Nicole Rosky - Page 304

Today in 1988, The Phantom of the Opera opened at the Majestic Theatre, where it has played for 9980 performances and still running. Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart, the musical opened in the West End in 1986, celebrating its 25th anniversary in October 2011. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the 1986 Olivier and 1988 Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical. It is the longest-running Broadway show by a wide margin, the second longest-running West End musical, and the third longest-running West End show overall.

Today in 1938, Pygmalion opened at the Maxine Elliott's Theatre. Written by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, the play centers on Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins. He makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a comment on women's independence, packaged as a romantic comedy.

Today in 2010, A View From the Bridge opened at the Cort Theatre, where it ran for 81 performances. Written by American playwright Arthur Miller, the show was first staged on September 29, 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The play is set in 1950s America, in an Italian American neighborhood near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. It employs both a chorus and a narrator (Alfieri). Eddie, the tragic protagonist, has an improper love of, and almost obsession with, Catherine. The 2010 revival starred Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Hecht.

Today in 2005, Little Women opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 137 performances. Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic 1869 semi-autobiographical novel, it focuses on the four March sisters - brassy, tomboy-like, aspiring writer Jo, romantic Meg, pretentious Amy, and kind-hearted Beth - and their beloved Marmee, at home in Concord, Massachusetts while the family patriarch is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War. Intercut with the vignettes in which their lives unfold are several recreations of the melodramatic short stories Jo writes in her attic studio. The Broadway cast included Sutton Foster, Maureen McGovern, Janet Carroll, Jenny Powers, Megan McGinnis, and Amy McAlexander.

Happy Birthday, Chita Rivera! A two-time Tony Award winner, Rivera made her Broadway debut in 1953 in Can-Can, launching one of the most celebrated and long-lasting Broadway careers. Her electric performance as Anita in the Broadway premiere of West Side Storybrought her stardom. She most recently starred as Princess Puffer in the Roundabout Theatre Company's celebrated Broadway revival The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere production of OUTSIDE MULLINGAR, the new play by Tony and Pulitzer Prize winnerJohn Patrick Shanley, directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes, is now in previews and opens, January 23 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) in a strictly limited 11-week engagement. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the cast in action below!

The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel will welcome back Tony Award-Winner John Lloyd Young, running February 4 through February 15 (8:45PM) with Special Valentines Show on February 14. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was there for his Carlyle debut last year, and you can check out a concert preview below!

The company met the press yesterday and BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was there to chat with the whole gang about the upcoming production. Check out what they had to say below!

Today in 1942, the first revival of Porgy and Bess opened at the Majestic Theatre, where it ran for 286 performances. First performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward, it was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward. All three works deal with African-American life in the fictitious Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s. Originally conceived by George Gershwin as an 'American folk opera', Porgy and Bess premiered in New York in the fall of 1935 and featured an entire cast of classically trained African-American singers-a daring artistic choice at the time.

Today in 1957 Waiting for Godot opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where it ran for 6 performances. An absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, it revolves around two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, who wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere. Since its US premiere in 1956, several notable revivals have been produced, including the 1988 production featuring Robin Williams and Steve Martin, and the 2009 revival starring Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin.

Earlier this morning, multi-platinum pop sensation Carly Rae Jepsen visited ABC's Good Morning America to talk about stepping into the famed glass slippers as she prepares to make her Broadway debut in the title role of CINDERELLA on Broadway. As part of the segment, Ms. Jepsen gave GMA an exclusive behind the scenes look at CINDERELLA, about to begin its 2nd year at the Broadway Theatre (1681 Broadway). Jepsen will make her Broadway debut on February 4 along side film and television starFran Drescher, who begins that date in the role of Cinderella's wicked stepmother Madame. Check out the full segment below!

Today in 1903, The Wizard of Oz opened at the Majestic Theatre, where it ran for 293 performances. Based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, which was originally published in 1900, much of the original music was by Paul Tietjens and has been mostly forgotten, although it was still well-remembered and in discussion at MGM in the late 1930s, when the classic film version of the story was made. The main plot of the show, as recounted in newspapers of the time, is Pastoria's attempts to regain the throne from the Wizard of Oz. The original protagonists' search for the Wizard puts them on the wrong side of the law. Since then, many new incarnations have been created, including the 1939 film, and the 2011 West End musical.

Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Machinal, starring Rebecca Hall, written by Sophie Treadwell and directed by Lyndsey Turner, began previews on December 20 and opened Thursday night, Jan. 16, 2014 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. Machinal is a limited engagement through March 2. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on hand at the after party to chat with the entire company. Check out what they had to say below!

Many know Carol Channing for her work on the Broadway stage, but she was also the first-ever solo artist to perform during a Super Bowl Halftime Show. In the video, Channing surprises unsuspecting Bingo players with a spontaneous Halftime performance, as part of Pepsi's 'Get Hyped for Halftime' campaign. Among the Bingo players was Rory O'Conner, who actually attended Super Bowl IV in 1970 when Channing originally performed. Check it out below!

Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Machinal, starring Rebecca Hall, written by Sophie Treadwell and directed by Lyndsey Turner, began previews on December 20 and opened last night, Jan. 16, 2014 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. Machinal is a limited engagement through March 2. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on the red carpet to chat with the evening's guests before the curtain went up, including Susan Sarandon, Victor Garber, Christian Borle, Katie Finneran and more. Check out what they had to say on opening night below!

As BroadwayWorld reported yesterday, the Michael Grandage Company production of THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN, by Martin McDonagh, starring Daniel Radcliffe and the critically acclaimed West End cast, directed by Tony Award-winner Michael Grandage, will open on Broadway during the afternoon of Sunday, April 20 at the Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street). Previews will begin Saturday, April 12. Tickets are available now through www.Telecharge.com. Below, check out a sneak peek of Radcliffe and the rest of the cast in action!

The new musical, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, about the early life and career of the legendary and groundbreaking singer/songwriter opened earlier this week at the Sondheim Theatre on Broadway. In the video below, go behind the scenes of opening night with the cast, creative team and guests!

London and Broadway's original Jean Valjean, Colm Wilkinson, performed the role of the Bishop for a special performance of LES MISERABLES Saturday evening, January 11 in Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre alongside Broadway's next Valjean, Ramin Karimloo, who will star in Cameron Mackintosh's new production of the legendary musical beginning March 1 at the Imperial Theatre. Wilkinson passed the torch - and the silver candlesticks - to Karimloo in a special benefit performance for five different Toronto charities: Casey House, Covenant House, Ernestine's, The Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa and Theatre 20. Wilkinson and Karimloo brought down the house with a special curtain call duet of 'Bring Him Home.' The Iranian-born Karimloo, who grew up in Toronto, has idolized Wilkinson since he was 12 and saw him perform in the title role in The Phantom of the Opera in Toronto. Karimloo went on to star as the Phantom in London, and since this November, as Jean Valjean, in Cameron Mackintosh's new production of LES MISERABLES in Toronto, for which he has received unanimous acclaim. BroadwayWorld brings you photos and video highlights below!

Disney's Aladdin, a new musical comedy based on the Academy Award®-winning animated film, begins performances at Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre on February 26th, 2014 for a March 20 opening. In anticipation of the big Broadway opening, we're getting acquainted with the company. In the video below, meet book writer Chad Beguelin!

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.