All stories by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Alyssa Fox and McKenzie Kurtz on Leading Wicked‘s 20th Anniversary Cast by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

It’s a question that prospective leading ladies have been asking themselves for two decades now: Are you an Elphaba or a Glinda? The two witches — neither wicked, but both accessibly imp…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 10:40AM

The Power of Wicked‘s Evergrowing Legacy by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Wicked opened on Broadway on Halloween Eve 2003, just a few years into my tenure as music and theater critic at USA Today. I arrived at a press preview filled with hopeful anticipation, havi…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 10:30AM
Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony Finally Arrives on Broadway by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

It was back in the late 1990s that pop icon Barry Manilow and lyricist and librettist Bruce Sussman first began work on a musical tracing the rise and fall of the Comedian Harmonists, a Germ…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 11:30AM
Tuesday, April 27, 2021

A Look at the Broadway Favorites Featured this Awards Season by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

As we look forward to seeing Broadway stars back on stage, they have continued to be recognized during this unusual awards season for their efforts on the big screen, in music, and on our TV…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 12:18AM
Tuesday, April 13, 2021

How NY PopsUp Brought Performances back to NYC by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

On April 2, more than a year after the COVID pandemic forced the shutdown of all Broadway theaters, 150 lucky people filed into the St. James Theatre to enjoy a pair of short sets by Savion …

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 11:49AM
Tuesday, September 1, 2020

A Look Behind the Scenes of Broadway National Tours by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

The theater community is facing an unprecedented obstacle this year in the form of COVID-19, the virus that shuttered Broadway last March and has proven equally devastating for the touring i…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 12:44AM
Tuesday, June 23, 2020

A Look at What Should Have Been the 2019-20 Tony Awards Season by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

The Tony Awards honoring the 2019-20 season were supposed to have been handed out on June 7 at Radio City Music Hall, in an annual ceremony that has been a joyous ritual since 1947 and has b…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 12:11AM
Tuesday, April 21, 2020

How Broadway’s Crews and Creatives are Keeping Busy During COVID-19 by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

It goes without saying that the theater industry has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. But stage folk have never been known to let a crisis get them down, and with New …

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 12:06AM
Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Duncan Macmillan on the Intimate Conversations in His Play, Lungs by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

About a dozen years ago, when Duncan Macmillan wrote the foundation for what would become Lungs, the celebrated British playwright and director had not yet become a parent. But the subject w…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 12:56AM

Claire Foy and Matt Smith on Bringing Lungs to New York by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

When actress Claire Foy was sent a copy of Duncan Macmillan’s acclaimed play Lungs, “I absolutely loved it,” she remembers. “I thought it was extraordinary. But at the time, I’d be…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 12:52AM
Monday, February 10, 2020

How Sing Street Champions Young Voices for the Stage by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Boy meets girl, boy forms rock group to impress girl, boy and girl embark on journeys of self-discovery, accompanied by friends and bandmates and exuberant song and dance. Welcome to Sing St…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 07:56PM

John Carney and Gary Clark on Writing Sing Street‘s Energetic Music by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

If you’re wondering how John Carney and Gary Clark collaborated to craft songs for Sing Street — the music-packed 2016 film that became an acclaimed Off-Broadway musical and arrives on B…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 07:48PM
Monday, December 16, 2019

Three Years In, Alex Lacamoire Still in Pursuit of the Perfect Sound by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

When orchestrator, arranger, and musical supervisor Alex Lacamoire met composer and lyricist Justin Paul for dinner back in 2013, Lacamoire recalls, a “mutual admiration society” was cre…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 07:09PM
Monday, December 2, 2019

The Cast of Company on the Transformative Revival by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Over the past decade, director Marianne Elliott has scored a string of critical and commercial triumphs bringing both highly original works—the Tony Award-winning plays War Horse and The C…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 07:24PM

Katrina Lenk on The Fresh Reimagining of Sondheim’s Company by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

In recent years, Katrina Lenk has gained the attention of Broadway audiences — and a Tony Award. She originated roles in daring new works that premiered Off-Broadway and in regional theate…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 11:10AM
Monday, November 11, 2019

