The beat goes on with new alliances, new theater experiences, music and cabaret and information you want to know!
Theatre Forward will hold its virtual Gala celebrating regional theatre and its champions on February 8 with performers and special guests to include Jason Robert Brown, Kate Baldwin, George Salazar, Anika Noni Rose, Shaina Taub, Taymor Iman Jones, David Henry Hwang and many many more. To RSVP for the free-to-public event, www.theatreforward.org
New York Theatre Barn will host a free live stream of its award-winning New Works Series on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021 at 7PM EST, featuring excerpts from the new musicals The Lesson and Nothing To See Here. The live 1-hour presentation will also feature a conversation with the writers and creative team. The new musical The Lesson has music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson Grant recipient Avi Amon and Nolan Doran (Head Over Heels) and book by Jonathan Larson Grant recipient Ty Defoe (Straight White Men).
Nothing To See Here, the new musical about the first major anti-Evolution court case, has book and music by Bryan Blaskie,and book and lyrics by Laurie Hochman. In the summer of 1925, the struggling town of Dayton, Tennessee hosted a trial that claimed national headlines and divided the country — the Scopes Monkey Trial. Nothing to See Here is the story of Frank Robinson, the man who built the trial as a publicity stunt to save his town, and May Robinson, his wife who longs to save her family and her father’s church from falling apart in a seemingly Godless world. www.nytheatrebarn.org
Similar to the formerly viral #ALSicebucketchallenge, it is time for Broadway to innovate and create a campaign to further help #saveourstages and #bringbackbway. To see our theatre community come back from the brink of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to come together. The mission: to save Broadway, as it has been closed since March 12, 2020, and the artists who make it happen from regional theaters to Times Square and to build awareness around a social media campaign to benefit The Actors Fund’s COVID-19 relief fund.
The goal is simple. We need to collect 5,000 video clips to break the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the largest online video album of people singing the same song. The song we are using is FROM NOW ON from The Greatest Showman with special permission from both Pasek & Paul and the Disney Corporation. The deadline to submit your video is February 28, 2021. To record / upload your clip, go to ryco.org/bwayworldrecord. At the start of your video, be sure to challenge four of your friends and tag us on social media with #bwayworldrecord.
“Live at The Lortel” virtual conversation series. In February, fans can listen to conversations with actress Krysta Rodriguez (February 1), drag artist and political activist Marti Cummings (February 8), actor Michael Potts (February 15), playwright Lynn Nottage (February 22). In March, to kick off Women’s History month the series will feature actress Robyn Hurder (March 1) and notable women in the theatrical field all month long. The live interviews will take place Mondays at 7:00 PM EST, offering theater fans the opportunity to view interviews and participate in a Q&A with artists. To join the audience, please visitwww.liveatthelortel.com.
All-star benefit broadcast of Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher, to livestream Mon. February 15 at 7 pm. which Orson Welles called “the greatest single radio script ever written!” It stars four-time Academy Award nominee Marsha Mason will lead the cast along with Heidi Armbruster, Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper, Jasminn Johnson, and Matt Saldivar. Sorry, Wrong Number will have Live Foley Effects created by Nick Abeel. Sorry, Wrong Number will be directed by Jonathan Silverstein. Tickets: www.keencompany.org
Reprising the songs and letters of Noel Coward are favorites Steve Ross and KT Sullivan in Love, Noel, written and devised by Barry Day, directed by Charlotte Moore. Dates: February 3, 14 and 20. After the sold-out run of the Irish Rep World Premiere production of Love, Noël in the summer of 2019, the Performance on Screen of Love, Noël was filmed in-person, with COVID-19 precautions, at The Players on Gramercy Park; it premiered on August 11, 2020. Reservations HERE.
Broadways Best Shows and The Actors Fund present Raquel Britton’s acclaimed musical event “PIAF… Her Story… her Songs” beginning Monday, February 15 at 7:30PM ET. The concert will be available for four days through Thursday, February 18. View trailer here.
“PIAF… Her Story… her Songs”will be available on Broadways Best Shows YouTube channel and The Actors Fund YouTube channel. Proceeds from suggested donations will benefit The Actors Fund.
Five OHM Productions and Indie Theatrical announced that Lights on the Radio Tower, a new musical starring Carrie Manolakos and Max Sangerman, will stream on Five OHM TV beginning on March 5 for a run through March 25. Lights on the Radio Tower features a book and lyrics by Emily Goodson and music and additional lyrics by Kevin James Thornton. Gabriel Barre directs.
32nd Annual GLAAD Award nominees announced including The Prom, Schitt’s Creek, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Boys in the Band. The virtual event is slated for April 2021. See complete list of nominees at: www.glaad.org
George Salazar, Mj Rodriguez, and Idina Menzel Among 2021 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award Nominees – Among the nominees are George Salazar and Mj Rodriguez for Pasadena Playhouse’s production of Little Shop of Horrors and Tony winner Idina Menzel for Geffen Playhouse’s staging of Skintight.
Jujamcyn Theaters and SeatGeek have announced a marquee multi-year partnership that will bring the next generation of ticketing technology to Broadway. Attendees at Jujamcyn’s five theaters will enjoy a streamlined ticket-buying experience for some of Broadway’s top shows. Jujamcyn Theaters houses some of Broadway’s top shows, including Tony Award-winning musicals Hadestown and The Book of Mormon, as well as current Tony Award nominee for Best Musical, Moulin Rouge! The Musical. The Broadway houses include: the St. James Theatre, the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, the August Wilson Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre and the Walter Kerr Theatre. SeatGeek is well entrenched in the London theater market and has been a leader for sports tickets.
Dress Circle Publishing has announced the release of THE UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY, VOLUME 4, the latest in a series by acclaimed historian and producer Jennifer Ashley Tepper.The book will beavailableon Tuesday, March 9 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 2020-2021 Broadway shutdown. This landmark multi-volume series tells the stories of all of the theaters on Broadway; the new addition includes the beloved houses the Imperial, Jacobs, Studio 54, Minskoff, Friedman, and Golden, as well as the five Broadway theaters that were destroyed in 1982, changing the course of New York City history. To pre-order THE UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY, please visit www.dresscirclepublishing.com.
Jimmy Awards sets date for virtual ceremony in 2021 – The Jimmy Awards, a Broadway League-backed competition for high school students, has set a date for a virtual show in 2021. The annual awards show … will air on July 15, 2021. The virtual date comes after the 2020 ceremony, scheduled for June 29, 2020, was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. … Additional details on a platform for the digital Jimmy Awards will be announced at a later date. www.jimmyawards.com
FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS: THE MUSICAL, a new musical based on the true story of the Cornish singing sensations and the hit 2019 film, will premiere at Hall for Cornwall in Truro this Autumn for a strictly limited season. The world premiere will reopen Hall for Cornwall after a period of closure for a multi-million-pound transformation.
When a group of Cornish fishermen came together to sing the traditional working songs they’d sung for generations, they hoped to raise a few quid for charity. Nobody, least of all the fishermen, expected the story to end on the Pyramid stage of Glastonbury. Packed with sea shanties, FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS is a feelgood voyage about friendship, community and music. Autumn 2021 . . . Hall for Cornwall Back Quay Truro TR1 2LL www.hallforcornwall.co.uk
