Somerset Maugham News

 FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training proudly announces casting for the inaugural season of Dog Days Theatre, a new theater project offering smart, contemporary works just light enough for the dog days of summer. Each summer, Dog Days Theatre will feature two plays mounted in the Cook Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, using professional actors, directors and designers from the community and around the country along with the talents of the Conservatory's graduate students.

Elliot Martin, renowned Broadway producer and Tony Award winner passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 21st, in Connecticut, surrounded by his family. He was 93.

South Bay Musical Theatre, a renowned Bay Area company for over 50 years, will present CHESS IN CONCERT May 28 and June 3. We speak with the creatives about the show's appeal and have a little fun with the material.

On the heels of a thrilling performance by Phantom star DAVIS GAINES, the 2017 Janet and Mark L. Goldenson Broadway Concert Series at Rubicon Theatre Company continues with a concert starring Emmy Award-winner and multiple-Tony nominee NANCY DUSSAULT in MY LIFE…UPON THE WICKED STAGE. Perhaps best known to audiences as the first host of "Good Morning America," and for her co-starring role on TV on "Too Close for Comfort," Dussault's remarkable career began on the stage. Her concert includes anecdotes about Dussault's remarkable career and songs by many of her favorite composers, such as Richard Rodgers, Jule Styne, Burton Lane and Stephen Sondheim. Dussault's extraordinary musicality and comedic storytelling infuse new meaning into beloved classics such as "Getting Married Today," "Look to the Rainbow," "Old Friend" and her iconic "Make Someone Happy." Nancy is joined by Musical Director Christopher Marlowe and Director Valentine Mayer. NANCY DUSSAULT: MY LIFE…UPON THE WICKED STAGE comes to Ventura for three-performances-only: Saturday, May 20 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 21 at 2 p.m.

The Skinner family is the one for whom the word 'dysfunctional' was invented.

Tickets go on sale today, April 11, for the US debut for SOULPEPPER, Toronto's largest and most celebrated theatre company, in a four-week engagement Off-Broadway at The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street in New York City, it was announced by Albert Schultz, SOULPEPPER's Founding Artistic Director.

BroadwayWorld sat down with Lance Marsh, Head of Performance at TheatreOCU and Conference Chair for the new Center for Excellence in Classical Theatre Training, to discuss their inaugural conference and the exciting future of the organization.

English playwright, screenwriter and award-winning novelist, David Malcolm Storey died on March 27 at the age of 83.

WildClaw Theatre Company proudly presents THE WOMAN IN BLACK previews Tuesday, March 21st and Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017, press opening, Thursday, March 23rd with public opening Friday, March 24th. The classic bone-chilling play will be performed at The Den Theatre 1333 N Milwaukee Chicago. Thursday-Sundays until April 23rd. Thurs-Sat at 7:30pm, Sundays at 3pm.

Casting has been announced for Salisbury Playhouse's new production of Rodney Ackland's Before the Party.

Casting has been announced for Salisbury Playhouse's new production of Rodney Ackland's Before the Party.

Salisbury Playhouse's spring/summer 2017 season has been announced and includes a brand new commission from award-winning playwright Barney Norris. 

No Time for Comedy is unlike anything you have ever seen, I feel sure. It is funny and clever - much of the dialogue is of Jane Austen caliber - but it joyfully refuses to go any of the places you think it probably might. It is political, and pointed, but never preachy, except to call attention to the motives of those who would preach. It is at once a parody of a witty Broadway comedy of the nineteen-twenties, -thirties, and -forties, and the apotheosis of it; and a part of it also contains a convincing and fairly furious repudiation of itself. For this 1939 play seems well aware that its very style is about to be subsumed by world conflict…

Linked by ocean sounds and the figure of a silent female listener, Spring, and The Last Dance, are a potent, poetic pairing. The girl in Susan Hill's Spring considers the life she has already lived, and the life that lies ahead of her. What might she have to look forward to? But although the sea air on a clifftop in Spring gives the feeling of hope, she's far from carefree.

Critically-acclaimed writer Helen Walsh is bringing her first film back to her home town as part of Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival.

Frontier Theatre Productions today announce their second production, a world premiere double bill of Susan Hill's Spring and Mitch Hooper's The Last Dance opening at The Theatre Room on 18 October. Harry Burton directs Sally Faulkner, who will be starring in both productions, as The Older Woman in Spring, where she is joined by Portia Van De Bramm who is playing The Girl, and as Suzanne in The Last Dance where she will be joined by David Mallinson who will be playing Peter.

SOULPEPPER - Toronto's largest and most celebrated theatre company, marking its 20th anniversary season as the most populous city in Canada's leading producer of revivals and new works - will make its U.S. debut next summer during a 4-week engagement Off-Broadway at The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W 42nd St, in New York City, it has been announced by Albert Schultz, SOULPEPPER'S Founding Artistic Director, and Leslie Lester, Executive Director.  This festival of plays and musical performances - entitled SOULPEPPER ON 42ND ST.: CANADA CROSSES THE BORDER- will be presented June 29 through July 29, 2017.

The September 2016-February 2017 Orange Tree Theatre season will feature the first major revivals of Caryl Churchill's Blue Heart and Somerset Maugham's last play Sheppey, as well as a new play from Zoe Cooper, the English language premiere of Roland Schimmelpfennig's Winter Solstice, and an Elinor Cook adaptation of children's story Extra Yarn.

Something Rotten! this way comes - along with a healthy assortment of recent Broadway hits, a homegrown version of an Andrew Lloyd Webber hit and a transfer from London's West End - as the Tennessee Performing Arts Center revealed the list of shows included in their 2016-17 HCA/TriStar Health Broadway at TPAC series during a Monday night event.

The Old Globe welcomes Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, making his musical directing debut with RAIN, a sumptuous world premiere musical by one of the most significant teams working in theatre today: composer and lyricist Michael John LaChiusa and book writer Sybille Pearson. Based on the short story by Somerset Maugham, RAIN will play now through May 1, 2016 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. BroadwayWorld has a first look at Eden Espinosa and the company in action below!