Angel Reda

By: Iris Wiener

The Broadway musical, War Paint, chronicles the story of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, ferocious rivals played respectively by Patti LuPone and Christine Ebsersole. The two women reinvented the 20th Century beauty industry, and the musical centers on their challenges as women and adversaries in transforming how the world saw women.in the business. Their tale is complemented, and enhanced, by Angel Reda, a member of one of the hardest working ensembles in the theatre today. Angel is a Kansas native best known for covering every role in Broadway’s Chicago and one of Hugh Jackman’s dancers in Hugh Jackman in Performance. In War Paint, she dons many heals and shades of lipstick as Ms. Arden’s solicitor, Miss Smythe, and plays a number of other roles as well. Angel spoke with Theaterlife.com about the challenges and privileges of working on a new musical, along with her desire to play Shakespeare.

Analisa Leaming

Broadway’s Analisa Leaming Celebrates the Holidays on Long Island as Mary Poppins

By Iris Wiener Mary_Poppins_1

James Monroe Iglehart

James Monroe Iglehart on Juggling the Biggest Heart and Busiest Schedule on Broadway

By: Iris Wiener

James_Monroe_Iglehart_Photo_by_Cylla_von_Tiedemann James Monroe Iglehart in Aladdin Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann

Paula Poundstone / Bay Street

Award-winning comedian returns to Bay Street Theater Thursday, September 22.

By: Patrick Christiano

Paula Poundstone legendary for her spontaneous wit and spot on humor is returning to Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor for another of her unscripted evenings of laughter on Thursday, September 22 at 8pm. I enjoyed a brief telephone chat with the popular comedian in hopes of uncovering what makes her tick and came away realizing there is no formula for just being yourself and enjoying life’s outrageous dichotomies. paula-horizontal-april-2016

Peter Reckell

Soap Star Peter Reckell Returns to The Fantasticks After 35 Years

By: Iris Wiener

Performing in soap operas, television series’ and theater have filled the days of Peter Reckell’s life, though it has been quite some time since he took to the New York stage to share his singing voice. In fact, it was thirty-five years ago that he was featured in the Greenwich Village production of The Fantasticks, the long-running, modern, musical twist on Romeo and Juliet, to which he will be returning on September 5th, this time with career defining experience under his belt.
Peter_Reckell

Alan Mingo Jr.

Alan Mingo Jr. Steps Into Broadway’s Kinky Boots

By: Iris Wiener

The saying goes that until you have walked a mile in someone else’s shoes, you won’t be able to understand him or her. Until Alan Mingo Jr. first donned the iconic heels for Toronto’s Kinky Boots, he had no idea what he was getting himself into, nor did he even remotely imagine how Lola, a character made famous by Tony Award winner Billy Porter, would change his life. Mingo

Greg Hildreth

             Greg Hildreth Celebrates the Second Fiddle at 54 Below

         By: Iris Wiener

JOY BEHAR

IN THE SPOTLIGHT/JOY BEHAR brings ME MY MOUTH AND I to Guild Hall.

By:Patrick Christiano

BREAKING NEWS: Behar is returning to The View as part of a shake up for the 19th season, reportetedly at Barbara Walters request. When we spoke on Friday she only hinted they had asked her back, but that they didn’t offer what she wanted. Well I guess things have changed. She will be one the show’s rotating co-hosts. And the live taping that will now happen five days a week will give an added jolt of energy

Michael McGrath

Michael McGrath Gets Political at George Street Playhouse

By: Iris Wiener

No one knows better than Michael McGrath that performing is Nice Work if You Can Get It, seeing as how he won a Tony Award for playing the role of Cookie McGee in the 2012 production of said musical. However, he is having no problem getting nice work these days, whether it’s in portraying the personal secretary for the president of the United States, singing show tunes in a Broadway revival, or bringing comedy to a stage adaptation of a television classic. McGrath, who is also known for bringing his talent to Broadway’s Memphis and Spamalot (for which he was also nominated for a Tony), is currently stepping into his third role in a play written by Joe DiPietro with The Second Mrs. Wilson at George Street Playhouse.

Scott Wise

Tony Winning Dancer Extraordinaire Returns to Broadway in Allegiance

By: Ellis Nassour

Scott Wise, three-time nominee and 1989 Tony winner as Featured Actor, Musical, two-time Drama Desk nominee, and winner of a coveted Astaire Award, had been absent from Broadway for nine years. He’s back and playing a featured role and in the ensemble of Allegiance. Following a recent Saturday matinee, he instinctively knows what the first question will be: "What took so long?"

Constantine Maroulis

An Intoxicating Reunion By: Iris Wiener

Constantine Maroulis previews upcoming Toxic Avenger concert at 54 Below.
In a special one-night-only concert on June 8th at 54 Below, Constantine Maroulis is joining his Alley Theatre castmates in a freak-tastic reunion of epic

proportions. The Toxic Avenger is a comical love story and the winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best off-Broadway Musical, which ran at New World Stages, Alley Theatre, and George Street Playhouse in a few different incarnations. In an attempt to clean up New Jersey’s most polluted town, protagonist Melvin is dumped into a vat of radioactive toxic waste, only to reemerge as the The Toxic Avenger.

Elizabeth Ashley Part 2

Tony-winner Elizabeth Ashley, Co-starring in You Can’t Take It with You: A Life Not Always Well-Lived but She Wouldn’t Change a Thing – Part 2

By: Ellis Nassour

Elizabeth Ashley, one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation, came on the New York scene from the deep South and found herself destined for great things – in theater, in film, and on TV. She had a seductive beauty, gorgeous legs, an aura of mystique, and a unique rapid-fire voice dripping with Southern Comfort and mint juleps infused with magnolias. She dazzled with a new kind of spunk.

Elizabeth Ashley Part 1

Tony-winner Elizabeth Ashley, Co-starring in You Can’t Take It with You: A Life Not Always Well-Lived but She Wouldn’t Change a Thing – Part 1

By: Ellis Nassour

Elizabeth Ashley is one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation. Born in Florida, but raised in the deep South of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Once she made the decision to come to New York, with her dazzling-some-have-said-seductive beauty, gorgeous legs, an aura of mystique, and a unique rapid-fire voice dripping with Southern Comfort and mint juleps infused with magnolias, she was quickly noticed and cast in major roles.

Kristin Chenoweth

Kristin Chenoweth Returns to Her Roots for Hometown Concert on CD and a Thanksgiving Special on PBS November 28

By: Ellis Nasso

Tony and Emmy winner and "the li’l darling of Broadway" Kristin Chenoweth brings her myriad talents to a new CD, Coming Home [Concord Records] and this weekend [November 28 at 8 P.M.] in a Thanksgiving special on PBS, Kristin Chenoweth: Coming Home, directed by Kenny Ortega.

Said to have "one of the most captivating voices ever to grace a Broadway stage," Chenoweth returned home to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where she was raised – adopted as an infant with Southern and Midwestern family values. She grew up singing in her church choir.

Scott Schwartz

"Hunchback" at La Jolla
By: T.E. McMorrow

After four years of work by an artistic team headed by director Scott Schwartz, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," which goes into previews at La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, Cal., Oct. 26, is anything but your child’s cartoon version of the Victor Hugo classic.

Still produced by Disney, and using many musical elements from both the 1996 animated film, as well as the 1999 stage production which had a book by James Lapine, and played for three years in Berlin, this is, none the less, a re-conception of the piece. "This version is completely different," Schwartz said on the phone last week during a break from tech rehearsal. "It is a whole new take."