The Irish...and How They Got That Way Photos - Off-Broadway

'I have crammed so much into the two years since I started in this business. I am sprinting because everyone around me has been doing this for decades and can enjoy their work at a nice peaceful saunter. I am playing catch up.' The tall slim twenty-one-year-old actor-musician smiles humbly. Soft spoken, with a quiet charm and subtle sense of humor, Andy Christopher, the star of Maine State Music Theatre's current production, The Buddy Holly Story, which is garnering rave reviews in its latest production in Brunswick, Maine, is talking about his whirlwind two years as a professional actor and the long, sometimes circuitous, often serendipitous route which has brought him from Texas to New York and onto the national stage.

Walnut Street Theatre's 2010-2011 Independence Studio on 3 season continues with Marius von Mayenburg's black comedy, THE UGLY ONE.

The award-winning York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) will present a Developmental Lab of Judith Shubow Steir's new musical ONLY A KINGDOM, directed by David Glenn Armstrong, on November 9-12, 2010 at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's, 619 Lexington Avenue (at 54th Street).

The Walnut Street Theatre's 2009-2010 Independence Studio on 3 season concludes with an all-new production of Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart's genre-hopping tribute to some of Broadway's greatest: The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!). In a comic satire of musical theatre genres, one story becomes five musicals, each in the distinctive style of a different master of the form, from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Stephen Sondheim. The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) starts on May 4th, opens May 6th and continues through June 27th in the Walnut's Independence Studio on 3.

Royal George, 1641 N. Halsted, raised the curtain at 7:30p.m. on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 in honor of Michael Cullen, owner of the Mercury Theater and Cullen's Bar and Grill, and a thirty five-year veteran producer and pioneer in the development of Chicagoland theater as it is known today. Recently suffering from a stroke, Mr. Cullen requires extensive therapy treatments. The evening, directed by Michael Weber, featured Chicago's Entertainer Ron Hawking, Gretchen Cryer (Writer and star of I'm Getting My Act Together) and cast members from Million Dollar Quartet. The evening also featured cast members appearing from some of the many dynamic productions that Michael Cullen produced including Steel Magnolias (Nancy Baird), A Couple of Blaguards (Howard Platt), Pump Boys And Dinettes (Malcolm Ruhl, John Foley, Shawn Stengel, Tom Mendel, Mary Launder, Rick Pickren, Tammy Mader, Liza Jaine, Tiffany Herlien, Shaun Whitely, Brian Burke and Maggie LaMee) & The Irish And How They Got That Way (Jane Baxter, Miller, Kent Lewis, David Girolmo, Justine Serino, and Susan Voelz.). Chicago Tribune Theater Critic Chris Jones made a special appearance that was the highlight of the evening. Thousands of dollars were raised for Mr. Cullen's rehabilitative care.