The award-winning York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) is thrilled to announce casting for three presentations in the Developmental Reading Series. As always, these readings are open to the general public and admission is free, but reservations are suggested, and can be obtained by e-mailing series coordinator Jeff Landsman at jlandsman@yorktheatre.org or calling 212-935-5824 x24. Upcoming readings include: GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK Monday, February 2, 2009 ? 3:00 PM; Thursday, February 5, 2009 ? 3:00 PM BOOK BY MELBA THOMAS, MUSIC BY DAVID FRIEDMAN, LYRICS BY MURIEL ROBINSON The cast of Goodbye and Good Luck will feature MaryEllen Ashley, Jonathan Brody (Spamalot, Titanic), Janet Carol, David Green, Sam Guncler (The Gathering), Joe Kolinski, Lynda Rodolitz, Sheri Sanders, Neva Small (Something's Afoot), and Gary Wright.

Today's Broadway Blogs on BroadwayWorld.com from Monday, February 2, 2009.

The Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street) will present the New York premiere of The Civilians' newest work THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY, in a co-production with Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, with previews set to begin February 3 prior to its official press opening February 22. Steven Cosson directs. Written by Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY is a provocative new play with music about the growth of the evangelical movement in Colorado Springs, created by the documentary theatre troupe The Civilians. While conducting interviews with people involved with or affected by the mega-church movement, scandal broke about New Life Church pastor Ted Haggard and shook the entire city of Colorado Springs, providing the play's creators with an unprecedented opportunity to capture an important event as it was taking place, and providing the people of Colorado Springs the opportunity to express their opinions and concerns as those events unfolded. THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY is a fascinating and timely look at faith and how it affects the American landscape.

The Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street) will present the New York premiere of The Civilians' newest work This Beautiful City, in a co-production with Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, with previews set to begin February 3 prior to its official press opening February 22. Steven Cosson directs.

Rosie O'Donnell, the 13-time Emmy Award-winning comedian, television talk show host, author, film, television and stage actress, will kick off Kids' Night on Broadway 'Fan Festival,' which affords young people the opportunity to experience the magic of live theatre and to participate in special activities hosted by the cast and crew of participating Broadway shows, on Tuesday, February 3rd at 2:45 p.m. at Madame Tussauds New York, 234 West 42nd St. (b/w 7th & 8th Aves.), Manhattan. Media must RSVP to attend this event.

Rosie O'Donnell, the 13-time Emmy Award-winning comedian, television talk show host, author, film, television and stage actress, will kick off Kids' Night on Broadway 'Fan Festival,' which affords young people the opportunity to experience the magic of live theatre and to participate in special activities hosted by the cast and crew of participating Broadway shows, on Tuesday, February 3rd at 2:45 p.m. at Madame Tussauds New York, 234 West 42nd St. (b/w 7th & 8th Aves.), Manhattan.

Due to London's current predicament, with transport around the capital severely affected by heavy snow storms, it is thought that some shows may have to cancel performances on Monday 2 February. Theatregoers are being advised to contact theatres before starting out on their journey.

Due to London's current predicament, with transport around the capital severely affected by heavy snow storms, it is thought that some shows may have to cancel performances on Monday 2 February. Theatregoers are being advised to contact theatres before starting out on their journey.

The YORK THEATRE COMPANY (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) is presenting the return engagement of its acclaimed production of ENTER LAUGHING: THE MUSICAL. Performances began January 21st, with an official opening night that was celebrated on January 29th. The return engagement runs until March 8th only; all performances will be at the company's home at The Theatre at Saint Peter's (Lexington Avenue just south of 54th Street).

Tony Award Winner Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music) and Rue McClanahan (The Women, TV's 'The Golden Girls') have just been added to the Broadway Backwards concert benefiting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.

Tom Stoppard's classic comic masterpiece, Travesties, previewing at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from 9 March 2009 (opening 13 March), will reunite one of Australia's most versatile comic actors, Jonathan Biggins, with director Richard Cottrell, award-wining designer Michael Scott-Mitchell and Composer and Sound Designer, Paul Charlier: the creative team behind Sydney Theatre Company's 2007 hit, Ying Tong. Travesties is set during the first world war when James Joyce (Peter Houghton), Lenin (William Zappa) and the Dadaist Tristan Tzara (Toby Schmitz) were all, for various reasons, resident in Zurich. Stoppard imagines them coming together to mount an amateur production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. The uproarious action is presented from the indistinct memories but distinctive perspective of Biggins' minor British consulate official, Henry Carr, who places himself, to hilarious effect, at the centre of this convergence of some of the most acute minds of the twentieth century.

