Big River premieres first in the season lineup. With a book by William Hauptman and a score by well-known country-music songsmith Roger Miller, this seven-time Tony Award-winner is a musical adaptation of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Both comical and poignant, this acclaimed musical takes audiences on an adventure down the Mississippi River

Workers "gutted and updated almost everything that was not concrete. To create more lobby space without disrupting the building's circular shape, they went underground, taking out 30 parking spaces to create a stylized lounge with gold, curved couches and mosaics of mirrored tiles that fit the era in which the building was designed. And yes, there are more bathrooms: 16 stalls for women."...

Philip Seymour Hoffman will direct the European premiere of 'RIFLEMIND', a new play by Sydney Theatre Company Co Artistic Director Andrew Upton. 'RIFLEMIND' will open at the Trafalgar Studios in the hubbub of London's West End on Thursday 18 September, following previews from 15 September.

Signature Theatre is pleased to announce complete casting for the opening show of its 2008-2009 season, ACE. With music by Richard Oberacker and book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker, ACE will be directed by Signature's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer with choreography by Karma Camp. Set just after WWII, ACE is an epic story of a young boy's search to come to terms with his past and unlock his future. A tale of triumph, humor, and heart as seen through a child's eyes, ACE magically explores the heroic lives and unforeseen legacies of the men and women of America's Greatest Generation.

The new york Musical Theatre Festival and Leschen, Mrozek & Sauter present the world premiere of BEDBUGS!!!, an official selection of the New York Musical Theatre Festival's 2008 Next Link Project.

Jerry Manning, casting director at Seattle Repertory Theatre for the past eight years, has been named acting artistic director.

"In Edinburgh, a vast majority of venues are staffed by unpaid volunteers, serving the needs of performers who have actually paid to perform in return for an often derisory cut of their box office takings. As monster-venue empires spread ever more widely, they begin to resemble factories built on slave labour and exploited workers."...

"In most areas of life professionals are paid and amateurs are unpaid, but in the theatre lots of actors who regard themselves as professionals end up working for nothing. The distinction between pro and am often seems to be more a state of mind than anything else. But 'amateur' doesn't have to mean 'amateurish'."...

"There are other social and cultural factors that play a role in keeping young people away from the theatre that also need to be addressed, things that run deeper than price alone, like the perception of the medium, by some, as elitist, worthy, and maybe, just a tad dull, a form of entertainment that is for people 'other than us'."...

"The New Electric Ballroom" affirms Enda Walsh's growing reputation as a contender to take his place in the long, distinguished line of great Irish playwrights.