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Theaters goers can look forward to having the time of their life when Dirty Dancing: The Musical hits the stage.

A new stage production adaptation of the 1987 movie starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey is being developed by Lionsgate and The Path Entertainment Group, under its live stage arm Showpath. The plans are for a Broadway bound production. Dirty Dancing: The Musical will kick off in 2025 with a major run in North America. From there, there are plans to take the show abroad to Asia, Australia, Latin America and beyond.

The companies are working with the original writer of the movie, Eleanor Bergstein, to develop the new musical. Tony Award nominee, Obie Award winner, and two-time Emmy Award winner Lonny Price, who played Neil Kellerman in the Dirty Dancing film, will direct the re-envisioned production.

Dirty Dancing, set during the summer of 1963, follows the journey of Frances “Baby” Houseman and...

Lionsgate and The Path Entertainment Group, under its live stage arm Showpath, today announced that the classic film Dirty Dancing will be developed into a new stage production for Broadway titled Dirty Dancing: The Musical.

The companies are working with the original writer of the beloved classic, Eleanor Bergstein, to develop the new musical. Tony Award nominee, Obie Award winner, and two-time Emmy Award winner Lonny Price, who played Neil Kellerman in the Dirty Dancing film, will direct the re-envisioned production.

Image courtesy of Lionsgate and Desk Tidy Design

Dirty Dancing: The Musical will launch in late 2025 with a major run in North America. From there, the musical is set for a major roll-out, with plans to expand to theatre markets in Asia, Australia, Latin America, and beyond, ensuring that fans across the globe will have the opportunity to experience this brand-new production.

Dirty Dancing: The Musical will bring a fresh,...

Lionsgate wants theatergoers to have the time of their lives, so the studio is adapting “Dirty Dancing” as a Broadway musical.

“Dirty Dancing: The Musical” will launch in late 2025 with aspirations for Broadway as well as a North American run. From there, producers plan to expand the show to theater markets in Asia, Australia, Latin America and beyond.

Eleanor Bergstein, who wrote the film’s screenplay, is developing the show and writing the book of the musical. Lonny Price, who played Neil Kellerman in “Dirty Dancing,” will direct the re-envisioned production. He’s a Tony nominee for “A Class Act” and “110 in the Shade” and originated the role of Charley Kringas in the ill-fated 1981 run of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along.”

The 1987 film starred Jennifer Grey as Frances “Baby” Houseman, a young woman who falls in love with dance instructor Jonny Castle (Patrick Swayze) at a resort in...

Lionsgate is developing a new stage adaptation of Dirty Dancing.

The studio is working with Eleanor Bergstein, the writer of the 1987 film, to develop the new musical. Lonny Price, who played Neil Kellerman in the film, will direct the new production.

This is being positioned as a new, Broadway-aimed stage adaptation of the film. A prior stage production, with a book by Bergstein, premiered in Sydney in 2004, with several runs on London’s West End, around the U.K., the U.S. and more. The film was also adapted into a television series, competition reality shows, a television musical adaptation, a prequel and an upcoming sequel film.

The new stage production is slated in launch in late 2025, with a run in North America and then plans for productions in Asia, Australia, Latin America and more. The musical is expected to include “fan favorite” songs as well as new music.

Lionsgate...

Each winter, we invite Notebook contributors to take part in our unique twist on the year-end poll. Rather than tally their favorite new releases from the year, they’re asked to creatively pair a new release with an older film they watched for the first time that year: a “fantasy double feature.” We’re delighted by the range of responses this year; this year’s doubles offer up inspired combinations of moving-image art that might otherwise slip through the cracks.We invite you to plunge into this collective viewing scrapbook, which captures our writers at their most imaginative, adventurous, and thoughtful—maybe it'll motivate you to test some of these out (or come up with your own) over the holidays.We hope you enjoy the read, and find our sixteenth year appropriately sweet!{{notebook_form}}Paul AttardNEW: Skinamarink + Old: Room Film 1973Homebound horror films shrouded in darkness, ones that transform...

Mj: The Musical, the four-time Tony winner that centers on the making of Michael Jackson’s 1992-93 Dangerous World Tour, will kick off Broadway in Hollywood’s 2023-24 season at the Hollywood Pantages, the Nederlander Organization announced Wednesday.