Pulitzer-Prize Winning A Soldier’s Play Finally Arrives on Broadway by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

More than 35 years after winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama, Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play is at long last headed to Broadway. The cast is led by a pair of veteran stage and screen…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 07:22PM
Monday, November 4, 2019

Kristin Chenoweth on Celebrating Her Greatest Influences in For The Girls by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Three years ago this November, one of Broadway’s most beloved stars declared her own affection for the Great White Way with Kristin Chenoweth: My Love Letter to Broadway. It was a live con…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 07:58PM
Tuesday, October 15, 2019

From Succession to Broadway: How Brian Cox Was Drawn to the Legacy of LBJ by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

When Scottish stage and screen actor Brian Cox was first approached about playing American president Lyndon Baines Johnson in The Great Society, it was for a dramatic reading. Cox was wrappi…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 02:09PM
Friday, October 4, 2019

Harry Connick Jr. Brings His Own Perspective to Cole Porter by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Harry Connick Jr. has gotten a kick out of Cole Porter’s music since he was a child piano prodigy. He discovered its essential role in jazz repertoire while he grew up in New Orleans — w…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 10:51AM
Monday, September 30, 2019

Conor McPherson on Being Inspired by Bob Dylan’s Music by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

For the celebrated Irish playwright Conor McPherson, Girl From the North Country represents a number of firsts: his first musical, his first work set in the United States, and, oh yes, his f…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 10:38PM

Mare Winningham and Simon Hale on Adapting Bob Dylan for Broadway by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

She’s a veteran stage and screen actress, a singer/songwriter, and she has several albums, two Emmy Awards, and Tony and Oscar nominations under her belt. He’s an eminent musician, compo…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 09:10PM
Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Broadway Tours Coming this Fall by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

As the fall theater season approaches, a number of popular and beloved productions are preparing to hit the road, bringing notable musicals from Broadway and beyond to a national audience. T…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 05:31AM

An Exclusive Interview With the Touring Stars of Frozen by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Long before they were cast as the two sisters who drive the plot of Disney’s Frozen in the new touring production of the musical, Caroline Bowman and Caroline Innerbichler were fans of the…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 05:28AM
Tuesday, August 6, 2019

David Byrne on Bringing American Utopia to Broadway by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

David Byrne — singer/songwriter, frontman of the groundbreaking band Talking Heads, author, composer, director — is poised to add another title to his collection: Broadway star. This fal…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 06:51AM

The Creative Team Behind American Utopia by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Choreographer Annie-B Parson says that in her latest work, the upcoming Broadway production American Utopia, “the music and dance are the protagonists.” And the leading players providing…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 06:01AM
Thursday, June 13, 2019

Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge on Bringing Sea Wall/A Life to Broadway by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

It was “a strange twist of fate,” according to Tom Sturridge, that brought him together with fellow stage and film star Jake Gyllenhaal for the double bill of one-act plays Sea Wall/A Li…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 05:41AM

Carrie Cracknell: Breaking Stereotypes in Sea Wall/A Life by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Five years ago, the British director Carrie Cracknell won praise in New York for a U.K.–based production of A Doll’s House, a fresh adaptation of Ibsen’s protofeminist play by Simon St…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 05:30AM
Monday, June 10, 2019

Women at the Helm: Veteran Designers by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Veteran designers Ann Roth, Jennifer Tipton, and Christine Jones can claim more than 130 years of Broadway success combined, not to mention a vast array of other theater credits and work in …

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 02:42PM
Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Tony-Nominated Plays and Musicals by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

Greek mythology, Shakespeare, the Constitution, Rupert Murdoch, old-school R&B, and a pair of beloved films from the 1980s were among the diverse sources of inspiration for 2019’s Tony…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 09:40AM

Tony-Nominated Stars by Elysa Gardner For Broadway Direct

This year’s Tony Award nominations for acting recognize a number of stage and screen stars — among them, Annette Bening, Jeff Daniels, Bryan Cranston, Adam Driver, Laurie Metcalf, and Ja…

SOURCE: Broadway Direct at 09:20AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards