The original Belle shares her favorite scene, the song she thinks is the smartest, and who she sounded like in the recording booth before finding the right voice.

See who has recently joined the team at theatre institutions in New York and beyond.

We take a look back at actors that launched their careers in works by Wilson and where they are now.

One of the hottest tickets of the spring, the Off-Broadway musical Hamilton, will move to Broadway in July after it concludes its run at the Public Theater. But will opening almost one year before the 2016 Tony Awards hurt the hip-hop musical's chances at winning the coveted title of Best Musical?

The shortlist for the 60th Annual London Evening Standard Theatre Awards — London's longest-standing theatre awards ceremony — has been announced.

Alice Playten, who lent her quirky persona and comic voice to a memorable string of Broadway and Off-Broadway musical performances from the 1960s onward, died on June 25 at Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City. The cause was heart failure, said Sandee Cohen, her friend and neighbor. She was 63.

The Deaf West Theatre revival of Big River and the Road Theatre Company's Napoli Milionaria, the stage version that inspired Eduardo deFilippo's 1950 film, garnered the most Ovation Awards at the Nov. 24 ceremony at Los Angeles' Orpheum Theatre, taking home six each.

Every woman in the world loves a big black man," and Broadway loves Andre de Shields. The 55-year-old performer currently struts his mash potato, monkey and twist in a James Brown-inspired song-and-dance "Big Black Man" in The Full Monty, netting multiple accolades and cheers. As the eldest member of the Hot Metal strip crew, his character, Noah "Horse" T. Simmons, agonizes over whether or not the women of Buffalo will want to watch "Red Foxx skip around in a pair of blue underpants." Performing, even stripping, is not something de Shields is shy about—it's something he loves. Formerly a Tony nominee for Play On!, his work in The Full Monty has earned him a second nomination, an Outer Critics' Award (a tie with The Producers' Gary Beach), a Drama Desk nomination and a nomination for the Best Male Dancer Astaire Award. The latter especially surprised de Shields who never trained as a dancer. Instead he had the inspiration—and genes—of a mother who always wanted to dance, but couldn't because her mother thought it was not the proper thing for a young African American girl to do in 1915 when no one wanted to be seen as "shufflin'." Dancing in The Full Monty, he says, "makes manifest my mother's dream. It's spontaneous regeneration."

"Every woman in the world loves a big black man," and Broadway loves Andre de Shields. The 55-year-old performer currently struts his mash potato, monkey and twist in a James Brown-inspired song-and-dance "Big Black Man" in The Full Monty, netting multiple accolades and cheers. As the eldest member of the Hot Metal strip crew, his character, Noah "Horse" T. Simmons, agonizes over whether or not the women of Buffalo will want to watch "Red Foxx skip around in a pair of blue underpants." Performing, even stripping, is not something de Shields is shy about—it's something he loves. Formerly a Tony nominee for Play On!, his work in The Full Monty has earned him a second nomination, an Outer Critics' Award (a tie with The Producers' Gary Beach), a Drama Desk nomination and a nomination for the Best Male Dancer Astaire Award. The latter especially surprised de Shields who never trained as a dancer. Instead he had the inspiration—and genes—of a mother who had always wanted to dance, but couldn't because her mother thought it was not the proper thing for a young African American girl to do in 1915 when no one wanted to be seen as "shufflin'." Dancing in The Full Monty, he says, "makes manifest my mother's dream. It's spontaneous regeneration."

The best of resident and visiting theatre in the Washington DC area was honored at the 16th Annual Helen Hayes Awards May 8 at the Opera House at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The popular Manhattan performance venue The Cutting Room will close following Joan Rivers' Jan. 13, 2009, performance at 7:30 PM.

Playbill.com writer Harry Haun provides the latest insight into the buzz Off-Broadway and beyond.