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This year, the Touring Broadway Awards will feature a special Audience Choice Award, chosen EXCLUSIVELY by members of the Broadway Fan Club. Click below to vote!

Established in 2001, the Touring Broadway Awards are the first national honors for Touring Broadway. This year's Awards will be presented on Monday April 16, 2007 in New York City at a special ceremony hosted by Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens). Ms. Ebersole will present the Audience Choice Award to the musical or play that Fan Club members select as their favorite touring production from the 2006-2007 season.

Vote for the Touring Broadway Audience Choice Award by clicking here.

If the above link doesn't work, please copy and paste the following text into your browser's address bar:

http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey.zgi?p=WEB2267AVD4TTH

As a special incentive and a thank you for voting, we will randomly select one Fan Club voter to receive a Broadway Visa Gift Card® worth $225! Voting will continue through the month of March; however you must vote by March 12 to be eligible for the Gift Card drawing.

Click here for Official Rules.

Well-known to TV audiences for his recurring role as J. Peterman on NBC's Seinfeld and his performance on season one of ABC's Dancing with the Stars, John O'Hurley adds another credit to his impressive résumé this month. The deep-voiced stage and screen veteran goes on the road to originate the role of King Arthur in the new Las Vegas production of Monty Python's Spamalot, set to open at the Wynn Las Vegas on March 31st. Ben Pesner caught with the actor and funnyman by phone from Las Vegas as he was heading to a preview performance.

It's a very promising scene. Certain shows do well and certain shows don't. Las Vegas is a different audience than Broadway. They respond to things differently. Theatregoers in New York might make their decision on what shows to see months in advance, and then plan their trip to New York around them. In Las Vegas you have a lot of conventioneers coming in and they make more spontaneous decisions about what they see. They tend to want to see shows that they recognize.

I just look for roles that I can have fun with. There aren't too many marquee roles for someone my age right now. They cast a lot younger now. So this is a great role for me, and it's a great time in my life.

Are there other roles you dream about playing?

Martin Dysart in Equus. If I could do that role, I will have completed my wish list!

Are you left or right-footed?

The right foot is the magic one. However, the left is really underrated. The left foot does all the work, really. All my weight is on the left side for the entire show. The right foot just writes the letters. That's the easy job.

Do you personally have a magic body part?

I like to think that my calves are magical. They are really big and muscley, which is strange because the rest of me isn't. I have never really worked them out (although I used to tap a bit), and yet they are very big and defined. Also, my stomach always "magically" picks the worst time to freak out. I have a very Jewish, very nervous, very magical stomach.

You have had success with this show for a while now, on tour and in NYC. How did you go about getting your foot in the door?

I actually auditioned originally to be an understudy on Broadway. I had several callbacks and when I didn't get [the role], I thought my life was over. I stayed in touch with the casting director for months following that because I knew this show was for me. Eight months later they brought me in to audition for the touring company. I had my final callback in front of [director] James Lapine and [composer/lyricist] Bill Finn, and they cast me. After ten months, I was moved to the Broadway company, almost 2 years after my first audition! Looking back I wouldn't have it any other way. I have had the most amazing journey with this show.

Since you interact with audience volunteers every night in the show, do you have a favorite audience member participation story?

I can tell you my least favorite. A woman slapped me in San Francisco. She thought I was bullying one of the other volunteers, so SHE HIT ME ACROSS THE HEAD! I wear a wig with dozens of pins in it, and they all went into my brain at that moment. No fun for me. My favorite would be the first time we had a really amazing speller in San Francisco. It was early in the run, and this guy, Mr. Riddle, just kept getting words right. That was the first time the hinges really came off the show for us, and we learned that the show is at its very best in those moments.

Do you ever worry about accidentally spelling a word incorrectly?

I DID spell a word incorrectly once. Don't tell anyone. I reversed two letters at a very pivotal part of my character's storyline. We just pretended it didn't happen, but I felt the audience collectively go, "...huh?" Very bad feeling.

Is it true you made your Broadway debut in the show opposite Julie Andrews?