How do you convince a producer that a show featuring puppets for an adult audience and one about writing a Broadway musical will ever succeed in a theater world focused on risk aversion? On Wednesday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m. on the 4th Floor of PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Framji Minwalla, visiting professor of drama at Fordham University, will moderate a panel that includes some of the most successful off-off Broadway talents to ever make it to The Great White Way. Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, creators and stars in the Obie-award winning musical Title of Show, will be joined by their female lead, Susan Blackwell. Jeff Whitty, Tony Award- winning playwright (Best Musical 2004) of Avenue Q and Tales of the City will be joined by Bobby Lopez, Tony-award winning composer and lyricist for Avenue Q. Doug Aibel, artistic director of the Vineyard Theater, which took both of these shows to Broadway, will round out the panel. Anecdotes, spontaneous song and the trials and tribulations of creating musical theater that goes beyond the norm will be center stage in this evening of theatrical insight. Broadway Unbound will be held on the 4th Floor of PS 107, which is located at 13th Street and 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Tickets are $15 online at www.ps107.org or at the door.

The Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street) will present the New York premiere of THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY, in a co-production with Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, with previews set to begin February 3 prior to its official press opening February 22. Steven Cosson directs. Created by The Civilians, written by Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY is a provocative new play with music about the growth of the evangelical movement in Colorado Springs, created by the documentary theatre company The Civilians. THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY was created from interviews by Emily Ackerman, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brad Heberlee, Stephen Plunkett, Alison Weller and the authors with actual persons over the course of 10 weeks in Colorado Springs. Every leading church in the area participated in the project, as did numerous civic organizations, progressive activists, and individuals from all walks of life.

The Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street) will present the New York premiere of THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY, in a co-production with Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, with previews set to begin February 3 prior to its official press opening February 22. Steven Cosson directs. Created by The Civilians, written by Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY is a provocative new play with music about the growth of the evangelical movement in Colorado Springs, created by the documentary theatre company The Civilians. While conducting interviews with people involved with or affected by the mega-church movement, scandal broke about New Life Church pastor Ted Haggard and shook the entire city of Colorado Springs, providing the play's creators with an unprecedented opportunity to capture an important event as it was taking place, and providing the people of Colorado Springs the opportunity to express their opinions and concerns as those events unfolded. THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY is a fascinating and timely look at faith and how it affects the American landscape.

Today's Broadway Blogs on BroadwayWorld.com from Monday, January 26, 2009.

The New Group proudly presents Eugene O'Neill's epic drama Mourning Becomes Electra as the second production in its 2008-2009 season. Directed by Scott Elliott, this production will play a limited Off-Broadway run January 27 - April 18, with Official Opening Night on Thursday, February 19 at 6:00 PM. Headlining a standout cast are Lili Taylor as Christine Mannon, Jena Malone as Lavinia Mannon, Joseph Cross as Orin Mannon, Anson Mount as Brant, Mark Blum as Ezra Mannon, Robert Hogan as Seth. This production will play at The New Group @ Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street) Monday - Saturday @ 7:00 PM and Saturday at 12:00 PM (noon) and features original music by multi-Grammy? Award-winning jazz musician Pat Metheny.

The New Group proudly presents Eugene O'Neill's epic drama Mourning Becomes Electra as the second production in its 2008-2009 season. Directed by Scott Elliott, this production will play a limited Off-Broadway run January 27 - April 18, with Official Opening Night on Thursday, February 19 at 6:00 PM. Headlining a standout cast are Lili Taylor as Christine Mannon, Jena Malone as Lavinia Mannon, Joseph Cross as Orin Mannon, Anson Mount as Brant, Mark Blum as Ezra Mannon, Robert Hogan as Seth. This production will play at The New Group @ Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street) Monday - Saturday @ 7:00 PM and Saturday at 12:00 PM (noon) and features original music by multi-Grammy? Award-winning jazz musician Pat Metheny.

Broadway stars John Treacy Egan ('Little Mermaid'), Gregg Edelman ('Into the Woods,' 'Passion'), Alison Fraser ('Gypsy') and Kate Shindle ('Legally Blonde') will be featured in the cast at a benefit concert performance of the new musical EINSTEIN'S DREAMS-- based on Alan Lightman's best-selling novel -- for one performance only on Monday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m. at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th St.) in New York City.

The concert performance of LOVE, NY, the new musical by Robert Rokicki and Michael Ruby, will now play at New World Stages on January 26, 2009 at 8PM. The concert had been set to play at The Zipper Factory until its unexpected closing earlier this week. In addition, Tony Award Nominee Stephanie D'Abruzzo (AVENUE Q) will perform and host the event. Also joining the cast is WICKED's current Boq, Alex Brightman. D'Abruzzo and Brightman join Randy Aaron (DAME EDNA: BACK WITH A VENGEANCE, JUNIE B. JONES), Kevin Massey (TARZAN, BIG RIVER), Brynn O'Malley (WICKED, SUNDAY IN THE PARK), Vanessa Ray (THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTRY SPELLING BEE), and Krysta Rodriguez (IN THE HEIGHTS, SPRING AWAKENING).

