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The 2006-2007 Broadway season gets underway with a bang on Sunday, Sept. 10 as more than 200 performers gather on a gigantic outdoor stage in Times Square. Hosted by Martin Short, star of the current musical extravaganza that bears his name, the 15th annual Broadway on Broadway concert is free and open to the public.

Highlighting the show will be special sneak-preview performances from upcoming shows including Grey Gardens, High Fidelity, Jay Johnson: The Two and Only, Les Misérables, and The Times They Are a-Changin' (program subject to change). 

Also on tap will be musical numbers from Broadway's long-running hits and holdovers from last season. See performances from Avenue Q, Beauty and the Beast, The Color Purple, The Drowsy Chaperone, Hairspray, Jersey Boys, The Lion King, Mamma Mia!, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, The Producers, Rent, Spamalot, Tarzan, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Wedding Singer, and Wicked.

The fun starts at 11:30 a.m.at the Crossroads of the World, but get there early to stake out a great location. Your best bet is to enter Times Square from the north.

Broadway on Broadway is presented by Continental Airlines and Sprint. The official sponsor is The New York Times. Additional support is provided by Theatre Development Fund, Panasonic - proud supporter of Audience Rewards - and NYC & Company. Promotional Partners are Madame Tussaud’s New York, Broadway Previews, and Hilton Hotels. Special thanks to Actor’s Federal Credit Union. Broadway on Broadway is produced by the League of American Theatres and Producers and the Times Square Alliance.

For more information, as well as a complete list of participating shows, visit the Broadway on Broadway website.

Though Broadway theatre is a year-round entertainment medium, most new productions open in the spring and fall. This autumn is no exception, with a host of plays and musicals set to open in the next few months. And if you want to see stars, read on—the upcoming slate of Broadway shows in New York features a particularly celebrity-filled roster of Broadway and Hollywood favorites. Here are some of the highlights.

The Plays

Julianne Moore makes her Broadway debut as a war correspondent tuned academic in the world premiere of The Vertical Hour by David Hare (The Judas Kiss, Stuff Happens).

Nathan Lane stars in Butley, Simon Gray's dark comedy about a literature professor whose world is crumbling around him.

A new Tom Stoppard play is always an event, and this season there are three reasons to celebrate: Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia is an epic trilogy set among writers and thinkers in 19th-century Russia. The Lincon Center Theater production features a line-up of heavy hitters including Billy Crudup, Richard Easton, Josh Hamilton, David Harbour, Ethan Hawke and Brían F. O'Byrne.

Julie White stars as a high-powered Hollywood agent in Douglas Carter Beane's Off Broadway hit from last season, The Little Dog Laughed, which moves uptown to the Cort Theatre.

Matthew Arkin, Mark Linn-Baker, and Michele Pawk appear in Losing Louie, Simon Mendes
da Costa's comedy from London about multiple generations of the same family.

Perhaps the most unusual of this fall's non-musical productions is Jay Johnson: The Two and Only . This one-man show stars Jay Johnson, a ventriloquist and comedian, along with a supporting cast of his favorite dummies.

Modern-dance maven Twyla Tharp hit big a few seasons back with Movin' Out, a rock ballet based on the music of Billy Joel. This fall she returns with The Times They Are a-Changin', which matches her choreography to the songs of Bob Dylan.

Last spring's much-heralded Off Broadway hit Grey Gardens was based on a 1975 documentary film about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's deliciously eccentric aunt and cousin. It arrives on Broadway with its star cast of Christine Ebersole and Mary-Louise Wilson intact.

Also from Off Broadway comes the rock musical Spring Awakening, based on Franz Wedekind's 19th-century German drama about teenagers grappling with their emerging sexuality, with music by Duncan Sheik. Michael Mayer directs with choreography by Bill T. Jones.

Legendary Broadway producer Cameron Mackintosh (The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon) teams with Disney to bring Mary Poppins to Broadway. This adaptation of the beloved P. L. Travers novel incorporates the songs from the famous film version of the story.

Mackintosh is also reviving Les Misérables, his long-running mega-hit that ran on Broadway for a decade and a half. The new Les Miz cast features Alexander Gemignani (Jean Valjean), Norm Lewis (Javert) and Daphne Rubin-Vega (Fantine).

