Theater News

Photo File

Chess masters, Dance enthusiasts, and other stars smile for our cameras.

New York City

They’re here for Chess: (l-r) Adam Pascal, Julia Murney, Josh Groban, Sutton Foster, Norm Lewis, and Jonathan Dokuchitz have principal roles in The Actors’ Fund of America’s benefit concert of Chess, to be presented on Monday, September 22 at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Here, the stars are caught at a press presentation of several numbers from the show, held at the New Dance Group studios on Tuesday, September 16.



The Chess preview was filled with gripping musical moments. Among them were recording star Josh Groban’s moving rendition of “Where I Want to Be”…

…the famous duet “I Know Him So Well,” gorgeously sung by Murney and Foster…

…and “Nobody’s Side,” thrillingly delivered by Murney, an underapprecated talent who may well emerge from Monday’s concert as a true musical theater star.

Also on Monday, the Broadway production of Urinetown celebrated its second birthday with a party at Zanzibar. Here’s Charles Shaughnessy — a.k.a. Mr. Sheffield on TV’s The Nanny — who recently joined the cast in the role of Caldwell B. Cladwell.

Among the other revelers at the Urinetown bash were the show’s three current female leads: (l-r) Spencer Kayden, Carolee Carmello, and Amy Spanger.








Spanger was escorted to the party by her husband, actor Michael C. Hall of TV’s Six Feet Under.


Here’s a better view of the Urinetown cake, with its trenchant message.



Everybody dance! The upcoming Broadway production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks held a meet-and-greet at the New Dance Group on Tuesday, September 9. Here, from left to right, are choreographer Kay Cole; director Arthur Allan Seidelman; stars Polly Bergen and Mark Hamill; and playwright Richard Alfieri.


Manhattan’s newest cabaret venue — Mama Rose, located at 219 Second Avenue between 13th and 14th streets — opened on Monday, September 15 with Mark Nadler and KT Sullivan (pictured here) in a tribute to the life and music of Irving Berlin.






Earlier in the evening on September 15, the Broadway Theater Institute bestowed its 2003 Awards for Excellence at The Players Club. Pictured here is Nine composer-lyricist Maury Yeston (center) who accepted the award to the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, presented by Avenue Q songwriters Jeff Marx (left) and Robert Lopez (right). All three men are former students of the workshop, and Yeston also taught there.







Also on hand for the Broadway Theater Institute event was actor-writer B.D. Wong, who presented an award to the Materials for the Arts organization.






Finally, here are two photos from yet another September 15 event. That afternoon, the fabulous Lynn Redgrave, pictured here, read the role of Hannah Jelkes in the world premiere of the one-act version of Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana in the Food for Thought/Lunch Hour Theatre series at the National Arts Club.



Here’s Redgrave again with her co-stars in the reading, Daniel McDonald (who played Shannon) and Kathleen Turner (who played Maxine Faulk).