The slate includes five Los Angeles premieres, one pre-Broadway L.A. premiere and the return of an American classic.

Mj: The Musical, created by Christopher Wheeldon and Lynn Nottage, is scheduled to run Dec. 20 through Jan. 28, 2024. In her THR review of the show last year, Lovia Gyarkye wrote that “Mj, like its subject, is captivating and hard to shake.”

Next up will be the pre-Broadway Los Angeles premiere of a new production of the Tony-winning The Wiz (Feb. 13-March 3, 2024), the musical’s first major revival in 40 years. That will be followed March 5-24 by a 25th-anniversary production of Chicago, the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.

Conor McPherson’s Girl From the North Country,...

Jennifer Grey says more Dirty Dancing characters will appear in Dirty Dancing 2. The 1987 hit film starred Grey as Frances "Baby" Houseman, a 17-year-old girl spending the summer at an upscale resort who falls in love with her dance instructor, Patrick Swayze's Johnny Castle. Scoring largely positive reviews and a major box office haul, the movie spawned a franchise of stage adaptations, a made-for-tv remake and now an official sequel, Dirty Dancing 2, with Grey returning as Baby and Warm Bodies' Jonathan Levine directing and co-writing with What They Had's Elizabeth Chomko.

While speaking with Extra to discuss her upcoming memoir, Out of the Corner, Jennifer Grey offered some details for the long-awaited Dirty Dancing 2. Not only did the original Baby actor confirm the setting would return to the upscale resort of Kellerman's, but teased that more returning original characters will appear in the sequel. See what Grey shared below:

“I...

Gabriel Byrne’s Broadway solo show Walking With Ghosts will play its final performance on Sunday, November 20, a week shy of a month after its Oct. 27 opening at the Music Box Theatre.

The closing notice was announced today by producers Anne Clarke, Mara Isaacs, and Neal Street. The show had initially been scheduled to run through Dec. 30.

Adapted by Byrne from his best-selling memoir, Walking with Ghosts, directed by Lonny Price, began previews on Oct. 18 and opened to mixed reviews. The autobiographical one-man show has struggled at the box office, last week filling fewer than half of the venue’s seats and grossing just 168,378 for seven performances.

The show fared better in the U.K., playing sold-out engagements at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin and in a limited run on London’s West End before making the move to Broadway.

Byrne, the In Treatment actor and star of such films...

Actor Gabriel Byrne will bring his solo show Walking with Ghosts to Broadway this Fall, with a limited engagement of the production, directed by Lonny Price, beginning performances on Oct. 18 at the Music Box Theatre.

The show officially opens on Thursday, Oct. 27 and runs for 75 performances only.

The production, adapted from Byrne’s memoir of the same name, was announced today by producers Anne Clarke, Mara Isaacs, and Neal Street.

“What an honor to be on Broadway again, especially in a glorious venue like the Music Box,” Byrne said in a statement. “It was a real joy to hear laughter in a theatre during the premiere run of Walking with Ghosts in Dublin. I’ve chosen to be honest and unflinching in the recounting of a life from working class Dublin to Hollywood. Although rooted in the local, I hope the play has a universal resonance.”

Byrne, a two-time Tony nominee,...

The final curtain has fallen on Stephen Sondheim, maestro of American musical theater, who died at 91 on Friday. The brilliant mind behind “Into The Woods,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Company,” “Sunday in The Park With George,” and many, many more was a titan of Broadway, and the last living connection to the golden age of musicals. As a film critic, my early cinematic experiences began with musical movies, including filmed stage versions of “Into The Woods,” “Gypsy,” and of course, “West Side Story,” for which a very young Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics (same for “Gypsy.”)

It set me up for a lifetime of appreciating high drama, grand spectacle — and the unlikely comedic potential of cannibalism.

As last year’s Zoom-ified 90th birthday celebration for Sondheim proved, performing his songs is no small task. Numbers like “Send in The Clowns,” “Ladies Who Lunch,” and “Being Alive” are five-act plays in and of themselves,...

A line-up of nearly 30 stars – from Glenn Close, Patti LuPone, Darren Criss, Kelsey Grammar and David Alan Grier to Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Henry and Phillipa Soo – will perform title songs from more than 20 musicals for a special livestreamed musical event next month benefiting The Actors Fund.

