Alec Shiman

The Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) today announced the nominees for the 20th Annual IRNE Awards, which honors the best of the previous year's actors, directors, choreographers, designers and companies across the full spectrum of large, mid-size and fringe theater companies.

Get ready to be amazed, be inspired, and be moved when BILLY ELLIOT The Musical, the joyous smash hit musical, takes the stage at Bill Hanney's award winning North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) in an all new production created just for NSMT audiences. BILLY ELLIOT The Musical is playing thru Sunday, October 11. Check out a first look at highlights below!

Get ready to be amazed, be inspired, and be moved when BILLY ELLIOT The Musical, the joyous smash hit musical, takes the stage at Bill Hanney's award winning North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) in an all new production created just for NSMT audiences. BILLY ELLIOT The Musical opens tonight, September 30, and plays through Sunday, October 11. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Get ready to be amazed, be inspired, and be moved when BILLY ELLIOT The Musical, the joyous smash hit musical, takes the stage at Bill Hanney's award winning North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) in an all new production created just for NSMT audiences. BILLY ELLIOT The Musical begins tonight, September 29, and plays thru Sunday, October 11. Press/Opening Night is scheduled for Wednesday, September 30 at 7:30 pm.

Get ready to be amazed, be inspired, and be moved when BILLY ELLIOT The Musical, the joyous smash hit musical, takes the stage at Bill Hanney's award winning North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) in an all new production created just for NSMT audiences. BILLY ELLIOT The Musical begins Tuesday, September 29, and plays thru Sunday, October 11. Press/Opening Night is scheduled for Wednesday, September 30 at 7:30 pm.

THE BIG MEAL, the Boston area premiere of Dan LeFranc's play about the interactions of five generations of an extended family, is the kind of show that Zeitgeist Stage Company and Artistic Director David J. Miller feast upon - a character-driven ensemble piece that showcases the range of the actors, as well as Miller's ability to transfer the playwright's vision from page to stage.

Electricity courses through Ogunquit Playhouse's stunning production of BILLY ELLIOT, continuing through July 26 at 'America's foremost summer theatre.'

Assembling a stellar cast and creative team, the Ogunquit Playhouse has mounted a powerful production of the Elton John-Lee Hall 2005 musical, Billy Elliot. Based on the 2000 film, both directed by Stephen Daldry with original choreography by Peter Darling, Billy Elliot movingly tells the story of a Yorkshire working class boy who discovers his unlikely passion and talent for ballet and who must win his coal miner father's acceptance for his chosen vocation. Set against the background of the bitter 1984 mining strike which pitted the workers' life and death struggle against Margaret Thatcher's push to close the mines, Billy's discovery of his artistic gift becomes his ticket not only to self-fulfillment, but also to escape from his family's bleak existence.

The Nominating Committee of the Independent Reviewers of New England has just announced nominees for the 2014 IRNE Awards. The Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards, founded by Beverly Creasey of the Journal Newspapers and Larry Stark of TheaterMirror in 1997, recognize the extraordinary wealth of talent in the Boston theatre community.

Voting is now underway for Maine! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

There's something very special about a story that can instantly make people of any age feel like a child again. Sometimes in the hustle bustle of today's world with so many 'adult' problems, adults forget what it's like to have been a child. MARY POPPINS has been just that kind of story for children of all ages for years, and Maine State Music Theatre's current production of MARY POPPINS will warm your heart and lift your spirits.

Maine State Music Theatre brings the 55th season of professional musical theater to a close with Cameron Mackintosh and Disney's family favorite, Mary Poppins, which flies into the Pickard Theater August 7. Check out a first look at the cast below!

'Sing out, Louise!!'. This phrase has been part of theatre lexicon for more than 50 years. Almost having become an inside joke, and used by directors, choreographers and actors to coax performers into giving it their all. Throughout GYPSY's storied history, it has been produced numerous times across this country; the 'greatest American musical' is also often referred to as a 'perfect' musical. And Maine State Music Theatre's current production of GYPSY is just that: perfect.

Brusnwick, Maine is home to galleries, restaurants, Bowdoin College, and Maine State Music Theatre. Theatre packages make Brunswick a great weekend getaway during the theatre season.

Les Mis. A French title, and a show so popular it has its own nickname. When the show premiered in London in 1985, some people wondered how on earth Victor Hugo's masterpiece of a novel could be turned into a musical. Those people have long since been silenced. Les Miserables has become one of the world's most beloved musicals, and Maine State Music Theatre's current production proves exactly why.

A show about how complicated raising a child now seems to be with the constant presence of technology, the media, new learning disabilities and disorders, and the fact that everyone is always on the move. Everything is much more complicated, and pure familial values are not always easy to find anymore.

2013 IRNE Nominations have been announced, as updated on the organization's Facebook page today, February 18, 2013. As of yet, no April date has been set for the awards ceremony. Scroll below for the full list of nominations!

Fiddlehead Theatre Company, in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union, with the support of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, City of Boston, present a new production of the Tony Award-winning musical RAGTIME. The production runs September 28-October 7, 2012 at Boston's Historic Strand Theatre, and aims to celebrate the work of the ACLU, and in particular keep issues of personal liberty at the forefront of people's minds during the upcoming elections. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the character portraits below.

The Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards recognize the extraordinary wealth of talent in the Boston theatre community, and this year's nominations have just been announced. IRNE Reviewers include among others David Brooks Andrews, Sheila Barth, Jules Becker, Kay Bourne, Beverly Creasey, Shirley Esthimer, Richard Fahey, Guy Giampapa, Norm Gross, Nancy Grossman, Bryce Lambert, Beatrice Lee, Kilian Melloy and Larry Stark.