If I hadn't seen the pictures, I wouldn't believe it myself. It was completely surreal. My first show was the night of Kids' Night on Broadway, and Ms. Andrews and her daughter Emma were guest spellers. I even got to introduce her after the show so she could make a speech about Kids' Night. She was amazing and very kind to me afterwards. I asked her for an autograph and she dated it so I would "always remember my first night on Broadway." What a classy lady!

Can you use the word "Broadway" in a sentence?

"My parents are really excited that I am on Broadway." (So am I.)

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

What, exactly, does a theatrical producer do - and how do you get to be one? There is no simple answer, but it helps to be a savvy businessperson with artistic sensibilities. Or the other way around.

For the past 26 years, the Commercial Theater Institute (CTI) has been the preeminent apprentice program for anyone interested in learning about the commercial theatre. With Jed Bernstein, former president of the League of American Theatres and Producers and now a producer himself, at the helm, CTI brings together Broadway's most experienced players who offer practical and actionable information to aspiring producers and investors. CTI's 26th Annual Broadway Producing Conference will be held Friday - Sunday, May 4-6 at New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street in New York City.

Open to anyone interested in seeing his or her name above the title, this 24 hours of intenstive instruction over three days offers a soup-to-nuts introduction to getting a show on stage, on Broadway, Off Broadway, or elsewhere. The faculty consists of working producers and other theatre professionals. Each comes prepared to offer in-depth case studies of their productions, from acquiring the script to opening night and beyond. Topics will include marketing, budgeting, touring, legal aspects, creative development and exploitation of material, producing challenges, building a brand, and collaborating with not-for-profit organizations. Speakers will include producers and managers such as Rocco Landesman (Jersey Boys), Nina Lannan (Mamma Mia!), Kevin McCollum (Avenue Q), David Stone (Wicked), and many more.

CTI is a project of the League and Theatre Development Fund. The registration fee is $325, or $400 after March 9. For more information visit www.CommercialTheaterInstitute.com, or call (212) 586-1109.

In partnership with WABC Radio (77 WABC AM) and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the League has created a weekly minute-long radio spot that airs in the NYC metro area. “The Broadway Minute” features a rotating cast of stage celebrities speaking about various shows, BC/EFA initiatives, and special Broadway events, programs, and promotions. Bebe Neuwirth, currently appearing in Chicago, recorded the first series of spots, which aired every weekend in February. Lea Salonga (now starring as Fantine in Les Misérables) takes her turn at the microphone in March, with John Lloyd Young (Jersey Boys) to follow in April. In addition, WABC Radio host Mark Simone conducts in-depth interview with each performer about his or her current projects for his weekend radio program, which airs Saturday mornings from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m.

At least three Broadway shows this spring offer patrons the chance to watch the action from right up in the center of the action. Spring Awakening, a new musical about the roots of adolescent passion, invites three dozen patrons to sit among the performers on the sides of the stage, visible to the rest of the audience. Inherit the Wind stars Brian Dennehy and Christopher Plummer as adversaries in the landmark Scopes “monkey” trial about evolution. That show offers 44 on-stage seats for patrons who function as courtroom observers. And if you are lucky enough to be one of the “guest spellers” selected from the audience at The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, you can participate in the show's on-stage spelling bee as a contestant—at least until you draw a word you can't spell.

Tickets and information for any of these shows can be found at ILoveNYTheater.com.

The recent London revival of the1984 Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George won five Olivier Awards last month, London's equivalent of the Tony Awards®. Plans were immediately announced for a new Autumn 2007 Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical about the 19th-century French painter Georges Seurat.

Other productions of works from Broadway that received honors included the recent Tony Kushner/Jeanine Tesori musical Caroline, or Change (Best New Musical); and Arthur Miler's The Crucible (Best Revival). A revival of Cabaret won two awards.

Rock ' N' Roll, a new play by Tom Stoppard (currently represented on Broadway by The Coast of Utopia), was passed over in the Best New Play category, though its star, Rufus Sewell, won an acting award. Set to open on Broadway in the fall, this drama concerns a music-loving Czech student in England following Russia's 1968 invasion of his homeland.

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