W. Somerset Maugham News

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.

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.

You cannot beat the Old Globe Theatre for its audacity in mounting the challenging musical Rain, based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham. Rain was made into three separate films, a silent in 1928 starring Gloria Swanson, and then in 1932 starring Joan Crawford as Miss Sadie Thompson, and finally in 1953 Rita Hayworth assumed the role of the prostitute stranded on the South Pacific Island of Pago, Pago in 1924. This much anticipated musical version with book by Sybille Pearson and music by Michael John LaChiusa is the second time Rain has been performed onstage, the first being a play in 1922. For the entire cast and creative team in San Diego this enterprise has been enormous. It is truly an outstanding ensemble headed by Eden Espinosa as Sadie, and the set designed by Mark Wendland is by itself worth the price of admission.

TEATRO DE LA O and OCTAVIO CARLIN FASHION HOUSE proudly presents HOLLYWOULD, a new comedy by fashion designer Octavio Carlin. Don't miss this hilarious fashionable farce set in the heyday of the golden age of cinema and silver screen intrigue. Hollywould opens on February 13, 2016 at THE HUDSON THEATRES.

The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego will soon present a world-premiere production- Michael John LaChiusa's Rain. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Eden Espinosa will lead the production as 'Sadie.' Directed by Barry Edelstein, the show will run March 24 to May 1, 2016 at the Old Globe's Shiley Stage.

Due to popular demand and great reviews when it played in San Francisco in March, BREAKING THE CODE - THE ALAN TURING STORY by Hugh Whitemore is coming back for a return engagement for 20 performances only -- tonight, Aug. 5, through Aug. 29, 2015 (Wed. - Sat. - 8:00 pm / Sat. Matinees - 3:00 pm) in this exclusive Theatre Rhinoceros production in San Francisco.

Author D.C. Moses will be featuring her novel, 'Train from Thompsonville' (published by Trafford Publishing), at the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair. The book follows a Polish family in upstate New York from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Due to popular demand and great reviews when it played in San Francisco in March, BREAKING THE CODE - THE ALAN TURING STORY by Hugh Whitemore is coming back for a return engagement for 20 performances only -- Aug. 5 - 29, 2015 (Wed. - Sat. - 8:00 pm / Sat. Matinees - 3:00 pm) in this exclusive Theatre Rhinoceros production in San Francisco.

Laurel Valley Productions in association with Creative Arts Lab and Jeux de Mots presents TRAVELING PAPERS, a lively theatrical adventure exploring our connections to travel, conceived and adapted by Barbara Bosch and Martin Tackel. Barbara Bosch^ directs a cast of eight including Gwen Arment*, John Camera*, Kyle Doherty, Gwen Eyster, Peter Husovsky*, Macy Idzakovich, and Jillian Stevens. TRAVELING PAPERS will run at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street (bet. 9th and 10th Avenues), New York City for fifteen performances, tonight, June 3, through June 20, 2015. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Laurel Valley Productions in association with Creative Arts Lab and Jeux de Mots presents TRAVELING PAPERS, a lively theatrical adventure exploring our connections to travel, conceived and adapted by Barbara Bosch and Martin Tackel. Barbara Bosch^ directs a cast of eight including Gwen Arment*, John Camera*, Kyle Doherty, Gwen Eyster, Peter Husovsky*, Macy Idzakovich, Jillian Stevens, and Antonio Edwards Suarez*. TRAVELING PAPERS will run at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street (bet. 9th and 10th Avenues), New York City for fifteen performances, tonight, June 3, through June 20, 2015.

Laurel Valley Productions in association with Creative Arts Lab and Jeux de Mots presents TRAVELING PAPERS, a lively theatrical adventure exploring our connections to travel, conceived and adapted by Barbara Bosch and Martin Tackel. Barbara Bosch^ directs a cast of eight including Gwen Arment*, John Camera*, Kyle Doherty, Gwen Eyster, Peter Husovsky*, Macy Idzakovich, Jillian Stevens, and Antonio Edwards Suarez*. TRAVELING PAPERS will run at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street (bet. 9th and 10th Avenues), New York City for fifteen performances, June 3-20, 2015.

In its upcoming 2015-2016 season, The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego will present three world-premiere productions with multiple sophomore productions, and more. Check out the full lineup below!

GALESBURG, Ill.

Before there was Downton Abbey, there was Our Betters, W. Somerset Maugham's fiery romantic dramedy about the invasion of sly social-climbing American heiresses into British society. The fifth play in the third season of Asolo Rep's five-year American Character Project illuminates a sect of wealthy, early 20th-century American women who yearned for the pomp and circumstance - and parties - of the British nobility. Directed by Asolo Rep's producing artistic director Michael Donald Edwards, Our Betters opens Friday, March 13, 2015 at 8pm and runs through Sunday, April 19 at Asolo Rep, with previews tonight, March 11 and Thursday, March 12 at 8pm.

Breaking The Code by Hugh Whitemore will have its Theatre Rhinoceros premiere in this exclusive San Francisco production for a limited engagement - 15 performances only! The show plays tonight, March 4 - 21, 2015.

Before there was Downton Abbey, there was Our Betters, W. Somerset Maugham's fiery romantic dramedy about the invasion of sly social-climbing American heiresses into British society. The fifth play in the third season of Asolo Rep's five-year American Character Project illuminates a sect of wealthy, early 20th-century American women who yearned for the pomp and circumstance - and parties - of the British nobility. Directed by Asolo Rep's producing artistic director Michael Donald Edwards, Our Betters opens Friday, March 13, 2015 at 8pm and runs through Sunday, April 19 at Asolo Rep, with previews Wednesday, March 11 and Thursday, March 12 at 8pm.

Breaking The Code by Hugh Whitemore will have its Theatre Rhinoceros premiere in this exclusive San Francisco production for a limited engagement - 15 performances only! The show plays March 4 - 21, 2015.

This just in! The Old Globe will hold a developmental reading of the new musical Rain, with book by Sybille Pearson (Baby, Giant), music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa (The Wild Party, Giant, Marie Christine), based on the short story 'Rain' by W. Somerset Maugham, and directed by Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents Tom Stoppard's Tony Award-winning play, The Real Thing, starring Ewan McGregor as 'Henry' and Maggie Gyllenhaal as 'Annie' in their Broadway debuts; Cynthia Nixon as 'Charlotte' and Josh Hamilton as 'Max.' Sam Gold directs the cast of seven, which also includes Alex Breaux as 'Brodie,' Ronan Raftery as 'Billy' and Madeline Weinstein as 'Debbie.' The Real Thing officially opens tonight, October 30, 2014 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Asolo Rep's 2014-2015 season Historic Asolo Theater production will be Pulitzer and Greenfield Prize winning playwright Nilo Cruz's lyrical new play, Sotto Voce. This exquisitely observed metaphysical romance will be co-directed by Asolo Rep's Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards and playwright Nilo Cruz, who crafted the Spanish translation for Hamlet, Prince of Cuba at Asolo Rep in 2012. Sotto Voce, which had its world premiere at the Theater for the New City in February 2014, opens Thursday, April 2, 2015 in the Historic Asolo Theater and runs through Sunday, April 26, with previews on Tuesday, March 31 andWednesday, April 1. The title of this celebrated new work is an Italian musical term that means to speak in a soft manner with purpose.