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em>I thought we had a serious financial crisis that required everyone to sacrifice?Yes friends, President Obama and First Lady Michelle had another of their famous "date nights" Saturday. Instead of clogging traffic in Washington, D.C. to visit a restaurant, they hopped on the Marine One helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base, jumped on Air Force One (a Gulfstream 500, not the 747) then flew up to New York City followed by TWO OTHER PLANES for staff and press (the 747 would have been cheaper). Upon landing in New York several more helicopters, limos, vans, police, military and other staff were...

Two martinis, a swank restaurant, a Broadway show President Obama really knows how to treat a First Lady. "I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished," the president said yesterday after touching down at JFK for an intimate night on the town. The first couple left their girls, Sasha and Malia, behind at the White House yesterday afternoon, taking two helicopters and a small Air Force jet to make their way to Manhattan. The Obamas were dressed to...

Remember that little speech the President made in Elkhart Indiana in February. The one where he said: But, you know, you are not going to be able to give out these big bonuses until you pay taxpayers back. You can’t get corporate jets. You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime. There’s got to be some accountability and some responsibility, and that’s something that I intend to impose as president of the United States. This afternoon that same President took his wife on the "Corporate" Jet (Airforce One)...

For all of the people sprawled out on those lawn chairs along shuttered Broadway in Times Square, take note: A certain famous family plans to be awfully close by on Saturday evening. President Obama and his wife, Michelle, plan to visit New York City on Saturday and take in a Broadway show, the August Wilson play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at the Belasco Theater on West 44th Street, according to three theater executives who have been informed of the First Family’s plans. The theater executives spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the president’s...

In life, the playwright August Wilson had an all-but-official rule: No white directors for major productions of his work, which was one reason that a film was never made from his 10 plays about African-American life in the 20th century. “Fences,” one of the two awarded the Pulitzer Prize, foundered in Hollywood because of his insistence on a black director. Yet in the years since Wilson died in 2005, an increasing number of white directors have staged his plays, and last week came a milestone: “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” which opened on April 16, is the first Broadway revival...

SOMEBODY at the Sundance Channel must have something against Jane Fonda. Before Saturday's preview of "33 Variations," her first Broadway performance in 46 years, Vietnam War vets picketed the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, still riled up about her 1972 visit to North Vietnam, where she straddled an anti-aircraft gun and gave her support to the enemy. *snip* "FTA" stands for "[Bleep] the Army."

NEW YORK — It's been decades, but Jane Fonda still can't shake her "Hanoi Jane" image from the Vietnam War. About a dozen Vietnam veterans and other protesters on Saturday picketed the theater where the 71-year-old actress is starring in the Broadway play "33 Variations," telling passers-by that she had once visited their communist enemy in Hanoi.

It seems that New York Times writer Patrick Healy has a big fascination with the word "penis." He uses it over and over and over again in his article about how actor Will Ferrell exposes a projected penis on stage in his play, "You're Welcome, America. A Final Night With George W. Bush." The New York Times must be really desperate if they have to resort to "penis" overuse to get their circulation numbers up. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Healy's story conference with the Theater section editors resembled a certain scene from the movie, "Porky's." When reading...

So far six audience members have stormed out midperformance of the Broadway show “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush,” the comedian Will Ferrell’s lampooning of the 43rd president, according to those keeping count at the Cort Theater. But they haven’t been leaving after a particular Ferrell quip. They’ve been standing up, instead, after the projection of a supersize photo on the backdrop of the stage. A photo of a penis. Specifically, as Mr. Ferrell (who plays President Bush) leads the audience to believe, the president’s penis. Except that’s not quite right. “It’s an anonymous but age-appropriate...

So far six audience members have stormed out midperformance of the Broadway show “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush,” the comedian Will Ferrell’s lampooning of the 43rd president, according to those keeping count at the Cort Theater. But they haven’t been leaving after a particular Ferrell quip. They’ve been standing up, instead, after the projection of a supersize photo on the backdrop of the stage. A photo of a penis. Specifically, as Mr. Ferrell (who plays President Bush) leads the audience to believe, the president’s penis. Except that’s not quite right. “It’s an anonymous but age-appropriate...

