The Public Theater has rehearsal photos from the New York premiere of Soft Power, running September 24-November 10.
A co-commission and co-production with Center Theatre Group, Tony nominee Leigh Silverman directs this new musical-within-a-play featuring a book and lyrics by Tony winner David Henry Hwang and music and additional lyrics by Tony winner Jeanine Tesori, with choreography by Tony nominee Sam Pinkleton.
Aida will run at the Westchester venue October 11–27. Based on the Verdi opera of the same name, the musical features a score by Elton John and Tim Rice and a book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang.
Off-Broadway's Public Theater has announced a one-week extension to the upcoming New York premiere staging of Soft Power. Originally announced to run through November 3, the production will now conclude its limited off-Broadway engagement on November 10. The new musical is scheduled to begin previews on September 24 and officially open on October 15.
Based on Disney’s 1999 animated musical take on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ archetypal feral child, this touring production features music by Phil Collins and a book by Tony Award-winning playwright, David Henry Hwang.
September 24: David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's new musical-within-a-play, Soft Power, begins previews at the Public Theater. Directed by Leigh Silverman with choreography by Sam Pinkleton, the show rewinds recent political history and plays it back, a century later, through the Chinese lens of a future, East-meets-West musical.
Roundabout Theatre Company and Columbia University School of the Arts have announced the winners of Columbia@Roundabout's 2019 New Play Reading Series. As part of the collaborative partnership between Roundabout Theatre Company and Columbia University, the reading series awards three playwrights from the current MFA program and recent alumni with a cash prize as well as a reading in Roundabout's Rehearsal Hall, followed by a post-reading reception. Five finalists have also received cash prizes in recognition of their exceptional work. No other collaborative partnership in the New York area brings together an esteemed Ivy League MFA program with a Tony Award-winning, not-for-profit theatre. The reading series is made possible by a grant from The Tow Foundation.
Playwrights featured in the fourth annual Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series include Matt Barbot (The Venetians), Gordon Penn (Black Garden) and Gina Stevensen (The Colony). Finalists include Melis Aker (Field, Awakening), Elisabeth Frankel (2076), Dayoung Jeong (Sweet Pee), Devon Kidd (Not Even God) and Adam North (Spin).
Off-Broadway's Public Theater has announced a one-week extension to the upcoming New York premiere staging of Soft Power. Originally announced to run through November 3, the production will now conclude its limited off-Broadway engagement on November 10. The new musical is scheduled to begin previews on September 24 and officially open on October 15.
After an August that seemed to bring the closing of nearly every Broadway show in quick succession, the New York theater world is gearing up once again for a season that feels simultaneously cautious and offbeat. On Broadway, there are fewer big-gamble musicals than last season, with producers opting for a steady supply of jukebox, from Tina Turner to Alanis Morrissette, but there are also straight play imports from London and summer theater festivals, as well improv rap, just to mix things up. Elsewhere, you’ll find intriguing revivals, directors taking big swings, and of course, many gestating movie-to-musical adaptations.
The September selection for the ongoing Off The Page series of staged readings at Sierra Madre Playhouse is Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang on Monday, September 23, at 7:00 p.m.
The lines between truth and fiction blur with hilarious and moving results in David Henry Hwang’s unreliable memoir. Asian-American playwright DHH, fresh off his Tony award win for M. Butterfly, leads a protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as “yellowface.”
Tarzan was held at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, with its first performance in 2006.
For many professionals, being part of a Broadway musical is a high point in their career. Unsurprisingly, producing a Broadway musical demands a high investment that goes to actors, directors, costumes, productions and the list goes on.
However, there are no guarantees that a musical will be a success once it reaches the stage. Therefore, some plays go under a trial period in other cities before arriving on Broadway. Here are the 10 most expensive Broadway musicals ever produced.
Disney Theatrical Productions commissioned David Henry Hwang, a Tony Award winner, to write the Tarzan musical book. The play was based on the 1999 animated movie and cost $14 million, according to the New York Times.
On Feb. 12 and 13, 2020, Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang will be in residence in the Quad-Cities as part of the 2019-2020 Visiting Artist Series from Quad City Arts. The 62-year-old Los Angeles native will be at a reception at 5 p.m. Feb. 12 at Augustana and then give a public lecture at 7:30 p.m. that night.
Plácido Domingo performs in the San Francisco Opera's production of "Herodiade" in 1994. (Dwayne Newton/AP)
Perhaps it’s time to decentralize the star system that currently fuels opera. There are plenty of composers, performers and directors who manage to reflect on the canon even as they create works that speak to audiences today.
Many work on the fringes, but some are coming to main stages. Next year, the Santa Fe Opera will give the premiere of Huang Ruo’s “M. Butterfly,” an adaptation of David Henry Hwang’s play of the same name, which rethinks Puccini’s opera via the lens of a real-life encounter between a French diplomat and a Chinese spy. The Tuscan-born Puccini’s themes of exoticism and orientalization will be repurposed by a composer born in the Chinese province of Hainan.
