Jerry Zucker News

This autumn BILL KENWRIGHT will stage a new production of the timeless story of love, despair and hope: GHOST - THE MUSICAL.

'We do art because of what it does for us - how it transforms us,' actor Gregg Goodbrod states with quiet conviction. 'Being an actor helps me to understand other people and see their lives and my own from a different perspective. That's why doing a play like Ghost becomes a journey that really resonates for me.' Goodbrod is speaking about his emotionally and physically demanding role as Sam Wheat in the new chamber version of the original 1990 movie and 2011 stage musical, which is currently playing at Maine State Music Theatre. He uses an example of the scene in which Sam, now a ghost, watches his beloved Molly sort through his belongs. 'I am really very Method as an actor, so I try to get into it completely and feel the actual feelings. And as I am watching Liz [Shivener] play this scene, it suddenly hits me that all these things are not what are important. If I were go, I know it is the love that I would miss. That's why I am an actor - so I can take these journeys and learn new lessons.'

Maine State Music Theatre's 2016 opening brought the East Coast premiere of the stunning and soul-stirring new chamber version of Ghost The Musical, and the evening proved to be an extraordinary artistic event! Not only did this production represent an unique collaboration between director/choreographer Marc Robin and the musical's original creators, Bruce Joel Rubin, Glen Ballard, and Dave Stewart, but it offered Maine audiences the opportunity to savor the depth and range of this remarkable company's artistry. For the Ghost which was unveiled at Brunswick's Pickard Theater June 9 (a co-production of MSMT and Lancaster's Fulton Theatre) dazzles with the complexity of its score, the tenderness of its story, its symphonically perfect direction, splendid visual values, and by the deep identification of the cast with the material.

'What they did is nothing short of miraculous! I know because I was there as a friend, a colleague, an artist. I was there in that room as the magic was happening!' Award-winning actress E. Faye Butler is speaking of the Fulton Theatre and Maine State Music Theatre, of her old friends from their Rockford, Illinois days, Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark, and of the entire creative team and cast of the new chamber music version of the musical Ghost in which she now stars. The Bruce Joel Rubin-Glen Ballard-Dave Stewart show which opens at Maine State Music Theatre in Brunswick on Thursday, June 9, is a reprise (and New England premiere) of the newly minted chamber adaptation presented at Lancaster's Fulton Theatre on April 21, 2016, after a year-long development process. One can feel the excitement and electricity in Butler's presence and her comments about this play with music which, she believes has given new life to both the original 1990 Jerry Zucker movie starring Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze, and Whoopi Goldberg and the 2011 stage version. 'E. Faye is a force of nature!' MSMT Managing Director Stephanie Dupal proclaimed when she saw her in the premiere.

Hello Broadway world!

GHOST author Bruce Joel Rubin and director Marc Robin are unveiling a new, leaner, tighter version of GHOST: THE MUSICAL. They and leads Gregg Goodbrod and Liz Shivener speak out on re-recreating a classic story.

The 'nationally regarded' Fulton Theatre and Maine State Music Theatre present the exclusive premiere of the new chamber version of Ghost: The Musical through May 14 (Performances at Maine State Music Theatre are June 8 - June 25, 2016). The romantic and heart-wrenching story will feature a cast of 10, focusing on the central characters of the original story, with a 6 piece orchestra. New acoustic versions of the songs from the original Broadway production will include, 'Unchained Melody,' 'Here Right Now,'  'Suspend My Disbelief - I Had a Life,' and more!   BroadwayWorld has an exclusive first look below!

 The “nationally regarded” Fulton Theatre and Maine State Music Theatre present the exclusive premiere of the new chamber version of Ghost: The Musical through May 14 (Performances at Maine State Music Theatre are June 8 – June 25, 2016). The romantic and heart-wrenching story will feature a cast of 10, focusing on the central characters of the original story, with a 6 piece orchestra. New acoustic versions of the songs from the original Broadway production will include, “Unchained Melody,” “Here Right Now,”  “Suspend My Disbelief – I Had a Life,” and more!