“Skippyjip,” who says he is not a huge fan of Will Ferrell’s, calls a rehearsal version of Ferrell’s upcoming stage show about George W. Bush “well-crafted,” “smart” and “very, very funny.” Co-written by Ferrell and his “SNL”/“Anchorman” collaborator Adam McKay, it opens Jan. 20 and closes March 15. HBO will telecast it live, likely on or near closing night. I love that they’ve already got a guy throwing shoes from the audience! Hey Harry, Long time reader, but this is my first scoop/review. I just saw a staged reading of an early version of Will Ferrell’s new one man Broadway...

America's economic woes have taken a heavy toll on Broadway, where the final curtain is coming down on 15 shows in the next six weeks. Even some of New York’s most feted productions, such as the Equus revival starring Daniel Radcliffe, have been playing to half-filled houses while other shows have survived no more than weeks. In one of many worrying statistics for the US' theatre capital, only two Broadway productions made money this season – a revival of The Seagull starring Kristin Scott-Thomas and another of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, starring Katie Holmes – and they were both...

More than 50 years after the musical “West Side Story” had its original Broadway premiere, it is set to return in February in a darker, grittier, bilingual revival, the show’s producers said on Wednesday. In an element that its director, Arthur Laurents, said would heighten the passion and authenticity of the show, much of the dialogue — both spoken and sung — will be in Spanish. “They will speak Spanish where they would naturally,” Mr. Laurents said in a telephone interview from his home in Quogue, N.Y., adding that supertitles would be used to aid the audience. “The scenes with...

U2 has two big projects for the coming year — a new album and a Broadway musical of "Spider-Man" directed by "The Lion King" guru Julie Taymor. At last week’s Broadway premiere of "Young Frankenstein," sharp-eyed observers noticed U2’s own guru, manager Paul McGuiness, scoping out the Hilton Theater on 42nd Street with an eye toward putting "Spider-Man" in there. The show requires a very high ceiling stage for all the flying that will go on. Alas, McGuiness is said to have commented, "I guess we’re out of luck" when he saw how successful "Young Frankenstein" is going to be.

NEW YORK - Stagehands will go on strike Saturday, a move expected to darken most of the plays and musicals on Broadway, according to a person close to contract negotiations. The strike was to begin at 11 a.m., shuttering an early matinee of "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical," said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity Friday night because the person was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Both the union, Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and the League of American Theatres and Producers held two days of...

George Grizzard, a versatile actor who achieved his greatest renown on the stage, playing everything from Shakespeare to Shaw, from Neil Simon to Edward Albee, died yesterday in Manhattan. He was 79 and lived in Manhattan... Mr. Grizzard’s career began in the 1950s and lasted more than 50 years. He had roles in movies and was a familiar face on television...

An introduction by Silly appears in the first post. This article may make more sense if you read that first. While Assassins might seem like an attractive piece for a theatre to consider at first glance - the Sondheim name, minimal scenery, smallish cast, gripping subject matter - it is much more of an undertaking than it would first appear. To begin with, you have the outraged chorus of everyone from the board to the neighbors - "A MUSICAL? About Assassins? I just can't imagine what kind of musical numbers you could do. Aren't you trivializing the subject? Aren't you...

April 1, 2007 -- BROADWAY has taken notice of an anti-war student play that was banned from being performed at a Connecticut school - but it's unlikely local audiences will get to see it, either. "Voices in Courage," a drama about the Iraq war based on interviews and letters from veterans, got the ax from Timothy Canty, principal of Wilton HS, who claimed it was too one-sided.

The Third Annual "What's the Most Romantic Broadway Love Song Ever?" If you told us three years ago that we would have had some of the biggest stars and leaders in the industry telling us what their favorite love song from a Broadway musical is, even WE wouldn't have believed you. In our third year, we've gotten more responses than ever, to add to the first two years of great names that we have already assembled, for one of BroadwayWorld.com's most popular features. Welcome to the 2007 edition of "What's the Most Romantic Broadway Love Song Ever?" compiled by Editor-in-Chief...

Evil Dead the Musical will come alive at New World Stages on Monday, October 2 for an unlimited Off-Broadway run. The official opening is set for Wednesday, November 1 at 7:00 PM. "A 'dis-arm-ingly' riotous musical comedy based on Sam Raimi's 80s cult-classic horror films, Evil Dead the Musical unearths the old familiar story: boy and friends take a weekend getaway at abandoned cabin, boy expects to get lucky, boy unleashes ancient evil spirit, friends turn into Candarian Demons, boy fights until dawn to survive. As musical mayhem descends upon this sleepover in the woods, "camp" takes on a whole...