The event, called Show of Titles, will feature title songs of Broadway musicals spanning nine decades, from “Lady Be Good” to “The Light in the Piazza.” In addition to the above-mentioned performers, the line-up includes Annaleigh Ashford, Len Cariou, Santino Fontana, Isabelle Huppert, Norm Lewis, Rob McClure, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Melba Moore, Jessie Mueller, Eva Noblezada, Kelli O’Hara, Laura Osnes, Steven Pasquale, Michael Rupert, Ernie Sabella, Lea Salonga, Will Swenson, Aaron Tveit, Leslie Uggams, Vanessa Williams and Patrick Wilson.

Making special appearances will be Broadway Inspirational Voices, Candice Bergen, Danny Burstein, Bryan Cranston, Sheldon Harnick, John Kander, Angela Lansbury, John Lithgow, Lindsay Mendez, Phylicia Rashad,...

Broadway fans won’t have to rely on CBS’ Grease Sing-a-Long for their would-have-been Tony night celebrations: the Broadway On Demand streaming service, with support from the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, will present a one-hour celebration of theater and the Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7 at 6 pm Et.

The new special, directed by Tony Award nominee Lonny Price, will stream on TonyAwards.com and BroadwayOnDemand.com, and will serve as a fundraiser for both the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, presenters of the annual Tonys. Specifically, the evening will support The American Theatre Wing’s Education and Professional Development initiatives and The Broadway League Foundation’s efforts to train young artists around the country.

Details on cast and performances were not announced, but the special will be written by Tony nominee Karey Kirkpatrick,...

Roundabout Theatre Company's world premiere of the new musical Scotland, Pa opened officially earlier this week onWednesday, October 23. This will be a limited engagement at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre 111 West 46th Street. The new musical features a book by Michael Mitnick, music lyrics by Adam Gwon, directed by Lonny Price and choreographed by Josh Rhodes.

Roundabout Theatre Company's world premiere of the new musical Scotland, Pa opened officially earlier this week onWednesday, October 23. This will be a limited engagement at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre 111 West 46th Street. The new musical features a book by Michael Mitnick, music lyrics by Adam Gwon, directed by Lonny Price and choreographed by Josh Rhodes.

Roundabout Theatre Company's world premiere of the new musical Scotland, Pa opened officially on Wednesday, October 23. This will be a limited engagement at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre 111 West 46th Street. The new musical features a book by Michael Mitnick, music lyrics by Adam Gwon, directed by Lonny Price and choreographed by Josh Rhodes.

The Louder We Get opening on January 28th 2020 at Theatre Calgary's Max Bell Theatre tells the true story of Marc Hall and the court case that allowed him to take his boyfriend to prom. Premiering for the first time under its new title previously Prom Queen, the show will be directed by Lonny Price, choreographed by Sean Cheesman, and feature a cast of 40 local artists.

A new musical based on the 2001 cult film Scotland, Pa will get its world premiere in September at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Off Broadway stage, the company announced today.

Directed by Lonny Price (Master Harold and the Boys), Scotland, Pa will feature a book by Michael Mitnick, music and lyrics by Adam Gwon, and choreography by Josh Rhodes. The limited engagement will begin on Saturday, September 14, with an opening night on Thursday, October 15, at the Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre.

Cast and the full creative team will be announced later.

The 2001 dark comedy film (see poster above), directed and written by William Morrissette, starred James Le Gros, Maura Tierney and Christopher Walken in a modern re-telling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (LeGros played Joe ‘Mac’ McBeth). Set in 1975, the movie placed the Scottish Play’s doings in a small cafe in Scotland, Pennsylvania.

Roundabout’s description of the musical reads: “In Scotland,...

Soundtracking is our newest wekly series, with Chris Feil talking music in the movies! The Tony Awards are this weekend, so here is a documentary on a Broadway flop...

Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened charts the making and failing of Stephen Sondheim / Hal Prince collaboration Merrily We Roll Along. The musical charts the decades-spanning friendship of three showbiz types, but told in reverse and with teenagers playing the roles. It was high concept and it was a notorious bomb - but with one brilliant and emotionally involving score.

