Nicole Rosky - Page 596

Briggs Inc. today announced the 10th annual June Briggs Awards honorees. The June Briggs Awards honor excellence in New York City's hospitality and destination management services, as well as outstanding contributions to New York's cultural life. The presentation of the awards will take place on Monday, January 9, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. at The Mandarin Oriental (80 Columbus Circle).

The Off West End Theatre Awards were launched in 2010 to recognise and celebrate the excellence, innovation and ingenuity of independent theatres across London. The awards help raise the profile and status of independent theatres in London by giving them greater power to promote their work individually and collectively and to reward the new talent that they nurture that is essential to the future of our theatre industry.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick, will present Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham in a new production of Bertolt Brecht's GALILEO, translated by Charles Laughton, and directed by Kulick, beginning performances Wednesday, February 1 at CSC (136 East 13th Street) for a limited engagement through Sunday, March 11. The official press opening for GALILEO is Sunday, February 12. Tickets for GALILEO go on sale to the public today, Tuesday, January 3.

Stephen Sondheim's musical COMPANY began performances at the Crucible Theatre at the end of November, with an official opening night on 5th December. The show will continue through 7th January.

A thundering chorus of 3,000+ Broadway stars, students and teachers will lock step and raise their voices and hearts in song during the 2012 Junior Theater Festival, a monumental celebration of on-stage and backstage excellence happening January 13 - 15, 2012 in Atlanta, GA, it was announced today by Theater of the Stars president Nick Manos and Timothy Allen McDonald, founding chairman of iTheatrics. Presented by New York's iTheatrics and Atlanta's Theater of the Stars and sponsored by leading theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI), Disney Musicals and NBC, the Junior Theater Festival is the world's largest musical theater festival dedicated to groups working with elementary school, middle school and high school aged students.

Headlong Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company's Rupert Goold will helm a stage adaptation of C.S. Lewis' THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE at Kensington Gardens.

A one-night only concert reading presentation of the parody Twilight: The Musical is being presented by Ulmer Theatricals, Moxyrah Productions, and Dreamcatcher Entertainment, January 16th, 2012 at 8pm to benefit the national charity organization Blessings in a Backpack. The concert will be directed by Gabriel Barre (Lippa's The Wild Party, Pippin at Goodspeed), and presented at New World Stages.

According to Contact Music, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr is currently collaborating with Eurythmics' Dave Stewart to write a musical. Starr told Mojo magazine: 'Me and Dave wrote a musical, a complete thing - characters, story, a lot of songs. We wrote it for Broadway, but it will more likely end up (as) a movie... and I'm not telling you anything else. It's about other people.'

Despite a previous report that originated on Ohnotheydidnt.com, Broadway-bound Ricky Martin is not planning to wed his longtime boyfriend, Carlos Gonzalez in New York later this month. ONYD had reported that a Miami wedding was likely, however a spokesperson for Martin has clarified: 'It is a completely incorrect report. Ricky Martin has no set plans to marry.'

Oh! You Pretty Things is proud to present a birthday bacchanalia for rock's two greatest capricorns Elvis Presley and David Bowie, This Ambitious Orchestra along with Michael T and the Vanities perform larger-than-life arrangements of hit songs from their catalogue with Formika and Queen V as your emcees for this Vegas-style three ring circus on January 15.

Stage and screen star John Leguizamo will showcase 'Ghetto Klown' performed entirely in Spanish at Repertorio Español as he warms up before he embarks on his first Colombian tour.

Today in 1972, Broadway veteran Taye Diggs was born. In 1996, he originated the role of the landlord Benny in Jonathan Larson's Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent, which also starred his future wife, Idina Menzel. After Rent he appeared as Mr. Black alongside Idina Menzel's character of Kate in Andrew Lippa's off-Broadway production of The Wild Party. Diggs also played The Bandleader in the 2002 film version of the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago and filled in as Billy Flynn on Broadway. He also temporarily filled in for Norbert Leo Butz (an original Rent standby) as the love interest Fiyero of Idina Menzel's Elphaba character in Wicked.

Today in 1940, three time Tony Award-winner Frank Langella was born. Langella won his first Tony Award for his performance in Edward Albee's Seascape and 1975 and was nominated for another for what may have been the performance for which he was best known for in the early part of his career: the title role of the 1977 Broadway production of Dracula. He then appeared on Broadway in such plays as Sherlock's Last Case, Strindberg's The Father (winning a Drama Desk Award), Match (Tony Award nomination), and Fortune's Fool, for which he won a second Tony Award. He was cast as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon, which received enthusiastic reviews during a run at the Donmar Warehouse and Gielgud Theatre in London before moving to New York's Bernard B. Jacobs Theater in April 2007, culminating in Langella's third Tony Award. He reprised the role of Nixon in the 2008 film Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard.

Today in 1958, Tony Award-winner Bebe Neuwirth was born. Neuwirth made her Broadway debut in the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line in 1980. She later appeared in revivals of Little Me (1982) Sweet Charity (1986), for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, and Damn Yankees (1994). 1996 saw her play the role of Velma Kelly in the Broadway revival of Chicago. That role brought her her greatest stage recognition to date, and several awards including the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Neuwirth would later return to the still-running revival of Chicago in 2006, this time in the role of Roxie Hart.

Today in 1948, opened at the Shubert Theatre. Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang. Kiss Me, Kate was a response to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and other integrated musicals, and it proved to be his biggest hit and the only one of his shows to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway. It won the first Tony Award presented for Best Musical, in 1949.

In the video below, SPIDER-MAN's Reeve Carney teams with his brother Zane to perform a special acoustic version of 'Amelie.' Click below to check it out!

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, there is currently a lot of discussion going on about the possibility of closing West End productions for the 2012 Summer Olypics in London. Now Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose Really Useful Group owns seven West End theatres, is commenting on the situation.

Walnut Street Theatre, America's oldest theatre and the State Theatre of Pennsylvania, has just announced its landmark 204th season of live entertainment and its 30th season as a not-for-profit producing theatre company. This season, President and Producing Artistic Director Bernard Havard celebrates his 30th year at the Walnut as well. Under his direction the self-producing regional theatre has become not only the most popular theatre company in Philadelphia, but also the most subscribed theatre company in the world, boasting over 56,000 subscribers!

Casting for the upcoming film adaptation of LES MISÉRABLES is just about complete, with Hugh Jackman taking on the role of Jean Valjean and Russell Crowe squaring off as Javert. Sacha Baron Cohen as Thernardier, Eddie Redmayne as Marius, Aaron Tveit as Enjolras and Anne Hathaway as Fantine were also announced to bring their star power to the cast.

After the overwhelming response of their first collaboration 'TAP: Single Ladies', Melinda Sullivan (Glee, Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance) and Imagiland Productions have teamed up with producer George Wang to present 'Shakin' The Blues Away'.