Brigitte Reiffenstuel News

Sonia Friedman Productions today (20 November 2019) announces final casting for the world premiere of Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt to be directed by Patrick Marber.

Three-time Olivier Award winner Alex Jennings (Netflix's The Crown), in Chicago rehearsing for his upcoming role in the Tony Award-winning musical, The Light in the Piazza, at the Lyric Opera House Dec. 14-29, will make a special appearance at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (164 N. State Street) following the National Theatre Live screening of the engrossing new work, Hansard, in which he co-stars with Olivier and Tony Award-winning actress Lindsay Duncan (Private Lives), Friday evening, December 6, at 7:45pm.  Jennings will be on hand afterwards to answer questions about his acclaimed Broadway, West End, and TV career.

Check out the current standings in the 2019 BroadwayWorld UK Awards and cast your vote!

The full Chicago cast has been announced for the limited holiday engagement of beloved Tony Award-winning musical The Light in the Piazza, for ten performances only, December 14-29, 2019, at Lyric Opera House. The cast includes Renee Fleming and Rob Houchen, along with three-time Olivier Award winner Alex Jennings (Netflix's The Crown) and rising star Solea Pfeiffer (Almost Famous, Hamilton), as well as world-renowned soprano Marie McLaughlin, Broadway star Eric Sciotto (Something Rotten) and award-winning soprano Suzanne Kantorski. Additional casting includes West End talent Malcolm Sinclair, Rhona McGregor, Matthew Woodyatt and ensemble members Jordan Castle, Nicholas Duncan, Chlöe Hart, Molly Lynch, Tom Partridge and Monica Swayne.

Sonia Friedman Productions today (25 October 2019) announces initial casting for the world premiere of Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt to be directed by Patrick Marber, as well as a four-week extension to the run which goes on sale today at 10am. Now booking to 13 June 2020, Leopoldstadt begins previews at Wyndham's Theatre on 25 January 2020 with opening night on 12 February 2020.

Voting continues for the 2019 BroadwayWorld UK Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favourites. Check out the current standings and cast your vote.

Today, the shortlist is announced for the 2019 BroadwayWorld UK Awards, celebrating the best long-running West End productions and best new productions from around the country. CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

On Saturday Evening, October 12, 2019, Los Angeles Opera presented Adam Guettel's THE Light In the Piazza. A musical theater work rather than an opera, Piazza provided the audience with a nostalgic excursion to Florence and Rome in the 1950s. For opera star Renée Fleming it was a tour de force as she not only showed onlookers various stages of her character's complete change of heart, but also gave us the glorious high notes and legato singing of opera along with the snappy repartee of musical theater. 

Casting is complete for LA Opera's upcoming production of The Light in the Piazza. West End musical theater stars Rob Houchen, Liam Tamne and Celinde Schoenmaker, along with celebrated soprano Marie McLaughlin, join a formidable cast led by Renée Fleming, Dove Cameron and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Alex Jennings (Netflix's The Crown) and Solea Pfeiffer (Almost Famous, Hamilton) will join Renée Fleming in the limited Chicago presentation of The Light in the Piazza, for ten performances only, December 14-29, 2019, at Lyric Opera House (press opening Saturday, Dec. 14). Tickets start at $49 and are on sale now. The Chicago engagement follows the production's acclaimed run at the Royal Festival Hall in London this summer.

On June 29, Santa Fe Opera presented its second production of the 2019 season, a revival of Georges Bizet's exotic THE PEARL FISHERS. First seen in Lee Blakekely's 2012 version, the production has fared well. Current director Shawna Lucey staged a tasteful, straight forward revival of the work Bizet wrote 12 years before his immortal CARMEN.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at the romantic musical THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, making its long-awaited London debut at the Royal Festival Hallon through 5th July 2019. Check out the video!

The sumptuous and unforgettable romantic musical THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA makes its long-awaited London debut at the Royal Festival Hall, now through 5 July 2019.

Adam Guettel's extraordinary music, wonderfully played by the Orchestra of Opera North, is the best reason to revive a show that is hobbled by a pedestrian book and awkward stereotypes.

The sumptuous and unforgettable romantic musical THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA makes its long-awaited London debut at the Royal Festival Hallon 14 th June to 5 th July 2019.

Scenario Two have announced that three-time Olivier Award winner and current BAFTA nominee, Alex Jennings (My Fair Lady, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Queen, Bridget Jones: The Edge, Babel, The Lady in the Van and most recently the critically acclaimed Netflix series The Crown and Unforgotten for which he has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor) will complete the cast for the London premiere of the acclaimed Broadway musical The Light in the Piazza. A stunning story about the life-changing thrill of first love, Jennings will play Signor Naccarelli the father of dashing Italian lover, Fabrizio.

The Light in the Piazza, starring four-time Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Renee Fleming as Margaret Johnson, is coming to Chicago. Additional casting including Broadway and West End stars to be announced soon.

Will anyone else but Ambrogio Maestri bring the same dynamism to Robert Carsen's 1950's take on Verdi's masterpiece, FALSTAFF? Time will tell. But the return of the wonderful production, with the great Met orchestra under conductor Richard Farnes and an all-around terrific cast, brought a little sunshine into the gray winter in New York.

Scenario Two have announced further casting for the London debut of the acclaimed Broadway musical The Light in the Piazza. The Light in the Piazza will be performed in a full staging at the Royal Festival Hall in a limited run of only twenty performances directed by Olivier award-winner, Daniel Evans, designed by Robert Jones with costumes by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Mick Potter. The ravishing score will be played by the 35 piece orchestra of Opera North under the baton of Kimberly Grigsby, conductor of the original Lincoln Center production.

Soprano Anna Netrebko takes on for the first time at the Met the title role of the 18th century actress Adriana Lecouvreur. A co-production of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, Gran Teatre del Liceu - Barcelona, Wiener Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera and L'Opera National de Paris conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and directed by Sir David McVicar, who ingeniously sets the action in a working replica of a Baroque theatre.