If you’re unfamiliar with the musical and its complicated backwards plotting, Best Worst Thing does a pretty snappy job of quickly explaining the show’s concept before focusing on the cast left out in the cold by Merrily’s failure. What sounds rather niche for a documentary subject is actually quite moving and emotionally accessible, and still touches on some hefty themes.

Three-time Tony Award-winner Glenn Close stars in the Broadway return of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Sunset Boulevard.Directed by Lonny Price, this production of Sunset Boulevard features a 40-piece orchestra on the stage of The Palace Theatre 1564 7th Avenue, the biggest on Broadway in more than 80 years. Fellow stage stars Betty Buckley and Whoopi Goldberg recently visited with the company backstage - scroll down for photos...

Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical “Merrily We Roll Along” has become as notorious — and beloved in some circles — as one of Shakespeare’s problem plays. The first Broadway production closed after just 16 performances, a high-profile flop that’s chronicled in the brilliant new documentary “Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” by original cast member Lonny Price. A new Los Angeles revival by young director Michael Arden, which had a delayed press opening on Saturday night at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, is brilliantly sung by a talented cast of 20 led by Broadway veterans Aaron...

You don't have to be a fan of Broadway musicals to love every minute of Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened. This story of one of the most crushing flops to ever hit the Great White Way speaks to the ambition that drives all of us, even sometimes into a brick wall. Back in 1981, composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim and producer-director Harold Prince were the toasts of Broadway with such hits as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. They could do no wrong – that is until their new collaboration,...

One of the truly legendary musicals in the history of Broadway,Merrily We Roll Alongopenedto enormous fanfare in 1981, and closed after sixteen performances. For the first time,Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened draws back the curtain on the extraordinary drama of the show's creation - and tells the stories of the hopeful young performers whose lives were transformed by it. Directed by Lonny Price, a member of the original cast, the film is a bittersweet meditation on the choices we all make, and the often unexpected consequences of those choices -- through success and failure. Featuring exclusive appearances by Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Jason Alexander, Mandy Patinkin, Adam Guettel, Frank Rich and the original Broadway cast ofMerrily We Roll Along.Below, Richard Ridge chats with Price about his journey with the musical, the creation of the documentary,and so much more...

It’s a hard road in making a Broadway hit, and the path is just as bumpy when it turns out to be a flop. Few shows managed what Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical “Merrily We Roll Along” has, however: to swing from assumed smash to shock bomb, then to venerated, oft-performed classic. Forever changed by that original run was its cast of young unknowns, one of whom, Lonny Price, has made a documentary about the show’s creation called “Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” that should be catnip for Sondheim aficionados, musical theater geeks, and anyone who loves a.

Two-time Tony winner Bernadette Peters, a Broadway legend and one of Sondheim's most iconic leading ladies, will host a QampA with director Lonny Price at one of the first public screenings of his new documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened - a thrilling, behind-the-scenes look into the 'then' and 'now' of perhaps Stephen Sondheim's most beloved work, Merrily We Roll Along.

Two decades after winning a Tony Award for playing aged silent-film star Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical version of “Sunset Boulevard,” Glenn Close is returning to Broadway this winter in the role. Close will star in a new production directed by Lonny Price that had a sold-out run earlier this year at the English National Opera on London’s West End. The revival will begin performances on February 2, 2017, for an official opening on February 9 at the Palace Theatre. The production, which will boast a 40-piece orchestra, will have a limited 16-week run. Also Read: 'The Front Page' Broadway.

Producers Paul Blake and Mike Bosner announced today the Broadway return of three-time Tony Award-winner Glenn Close in her most iconic role, Norma Desmond, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning Best Musical,Sunset Boulevard. Based on Billy Wilder's classic Academy Award-winning film, Sunset Boulevard features a celebrated book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. Direct from a bravura sold-out engagement earlier this year at the English National Opera Eno, which marked Ms. Close's West End debut, this production of Sunset Boulevard will feature a 40-piece orchestra on the stage of The Palace Theatre 1564 7th Avenue. Directed by Lonny Price, performances will begin on Thursday, February 2, 2017, with an official opening night set for Thursday, February 9, 2017. Sunset Boulevard will play a limited 16-week engagement. Tickets go on sale today, Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 11 am.

