Nicole Rosky - Page 251

The cast of the Tony Award-winning hit Beautiful just celebrated the show's one year anniversary. Since opening on Broadway on January 12, 2014, Beautiful has broken all box office records at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, where it recently became the highest grossing production in the theatre's history. Leading the company is Tony winner Jessie Mueller, who has been with the show all along the way. Mueller just chatted with BroadwayWorld about her year as Carole King, working with Sara Bareiless on her new WAITRESS musical, performing at the Kennedy Center Honors, and so much more. Check out the full interview below!

Happy Birthday Michael Crawford! In 1981, Crawford starred in the Original London production of Cy Coleman's Barnum (1981) as the illustrious American showman P. T. Barnum. He is best known for starring opposite Sarah Brightman in the original cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera as the title character. In 1986, Crawford began his performance in London, continuing on to Broadway in 1988, and then Los Angeles a year later, in 1989. He played the role for 2½ years and over 1,300 performances, winning an Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Musical) and a Tony Award (Best Performance By An Actor in a Lead Role, Musical). Beginning in February 2011, Crawford has played the role of the Wizard in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical version of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium.

In honor of National Hot and Spicy Food Day, check out a never-before-seen clip of ON THE TOWN's Alysha Umphress singing 'I Can Cook Too.'

The new Off-Broadway comedy 'Application Pending' stars Christina Bianco, who plays rookie admissions officer Christine Evans as well as forty other roles. The show will be playing at The Westside Theatre from January 26th to April 19th.www.ApplicationPendingPlay.com. Bianco and company just gave a special press preview of the new play and you can check out a sneak peek below!

Today in 1998, Ragtime opened at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (now the Foxwoods Theatre), where it ran for 834 performances. The musical garnered four Tony Awards including Best Book, Original Score and Best Orchestrations. The beloved Ahrens and Flaherty score features some of the award-winning team's best-known songs including the title song, 'Make Them Hear You' and the anthem 'The Wheels of a Dream.' A revival opened at the Neil Simon Theatre in 2009.

Today in 1931, Broadway veteran James Earl Jones was born. He has won Tony awards in 1969 for The Great White Hope and in 1987 for Fences. He has acted in many Shakespearean roles: Othello, King Lear, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Abhorson in Measure for Measure, and Claudius in Hamlet. On April 7, 2005, James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams headed the cast in an African-American Broadway revival version of On Golden Pond, directed by Leonard Foglia and produced by Jeffrey Finn. In February 2008, he starred on Broadway as Big Daddy in a limited-run, all-African-American production of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Debbie Allen and mounted at the Broadhurst Theatre. In October 2010, Jones returned to the Broadway stage in Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy along with Vanessa Redgrave at the Golden Theatre. In November 2011, Jones starred in Driving Miss Daisy in London's West End, and on November 12 Jones received his honorary Oscar in front of the audience at the Wyndham's Theatre, which was presented to him by Ben Kingsley.

Happy Birthday, Lin-Manuel Miranda! Miranda is most famous for writing and starring as 'Usnavi' in the Broadway musical In the Heights, which opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in 2008, and for which he won the Tony Award as composer and lyricist. He also wrote Spanish language dialogue and worked with Stephen Sondheim to translate into Spanish song lyrics for the revival of West Side Story, which opened on Broadway in March 2009. Most recently, Miranda worked on the musical theatre version of Broadway's Bring It On, inspired by the 2000 cheerleader comedy film of the same name.

Today in 2008, The 39 Steps opend at the American Airlines Theatre, where it ran for 771 performances. The play is a farce adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. Patrick Barlow wrote the adaptation, based on the original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon of a two-actor version of the play. The play's concept calls for the entirety of the 1935 adventure film The 39 Steps to be performed with a cast of only four. One actor plays the hero, Richard Hannay, an actress plays the three women with whom he has romantic entanglements, and two other actors play every other character in the show: heroes, villains, men, women, children and even the occasional inanimate object. This often requires lightning fast quick-changes and occasionally for them to play multiple characters at once. Thus the film's serious spy story is played mainly for laughs, and the script is full of allusions to (and puns on the titles of) other Alfred Hitchcock films, including Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a new Off-Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine's Tony Award-winning Into the Woods. Directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, this production premiered in May 2013 at the McCarter Theatre in association with the Fiasco Theater. Into the Woods began preview performances December 18, 2014 and officially opens on January 22, 2015 at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street). This is a limited engagement thru March 22, 2015. BroadwayWorld brings you highlights of the cast in action below!

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Nicole Scherzinger just made her West End stage debut as 'Grizabella' in Andrew Lloyd Webber's record-breaking musical Cats, and according to a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Webber has plans to bring the show (and his new star) to Broadway. He told DM: 'Cats will now definitely go to Broadway again. It's very exciting.' On Scherzinger's future involvement, he added: 'I would very greatly hope she would do it. To do something like that in America would open up a billion doors for her.'He continued: 'She is what you might call an American theatre babe. I do believe she is the most exciting musical theatre artist I have found - well, that I have worked with - in very, very many years. I really do.' In the video below, Scherzinger performs and acoustic cover of Sam Smith's 'I'm Not the Only One.' Check it out below!

