News From Broadway

Zachary Levi Makes Broadway Debut In FIRST DATE Opposite Krysta Rodriguez

Tony^® Award-winning producer Junkyard Dog Productions (Memphis) is proud to announce that leading man Zachary Levi, star of TV’s “Chuck,” Disney’s feature film Tangled and the upcomingThor: The Dark World, will make his Broadway debut starring opposite Broadway and television ingénue  Krysta Rodriguez (“Smash,” The Addams Family) in First Date, Broadway’s new romantic musical comedy.  Witha book byAustin Winsberg (“Gossip Girl”), music and lyrics by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner (Secondhand Lions, Twice Charmed) and musical staging by Josh Rhodes (Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella) First Date is directed by Bill Berry (Producing Director of The 5^th Avenue Theatre).  Featuring Sara Chase (“Arrested Development,” The Toxic Avenger), Kristoffer Cusick (Wicked, Rent), Blake Hammond (Sister Act, Billy Elliot) and Kate Loprest (“Boardwalk Empire,” Hairspray), the cast of First Date also includes Vicki Noon (Wicked, Mamma Mia!). First Date begins performances Tuesday, July 9, 2013, and opens Thursday, August 8, 2013, at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre (220 West 48^thStreet).  Additional casting to be announced shortly.

When tightly wound Aaron (Zachary Levi) is set up with serial-dater Casey (Krysta Rodriguez) a quick drink at a busy New York restaurant turns into a hilarious, high-stakes dinner.  As the date unfolds in real time, the couple quickly finds they are not alone on this date as Casey and Aaron’s inner critics take on a life of their own when other restaurant patrons and the wait staff get into the act.  Dinner is served with sides of Google background checks, fake emergency phone calls, supportive best friends, manipulative exes and protective parents, who sing and dance them through ice-breakers, appetizers and potential conversational land mines. First Date is Broadway’s new hysterical and hopeful new musical about the chances we take to find love.

Broadway.org is The Broadway League’s on-line headquarters for Broadway tickets and information in NYC and across the nation.

Guthrie announces Vincent Kartheiser as Mr. Darcy in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

The Guthrie Theater announced that Vincent Kartheiser, known to worldwide audiences as advertising executive Pete Campbell in the ongoing Golden Globe, Emmy and SAG Award-winning series “Mad Men”, will be featured in the iconic role of Mr. Darcy in the theater’s upcoming production of Pride and Prejudice based on the novel by Jane Austen, adapted for the stage by Simon Reade and directed by Joe Dowling. The final show of the Guthrie’s 50^th anniversary season, Pride and Prejudice will begin previews on July 6, with an opening night of July 12, and will run through August 31.

Broadway.org is The Broadway League’s on-line headquarters for Broadway tickets and information in NYC and across the nation.

A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER To Open On Broadway This Fall

Following critically acclaimed, smash-hit runs at Hartford Stage and San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder will open on Broadway in the fall of 2013.  Starring Tony Award^®-winner Jefferson Mays in a highly acclaimed, tour de force, multi-character performance, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder features a book by Robert L. Freedman, music by Steven Lutvak, and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak. Darko Tresnjak directs and Peggy Hickey choreographs.  The production will begin performances on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre.  The opening night is set for Sunday, November 17.

Additional information, including complete casting, will be announced shortly.

When Monty Navarro, a disinherited relative of the rich and powerful D’Ysquith clan, learns he’s ninth in line to inherit the earldom, he sets out to secure his future by, er, process of elimination.  Each of the eight heirs perilously standing in the way of Monty’s fortune are played by Tony® Award-winner Jefferson Mays, in one of the most tireless, whiplash-inducing performances ever attempted on the American stage.   Based on the novel Israel Rank by Roy Horniman and set in England’s elegant Edwardian era, this uproarious new musical comedy shows just how low we’ll go to make it to the top.

Broadway.org is The Broadway League’s on-line headquarters for Broadway tickets and information in NYC and across the nation.

