Broadway Marquee: EVITA starring Ricky Martin

Evita is back on Broadway! TIM RICE and ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER's Tony Award®-winning musical returns to Broadway at last, starring Grammy® Award winner RICKY MARTIN (Les Misérables), Olivier Award winner ELENA ROGER (Piaf), and Tony Award winner MICHAEL CERVERIS (Sweeney Todd). Previews begin March 12 at the Marquis Theatre located at 1535 Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets.

Broadway Marquee: GHOST The Musical

Ghost, the new musical starring Caissie Levy and Richard Fleeshmanas Molly Jensen and Sam Wheat will open on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Previews will begin on Thursday, March 15, 2012, in anticipation of a Monday, April 23rd opening. Directed by Tony Award winner Matthew Warchus and choreographed by Ashley Wallen, Ghost The Musical is created by a team of Grammy and Academy Award winners, with a brand new, original score by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, with a book by Bruce Joel Rubin, who has adapted his Academy Award winning original screenplay for the stage. This brand new score also includes the iconic song "Unchained Melody," famously performed in the film by The Righteous Brothers. Set in modern day New York City, Ghost The Musical is a timeless fantasy about the power of love. Walking back to their apartment one night, Sam and Molly are mugged, leaving Sam murdered on a dark street. Sam is trapped as a ghost between this world and the next and unable to leave Molly, who he learns is in grave danger. With the help of a phony storefront psychic, Oda Mae Brown, Sam tries to communicate with Molly in the hope of saving and protecting her. Set and costume designs are by Rob Howell, with musical supervision and arrangements by Christopher Nightingale, illusions by Paul Kieve, lighting design by Hugh Vanstone, sound design by Bobby Aitken, and projection design by Jon Driscoll. Information from Broadwayworld.com

Broadway Marquee: HUGH JACKMAN Back On Broadway

Hugh Jackman's one-man show "Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway" officially opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on November 10 to the best reviews to date of the current Broadway season. The musical return of the multi-talented Tony-winning star is set to run through January 1, 2011. Backed by an 18-piece orchestra, Jackman performs what he calls a personal selection of favorite musical numbers reflecting his varied career, including The Boy From Oz on Broadway, Oklahoma! on the London stage and much more. The star has concentrated on movies and stage drama (A Steady Rain) in recent years, but he returned to his musical roots in acclaimed pre-Broadway concert engagements in San Francisco and Toronto.

The Broadhurst Theatre is located at 235 West 44th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues.  

Up On The Broadway Marquee: PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT The Musical

A new Broadway musical is arriving later this month at the Palace Theatre. "Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical" from the hit 1994 movie, follows the adventures of a trio of drag queens who journey across the Australian Outback. Previews begin on February 28 at the Palace which is located at 1564 Broadway.

Broadway Marquee: SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark

Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark, the new musical arrives next month on Broadway. Up on the marquee is the gigantic billboard in front of Foxwoods Theatre on 42nd Street. The box office at the newly renamed Foxwoods Theatre opened last month. The new musical will begin previews Nov. 14 at 3 PM with an official opening scheduled for Dec. 21. The box office, located at 213 West 42nd Street, will now be open Monday-Saturday, 10 AM-8 PM.

From Playbill.com:

Directed by Julie Taymor, the cast will be headed by Reeve Carney as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Next to Normal Tony nominee Jennifer Damiano as Mary Jane Watson and Broadway veteran Patrick Page as Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin. They will be joined by Natalie Mendoza, Michael Mulheren, Ken Marks, Isabel Keating, Jeb Brown, T.V. Carpio, Mat Devine, Gideon Glick, Jonathan Schwartz, Matthew James Thomas, Laura Beth Wells, Matt Caplan, Dwayne Clark, Luther Creek, Gerald Avery, Collin Baja, Marcus Bellamy, Emmanuel Brown, Erin Elliott, Dana Marie Ingraham, Ayo Janeen Jackson, Heather Lang, Ari Loeb, Natalie Lomonte, Kevin Loomis, Kristin Martin, Jodi McFadden, Kristen Oei, America Olivo, Jennifer Perry, Kyle Post, Brandon Rubendall, Sean Samuels, Dollar Tan, and Christopher Tierney.

Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark features a book by Julie Taymor and Glen Berger, and new music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge.

"Drawing from more than 40 years of Marvel comic books for inspiration,"Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, according to press notes, "spins a new take on the mythic tale of Peter Parker, a teenager whose unremarkable life in Queens is turned upside-down—literally—when he's bitten by a genetically-altered spider and wakes up the next morning clinging to the ceiling. Bullied by his classmates and tortured by an unrelenting crush on next-door-neighbor Mary Jane Watson, this science geek discovers he has suddenly been endowed with astonishing powers. He soon learns, however, that with great power comes great responsibility. Maligned by the media, buffeted by financial woes, and stretched thin by the expectations of the world-at-large, Peter now must struggle to navigate the perilous and peculiar demands of being a web-slinging superhero."

The creative team includes Daniel Ezralow (choreography), George Tsypin (scenic design), Academy Award winner Eiko Ishioka (costume design), Tony Award winner Donald Holder (lighting design), Jonathan Deans (sound design), Kyle Cooper (projection design), Julie Taymor (mask design), Campbell Young Associates (hair design), Judy Chin (makeup design), Scott Rogers (aerial design), Jaque Paquin (aerial rigging design), David Campbell (orchestrations & arrangements), Teese Gohl (musical supervision) and Kimberly Grigsby (music director).