Glenn Close is once again ready for her Broadway close-up. The three-time Tony winner will return to the role of Norma Desmond, the faded silent-movie star planning a delusional big-screen comeback in Sunset Boulevard. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical will play a limited 16-week engagement early next year at the Palace Theatre, beginning previews Feb. 2 ahead of an official Feb. 9 opening night. Directed by Lonny Price, the English National Opera production was first seen to great acclaim in London earlier this year. It will feature a 40-piece orchestra, the largest on Broadway.

read more...

Gayle King, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Horwitz and Ron Chernow Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The RadicalMedia and PBS Great Performances documentary, Hamilton's America, had its world première in the 54th New York Film Festival as a Special Events selection along with Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Lonny Price's The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened on a Stephen Sondheim - Harold Prince Broadway production, and Jim Jarmusch's Iggy Pop and The Stooges doc Gimme Danger.

Lin-Manuel Miranda on President Barack Obama attending Hamilton: "He didn't see me in it. He saw Javier Muñoz …" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The premiere of Hamilton's America on Monday at the 3400-seat auditorium of the United Palace in Washington Heights, was introduced by PBS CEO and President Paula Kreger and President and CEO of Wnet New York Public Media, Neal Shapiro.

David Horn, executive producer of Great Performances introduced the post-screening panel,...

“One of the lessons of adulthood is disappointment,” says a bleary-eyed Abigail Pogrebin as she muses on her time in the original Broadway production of “Merrily We Roll Along,” Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince’s notorious flop that ended their decades-long collaborative friendship and the subject of Lonny Price’s nostalgic documentary, “Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened,” which debuted at the New York Film Festival.

Price, (whom “Dirty Dancing” fans may recognize as the guy who put Baby in the corner), was part of the original cast of the musical. Based on the popular 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, “Merrily” tells the life stories of its three main characters in reverse order; they start out bitter and jaded adults, and by the show’s end have reverted to hopeful and starry-eyed kids. Prince, the legendary Broadway producer and the first to combine producing with directing,...

Jim Jarmusch with his Only Lovers Left Alive star Tilda Swinton at the 51st New York Film Festival Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The 54th New York Film Festival announced two “An Evening with...” celebrations: Olivier Assayas’s latest muse Kristen Stewart, who is also in Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, will be honoured, as well as Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson star Adam Driver in a separate dinner and conversation with Kent Jones.

Jarmusch's salute to Iggy Pop and The Stooges in Gimme Danger; Lonny Price's Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened on Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince's journey with their musical Merrily We Roll Along, and Lin-Manuel Miranda and company in Hamilton’s America by Alex Horwitz are three more of the Special Events to look forward to.

Terence Davies's A Quiet Passion, starring Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson,...

Special Events will feature the world premiere of Lonny Price's Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, a nonfiction account of Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince's 1981 musical-flop-turned-cult-favorite Merrily We Roll Along, with Price and theater luminary Sondheim in person. Thirty-five years later in the world of musicals, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton is a Broadway sensation. Alex Horwitz's Hamilton's America goes behind the history of the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning production, and makes its world premiere at Nyff with the director and special guests to be announced.

The 54th New York Film Festival, running from September 30 – October 16, is shaping up to be a can’t-miss event. Today, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the lineup for the Special Events section and “An Evening With…” honorees.

This year, the annual “An Evening With” celebration will feature two of the brightest young actors working today: Kristen Stewart and Adam Driver. Stewart stars in three Nyff titles, Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women,” Olivier Assayas’ “Personal Shopper” and Ang Lee’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” which was previously announced as a special world premiere presentation in the Special Events section. Driver can be seen in the drama “Paterson,” directed by Jim Jarmusch.

The event, which recognizes individuals who have made significant artistic contributions to film culture, will include dinner and an intimate conversation between the award-winning actors and Nyff Director Kent Jones.

Read More: Nyff 2016 Adds Ang Lee...

Kristen Stewart and Adam Driver have been named the 2016 “An Evening With…” honorees for the 54th New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced Tuesday. The annual “An Evening With…” events recognize work of individuals who have made contributions to film. Driver will be recognized for his performance in Jim Jarmusch‘s “Paterson,” while Stewart will be recognized for her work in three New York Film Festival titles: Kelly Reichardt‘s “Certain Women,” Olivier Assayas‘ “Personal Shopper” and Ang Lee‘s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” The Special Events section will feature the world premiere of...

