Theatre League News

Uptown Players delivers a ROUSING production of the Award-Winning musical Kinky Boots!

What did our critic think of MEAN GIRLS at Rochester Broadway Theatre League? If you're looking for an excuse to don your pink and revisit the jungle of high school cliques, politics, and popularity contests, the Rochester Broadway Theatre League has just the show for you. Playing now until July 10th is Mean Girls, Tina Fey's brilliant musical adaption of the 2004 movie starring Rachel McAdams and Lindsay Lohan.

Uptown Players continues its season with the winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Kinky Boots!

The Jimmy Awards have just announced this year’s 92 nominees, coming from 46 high school musical theatre awards competitions across the U.S. The show will feature dynamic ensemble and solo performances and will culminate with the presentation of a Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor award, as well as other honors and scholarships. Winners will be chosen by a panel of industry experts.

What did our critic think of The Band's Visit in Rochester? The first words in 'The Band's Visit' are 'Once not long ago a group of musicians came to Israel from Egypt. You probably didn't hear about it. It wasn't very important.' These words don't exactly tee-up the audience for a musical full of sparkly costumes and dazzling kick lines, which is good because that's not at all what 'The Band's Visit' comes to deliver. What this show offers is much simpler and more fleeting. It's a story about love, music, and connection.

The stars of four seasons of BRAVO's hit social series 'The People's Couch,' EMERSON COLLINS and BLAKE McIVER EWING are performing together for the first time and launching a national tour of their new live duo musical cabaret nonsense show I DREAMED A DREAMGIRL.

'A League of Her Own' invites audiences into Sam's hiding place where they spend an hour living in the nightmare that has become her life. This is an original play that explores the effects of mental abuse and harassment. The show is no longer running, but I recommend following Bottle Alley Theatre Company and Just Friends for more unique original plays.

A brand new production of ON YOUR FEET! THE STORY OF EMILIO & GLORIA ESTEFAN will launch a coast-to-coast US tour beginning in November 2022. This inspiring true story about heart, heritage and two people who believed in their talent—and each other—has already won the hearts of audiences and critics alike.

Uptown Players presents its 19th annual fundraiser Broadway Our Way '22. This year's production is written and directed by B.J. Cleveland, choreographed by Andrew Coopman with music direction by Kevin Gunter and Kelley Poche Rodriguez and musical arrangements by Adam C. Wright. Broadway Our Way will run June 9 - 12, at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. This year's event includes the return of two special guests, Emerson Collins and Black McIver

 Chicago will continue to produce some of the most exciting work in the country this summer. Offerings from the city’s more than 250 producing theatres include a wide variety of plays and musicals, as well as comedy, dance, and outdoor events.    

The South Florida Theatre League has announced the return of our Unified Auditions, after pausing them in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The casts and creative teams have been assembled for Zoetic Stage’s second annual Finstrom Festival of New Work which will be co-presented with and hosted at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, live and in person in the Peacock Foundation Studio. The readings are free and open to the public.

Zoetic Stage has announced the four winners of its second annual Finstrom Festival of New Work. They are One Stone: The Story of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein by Kathleen Cahill, Effect If Not Intent by David Rosenberg, Sibling Rivalries Or, Spooks in the Ivory Tower by Marcus Scott and The Public Execution of the American President by Nick Valdes.

What did critics think of Moulin Rouge on tour? The cast is led by Chicago's own Courtney Reed as Satine and Conor Ryan as Christian, as well as Austin Durant as Harold Zidler, André Ward as Toulouse-Lautrec, David Harris as The Duke of Monroth, Gabe Martínez as Santiago and Libby Lloyd as Nini.

The First National Tour has officially begun for the history-making production of To Kill a Mockingbird, Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin's new play, directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher and based on Harper Lee's classic novel. Read the reviews here!

The Warner Theatre will welcome comedians Myq Kaplan, Carmen Lynch and Shaun Eli of The Ivy League of Comedy to the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre on Saturday, July 9 at 8 pm.

The Drama League has announced the addition of three new board members to its Board of Directors: Elena Araoz, Estefanía Fadul, and Gwynn MacDonald. 

Last week, we got two different sets of data that started to make a case for the current state of the cultural economy - a report from the NEA laying out just how bad things got in the depths of 2020 (and hinting at some initial recovery in 2021) - and the first time The Broadway League reported individual show grosses since Broadway reopened.

The Upstate Theater Coalition for a Restart, representing downtown historic theaters from Buffalo to Poughkeepsie, thank elected officials from both the Assembly and the Senate for supporting a fund to assist these theaters in the slow recovery from the Covid impacted restart.

'My Fair Lady' is a story that has become ingrained into American storytelling in countless iterations over the past 60 years. Debuting in 1956 and putting icon Julie Andrews on the map, it went on to be adapted into the also-iconic Audrey Hepburn vehicle in 1964, and the story's main narrative beats have been repurposed in everything from 'Pretty Woman' to 'Trading Places' to 'She's All That' in the years since. It opened Tuesday at Rochester's Auditorium Theatre.