STEPHEN SONDHEIM THEATRE Marquee Lighting

Stephen Sondheim, Patti Lupone and Tom Tuft

Patti Lupone

Nathan Lane

Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim's name is now in marquee lights of a Broadway theatre. Earlier this evening, the Stephen Sondheim Theatre marquee lighting took place at 124 West 43rd Street. To honor the most celebrated artist in American musical theatre, some of Mr. Sondheim's collaborators were present including Broadway stars, Patti Lupone and Nathan Lane, as well as librettist, John Weidman. Formerly the Henry Miller's Theatre, the newly constructed venue opened in the fall of 2009 and is operated by the Roundabout Theatre. 

ABOUT STEPHEN SONDHEIM (from Playbill.com)

Sondheim has one foot in the Golden Age of the American book musical (withGypsy and West Side Story) and one in the modern world of the concept musical, which sought to tell stories in fresh ways (Company, Follies, Pacific Overtures). Like his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein II, he changed the nature of musical theatre forever, influencing subsequent generations of writers.

Sondheim is the winner of an Academy Award, many Tony Awards, multiple Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. Some of his other accolades include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors (1993), the National Medal of Arts (1996), the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for Music (2006) and a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (2008).

Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Road Show (2008), Passion (1994),Assassins (1991), Into the Woods (1987), Sunday in the Park with George(1984), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sweeney Todd (1979), Pacific Overtures (1976), The Frogs (1974), A Little Night Music (1973), Follies(1971; revised in London, 1987), Company (1970), Anyone Can Whistle(1964) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), as well as the lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1981), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow(1983) and Putting It Together (1993/99) are anthologies of his work, as is the new musical Sondheim on Sondheim. He composed the film scores of "Stavisky" (1974) and "Reds" (1981) and songs for "Dick Tracy" (Academy Award, 1990). He also wrote songs for the television production "Evening Primrose" (1966), co-authored, with Anthony Perkins, the film "The Last of Sheila" (1973) and, with George Furth, the play Getting Away with Murder(1996), and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer(1956), Invitation to a March (1961) and Twigs (1971). He won Tony Awards for Best Score for a Musical for Passion, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies and Company. All of these shows won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George, the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Saturday Night (1954), his first professional musical, finally had its New York premiere in 1999 at Second Stage Theatre.

Up On The Broadway Marquee: WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN A New Musical

Tickets are now on sale for the new musical WOMEN ONE THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN which will begin preview performances on October 2 at the Belasco Theatre. Based on Pedro Almodóvar's internationally acclaimed 1988 film, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN is set in late 20th-century Madrid and tells the story of the intertwining lives of a group of women (Sherie Rene Scott, de'Adre Aziza, Laura Benanti, Nikka Graff Lanzarone, Patti LuPone) whose relationships with men lead to a tumultuous 48 hours of love, confusion and passion. Also in the cast are Justin Guarini, Danny Burstein, Nikka Graff Lanzarone, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Mary Beth Peil. The musical is directed by Bartlett Sher, with a book by Jeffrey Lane, music and lyrics by David Yazbek. This world premiere production will open on Thursday, November 4 at 6:45pm on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre, located at 111 W. 44 Street.

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN will also feature Julio Agustin, Alma Cuervo, John Carroll, Murphy Guyer, Rachel Bay Jones, Nina Lafarga, Yanira Marin, Sean McCort, Vivian Nixon, Luis Salgado, Jennifer Maria Sanchez, John Schiappa, Samantha Shafer, Phillip Spaeth and Charlie Sutton.

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN will have choreography by Christopher Gattelli, musical direction by Jim Abbott, sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Brian MacDevitt and sound by Scott Lehrer. (information from playbill.com and broadwayworld.com)

Broadway Marquee: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

The Menier Chocolate Factory's acclaimed revival of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES is now in previews at the LONGACRE THEATRE located at 220 West 48th Street. The revival stars DOUGLAS HODGE (Olivier Award) as Albin, a drag performer with a heart of gold, and KELSEY GRAMMER as his partner Georges. The musical opens on April 18.

Broadway Marquee: THE ADDAMS FAMILY

Yesterday, the new musical THE ADDAMS FAMILY began previews at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Photos above were taken on March 9, 2010.

From Playbill.com

The Addams Family, the new musical that peels the macabre characters of illustrator Charles Addams off the pages of The New Yorker and gives them a fresh plot and new songs, begins previews March 8 at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, each two-time Tony Award winners, play heads-of-household Gomez and Morticia, respectively, in this newly constructed musical comedy about a ghoulish clan that lives by its own rules in a haunted mansion. The Addams Family has a book by Jersey Boys Tony nominees Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa (Off-Broadway's The Wild Party.)

Broadway Marquee: MEMPHIS

The new Broadway musical MEMPHIS plays the SAM S. SHUBERT THEATRE at 225 West 44th Street. MEMPHIS is about a music-loving mixed race couple that struggles to survive during the early Civil Rights era in Memphis. The story was inspired by the legendary DJ Dewey Phillips and the music that became known as "rock n' roll." The image was made on October 29, 2009.