Theater

Arts

'One Night In Miami', More Than Clay Beats Liston

8:53am August 12, 2013

by Iris Mann

A new play tells the story of the night Cassius Clay, who changed his name to Muhammad Ali, beat Sonny Liston to take the world heavyweight title. It takes place in a hotel room after the fight where Clay, Sam Cooke, Malcolm X and Jim Brown talk about their lives, and their hopes for the future.

Queue Listen Now

In Season 2 of The Newsroom, Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.) goes on the 2012 campaign trail.

Arts

John Gallagher Jr. On 'Newsroom' Dialogue And Staging Green Day

2:28pm July 29, 2013

In addition to playing a cable news producer on Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama, Gallagher is a Tony Award-winning Broadway performer. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about starring in a punk rock musical and rehearsing Sorkin's Newsroom scripts.

Queue Listen Now

Exorcistic, a rock parody inspired by a certain 1971 novel and the William Friedkin film made from it, showcases Merlin as a rapping priest inspired by Max von Sydow's Father Merrin. Above, the show poster for the musical's Los Angeles fringe production.

Arts

For Hannibal & Co., A Horrifying New Stage

2:26pm July 24, 2013

by Beth Accomando

One Los Angeles performer has played Dr. Hill in Re-Animator, Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, and now Father Merrin in The Exorcist. Did we mention he sings opera, too?

Queue Listen Now

Daniel Breaker, a Juilliard-trained actor who's earned praise for roles as varied as Donkey in Shrek the Musical and the protagonist Youth in Passing Strange, gets to play a king in a new musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost.

Arts

'Love's Labours,' Tuned Up And Playing In The Park

7:14pm July 23, 2013

by Jeff Lunden

For the first time since the Tony Award-winning adaptation of Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1972, New York's Public Theater is presenting a brand-new musical as part of the Shakespeare in the Park series. The team behind the hit Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson have adapted Love's Labour's Lost.

Queue Listen Now

The Long Walk, Brian Castner's memoir of PTSD and a difficult homecoming, will soon be an opera.

A Veteran's Piercing True Story Leaps From Page To Stage

6:26pm July 23, 2013

by Quil Lawrence

Iraq vet Brian Castner wrote a memoir of post-traumatic stress disorder and a difficult homecoming. His book, The Long Walk, got good reviews. But Castner never expected that it would get turned into an opera in New York City.

Queue Listen Now

Krysta Rodriguez played Ana Vargas in the recently canceled backstage-on-Broadway TV series Smash, and Zachary Levi earned a fervent following in the title role of NBC's Chuck. Both performers have backgrounds in the theater, and they'll be together on Br

Arts

Broadway's 'First Date': A Greek Chorus Of Emotional Baggage

12:37pm July 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

Turns out the nerd-turned-spy from the TV show Chuck can sing. Zachary Levi is rehearsing for his first role on Broadway — a new musical comedy called First Date, which also features Krysta Rodriguez, the star of another NBC program, Smash.

Queue Listen Now

Arts

Disruptive Broadway Audiences Master Stage Whisper

5:36am June 11, 2013

by Margot Adler

Cell phone rings. Loud talking. Candy wrappers crinkling. Even fights in the aisles. Have Broadway audiences gotten ruder?

Queue Listen Now

T-Bone Burnett, John Mellencamp and Stephen King are the creative team behind Ghosts of Darkland County, a stage show based on a true story of small-town tragedy.

A Rock Star, A Novelist And A Super-Producer Write A Musical

8:04am June 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

No, it's not the setup to a joke. John Mellencamp, Stephen King and T-Bone Burnett are the creative team behind Ghosts of Darkland County, a stage show based on a true story of small-town tragedy.

Queue Listen Now

Arts

National Black Theatre Festival Announces 2013 Schedule

7:26pm June 04, 2013

Performers from around the world will entertain people in the Triad for six days and nights.

Keith Carradine (right) performs with the cast of Hands on a Hardbody during its spring 2013 run in New York.

Two Songs That Led Keith Carradine From Screen To Broadway

6:22pm May 25, 2013

by NPR Staff

One of Keith Carradine's most famous roles in recent years was as Wild Bill Hickok on the HBO TV show Deadwood. But Carradine is also a musician, and it was a song that jump-started his career — and another that drew him to his latest Broadway role.

Queue Listen Now