Billy Crystal Will Return to Broadway in 700 SUNDAYS

Billy Crystal will return to Broadway this fall for a 9-week-only limited engagement of his Tony Award-winning, record-breaking play  700 Sundays. This will mark the final engagement of this production. Previews will begin Tuesday, November 5, 2013 at the Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street) with opening night scheduled for Wednesday, November 13, 2013 and a final performance set for Sunday, January 5, 2014. 700 Sundays is performed and written by Mr. Crystal with additional content by Alan Zweibeland direction by Des McAnuff.

“700 Sundays has, without question, been the most satisfying experience of my career,” said Crystal. “When we originally opened on Broadway, all I knew was that I had a story that I was compelled to share.  Now that I’ve performed my play across the country and internationally, I’m gratified to know that the love of family, through joy and pain, is perhaps the most universal story. I’ve now decided to tell this story one last time in my own backyard, where it all took place.  It is a privilege to return to Broadway to say goodbye to one of the greatest thrills of my life.”

700 Sundays, an autobiographical journey, is an original two-act play in which Billy plays numerous characters that have influenced who he is today. It deals with his youth, growing up in the jazz world of Manhattan, his teenage years, and finally adulthood. It is about family and fate, loving and loss.

Emmy Award Winner Neil Patrick Harris Returns to Host the 67th Annual Tony Awards® - Sunday, June 9 on CBS

Emmy Award-winning actorNeil Patrick Harris, star of the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother,” returns to host The 67th Annual Tony Awards® live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Sunday, June 9 (8:00-11:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network. This will be Harris’ fourth time hosting the Tony Awards.   Previously, Harris served as the host of the 63rd, 65th and 66th Annual Tony Awards. As he did in 2012, Harris will also act as a producer, along with executive producers Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss of White Cherry Entertainment.

“I’m very excited to be back hosting the Tony Awards at the legendary Radio City Music Hall. It’ll be more impressive than ever - if my math is correct, it will be 267 times bigger than last year,” said Neil Patrick Harris. “Oh, wait.  No, that can’t… hold on… carry the one… I’m awful at math.  But rest assured, the show will rock!”

“Neil is a multi-talented performer whose showmanship, wit and energy command the stage of live events,” said Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment. “He is a master of ceremony, who truly loves celebrating the performing arts with the highest level of entertainment, and it’s quite obvious to the audience he’s having a lot of fun along the way.”

“We are thrilled that Neil will be joining us, once again, at Radio City Music Hall to host ‘The 67^th Annual Tony Awards,’ said Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, Executive Director of the American Theatre Wing. “Neil’s creativity and passion for Broadway shines through when he is on the stage and off – and we cannot wait to see what surprises Neil will have up his sleeves!

2013 TONY AWARD® NOMINATIONS

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing’s 67^thAnnual Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards® were announced today by Tony winning-actress Sutton Foster and star of both stage and screen Jesse Tyler Ferguson, at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement sponsored by IBM.  The nominees were selected by an independent committee of 24 theatre professionals appointed by the Tony Awards Administration Committee.  The 2013 Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. 

Nominations for the 2013 American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards®
Presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing

Best Play

The Assembled Parties
Lucky Guy 
The Testament of Mary
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Best Musical

Bring It On: The Musical
A Christmas Story, The Musical
Kinky Boots
Matilda The Musical

Best Revival of a Play

Golden Boy
Orphans
The Trip to Bountiful
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Best Revival of a Musical

Annie
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Pippin
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

To view the full list visit TonyAwards.com

ROCKY Coming To Broadway Spring 2014

Stage Entertainment USA and Sylvester Stallone have announced that the new musical, Rocky, will come to Broadway in 2014, beginning preview performances in February and officially opening in March at Broadway’s historic Winter Garden Theatre (1634 Broadway, New York, NY).  Rockyreceived its world premiere in fall 2012 in Hamburg, Germany, where it earned unanimous critical raves and continues to play to packed houses.    

