Nicole Rosky - Page 300

Disney's Aladdin, a new musical comedy based on the Academy Award®-winning animated film, opens on Broadway tonight, March 20th, 2014, at the New Amsterdam Theatre, after beginning performances on February 26th, 2014. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, the show features music by Tony Award® and eight-time Oscar® winner Alan Menken(Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Sister Act), lyrics by two-time Oscar winner Howard Ashman (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid), three-time Tony Award and three-time Oscar winnerTim Rice (Evita, Aida) and two-time Tony Award nominee Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer), with a book by Beguelin, and is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winnerCasey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon). BroadwayWorld brings you highlights of the cast in action below!

Today in 2000, Aida opened at the Palace Theatre, where it ran for 1852 performances. Aida is a musical with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang. Aida was nominated for five Tony Awards and won four Tony Awards in 2000, including Best Musical Score and Best Performance by a Leading Actress. Aida was also named by Time Magazine in 2000 as one of the top ten theatre productions of the year. The First National tour was nominated for nine National Broadway Theatre awards (now 'Touring Broadway Awards') and won five awards, including Best Musical, Best Direction, Best Actor, and Best Actress.

Sondheim is the winner of an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards, including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award. Described by Frank Rich of the New York Times as 'the greatest, and perhaps best-known artist working in musical theatre', his most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Assassins. He also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. Lloyd Webber has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006. Several of his songs, notably 'The Music of the Night', 'I Don't Know How to Love Him', 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' and 'You Must Love Me', 'Any Dream Will Do' and 'Memory' have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals.

Today in 2002, Oklahoma! opened at the Gershwin Theatre, where it ran for 388 performances. Oklahoma! is the first musical written by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance with farm girl Laurey Williams. The original Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943. The 2002 revival featured Josefina Gabrielle as Laurey, Shuler Hensley as Jud, Patrick Wilson as Curly and Andrea Martin as Aunt Eller.

Today in 2011, Priscilla Queen of the Desert opened at the Palace Theatre, wehre it is still running (currently 415 performances). Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a musical with a book by Australian film director-writer Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, using well-known pop songs as its score. Adapted from Elliott's 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the musical tells the story of two drag queens and a transsexual, who contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a resort town in the remote Australian desert. The original Broadway cast includes Will Swenson as Tick (Mitzi), Tony Sheldon, again, reprising his role of Bernadette, and Nick Adams as Adam (Felicia).

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Today in 1998, the second Broadway revival of Caberat opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (then called the KIt Kat Klub), where it ran for 2377 performances. Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions. Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub which serves as a constant metaphor for the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany throughout the show.

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Tales from Red Vienna, the new play by David Grimm, directed by Kate Whoriskey, opens tonight, March 18 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). This strictly limited engagement began previews on Wednesday, February 26. BroadwayWorld brings you a sneak peek of the cast in action below!

On tonight's landmark episode of Glee titled '100', current and past members of New Directions reunite for one final assignment - to reinvent their favorite performances. But these new versions of the series' most iconic tracks should not be seen as goodbye to Glee club. On the contrary, they are celebrations of what the club has meant to each and every member. Don't miss the all-new '100' episode of Glee airing tonight, March 18th on FOX!

Ghostlight Records has announced that the Original Cast Recording of the new Broadway hit Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, can now be pre-ordered on iTunes, in advance of a Tuesday, April 1st digital release. Those who pre-order the album will immediately receive a special advance track of Jessie Mueller's 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow.' The album, produced by Jason Howland, Steve Sidwell and Billy Jay Stein, with Kurt Deutsch serving as Executive Producer, will be available in-stores on May 13, 2014 and will include a 28-page color booklet with full lyrics, rare and never-before-seen archival and show photos, and liner notes by Beautiful book writer Douglas McGrath. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you a first listen of 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow', as performed by Jessie Mueller.

Five-time Tony winner Audra McDonald will return to the stage as legendary songstress Billie Hollidayin a revival of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. The show will open at the Circle in the Square Theatre on April 13 for a limited 10-week run. Performances will begin on March 25. The company just met the press yesterday and BroadwayWorld's Richard RIdge was there to chat with the whole gang. Check out what they had to say below!

On March 13, the night Rocky opened on Broadway, Late Show with David Letterman imagined the next musical to be based on a Sylvester Stallone movie, Rambo the Musical-featuring a guy in full Rambo regalia (tank top, bandanna headband, machine gun) singing…"A Whole Lot of Livin' to Do" from Bye Bye Birdie! Gavin Lodge, last seen on Broadway in the Annie revival, played Rambo in the segment. Lodge, BroadwayWorld's Gypsy of the Month in December 2012, understudied Tick in Priscilla Queen of the Desert and has also performed on Broadway in Spamalot and 42nd Street.

Happy Birthday, Sutton Foster! Foster's portrayal of Reno Sweeney in Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Anythng Goes earned her the 2011 Tony Award Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Sutton also starred on Broadway as Princess Fiona in Shrek: The Musical, for which she was honored with Tony and Drama Desk nominations, and the Outer Critics Circle Award. Prior to that, Sutton was Inga in the Mel Brooks musical, Young Frankenstein, Janet Van De Graaff in The Drowsy Chaperone (2006 Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations, LA Ovation Award) and Jo March in Little Women: The Musical (2005 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations). She is the recipient of the 2002 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Awards for her performance as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, a role she created in the 2000 La Jolla Playhouse premiere.

This week we present the song 'Elegy' by Carmel Dean, which was sung by the incomparable Julia Murney at our concert at 54 Below.

Today in 2005, Spamalot opened at the Shubert Theatre, where it ran for 1575 performances. Monty Python's Spamalot is a musical comedy 'lovingly ripped off from' the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like the film, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian Legend, but it differs from the film in many ways, especially in its parodies of Broadway theatre. Eric Idle, a member of the Monty Python team, wrote the musical's book and lyrics and collaborated with John Du Prez on most of the music. The original 2005 Broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols, won three Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical of the 2004-2005 season and received 14 Tony Award nominations.

On March 8, 2014, Norm Lewis made his long-awaited solo debut for the AMERICAN SONGBOOK Series, at the recently renamed Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center (now, the Appel Room).

Signature Theatre presents the New York premiere of Appropriate, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Liesl Tommy. The production runs now through April 6, 2014 with a March 16 opening night in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). BroadwayWorld brings you highlights of the cast in action below!

ROCKY hit Broadway Thursday night, officially opening with stars Andy Karl and Margo Seibert at Broadway's historic Winter Garden Theatre. The show features an original score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and a book by Thomas Meehan and Sylvester Stallone, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 1976 Oscar-winning Best Picture, Rocky.The production is directed by Alex Timbers, with choreography by Steven Hoggett, and Kelly Devine. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on hand at the after party to chat with the full company and you can check out what they had to say on opening night below!

Broadway veteran Karen Olivo has just launch a Kickstarter campiagn to raise funds for her debut solo album, which has a planned release in Fall 2015. Olivo writes: 'I have always wanted to do an album of my own and even began working on one not long ago. Unfortunately, I was unable to complete the process…life happened. After choosing a new direction for my art, I'm back to finish what I started. I can't wait to share it with all of you!' Click here to contribute to the cause!

BroadwayWorld's Richard RIdge was on the red carpet to chat with the evening's attendees, including Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg, Orfeh, Michael Urie and more. Check out what they had to say before the curtain went up below!