![[0463]_Jin Ha and Company in M. BUTTERFLY, Photo by Matthew Murphy, 2017.jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5650c08ce4b0d0315338fd6a/1565813537287-BKPHLWVISECT083CB3CP/%5B0463%5D_Jin+Ha+and+Company+in+M.+BUTTERFLY%2C+Photo+by+Matthew+Murphy%2C+2017.jpg)
The world of opera has plenty of connections to Broadway, but it's usually within the world of musical theatre. These seven straight plays break that mold, bringing bel canto, high notes, and that unmistakable theatricality to the theatre stage.
M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang
The story of a Frenchman who falls in love with a male Peking opera singer disguised as a woman and becomes ensnared in an espionage plot sounds made up. But this Madama Butterfly-adjacent play is actually based on a true scandal that emerged in the ‘80s when authorities discovered evidence implicating the pair.
Happy Birthday David!!
Playwright David Henry Hwang is 62. Actress Arlene Dahl is 94. Songwriter-producer Kenny Gamble is 76. Rock musician Jim Kale (Guess Who) is 76. Magazine columnist Marilyn Vos Savant is 73. Country singer John Conlee is 73. Singer Eric Carmen is 70. Computer scientist and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is 69. Wrestler-actor Hulk Hogan is 66. Singer Joe Jackson is 65. Actor Miguel A. Nunez Jr. is 60. Actress Viola Davis is 54. Actor Duane Martin is 54. Actor-host Joe Rogan is 52. Actress Anna Gunn is 51. Actress Ashley Jensen is 51. Actress Sophie Okonedo is 51. Rock guitarist Charlie Sexton is 51. Hip-hop artist Ali Shaheed Muhammad is 49. Actress Merritt Wever is 39. Actor Chris Hemsworth is 36. Rock musician Heath Fogg (Alabama Shakes) is 35. Singer J-Boog is 34. Actress Alyson Stoner is 26.
Heather Headley in Aida Joan Marcus
What 2017 Tony-nominated revival is based on a 1904 opera? Which musical adaptation earned Anika Noni Rose a 2019 Lucille Lortel Award?
When words fail in theatre, characters have no choice but to sing. For these six operatic masterpieces, the words had to be sung twice. From a gripping story of love and loss from Verdi to Puccini’s story of betrayal and tragedy, here are half a dozen operas that received a musical theatre makeover.
Aida into Aida
Giuseppe Verdi’s 1870 opera of forbidden love sees the Ethiopian princess, Aida, captured and held hostage by Egyptian officers who are unaware of her true identity. During her imprisonment, she and Radamès, an Egyptian soldier, fall in love, and are forced to choose between their hearts and their homes. In 1998, Elton John, Tim Rice, and book writers Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang adapted the tragic love story.
Why is a musical that perpetuates a Western fantasy of Asians as small, weak and effeminate people still so popular?
“Miss Saigon” is revived and on tour again, playing in a theater near me. This is exciting news for some fans of Broadway musicals, and for Asian and Asian-American actors with the chance for important roles. For others, to whom “Miss Saigon” perpetuates deeply held notions of Asian inferiority, this is bad news.
The playwright David Henry Hwang saw the absurdity of this story. His still-relevant play “M. Butterfly” precedes “Miss Saigon" but might as well be satirizing it, too.
Based on Disney's epic animated musical adventure and Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan features heart-pumping music by rock legend, Phil Collins, and a book by Tony Award-winning playwright, David Henry Hwang. High-flying excitement and hits, like the Academy Award winning "You'll Be in My Heart," as well as "Son of Man" and "Two Worlds," make Tarzan an unforgettable theatrical experience.
Washed up on the shores of West Africa, an infant boy is taken in and raised by gorillas who name him Tarzan. Apart from striving for acceptance from his ape father, Tarzan's life is mostly monkey business until a human expedition treks into his tribe's territory, and he encounters creatures like himself for the first time. Tarzan struggles to navigate a jungle, thick with emotion, as he discovers his animal upbringing clashing with his human instincts.
From Spaceman Off-Broadway in 2019 to the Andy Warhol-produced Man on the Moon in the ‘60s, these cosmos-set shows are out of this world.
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 touched down on the moon and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on it. To celebrate the anniversary, Playbill has gathered a list of space–related shows ranging from operas set on the moon to an Olivier Award–winning musical.
Read more about David Henry Hwang’s opera The Voyage at Playbill
Join the cast of Appleseed Community Theatre’s “Tarzan” for a jungle journey full of humor, heart and adventure, beginning July 19 at the Fine Arts Center, 1301 Lancer Boulevard in La Crescent.
Based on the epic Disney animated film and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Tarzan of the Apes,” the stage musical features the familiar music of Phil Collins and a book by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang.
The American Theatre Wing has announced new appointments to its Board of Trustees and Advisory Committee.
The American Theatre Wing Advisory Committee provides support and guidance to the Board and staff of the Wing as they implement the Organization's goals and objectives.
"I am thrilled that these remarkable individuals care so passionately about the American Theatre that they are joining the Wing's ranks, devoting their time, energy, and resources to help ensure excellence in our field," remarked David Henry Hwang, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