Trevor Einhorn has joined the cast of ABC’s three-hour remake of Dirty Dancing. He will play Neil Kellerman, heir to the Kellerman resort in the Catskills where the early 1960s-set story takes place. Neil, played by Lonny Price in the 1987 original movie, is skinny, awkward and tightly wound. But what he lacks in charm and tact he makes up for with his earnestness, gallantry and progressive views. He also takes an immediate interest in Baby (Abigail Breslin), which her…...

Mad Men alum Trevor Einhorn is Catskills-bound.

Einhorn has been cast as geeky, Baby-crushing Neil Kellerman in ABC’s three-hour Dirty Dancing remake, TVLine has learned. Neil takes an immediate interest in Baby, which her father strongly supports, much to Baby’s embarrassment. The role of Max’s tightly wound grandson was played in the original film by Lonny Price.

In addition to his recurring stint as copy writer John Mathis on Mad Men, Einhorn is known for playing Frasier and Lilith’s son Freddy on Frasier.

RelatedDirty Dancing: Nicole Scherzinger Cast as Penny in ABC Remake...

Today in 2001, A Class Act opened at the Ambassador Theatre, where it ran for 105 performances. A Class Act is a musical with a book by Linda Kline and Lonny Price and music and lyrics by Edward Kleban. The musical is based on the life of composer-lyricist Ed Kleban, who died at the age of 48 in 1987. The musical uses flashbacks and the device of time running backwards to retrace the high and low points of Kleban's personal and professional life.

After a highly successful run on Broadway that resulted in four extensions, Audra McDonald's acclaimed portrayal of jazz singer-songwriter Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson Bar & Grill" will debut as a special presentation on HBO on Saturday, March 12.  Read More: 'The Leftovers' Season 3 Picked Up by HBO, But It Will Be the Last Season Written originally for off-broadway in 1987 by Lanie Robertson, "Lady Day at Emerson Bar & Grill" tells the story of Billie Holiday's life through the songs that made her famous. HBO's newly released teaser features McDonald, in the performance that earned her her sixth Tony Award, singing "God Bless The Child," one of Billie Holiday's most famous songs. The special was filmed in front of a live audience at Cafe Brazil in New Orleans.   The special was directed by Lonny Price, who also directed the Broadway production, and was produced by Allen Newman and Two Hands Entertainment.

Lonny Price directs Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, A Musical Thriller, the first production in a major new long term partnership between English National Opera Eno and the GradeLinnit Company. Joining Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson who will lead the cast as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett are Matthew Seadon-Young as Anthony Hope,Katie Hall as Johanna Barker, Philip Quast as Judge Turpin, Jack North as Tobias Ragg, Alex Gaumond as Beadle Bamford, Rosalie Craig as Beggar Woman and John Owen-Jones as Pirelli.

Today in 2001, A Class Act opened at the Ambassador Theatre, where it ran for 105 performances. A Class Act is a musical with a book by Linda Kline and Lonny Price and music and lyrics by Edward Kleban. The musical is based on the life of composer-lyricist Ed Kleban, who died at the age of 48 in 1987. The musical uses flashbacks and the device of time running backwards to retrace the high and low points of Kleban's personal and professional life.

I had the great pleasure to see six-time Tony winner (six, people, six!) Audra McDonald play the legend that is Billie Holliday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill back in June. I do not like hyperbole, sensationalism, or anything like that, but there is a strong possibility she delivered the most impressive performance I have ever seen. From the moment she walked on stage to when the lights blacked out at the end, I never once saw Audra McDonald. I saw Billie Holliday in front of me. It was jarring when the curtain call was happening because Audra showed up for the first time. Because the stage brings in a limited audience, HBO has decided to showcase Lady Day with Audra McDonald reprising the role that earned her the sixth Tony. Lonny Price, who directed the stage version, will return to direct this version. The film will shoot...