On January 9th, Broadway's biggest belters celebrated the best-selling Canadian music artist in history, Celine Dion, in an evening of epic power ballads, and classic pop tunes at 54 Below. With one of the most distinctive voices in music history, and with albums sales of over 200 million, Dion is undeniably one of the most influential female artists of our generation. Audiences can expect to hear a wide array of Celine's greatest hits from her 25 year career, including 'The Power Of Love,' 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now,' 'My Heart Will Go On,' 'I Drove All Night,' and many more. Featuring a star-studded Broadway cast, this is one concert no Broadway or Pop Music love should miss! Check out highlights from the concert below!

What do a Broadway-or-bust diva, an avant-garde performance artist, a dancer starting too late, and a hapless jack of all trades have in common? Find out in the new webseries, This Is Art, a satirical love letter to the postgraduate misadventures of undiscovered artists living in NYC.

Stage and screen star Josh Gad stopped by THE VIEW today, January 13, to promote his upcoming movie, The Wedding Ringer. While he was there, ultimate Frozen Fan Rosie O'Donnell challenged him to a friendly Olaf-themed trivia game and hilarity ensued. Check out the full clip below!

Jacob Langfelder presents THE SKIVVIES...GOLD AS ICE. The undie-rock comedy-pop duo of Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley just made their 42West debut in THE SKIVVIES...GOLD AS ICE. The show featured an all-star line up of guest artists from the worlds of Broadway, Television and Film, including TONY Award winners Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Kinky Boots) and Laura Benanti (Gypsy, The Sound of Music, Nine) and Colin Donnell (Arrow, The Affair), Patti Murin (Lysistrata Jones, Xanadu), Sierra Boggess (Phantom of the Opera, The Little Mermaid), Autumn Hurlbert (Legally Blonde),Erik Altemus (Pippin), Betsy Wolfe (Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood) and many more. Check out highlights from the concert below!

WICKED just welcomed new cast members to the Gershwin Theatre last month. Caroline Bowman (Kinky Boots, Eva in the Broadway revival tour of Evita) stepped into the role of Elphaba, and Kara Lindsay (original cast of Broadway's Newsies) assumed the role of Glinda, directly from playing the role on national tour. Kathy Fitzgerald returned to the Broadway company as Madame Morrible, a role she has played on Broadway and on national tour, and Matt Shingledecker (West Side Story) assumed the role of Fiyero. Two-time Tony Award Nominee Robin de Jesus (In the Heights, La Cage Aux Folles) stepped into the role of Boq. Lindsay recently chatted with BroadwayWorld about her take on Glinda, the challenges of the role, and so much more. Check out the full interview below! Check back tomorrow to read BroadwayWorld's interview with her WICKED counterpart, Caroline Bowman!

WICKED just welcomed new cast members to the Gershwin Theatre last month. Caroline Bowman (Kinky Boots, Eva in the Broadway revival tour of Evita) stepped into the role of Elphaba, and Kara Lindsay (original cast of Broadway's Newsies) assumed the role of Glinda, directly from playing the role on national tour. Kathy Fitzgerald returned to the Broadway company as Madame Morrible, a role she has played on Broadway and on national tour, and Matt Shingledecker (West Side Story) assumed the role of Fiyero. Two-time Tony Award Nominee Robin de Jesus (In the Heights, La Cage Aux Folles) stepped into the role of Boq. Bowman recently chatted with BroadwayWorld about rejoining the cast, her take on the character, and so much more. Check out the full interview below! Click here to read BroadwayWorld's interview with her WICKED counterpart, Kara Lindsay!

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, opened last night, January 12 at London's Playhouse Theatre after beginning previews last month, stars Tamsin Greig,Haydn Gwynne, Jerome Pradon,Anna Skellern, Ricardo Afonso, Haydn Oakley, Willemijn Verkaik and Seline Hizli.

Today, inspirational theatre educators across the United States have a first-ever chance at the Tony spotlight. The Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have announced that nominations are now open for the inaugural 'Excellence in Theatre Education Award.'

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, opening tonight, January 12 at London's Playhouse Theatre after beginning previews last month, stars Tamsin Greig,Haydn Gwynne, Jerome Pradon,Anna Skellern, Ricardo Afonso, Haydn Oakley,Willemijn Verkaik and Seline Hizli. Below, watch as the cast recordsmusic from the show in the studio!

Today in 1939, The Importance of Being Earnest opened at the Vanderbilt Theatre, where it ran for 61 performances. Written by Oscar Wilde, the show was first performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play.