AmericanTheaterWeb Top News

MID-AFTERNOON ADDITIONS

New York Times ArtsBeat Blog

Jerry Lewis to Direct Broadway's 'Nutty Professor'
The veteran comedian, last seen on a Broadway stage as Applegate in the revival of "Damn Yankees," will direct a musical adaptation of "The Nutty Professor" planned for the 2010-2011 season.

Hartford Courant Behind the Curtain Blog

* "Degrassi"'s Epstein Heads "Spring Awakening" Tour

TheaterMania

* Amy Spanger Exits Broadway's Rock of Ages
* Jerry Lewis to Direct Nutty Professor Musical on Broadway
* Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele, et al. Set for Glee Q &A at Outfest 2009
* The British National Theatre of America Announces 2009-2010 Season
* Stage Left Studio to Present Beyond the Pale Arts Festival

Playbill

* Hair Star Creel to Play Joe's Pub in July

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MIDDAY ADDITIONS

New York Times ArtsBeat Blog

Postcard From London: 'Thriller Live'
The Sunday matinee of "Thriller Live," a show devoted to the music of Michael Jackson, generated no wailing, no screamed protestations of eternal love, not even tears as far as I could see.

Hartford Courant Behind the Curtain Blog

* The Color Green for "The Color Purple" at the Bushnell

TheaterMania

* Autumn Hurlbert, Christopher Kale Jones, Brandon Ruckdashel, et al. Set for Broadway Meows
* Joe Calarco, Avery Clyde, John Cragen, and More Set for Road Theatre Company's 1776

Playbill

* Producers Mourning Jackson Before Deciding Fate of Thriller Musical
* Academy Announces Change in Best Music—Original Song Category
* From "Torchwood" to Sherwood: Barrowman to Star in Robin Hood: The Pantomime Adventure

nytheatre.com

Interview: Carol Polcovar and Festival Participants
Interview with Carol Polcovar and Festival Participants about Fresh Fruit Festival

Orlando Sentinel Attention Must Be Paid Blog

Mad Cow announces 2009-2010 season
Mad Cow Theatre will combine old and newer classics with a handful of plays new to Central Florida in its 13th season, which will open in September with the recent Broadway and touring hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling...

Theatre in Chicago

Theater Oobleck Brings Risk to the People
Named for a new type of weather created for a demanding monarch in Dr. Seuss' Bartholomew and the Oobleck, Theater Oobleck has been raining down some of the most unique theater in Chicago for over twenty years.

Los Angeles Times Culture Monster

Monster Mash: 'Avenue Q' is closing; new director at Philadelphia Museum of Art; critic sues Elaine Stritch

The Hub Review

Fisking Emily Glassberg Sands
I finished reading the much-discussed Emily Glassberg Sands study on sexism in the theatre this weekend (and even had a phone conversation with Sands afterward). I must report, however, that the conversation grew "contentious" (as Sands herself put it) as I pressed her on issues regarding the final section of her paper - the part devoted to Broadway productions.

Huffington Post

Jonathan Tisch: A Helping Hand For Those Who Work In The Arts
Hollywood star Annette Bening came to town last week. She wasn't shooting a film, accepting an award or even performing on the Great White Way. She was in New York City to kick off a campaign to support the arts--more importantly, the people who work in the arts. ...

Parabasis

On The Dearth Of Female Critics...
Tom Laughlin, in the comments to an earlier post, writes:

The Producer's Perspective

An article about Social Media.
In case you didn't get my tweet last week, here's a link to an article I was asked to write for Mashable about Broadway and social media.

Whatsonstage.com

Gareth Gates & West End Stars Lead Les Mis Tour
Fresh from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, in which he made his West End debut in February, Gareth Gates will star as revolutionary Marius in the new 25th anniversary production of Les Miserabl...

Interview: Brief Encounter With...Peter Pan Producer Charlie Burnell
Charlie Burnell has been producing theatre in London since the premiere of Anthony Minghella's Cigarettes and Chocolate in 1996. Since then, his production credits include One Knight Only at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in response to the 2004 Asian T...

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EARLY MORNING ADDITIONS

TheaterMania

Stephanie J. Block Is In a Good Place!
The Broadway star talks about 9 to 5, her new CD This Place I Know, her upcoming show at Birldland, and performing on the Tony Awards.

Playbill

* Avenue Q to Close in September

Hartford Courant Behind the Curtain Blog

House Boosts NEA Budget Further -- Almost at 1990 Levels

The Guardian

Gender bias exists in the theatre, but not in the way you might think Alexis Soloski
With male playwrights outnumbering their female counterparts on Broadway, is the 'old boys' club' still alive and well? Not so, according to a new study

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THE DAY'S FIRST TOP STORIES

New York Times

Liked but Not Well Liked
This biography of Arthur Miller taps previously unseen material and shows the playwright trying to hold on to his soul in midcentury America.

Arts, Briefly: Footnotes
The McCarter Theater Center has announced that George C. Wolfe is the winner of the theater’s inaugural Sallie Goodman Prize, named for the performer and teacher who died in 2007. ...The New Victory Theater has announced that its 2009-10 season will begin with the New Victory Scottish Festival, Sept. 18 to Nov. 1. ...“An Evening at the Carlyle,” the musical revue that is not, in fact playing at the Carlyle but rather ...has been extended indefinitely.

New York Post Theater Blog

Last chance for the Pied Pipers
Good news: The Amoralists' "The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side" has extended by one day, giving its last performance Monday evening rather than tonight.