This week, Vulture will be publishing our critics' year-end lists. Enjoy. 1. Audra McDonald in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & GrillBroadwayNot many New York productions this year were great in all dimensions, delivering equally on the full range of theater’s potential expressivity. And those few that were great in their various parts somehow still lacked a comprehensive sense of greatness. Forced to choose, I choose the incomplete excellence of the incomparably moving. Lanie Robertson’s 1986 Billie Holiday bioplay is nobody’s idea of adventurous storytelling; having the main character provide her own context under cover of a “real” late-career performance is a lazy shortcut even when skillfully written, as was not the case here. And Lonny Price’s staging concepts sometimes bordered on tacky. Not so his work with McDonald. She began with an uncanny imitation of Holiday’s eccentric, heartbreaking voice, capturing its pinched tone, side-mouth delivery, precipitous register leaps,...

Emma Thompson and Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel will play Mrs. Lovett and the Demon Barber of Fleet Street this spring as the English National Opera begins a partnership with the GradeLinnit Company on a production of Sweeney Todd. The semi-staged mounting resembles the popular Encores! series at New York’s City Center as well as regular fund-raising concerts by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, which originated this production.

Actor-director Lonny Price, long associated with the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, will direct Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical thriller, the first show in what the two companies are billing as a major new long-term co-production venture.

The 13-performance run at Eno’s London Coliseum is slated to begin March 30, 2015, officially open the next night and run through April 12. The Eno orchestra, conducted by David Charles Abell, will appear on stage alongside the cast. Further casting will be announced shortly.

Just last night, Patti LuPone stepped back into the role that led to her Olivier Award, and being cast as the original Fantine in Les Miserables, in The Cradle Will Rock at 7pm at Broadway's Bernard Jacobs Theatre, 242 West 45th Street. The one-night concert of Marc Blitzstein's iconic work benefits The Acting Company, which LuPone founded alongside Kevin Kline, John Houseman and Margot Harley. Lonny Price served as musical director. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the special curtain call...

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar amp Grill, starring five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald, just opened last night at the Circle in the Square Theatre 1633 Broadway, on 50th Street btwn. Broadway and 8th Ave.. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was there for the after party, where he got to chat with McDonald herself about the pressure of representing the iconic woman how the project got its start working with Lonny Price, and so much more...

Broadway's biggest stars gathered at the Circle in the Square Theatre yesterday for opening night of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar amp Grill, starring five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald and directed by Lonny Price. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on the red carpet to chat with the evening's guests before the curtain went up, and below, you can check out interviews with Brian Stokes Mitchell, Norm Lewis, Will Swenson, Nikki M. James, Jason Robert Brown, Billy Porter and more...

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar amp Grill stars five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald under the direction of Lonny Price 110 in the Shade, A Class Act, will play a strictly limited 10-week engagement with only 70 performances at the Circle in the Square Theatre 1633 Broadway, on 50th Street btwn. Broadway and 8th Ave.. BroadwayWorld brings you a sneak peek of McDonald in action below...

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar amp Grill stars five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald under the direction of Lonny Price 110 in the Shade, A Class Act, will play a strictly limited 10-week engagement with only 70 performances at the Circle in the Square Theatre 1633 Broadway, on 50th Street btwn. Broadway and 8th Ave.. Opening night was yesterday, April 13, 2014, and BroadwayWorld was there for all of the festivities. Check out photos from the curtain call below...

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar amp Grill stars five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald under the direction of Lonny Price 110 in the Shade, A Class Act, will play a strictly limited 10-week engagement with only 70 performances at the Circle in the Square Theatre 1633 Broadway, on 50th Street btwn. Broadway and 8th Ave.. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at McDonald in action below...

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar amp Grill stars five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald under the direction of Lonny Price 110 in the Shade, A Class Act, will play a strictly limited 10-week engagement with only 70 performances at the Circle in the Square Theatre 1633 Broadway, on 50th Street btwn. Broadway and 8th Ave.. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the marquee at the Circle in the Square...

Apparently, the redoubtable Audra McDonald needs to break that Tony-winning record. With five wins under her belt (the last was for her shattering take on the drug-snorting, tortured female lead of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), she could net a sixth for the Broadway premiere of longtime regional staple Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, in which she will embody none other than “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child” songstress Billie Holiday, in what would become a Tony milestone as she currently ties Angela Lansbury and the late Julie Harris for the most competitive wins by an actress.