Rocky brings to life the iconic and inspiring story of struggling small time Philly boxer, Rocky Balboa, who gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to go the distance against heavyweight champ Apollo Creed.   Both an adrenalin-infused spectacle and a surprising story of blossoming romance between two lonely outsiders, Rocky is a heart-stopping and viscerally theatrical new musical for everyone brave enough to follow their dream.

Rocky features an original score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, the celebrated Tony Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated songwriters behind Ragtime, Once on This Island,and Anastasia, and a book by multiple Tony Award-winner Thomas Meehan (The Producers, Hairspray, Annie) and Sylvester Stallone, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 1976 Oscar-winning Best Picture, Rocky. 

The production is directed by Alex Timbers, whose critically-acclaimed work on Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson and Peter and the Starcatcher propelled both of those shows from downtown to Broadway, garnering Mr. Timbers Tony Award nominations for both. The musical features choreography by Kelly Devine, best known for the long-running Broadway hit Rock of Ages, and fight choreography by Steven Hoggett, who received a Tony Award nomination for his work onOnce. 

Rockyon-sale dates, performance schedule, and ticket information will be announced shortly. For more information, please visit www.ROCKYBROADWAY.com.

ILoveNYTheater.com is The Broadway League’s on-line headquarters for Broadway tickets and information.

A.R.T.’s Production of THE GLASS MENAGERIE Comes to Broadway This Fall

Producers Jeffrey Richards and John N. Hart, in association with the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), are pleased to announce that the critically-acclaimed revival of The Glass Menagerie will arrive on Broadway in a 17-week limited engagement at a Shubert Theatre to be announced with performances beginning Thursday, September 5, 2013, and an opening night set for Thursday, September 26^th. The production will star multiple Tony and Emmy Award-winner Cherry Jones as Amanda Wingfield, film and stage star Zachary Quinto as Tom, two-time Tony-nominee Celia Keenan-Bolger as Laura, and Brian J. Smith as Jim, the Gentleman Caller. Itis headed by the Tony award-winning director of Once, John Tiffany.

The Glass Menagerie is Tennessee Williams’ poetic masterpiece, anchored by the ageing southern belle Amanda Wingfield, who hopes for her son Tom to fulfill her dreams of finding the perfect “gentleman caller” for her shy and damaged daughter Laura.

Alan Cumming in MACBETH Extends

Producer Ken Davenport announced today that Tony and Olivier Award winner and two-time Emmy nominee Alan Cumming’s acclaimed one-man production of Macbeth has extended its limited Broadway engagement by 12 performances.

Originally slated to play through Sunday, June 30, Macbeth will now play an additional two weeks through Sunday, July 14 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (243 W. 47th St.).

Tickets for all performances are on sale now at www.MacbethOnBroadway.com.

ILoveNYTheater.com is The Broadway League’s on-line headquarters for Broadway tickets and information.

Tony Award winners Brent Carver and Chuck Cooper join the cast of ROMEO AND JULIET on Broadway

Tony Award-winning actor Brent Carver returns to Broadway this August, to play Friar Laurence in the new Broadway production of Shakespeare’s timeless love story Romeo and Juliet, starring international film star Orlando Bloom and Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad as Shakespeare’s titular star-crossed lovers.  Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper also joins the cast, taking on the role of Lord Capulet, in place of the previously announced Joe Morton, who is unable to continue with the production due to scheduling conflicts with his recurring role on a television series. 

As previously announced, the production will be directed by five-time Tony Award nomineeDavid Leveaux, and also stars two-time Tony Award nominee Jayne Houdyshell as the Nurse. Romeo and Juliet opens at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre onThursday, September 19, 2013 following preview performances from Saturday, August 24, 2013.  

While Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story of all time, this production will mark the first time in 36 years that the play will be produced for Broadway.  This version of the classic tale will retain Shakespeare’s original language but have a modern setting in which members of the contentious Montague and Capulet families will be of differing ethnicities.

ILoveNYTheater.com is The Broadway League’s on-line headquarters for Broadway tickets and information.