Mary Chase News

Jack Urbont and Michael Colby's bewitching musical Mrs. McThing, with a splendid cast of New York theater pros, is slated for two benefit performances at TADA! Youth Theater on Halloween, Sunday, October 31st at 2pm and 7pm. TADA! Youth Theater is located at 15 West 28th Street in Manhattan.

It was just announced by the Pulitzer Prize organization that Katori Hall's The Hot Wing King has officially won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This year's finalists included Circle Jerk by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley and Stew by Zora Howard.

Melbourne Civic Theatre has announced its next production, HARVEY, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic by Mary Chase.

Not-for-profit, History Matters: Celebrating Women's Plays of the Past (formerly History Matters/Back to the Future) has announced its winner for this year's Judith Barlow Prize. The Annual Judith Barlow Prize is awarded to a student playwright for an exceptional one-act play inspired by the work of an historic female playwright.

This week's list includes the upcoming holiday Hadestown album, the cast recording for the Les Miserables Staged Concert, and more!

Need something new to read or listen to? Check out this week's list of new and upcoming releases! This week's newly-announced releases include the cast recording for A Killer Party, which features Carolee Carmello, Drew Gehling, Laura Osnes, Alex Newell, Jeremy Jordan, and more!

It was just announced by Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy that Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop has officially won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This year's finalists included: Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning and David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's Soft Power.

The Pulitzer Prize Board today will present the 2020 award winners' (originally scheduled for Monday, April 20) for Prizes in Journalism, Books, Drama and Music. Who will win this year? Tune in right here at 3pm to watch the announcement live!

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the greatest theatrical works (non-musical) from 1920-2020; see if your favorites made the list!

Not-for-profit History Matters/Back to the Future has announced its winner for this year's Judith Barlow Prize. The Annual Judith Barlow Prize is awarded to a student playwright for an exceptional one-act play inspired by the work of an historic female playwright. The student winner of the prize receives a $2,500 award and a reading of their work in New York City, with a $500 award to the professor of the course in which the inspiring play was taught.

The story follows Elwood P. Dowd - a polite man with a very strange best friend. Elwood's sister, Veta, is concerned her brother's friend will interfere with her life as a socialite, and who can blame her? Elwood's friend is a six-foot, three-and-one-half- inch invisible rabbit named Harvey. To avoid future embarrassment, Veta attempts to have Elwood committed, but after her frantic recount of her brother's condition she finds herself mistakenly committed instead. The truth quickly reveals itself, and the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When Elwood shows up at the sanitarium looking for his long lost friend Harvey, it seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusion has had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors, which leads Veta to realize that maybe Harvey isn't so bad after all.

Back in that age we call golden, Broadway marquees were frequently set ablaze by long-running plays that producers looking to turn a profit lovingly referred to as boulevard comedies. These were typically middlebrow laugh machines expertly crafted by the likes of Mary Chase, Neil Simon or Abe Burrows (Think HARVEY, THE ODD COUPLE or CACTUS FLOWER), involving contemporary everyday characters in realistic situations containing just enough sentiment to make you care about what happens next, while maybe even wrapping up with an uncontroversial, heartwarming message.

New York based singer-actress, Maureen Taylor, brings an unusual cabaret to Don't Tell Mama this holiday season based on the lyrics of Michael Colby. Cosmic Connections: Six Degrees of Michael Colby will bow at Don't Tell Mama on Dec. 21st and is scheduled for four total performances on Dec. 21st, 27th and 28th at 7pm, and Dec. 29th at 2pm.

WaterTower Theatre Producing Artistic Director Shane Peterman today announced casting and creative details for Harvey. 

Not-for-profit History Matters/Back to the Future is accepting applications for this year's Judith Barlow Prize now through December 31st. The Annual Judith Barlow Prize is awarded to a student playwright for an exceptional one-act play inspired by the work of an historic female playwright. Annually, the first place student winner of the prize receives a $2,500 award and a reading of their work in New York City, with a $500 award to the participating professor.

RISE will present The Haunting of Hill House, an adaptation of the book that helped create the haunted house genre originally written by Shirley Jackson.

Tandy Cronyn will star in The Tall Boy, a play by Simon Bent based on 'The Lost' by Kay Boyle and directed by David Hammond. It will be presented on Saturday, September 28 at 2pm at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street) as part of United Solo Theatre Festival. Having won their award for Best Adaptation in 2014, The Tall Boy has been invited back to the Festival as a 'The Best Of' selection for United Solo's Tenth Anniversary season. In December The Tall Boy will go to Chicago for a limited run (December 5 -15) at Stage 773.

BWW Review: HARVEY at Adobe Theater

The always working French Stewart, a most recognizable face from television, will next be seen on the theatrical boards of the Laguna Playhouse, co-starring with his wife Vanessa Claire Stewart in Mary Chase's Pulitzer Prize-winning HARVEY, opening June 2, 2019. French plays the pivotal role of Elwood P. Dowd who befriends the titular Harvey, a six-foot-and-a-half tall rabbit. French graciously made some time available to answer a few of my inquiring queries.

LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE is delighted to present French Stewart and Vanessa Claire Stewart starring in the wonderfully comic HARVEY, written by Mary Chase and directed by Andrew Barnicle.  Comments Artistic Director Ann E. Wareham and Executive Director Ellen Richard, "We could not think of a better play to end our 98th season with than HARVEY, starring French and Vanessa Claire Stewart under the inspired direction of Andrew Barnicle. French Stewart will be the perfect Elwood, a role he has always wanted to play! Our subscribers and audiences are going to go crazy with laughter and believe in very tall rabbits once more!"