For two weeks only, Off-Broadway will offer tickets for only $20 twenty minutes before show time. '20at20' is now a bi-annual celebration of NY's best shows, in the tradition of Restaurant Week! Beginning Monday, January 26th and continuing through Sunday, February 8th, Off-Broadway shows* will offer seats still available twenty minutes before the curtain, for only $20 when purchased at the box office for over twenty shows (cash only at some venues; some restrictions may apply). (A complete list follows).

On Monday, January 26, 2009 8:00 pm at the Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center, CBST Presents the New York Premier of William Finn's Songs of Innocence and Experience.

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) is thrilled to announce the presentation of four brand new 15-minute musicals. The York has partnered with the Program in Vocal Performance/Musical Theatre at NYU's Steinhardt School, inviting four writing teams to write four separate mini-musicals with a cast of eight college students. York's Associate Artistic Director, Brian Blythe, directs; Tammy Holder music directs. The four musicals are: AN ORCHESTRA IMAGINED: In Four Invisible Movements Words by Sophia Chapadjiev, Music by Julianne Wick Davis Imagine that music were something you could hold in your hand. Like a baby. Or a love letter. How much would it weigh? If you licked it like a tootsie pop, how long would it last? An Orchestra Imagined: In Four Invisible Movements for Eight Instrument-less Instrumentalists takes a look at the rituals, the nightmares and the music within the musician. With Elizabeth Aylsworth, Shannon Collins, Jessica Hearn, Nick Luckenbaugh, Bryna O'Neill, Maria Sims, Tyler Stein, Alex Yacovelli

Sandra Bernhard (I'm Still Here... Damn It!, TV's 'Rosanne'), Florence Henderson (Fanny, TV's 'The Brady Bunch'), Maureen McGovern (Little Women, Nine) and Ron Palillo (Hot L. Baltimore, TV's 'Welcome Back, Kotter') will be performing at Broadway Backwards this year, joining previously announced performers Cheyenne Jackson (Xanadu, All Shook Up), Tony Award nominee Sally Mayes (She Loves Me), Kate Reinders (Good Vibrations, Gypsy; one-half of TASTiSKANK) and Tony Yazbeck (Gypsy, A Chorus Line), Mario Cantone (Assassins, TV's 'Sex and the City'), Alan Cumming (Cabaret), Gina Gershon (Cabaret, Showgirls), Whoopi Goldberg (Producer: Thoroughly Modern Millie, TV's 'The View'), Aaron Lazar (Les Mis?rables), Megan Mullally (Young Frankenstein, How to Succeed in Business..., TV's 'Will & Grace'), Jai Rodriguez (TV's 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,' Rent), Christopher Sieber (Spamalot), John Tartaglia (Avenue Q), Marty Thomas (Xanadu); and TV's 'Ugly Betty' stars Becki Newton and Michael Urie. Joining the roundup on Monday, February 9, 2009 as Host will be Jim Caruso, who recently appeared alongside Liza Minnelli in Liza's At The Palace!, singing, dancing and celebrating the music and arrangements of the late Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers. And for the past six years, Jim Caruso has hosted a Monday night showbiz bash called 'Jim Caruso's Cast Party,' which was honored with a New York Nightlife Award, as was his Broadway at Birdland concert series.

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) is thrilled to announce the presentation of four brand new 15-minute musicals. The York has partnered with the Program in Vocal Performance/Musical Theatre at NYU's Steinhardt School, inviting four writing teams to write four separate mini-musicals with a cast of eight college students. York's Associate Artistic Director, Brian Blythe, directs; Tammy Holder music directs. The four musicals are: AN ORCHESTRA IMAGINED: In Four Invisible Movements Words by Sophia Chapadjiev, Music by Julianne Wick Davis Imagine that music were something you could hold in your hand. Like a baby. Or a love letter. How much would it weigh? If you licked it like a tootsie pop, how long would it last? An Orchestra Imagined: In Four Invisible Movements for Eight Instrument-less Instrumentalists takes a look at the rituals, the nightmares and the music within the musician. With Elizabeth Aylsworth, Shannon Collins, Jessica Hearn, Nick Luckenbaugh, Bryna O'Neill, Maria Sims, Tyler Stein, Alex Yacovelli

After successful engagements in the Philippines, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Thailand, the international tour of RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA, starring Lea Salonga will wrap up the first leg of its accomplished international tour on Thursday, January 22, 2009 in Singapore.