 The "nationally regarded" Fulton Theatre and Maine State Music Theatre present the exclusive premiere of the new chamber version of Ghost: The Musical through May 14 (Performances at Maine State Music Theatre are June 8 - June 25, 2016). The romantic and heart-wrenching story will feature a cast of 10, focusing on the central characters of the original story, with a 6 piece orchestra. New acoustic versions of the songs from the original Broadway production will include, "Unchained Melody," "Here Right Now,"  "Suspend My Disbelief - I Had a Life," and more!

This autumn BILL KENWRIGHT will stage a new production of the timeless story of love, despair and hope:GHOST - THE MUSICAL.

truTV, a division of Turner, unveiled premiere dates for its upcoming spring lineup, including the return of hit hidden-camera comedy series The Carbonaro Effect (March 23) and the humorous and practical life-hack series Hack My Life

The supernatural power of love will explode onto the Australian stage in GHOST THE MUSICAL, directed by Matthew Warchus, starting today 8 January 2016, headed by ROB MILLS as 'Sam Wheat', JEMMA RIX as 'Molly Jensen' (Wicked fans will be overjoyed), ALEX RATHGEBER as 'Carl Bruner' (direct from his Helpmann Award Winning performance in Anything Goes) and introducing remarkable British theatrical and television actress WENDY MAE BROWN as 'Oda Mae Brown' (the role made famous by Whoopi Goldberg).

In what has become an annual ritual, a total of 36 established and emerging composers, lyricists, and librettists will converge on the Goodspeed campus from mid-January through mid-February 2016 to participate in the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals. The writing teams, representing 19 new musicals, will populate the campus, creating a truly exciting environment for discovery and inspiration. BroadwayWorld is excited to report that Goodspeed has announced its 2016 participants. Scroll down for details!

The Producers of GHOST THE MUSICAL have just announced that after an exhaustive casting process by Tony Award-winning director Matthew Warchus, a cast has been assembled.

The supernatural power of love will take Australia by storm when the Broadway and West End hit Ghost The Musical, adapted from the Academy Award-winning film, premieres in Australia in Adelaide on 8 January 2016 before touring nationally.

The supernatural power of love will take Australia by storm when the Broadway and West End hit GHOST THE MUSICAL, adapted from the Academy Award-winning film, premieres in Australia in Adelaide on 8 January 2016 before touring nationally.

Joe's Pub at The Public presents Largo, a night of song from the legendary concept album, tonight, October 30 at 7:00PM. Largo was produced and written in 1998 by Rick Chertoff and Rob Hyman, with co-writing by David Forman and Eric Bazilian. This show is the first step in re-envisioning the iconic work for the theater. Tickets are $25 and available online, by phone (212-967-7555) and at The Public's box office (425 Lafayette, NYC) now.

Joe's Pub at The Public presents Largo, a night of song from the legendary concept album, on Thursday, October 30 at 7:00PM. Largo was produced and written in 1998 by Rick Chertoff and Rob Hyman, with co-writing by David Forman and Eric Bazilian. This show is the first step in re-envisioning the iconic work for the theater. Tickets are $25 and available online, by phone (212-967-7555) and at The Public's box office (425 Lafayette, NYC) now.

On the surface, GHOST, the ultra-romantic 1990 Oscar-nominated box office hit, seems every bit the perfect motion picture to be repurposed into a flashy stage musical. Unfortunately, the musical that eventually emerged (now playing at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts through August 10) is a chaotic, schizophrenic melange of random adult contemporary pop rock songs intermixed with an amped-up mystical mystery where the swoon-worthy aspects of the original gets diluted in favor of dazzling effects and abstract dance numbers. Why water down the romance?

The supernatural power of love is taking Orange County by storm as the new Broadway and West End musical GHOST - THE MUSICAL, adapted from the Academy Award-winning film, opens at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, today, July 29 - August 10.