Another long-running favorite returns to Great White Way this fall. Charlotte d'Amboise and Michael Berresse lead the cast of A Chorus Line, the first Broadway revival of a show that spotlights the hardworking “gypsies,” the anonymous dancers who perform in the chorus of Broadway musicals.

John Doyle, who staged the memorable 2005 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in which the actors doubled as the orchestra, works his magic again this season with Company. This Sondheim/Furth musical portrays Bobby (Raúl Esparza), a single, 30-something bachelor, and his married friends. Barbara Walsh also stars.

High Fidelity, a new musical version of the Nick Hornby novel and the 2000 film of the same title, depicts a record store owner and compulsive list-maker as he reviews his recent romantic entanglements.

Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas: The Musical! opens for a limited run just in time for the holidays.

To keep up-to-date on the latest on Broadway shows in the Big Apple, visit ILoveNYTheater.com, the official website for Broadway theatre, available in six languages.

Touring Broadway plays and musicals go out “on the road” to visit more than 240 North American cities each year. Some tour on their way to New York; others step out across the continent after they have premiered on Broadway; and some are produced especially for the road. Here are some of the touring productions that will debut this fall.

Norbert Leo Butz reprises his 2005 Tony Award®-winning performance in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, based on the film comedy of the same title. This musical depicts the madcap adventures of a pair of con men who ply their trade among society women on the French Riviera.

A pair of television and Broadway veterans -- Tom Bosley (“Happy Days”) and Michael Learned (Olivia in “The Waltons”) -- star in On Golden Pond, Ernest Thompson's play about an elderly couple who live on a lake in New Hampshire.

A new production of the long-running musical Beauty and the Beast may be the perfect show for parents who want to introduce the whole family to Broadway.

“Dynasty” rivals Joan Collins and Linda Evans reunite on stage in Legends, a comedy about a pair of feuding actresses who are tricked into appearing together in a play.

Cherry Jones won a 2005 Tony Award for her performance as a strong-minded woman faced with a difficult decision in Doubt, the John Patrick Shanley drama set against the backdrop of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964. She heads the cast of the play's new national tour.

Stephen Schwartz is best known on Broadway as the composer and lyricist of the current mega-hit Wicked, but three decades ago he wrote the score for the 1972 Tony-winning musical Pippin, touring this fall in an all-new production.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Broadway's sleeper hit musical from 2005, spotlights a bunch of young spellers (played by adults) who learn what it takes to be a winner.

Altar Boyz, a rock musical comedy that has become an Off Broadway hit, is a satirical look at a boy band devoted to spreading the Good News.

Other new tours include The Pirate Queen, the latest Broadway-bound offering from the team who wrote Les Misérables; the classic Broadway musical Sweet Charity, starring Molly Ringwald; All Shook Up, featuring the songs of Elvis Presley; and comedy and song via The Rat Pack: Live from Las Vegas. Richard Thomas stars in the jury-room drama Twelve Angry Men, and a mother and daughter visit Italy in the musical The Light in the Piazza.

Back to School with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

This month we asked the cast of Broadway's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee about their favorite back-to-school memories.

Jose Llana ("Chip Tolentino"): It's the first day of 3rd grade. I'm all dolled up in a new crisp white shirt, striped black-and-red tie (clip-on), black pants, and, much to my mother's dismay, a black suit jacket. As I stroll into class feeling rather sharp and dapper, a friend yells, "Hey, Jose! Where's the funeral?!" Laughter erupts thoughout Mrs. Phelan's 3rd grade class. I swear to always dress down for the first day of school in the future.

Sarah Saltzberg ("Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre"): When I went into 1st grade, my parents had bought me a stuffed white monkey and gave it to me the night before school started. When I woke up in the morning, I put on my VERY exciting first-day-of-school outfit, a plaid skirt and white shirt, and my mom walked me to the bus. I had decided that I couldn't part with Monko (my new stuffed animal) and so she came to school as well. At school we organized our desks and got to know the other kids in the class - I'll never forget the name signs Mrs. Kramer made for each of us. Monko isn't fluffy anymore, and she is hardly white - greyish brown is more like it. Her eyes have been superglued in after falling out multiple times, and her mouth is mangled from where I used to brush her teeth. But she has been a fixture on my bed for the past several decades, a reminder of that thrilling night before the first day of school.

