Heath Saunders News

Gavin Creel chatted about making his Lyric debut, his hopes for the future of equity and access on Broadway, and how he handled self-care during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Musical improv meets Broadway in a big way in 'Shitzprobe', the newest show from rising improv producing team Kiki Mikkelsen and Ali Reed at Asylum NYC. The new show features a Broadway star as they throw away the script and score and improvise a musical for the very first time!

After a 15-month shutdown due to the COVID-19 epidemic, proprietors Steve Baruch, Richard Frankel, and Tom Viertel have announced that “Broadway’s Supper Club” Feinstein’s/54 Below will reopen its iconic red door for live performances on June 17, 2021. 

On May 20, Off-Broadway theater company The Civilians will host Life Studies, a livestreamed benefit concert supporting the company and its artistic community. This year’s virtual event will celebrate risk-taking artists who look deeply into our world to reveal new truths.

The 52nd Street Project is shining a spotlight on the creative voices of their young songwriters, with performances by stars of stage and screen, in their annual gala that is being hosted by Nancy Giles. 

SOUP TROUPE ONLINE goes live each week to rate soups within a variety of different categories, recall favorite soup memories, and more.

The Civilians will present a concert reading of Kate Douglas and Grace McLean’s new musical Against Women & Music! The musical, which was developed in The Civilians R&D Group, will be directed by Sarna Lapine and music directed by Simone Allen.

Tune in on Sunday, April 18 at 1PM EST for SOUP TROUPE ONLINE. Hosted by co-founder Danny Feldman (Hide and Seek) and co-president Dani Wergiles, BroadwayWorld's Favorite 2021 Livestream is streamed every weekend to discuss soups and more with special guests.

Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced The New Classics: Songs from the New Golden Age of Musical Theater, a virtual cabaret starring Broadway’s Gavin Creel, Nikki Renée Daniels, and Norm Lewis, plus Amanda Castro, Jenn Gambatese, Jo Lampert, and Heath Saunders, with David Chase as music director and featuring members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra.

The theater community just reunited in Times Square exactly one year to the day since Broadway shut-down for 'We Will Be Back,' a special live pop-up experience and commemoration of Broadway's 'lost year.'

Today's top stories: streaming Broadway Backwards event announced, Once On This Island comes to limited edition orange vinyl, and more!

The third installment of Encores! Inside the Revival features director Victoria Clark, Encores! Music Director Rob Berman and Consulting Producer for Musical Theater, and previous Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel as they revisit, Love Life a year later and discuss their process of imagining Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s rarely seen 1948 musical. 

New York Theatre Barn will host a free live stream of its award-winning New Works Series on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021 at 7PM EST, featuring excerpts from the new musicals The Lesson and Nothing To See Here. The live 1-hour presentation will also feature a conversation with the writers and creative team. 

New York Theatre Barn will continue to host bi-monthly free live streams of its New Works Series on select Wednesday evenings at 7PM ET. Available on New York Theatre Barn’s YouTube channel & Broadway on Demand, each installment of the live 1-hour series includes excerpts from two new musicals and a conversation with the writers and creative team.

The Saunders Collective presents a virtual closed reading of the new musical Newton's Cradle: A Ghost Story, written by Heath Saunders and Kim Saunders.

New York City’s Institute for American Musical Theatre is moving forward with plans for its unique 2-year “Creators” program. Built and run by award winning lyricist-librettist Sam Carner (Island Song, Unlock’d), the new intensive and highly collaborative training will be guided by a faculty of New York theater professionals working at the highest levels of the business.

This week's list includes an album of demos from Beetlejuice the Musical, as well as the first single from the forthcoming film adaptation of The Prom. Plus, the first song from Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of Cinderella has been released.

The spooktacular, fantastical stream of I Put a Spell on You, an over-the-top and cinematic homage to Hocus Pocus, raised $239,241 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS over the Halloween weekend.

Broadway Records announced today the release of the digital album of I Put A Spell On You. Expanded from the annual, sold-out concert-meets-party conceived by Jay Armstrong Johnson, the recording features an all-star cast of Broadway stars turned Disney villains, just in time to celebrate Halloween.

Broadway Records announced today the release of the digital album of I Put A Spell On You. Expanded from the annual, sold-out concert-meets-party conceived by Jay Armstrong Johnson, the recording features an all-star cast of Broadway stars turned Disney villains, just in time to celebrate Halloween.