On Thursday, Playbill reported that actress Ruthie Ann Miles would be returning to her role as Lady Tiang for the West End production of "The King and I". Managing News Editor, Ryan McPhee, also reported that Miles would share the role with Naoko Mori.
The article also pointed out that "The casting update follows the news that Miles lost the unborn child she was carrying two months after a Brooklyn car crash that took the life of her four-year-old daughter."
Read More12 Tony Nominations, Critical praise and pulling in $1.4 million per week, the debate whether or not "Mean Girls" would be a success has been decided, it most definitely is. The musical is striking a cord with younger audiences and I have no doubt this will become a staple in high schools and colleges for years to come once licensing rights are available. But given its popularity and success on 42nd Street, one has to wonder if this, along with other shows like Dear Evan Hansen, will lead to more teenage-centric stories to grace Broadway stages. The same goes for shows that never got their Broadway run but have since become incredibly popular with younger audiences. The best example of this would be "Heathers".
Read MoreWhen I was 15 years old, I shimmied into a sequined leotard and balanced a feathered headpiece on my head for my high school production of George M! I distinctly recall claiming a private changing space in our closet-sized dressing room during our first dress rehearsal, only to have it dawn on me that there was no point in being modest: I’d be wearing virtually nothing onstage, so why bother hiding now?
Read MoreOver the past couple of months, I've heard from more than one person that they are concerned that the over-commercialization of Broadway will mean that less "artistic" and original musicals will be recognized by the Tony Awards.
While I think they're overreacting, I don't think their concerns are completely unfounded. After all, this past year, there wasn't a single musical that wasn't based on a movie or TV show or that wasn't a jukebox collection.
Read MoreNext week Wicked flies into Edinburgh as part of its 2nd UK & Ireland tour. I am excited to say I will be attending press night to see how this new production compares to the previous tour and the show currently running in London's West End. However, Wicked the musical is one of, or most likely, THE most iconic musical in the world. How does it manage to maintain it's popularity 15 years after its premiere in San Francisco?
Read MoreThis morning the nominations were announced for the 2018 Tony Awards. As per usual there were a number of surprises and snubs in virtually every category. Let's break it down and also see how we did with our own nominee predictions.
Read MoreWhile no one should be worried about whether or not Frozen is going to be a long-running Broadway smash, a concern that has been brought up to me by more than one theatre insider, is how much success will it have come June 10th at the Tony Awards.
"Disney likes to make money," my source said. "But they don't like egg on their faces. And failure to win Tonys or even be nominated would certainly be that."
Read MoreLast year it was announced that the venerable Oregon Shakespeare Festival would be putting an interesting spin on their upcoming production of "Oklahoma" by making the couplings of Laurey/Curly and Will/Ado Annie, same sex rather than the traditional heterosexual pairing.
The announcement was met with praise but also with some skepticism. Would a recasting like this make sense? Would it work within the context of the piece?
Well, at least according to local critics who have seen the show since its opening on April 22nd, it's worked perfectly.
Read MoreAudrey Cardwell is currently starring in the National Tour of Bright Star where she is playing the central role of Alice Murphy. She has also appeared in the national tours of Cinderella (Ella), Anything Goes and Elf and has been seen regionally at The Old Globe, Asolo Repertory Theatre, The Muny, North Shore Music Theatre, Houston Theatre Under the Stars, Dallas Summer Musicals and Pennsylvania Centre Stage. She’s also an alum of Penn State University.
Read MoreMy mother recently told me that she and her friends were planning on taking a trip into the city to see a show. They're not the most consistent theatre-going bunch but they usually see a show every couple of years.
Since my blogging has basically made me a travel agent for many of my friends coming to the city to see a show, she asked me if I had any suggestions.
"What type of show are you looking for?", I asked.
"Something fun", my mother replied.
Thankfully, for the first time in a long time, I had a lot of shows to choose from.
Read MoreWhile my first priority was always seeing whatever shows I had come to see that particular trip, early visits to New York City were also consumed by my eagerness to take it all in. Not the city; Broadway, specifically the fabled theatres. Long before thousands of pictures from a single day could be stored effortlessly on one's mobile phone, my dad would, fortunately, pack enough film (long, black, shiny plastic-y stuff with chemicals that fixed themselves into images when exposed first to light and then to other chemicals) to get pictures of me in front of every Broadway marquee we could find. With no idea what most of the shows were, and absolutely no idea who the theatres were named after, I collected Broadway marquees in a camera. It was really quite innocent if I do say so myself.
Now, I'm old and I know things, and things that used to be pure fun are borderline offensive to me. Watching a television report on a new Broadway show recently, I found myself asking, "What business does that show have in that theatre with that namesake?" It was an irrational response to an ultimately harmless coincidence that I realized I have felt several times over the past few years at least, and something I thought worth exploring. Why is it jarring to see certain Broadway marquees?
Read MoreI want to offer a rebuttal to the piece submitted on this site regarding three upcoming musical revivals, Kiss Me Kate, My Fair Lady and Carousel. Upon first glance they all seem horribly outdated, misogynistic and not conducive to the landscape that is 2018. I argue that with the right direction and treatment, they can be very timely and have important lessons to share.
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