New York Magazine Vulture Blog

Michael Urie on Playing an Activist and Assistant on The Temperamentals and Ugly Betty

Hartford Courant Behind the Curtain Blog

* Ayckbourn Regulars Reunite at Westport Playhouse

Bloomberg.com

Oscar-Winning Writer Harwood Talks About Tyranny, Glitz, Music: Interview
A few years ago, the U.K. playwright Ronald Harwood was searching for CDs of the conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler. He asked his daughter to look in one of the big New York record stores. She couldn’t find anything, and approached an assistant. “We don’t stock Nazi music,” was the reply.

Variety

N.Y. musical fest sets slate
Includes new comedy from 'Wedding' duo -- The new tuners invited to appear in this fall’s New York Musical Theater Fest include the latest work by the creative team of “The Wedding Singer” and a collaboration between the book writer-lyricist of “Side Show” and the composer of “Adrift in Macao.”

Summer Shorts fest unveils lineup
Slate includes LaBute, Reddin, Inge -- World preems of works by Neil LaBute, Keith Reddin and William Inge are among the offerings lined up for the Off Broadway one-act fest Summer Shorts.

Mint to bow comedy duo
Johnston, Baker to star -- The fall season at Off Broadway’s Mint Theater, the org dedicated to reviving forgotten plays from the past, will consist of two comedies, one toplined by Kristen Johnston and the other starring Jordan Baker (“Three Tall Women”).

TheaterMania

* Actress Gale Storm Dies at 87
* Meryl Streep Set for July 25 TimesTalk

Peter Filichia's Diary: The Sondheim Review Reviewed
In 1961, baseball fans made a big deal of Roger Maris hitting 61 home runs, for that eclipsed Babe Ruth’s 60, a single-season record that had held for 34 years

Playbill

* Jersey Boys, Agokwe, Eternal Hydra Are Among Nominees at June 29 Dora Awards in Toronto
* Tony Winner Rondi Reed Returns to August for Final Performance
* Morton Gottlieb, Tony Award-Winning Producer, Dies at 88

Washington Post

Profile: Fantasia, Back Onstage in 'The Color Purple' at the Kennedy Center
You could write a Broadway musical about how Fantasia became the star of a Broadway musical. Invited by a producer of " The Color Purple " to see the show, she had no inkling that the evening would end at a dinner, at which he would offer her the leading role.

DC Theatre Scene

Source Festival Coverage
Welcome to our coverage of this year’s Source Festival which runs from June 20 - July 12th at Source, 1835 14th St NW in Washington. Reviving the Washington Theatre Festival’s rich and storied tradition that goes back almost 30 years, Source Festival reinvents DC’s original arts festival with a five week look at new plays and [...]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Pittsburgh brand hits the Big Apple: Kelly Awards, meet the Jimmys
Sunday noon -- A picture and short story in Saturday's PG promised I was blogging from The Jimmys in New York, but that starts tonight, with the first round, and I'm just on my way to NYC now.

Chicago Sun-Times

Computer glitch sends 'Poppins' fans packing
Although Mary Poppins, that irrepressible English nanny, makes claims of being practically perfect, the computer system that drives the production now at the Cadillac Palace Theatre can't be quite as boastful.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

MN Fringe to venture into St. Paul

MinnesotaPlayList

What is the Summit of Ensemble Theaters?
Sandbox Theatre Artistic Director Ryan Hill reports back from the San Francisco meeting of the national Network of Ensemble Theaters: ...

Pay my rent
It's never going to work as long as landlords get more grant money than artists.

TheaterJones (TX)

My Uncle, Preston Jones
This summer, Trey Birkhead acts in a Texas Trilogy play at CTD. Here, he remembers the late playwright.

SFist

SFist Tonight
THEATER: This month's Solo Sundays, a monthly series committed to presenting the very best up and coming solo performers as well as seasoned solo artists developing new shows, will feature Wayne Harris, Sigal Shoham, Pidge Meade, Jawad Ali.

San Diego Union-Tribune

Patrick Page's Cyrano fills the stage
Heroes aren't supposed to lie. But Cyrano de Bergerac fibs the way he lives: He lies hard. What's more, the namesake of Edmond Rostand's epic romance seems as perversely proud of the huge untruth at the center of his life as he does of the massive feature at the center of his face. (Maybe he figures his nose can't grow much bigger anyway.)

Createquity.

Creative Providence
On Friday, I attended the unveiling of Creative Providence, a cultural planning effort conducted primarily by Dreeszen & Associates over the past two years. A nice-sized crowd came out for the catered event at the Hotel Providence to see the Mayor of Providence, David Cicilline, ...

The Stage UK

Simm, Hart and Fox to star in West End debut of Speaking in Tongues
Life on Mars star John Simm is to star alongside Ian Hart and Kerry Fox in the West End premiere of Speaking in Tongues by Australian playwright and screenwriter Andrew Bovell.

Whatsonstage.com

Opening: NT Connections, Forbidden & Korcjak
Amongst the major London openings - in the West End and further afield - this week are: OPENING WEDNESDAY, 1 July 2009, New Connections, the National Theatre's annual showcase of drama written for and performed by teenagers, runs in the Olivi...

Michael Coveney: Arlene Phillips stranded on desert island
Choreographer Arlene Phillips may be about to be dropped as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing, replaced by a younger, less knowledgeable model, but she was in no mood to be vengeful or vindictive on Desert Island Discs yesterday.

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