Are you looking to looking to buy some theater tickets before the end of the summer? There is a cavalcade of wonderful productions currently on Broadway and on tour. Theater fans are buzzing over new shows like Memphis, Come Fly Away, American Idiot, and Rock of Ages, while shows like Wicked, The Lion King, Jersey Boys, and Chicago continue to pack them in at every performance. The action of Off-Broadway is just as exiting with the always entertaining Blue Man Group playing at the Astor Place Theater, a pulse-pounding production of Stomp running at the Orpheium Theater, and the foul-mouthed puppets of Avenue Q making audience laugh nightly at Stage Three at the New World Stages. There are productions of Jersey Boys, Billy Elliot, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, A Chorus Line, Grease, Hair Spray, Legally Blonde, South Pacific, Rent, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, and Mamma Mia are all touring the United States this year. Go see a show!

The story of the 1956 jam session involving Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley has made it all the way to Broadway. The Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott written musical, Million Dollar Quartet, has leaped from resounding success in Daytona Beach, Seattle, and Chicago to Broadway’s Nederlander Theater. The show bases around the four performers meeting at Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios and the performers break out renditions of “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Great Balls of Fire”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, and many more. Million Dollar Quartet was up for three Tony Awards, and actor Levi Kreis won a Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Jerry Lee Lewis. The musical taps into the careers of the four performers who want on to help define the musical genres of rock ‘n roll, country, rockabilly, and honky tonk. Their is still a troupe performing the musical at The Apollo Theater in Chicago.

Promises, Promises has become one of the biggest success stories recently on Broadway, currently ranking third on Broadway.com’s most popular list. The show had not been on a Broadway in more than 40 years, but the story of Chuck, a love-stricken businessmen who lends his apartment to his bosses to enjoy their extra-martial affairs. The object of his affection, a local waitress named Fran, becomes a mistress of one of the executives and sends Chuck into chaos. Chuck and Fran are played brilliantly by Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. The show is up for four Tony Awards including Best Actor in a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Orchestrations, and Best Choreography. Sean Hayes himself will host the Tony Awards on June 13th, 2010 airing on CBS. The show is currently playing at The Broadway Theater.

When you’re interested in hearing a fun musical, think about seeing the American Idiot musical in April. The show will feature the music of Green Day and the great singing of some big Broadway Stars. The previews begin in a little while, but the real performances are going to be starting in April. We have heard that this might be the most popular show of the season. This kind of combines with the trend that we’ve seen in the last few years of famous pop music being converted into a show for Broadway. Just think of it. Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys, and Billie Elliott have very similar concepts behind them, although the actual stories vary pretty widely. It’s going to be interesting to see how they decide to put this show onstage, but we don’t have too many details yet, since they are still in the rehearsal process. Just a few weeks to go though!

It’s only been about 6 weeks since the show actually opened and now it’s already leaving. Ragtime had a good run this year though. In their auditions earlier this spring, they were able to put together some great performances that won them a spot on Broadway. The previews were great and the reviews of the show were almost all positive. They found a way to make this older show seem more interesting and relevant all over again. A reviewer even went as far as to say that it was what made musical theater seem worthwhile. As this production winds down, though, we should congratulate the cast and crew on putting together such a good version of this show, which, while it didn’t last very long at the Neil Simon Theater, was still top quality entertainment.

When God of Carnage opened earlier this year, or at the end of last year, there were some high expectations. It’s has largely met those expectations with the winning of awards and selling a lot of tickets. But lately, the show is slumping in their sales. It has been interesting to ask people why. Some people think that a lot of the people who want to see it already have. Others didn’t know anything about it and might go check it out. If you’re one of them, let’s review what this show is about. It’s about two sets of parents who have to get together to discuss their children, who got into a fight in school and one of them lost a tooth during the fight. They end up discussing everything else and their deeper feelings about the world come out. It’s a funny commentary on the world and their new cast will be just as good as the first.

It’s only been a little while since Avenue Q closed on Broadway. With the musical showing great possibilities for us this year, they reopened it off-Broadway the last few weeks. It’s not all that different from the original productions and we have really enjoyed it. This is a fun show for people, because it reflects the cynicism of people at a certain stage in life and it has great music. Ave Q mixes puppets with the story of a college grad who is naive but excited as he leaps into life. The reviews have been good, especially since the producers got a bunch of veteran performers to lead the show and we really enjoy it a lot. People have anticipated the new version of Ave Q for many months and they have been lining up to enjoy the music and the hilarity since they found out that it was actually opening.

When you want to see Disney characters on the ice this year, you will enjoy them performing some of the best material that Disney has to offer. Disney on Ice tickets are still available for all the rest of their shows. The casts across the country are performing as many as 10 different shows at once. High School Musical is one of the most popular, especially with the teenager crowd. Finding Nemo, based on the movie, is also one of the fan favorites in recent years. No matter which show you want to see, these are some of the most entertaining performances around. You will see favorite characters in costume on skates, singing your favorite songs. Enjoy the show!

The show Babes in Toyland is one of the plays that is interesting to watch. I ran across this review of the newest production and the reviewer turned out not to like it that much. They have written something very different from the operetta of the early 20th century. They have some swearing and some odd thematics compared to the original. They do perform the original songs but none of them are particularly well done, it would seem. It’s an odd mix of old music and new script and the cast hasn’t quite figured it out. At the same time, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that they are trying something new with a script that everyone already knows. Innovation onstage is very helpful and after that it might get even better. We’ll see if they improve the picece at some point in the near future.

Well, it’s not a kind of show that you’ve never seen before. It’s actually a fairly typical one: man wakes up with another woman on the night of his own wedding. In this version of the story, “Perfect Wedding”, that’s the most shocking thing that happens. It’s kind of too bad that they don’t get much more out of the chain of this plot. There are plenty of possibilities with this particular idea. It appears, however, according to this review, that the show doesn’t distinguish itself in any meaningful way from other similar productions. It’s kind of loud. That’s about all that they say. Meanwhile, some people really like this kind of show. It’s a fun slapstick show and not everyone cares if it’s a new or different show; it’s good enough to have a fun play to see and then just have a good time. It’s all about what you personally like.