don Lockwood, his sidekick Cosmo Brown, aspiring actress Kathy Selden, and Lockwood's leading lady Lina Lamont, whose less-than-dulcet vocal tones make her an unlikely candidate for stardom in talking pictures. Directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, the cast included Don Correia as Don, Mary D'Arcy as Kathy, Peter Slutsker as Cosmo, and Faye Grant as Lina.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater will soon present Ben Platt (Pitch Perfect, The Book of Mormon) in the original world-premiere musical debuting this summer. The production, by Tony Award-nominated composing duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dogfight; A Christmas Story, The Musical) and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning playwright Steven Levenson(Masters of Sex), is directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (If/Then, Next to Normal, Rent) and will run July 10-August 23, 2015 in the Kreeger Theater. Below, go inside the rehearsal room with Platt and Laura Dreyfuss as they sing 'Only Us.'

THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL THEATRE AWARDS (NHSMTA)/JIMMY AWARDS- The seventh annual National High School Musical Theatre Awards were held on Monday, June 29, 2015, at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway. This one-of-a-kind-event was hosted by two-time Tony Award®-winner Michael Cerveris, currently on Broadway in this year's Best Musical Fun Home at Circle in the Square. The coveted Jimmy Award for Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor on Monday, June 29 at Broadway's Minskoff Theatre, was presented to Marla Louissaint representing The Gershwin Awards and Anthony Skillman, representing the M.A.C.Y. Awards. BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you highlights from the show below!

Running July 7, 10-11 at 54 Below, A Little Bit Broadway, A Little Bit Rock 'n' Roll is a brand new show Micky has created to combine his love of Broadway with his love for rock 'n' roll in one thrilling new intimate concert. The show will include some of the Monkees greatest hits, a few rarities and songs from musical roles he has performed and from shows he loves. The show is produced by Van Dean, directed by Van Dean and Micky Dolenz, with music direction by Michael J. Moritz, Jr. Click here for tickets!

Happy Birthday Terrence Mann! Mann's Broadway credits include the Beast in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast, Rum Tum Tugger in Cats, Inspector Javert in Les Miserables and Chauvelin in The Scarlet Pimpernel. He also has starred in additional Broadway productions including Lennon, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Getting Away With Murder, A Christmas Carol, Rags, Barnum, Jerome Robbins' Broadway and Jekyll & Hyde. He most recently starred in the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin.

Taye Diggs will soon make his return to Broadway in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, taking over the lead role in the 2014 Tony Award winning Best Musical Revival from Darren Criss. Diggs will play a limited 12-week engagement starting Wednesday, July 22 at the Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street). Hedwig will mark Diggs' first New York stage role since the 2005 revival of A Soldier's Play. Diggs met the press today and you can go inside the special day below!

July Fourth is at last here, marking the official start to summer 2015. While there will be plenty of time today for fireworks and sparklers, real theatre fans know that there is no better way to celebrate our country's birthday than with a salute to a truly American institution- Broadway! BroadwayWorld is celebrating Independence Day with a collection of Broadway's most patriotic tunes, from shows such as 1776, THE Will Rogers FOLLIES, GEORGE M., WEST SIDE STORY, RAGTIME and so many more! Click below to join in the patriotic spirit!

Happy Birthday David Alan Grier! Grier began his professional career on Broadway as Jackie Robinson in The First, for which he earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and won the Theatre World Award. He then joined the cast of Dreamgirls before going on to star opposite Denzel Washington in A Soldier's Play, for which both actors reprised their roles in the film adaptation titled A Soldier's Story. Recently was seen in David Mamet's Race on Broadway and received his second Tony Award nomination. He most recently starred on Broadway in Porgy and Bess.

Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man, the hit comedy written by Matt Murphy, based on the best-selling book by Dan Anderson and Maggie Berman, will soon welcome comedian and YouTube star Michael Buckley ('What The Buck?')  as Dan, for two weeks only - July 2-4 and 9-11 - at The 777 Theatre (777 Eighth Avenue, between 47th and 48th Streets). Buckley, making his Off-Broadway debut in Sex Tips, will also perform in the show's upcoming week-long run at The Provincetown Theater from August 3 - 8. To prepare for the role, Buckley is sharing some hilarious tips with some of our favorite Broadway characters. Check out the exclusive video below! 

Manhattan Theatre Club presets the New York premiere of Of Good Stock, the new play byMelissa Ross (Thinner Than Water, Too Much Too Soon), directed by MTC's award-winning Artistic DirectorLynne Meadow (The Assembled Parties, Wit, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife). Check out highlights of the cast in action below!

Happy Birthday Emily Skinner! Emily Skinner was nominated for a Best Actress TONY Award for the Original Broadway Production of Side Show. Other Broadway credits include the original casts of Jekyll & Hyde, James Joyce's The Dead (with Christopher Walken) The Full Monty, Dinner at Eight (Outer Critics Circle nomination, Drama League Award). Most recently, she starred in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot.

Jenni Barber, Quentin Earl Darrington, Bradley Dean, Dan Fogler, Ana Gasteyer, Josh Lamon, Aaron Lazar, Alyse Alan Louis and Rema Webb join Jonathan Groff in the Encores! Off-Center production of William Finn and James Lapine's A New Brain, running tonight, June 24, through June 27, 2015. The production is directed by James Lapine, with choreography by Josh Prince. BroadwayWorld brings you highlights from the production below!

Today in 1987, the FIRST Broadway revival of Dreamgirls opened at the Ambassador Theatre, where it ran for 177 performances. Dreamgirls features music by Henry Krieger and lyrics and book by Tom Eyen. Based upon the show business aspirations and successes of R&B acts such as The Supremes, The Shirelles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and others, the musical follows the story of a young female singing trio from Chicago, Illinois called 'The Dreams', who become music superstars. The musical opened on December 20, 1981 at the Imperial Theatre, and was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical, and won six. It was later adapted into a motion picture from DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures in 2006. The 1987 cast featured Lillias White as 'Effie.'

Today in 1976, the second Broadway revival of Pal Joey opened at the Circle in the SquareTheatre, where it ran for 73 performances. Pal Joey is a musical with a book by John O'Hara (from his novel of the same title) and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart based on a character and situations O'Hara created in a series of short stories published in The New Yorker. The original 1940 Broadway production was directed by George Abbott and starred Gene Kelly. There have been several revivals since, including a 2008-09 Broadway run, and a 1957 film adaptation starring Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak. The 1976 cast featured: Christopher Chadman (Joey), Harold Gary (Mike), Terri Treas (Kid), Janie Sell (Gladys), and Gail Benedict (Gail).

Today in 1986, Arsenic and Old Lace opened at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rogers Theatre) where it ran for 221 performances. Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves.

Happy Birthday, Hunter Foster! Foster is perhaps best known for playing 'Bobby Strong' in Urinetown, for which he received nominations for an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Lucille Lortel Award. In 2003, Foster starred as 'Seymour' in the Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, for which he received his first Tony Award nomination. Foster also appeared as 'Leo Bloom' in The Producers on Broadway, 'Ensign Pulver' in Mister Roberts at the Kennedy Center, 'Ben' in Modern Orthodox off-Broadway, and 'Sam Phillips' in Million Dollar Quartet.

Idina Menzel kicked off her world tour this spring, at Olympic Hall in Seoul, Korea, before a recent stop in Manchester. While she was there, she performed two fan favorites- 'For Good' from Wicked and Frozen's 'Let It Go'. Click below to check out both songs!