Roger Rees News

The Broadway Education Alliance has announced the 2020 roster of Greater New York City high schools participating in the 10th annual presentation of The  Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance, www.rogerreesawards.com. The fifty-three (53) high schools represent Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, as well as Long Island, Orange County, Rockland County, and Westchester County.

The 2020 Broadway Teachers Workshop brings Theatre Teachers behind the scenes on Broadway, with a list of alumni including Lin Manuel Miranda, Stephen Sondheim, Harvey Fierstein, Susan Stroman, and Bobby Lopez.

The Broadway Education Alliance and Gotham Writers Workshop announced today that submissions are now open for the 2nd annual 'You Will Be Found' College Essay Writing Challenge, inspired by the Tony® and Grammy® Award-winning Broadway hit Dear Evan Hansen.

The Williamstown Theatre Festival has been the starting place for a number of plays and musicals that end up securing a spot on the Great White Way! Recently, there have been multiple Broadway hits that began at the Festival. In honor of the most recent, Grand Horizons, we're taking a look back on some other biggest WTF transfers from the past few years!

Jordan Fisher and Andrew Barth Feldman, stars of Dear Evan Hansen, join the BroadwayCon 2020 lineup for an exclusive panel moderated by People's Dave Quinn for attendees about playing the iconic role of Evan Hansen on Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 10 a.m. Tickets are on sale now at BroadwayCon.com/register.

BroadwayCon and the Broadway League Foundation have announced the finalists for the fourth annual BroadwayCon Star To Be talent competition. Finalists will perform on the BroadwayCon MainStage for a panel of three celebrity judges and a room full of fellow Broadway fans on Saturday, January 25, 2020. The 2019 Jimmy Awards® winners Ekele Ukegbu and Ethan Kelso will perform during the competition while the judges deliberate. The BroadwayCon Star to Be winner will receive a pair of tickets to the 2020 Jimmy Awards ceremony.

MasterVoices, led by Artistic Director Ted Sperling, continues its 2019-20 season on January 10 and 11 at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice with the New York premiere of Iron & Coal, Jeremy Schonfeld's multimedia rock-opera about his family's experience in the Holocaust and its aftermath. Along with MasterVoices, joining Schonfeld onstage will be distinguished theater artist Rinde Eckert, tenor Daniel Rowan, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and the New York-based contemporary music ensemble, Contemporaneous.

The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell S. Bernard, Trustee) in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) presented the fifteenth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Angela Sclafani & Benjamin Velez. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, was presented by Kate Baldwin on Monday, December 2nd from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lounge of The American Airlines Theater.

The Emojiland kingdom is now complete! Arborhouse Productions & Visceral Entertainment (Michael Chase Gosselin and Tim Sulka) today announced that Max Crumm (Grease, Disaster) will take on the role of the Man In Business Suit Levitating emoji, along with Jacob Dickey (Aladdin Broadway as Aladdin) as Smiling Face with Sunglasses, (aka a?oeSunnya??), Dwelvan David (Finding Neverland & The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess Tours) as Guardsman, Heather Makalani (Aladdin) as Kissy Face, Tanisha Moore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Tour) as Woman Dancing and Jordan Fife Hunt (A Chorus Line First Revival Tour) as Man Dancing.

The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell S. Bernard, Trustee) in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) will present the fifteenth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Angela Sclafani & Benjamin Velez. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, will be presented by Kate Baldwin on Monday, December 2nd from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lounge of The American Airlines Theater.

Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Everyman Theatre Cheltenham today announce a brand new production and UK tour of Ronald Harwood's highly acclaimed drama The Dresser starring the much loved UK entertainer Julian Clary as Norman and Olivier Award winner Matthew Kelly as 'Sir'. Directed by Terry Johnson, The Dresser will run at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre from 10 to 19 September 2020 followed by Theatre Royal Bath from 21 to 26 September where it will have its opening night for press on 23 September 2020. The production will continue to tour until Spring 2021 with further dates and venues to be announced in due course. Tickets for Cheltenham and Bath go on sale tomorrow.

The Legendary Chita Rivera keeps on moving in her extraordinary nightclub act at 54 Below.

With her latest appearance at Feinstein's / 54 Below Betsy Wolfe is poised for Broadway stardom.

YELLOW SOUND LABEL has announced that Jukebox Saloon Vol. 2, featuring Chicago-based vocalist Colby Beserra and New York keyboard whiz Dan Lipton, is available in digital and streaming formats starting today, Friday, September 27. Beserra and Lipton bring their strong musicality and love of a good song to the Jukebox Saloon. Inspired by the classic Tony Bennett/Bill Evans duo records, a pair of pros strips down and re-engineers their favorite songs with a sense of musical adventure. They create unique, jazzed-out interpretations of songs you know and songs they'd like you to hear. Jukebox Saloon Vol. 2 is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music and other music services.

Following a highly acclaimed tour in 2018, The Original Theatre Company and The Anthology Group in association with Peter Stickney and York Theatre Royal's production of Alan Bennett's THE HABIT OF ART will return and tour the UK in 2020. Directed by Philip Franks and starring Matthew Kelly as Fitz (W. H. Auden) and David Yelland as Henry (Benjamin Britten). The tour begins on 18 March 2020 at Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne.

Watch more from the big night and below, watch as Ekele performs a song from the musical she was nominated for- Aida- on Live with Kelly and Ryan!

Broadway's Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen, is currently in its third record-smashing year at the Music Box Theatre. Following the success of the Broadway production, a national tour launched soon after, bringing the story across North America. A sit-down production made its way to Toronto earlier this year, and will be followed by a West End production set to debut in October 2019 at the Noel Coward Theatre.

This week, the 2019 Jimmy Awards nominees paid a visit to current Evan Hansen and former Jimmys winner, Andrew Barth Feldman, and the whole gang at Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway!

The winners of the eleventh annual JIMMY AWARDS® were determined and announced last night, Monday, June 24, 2019, at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway. This life-changing event was hosted by Tony Award® winner Ben Platt and presented by the Broadway League Foundation.

BroadwayWorld is bringing you the inside scoop on this year's Jimmy Awards with student blogger Jeremy Fuentes- a nominee from New York's Roger Rees Awards. Earlier this year, he won the title of Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Calogero in Archbishop Stepinac High School's A Bronx Tale. Read Jeremy's second entry below and click here to catch up on his first!