Barrett Foa ("Leaf Coneybear"): I always looked forward to the first day back from summer vacation, and I remember planning precisely what to wear on my big first day of high school. At that time, I was obsessed with anything and everything hunter green, so had a pair of hunter green slacks (pleated, of course) and some chunky, green, steel-toe Doc Martins that I knew I wanted to wear. For a shirt, I settled on a plaid flannel, but at the last minute, my mother thought I looked too "grungy" (ah, the mid-90s!) and made me switch to a bright red mock-turtleneck. I ended up looking like a Christmas tree. Everyone made fun of me, and it was really embarrassing.

Get tickets and information to The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway.

Get information about the Spelling Bee national tour.

Industry Profile: Hudson Scenic Studio

Founded in 1980, Hudson Scenic Studio has established itself as a leader in the fabrication and mechanization of scenery for the entertainment industry. The company occupies a state-of-the-art 72,000 square foot facility in Yonkers, NY, where a staff of 120 is currently hard at work building the scenery for many shows that will play the Great White Way and countless cities across the country in the upcoming season.

“Most of what we do is hand-made,” comments Hudson Scenic President Neil Mazzella. “We have to not only build something from scratch, but also make it work in a theatrical environment. It has to come apart and fit in a truck. It has to be assembled cost-effectively on stage. It may have to spin or turn. When people say that it costs more to put a set on stage than it does to build a house, that's because nobody builds a house that comes apart and then goes from Boston to Washington to Chicago.”

There's much more to it than simply building houses. Consider the engineering challenges of the famous flying car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which Hudson Scenic built for Broadway.

"There was a large arm that lifted the car,” says Mr. Mazzella. “In London it came up from the basement, but we didn't have that ability in New York. Here the arm literally laid down in the deck, and needed to be hidden when you saw the car driving on the stage floor. When the car flew, the arm was stored vertically and out of sight upstage, and then they would bring a curtain in and land the car on the floor. It was very complicated and a lot of work, but the car turned out to be a tremendous success for us.”

With the advent of computer technology and automated scenery in recent years, the ambitions and expectations of set designers have increased exponentially, as have the engineering challenges to realize the designs.

“When we started building scenery in 1980, there was no computer control. The first computer was used on The Tap Dance Kid, and the first sophisticated computer was used on The Phantom of the Opera. Soon there became the expectation that scenery would move effortlessly and that adjustments during the tech process would happen immediately. The problem is that the computers still have to be programmed and maintained. They are machines and they can break down. We're constantly on call from shows all around the world in case some computer element goes down.”

Currently in the Yonkers shop are sets for the upcoming Broadway productions of A Chorus Line, Mary Poppins and The Times They Are A-Changin', as well as touring productions of Doubt and Chicago. In addition to Broadway and national tours, Hudson Scenic counts among its regular clients many of the major players in the theme park, casino, and television industries.

For more information visit hudsonscenic.com. Or, the next time you admire the sets of a Broadway show, check the credits in the back of the playbill. There's a good chance the scenery was constructed by Hudson Scenic!

Win a Broadway Theatre Weekend!

Don’t miss your chance to win one of four NYC Broadway Theatre Weekend packages as part of the Clear Channel/Live Broadway Show Stopper Sweepstakes presented by Allstate Insurance Company.

Each prize package includes one pair of tickets to a Broadway show of your choice and two nights at a NYC hotel – all compliments of Clear Channel Radio, Live Broadway and Allstate Insurance Company.

There’s just one way to enter. Attend one of the four events scheduled throughout the New York metropolitan area beginning September 25th through October 13th.

Specific event dates and locations will be available by calling one of the 500+ Allstate agents in the New York metropolitan area or by visiting one of the Clear Channel station websites listed below beginning September 18th. To locate an Allstate agent near you, simply logon to allstate.com.

www.z100.com
www.1067litefm.com
www.Q1043.com
www.KTU.com

Complete rules will be available on Clear Channel station websites starting September 18th.