Michael returned to Broadway this fall in the Lincoln Center production of William Shakespeare's Cymbeline

William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, which will begin previews Nov. 1 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre with an official opening scheduled for Dec. 2.

Directed by Mark Lamos, the cast of 26 will feature Jonathan Cake (Medea opposite Fiona Shaw), Michael Cerveris (Tony Award for Assassins), John Cullum (Tony Awards for Shenandoah and On the Twentieth Century), Martha Plimpton (Tony nomination for The Coast of Utopia) and Phylicia Rashad (Tony Award for A Raisin in the Sun). Additional casting will be announced shortly.

Cymbeline, according to press notes, "combines comedy, tragedy and history into an epic tale of power and magic - its action sweeping across Britain and Italy, as two warring powers clash until its eventual joyful conclusion. The characters [include] a Lear-like monarch (John Cullum), a wicked queen (Phylicia Rashad), an Iago-like villain (Jonathan Cake), a deceived husband (Michael Cerveris), and a heroine, the king's daughter Imogen, Shakespeare’s last great female role (Martha Plimpton)."

The design team will comprise Michael Yeargan (sets), Jess Goldstein (costumes), Brian MacDevitt (lighting) and Tony Smolenski IV and Walter Trarbach (sound). Original music will be penned by Mel Marvin.

Lincoln Center Theater's 2007-2008 season will also include a new production of South Pacific. Bartlett Sher will direct the latter, which is scheduled to begin previews Feb. 28, 2008.

Cymbeline will play Tuesday-Saturday at 8 PM with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2 PM and Sunday at 3 PM.

Tickets, priced $65-$90, will go on sale Sept. 9 by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.lct.org.

Michael stars in the new Hal Prince- Alfred Uhry musical - LoveMusik,

It is the love story of composer Kurt Weill and actress Lotte Lenya. The musical uses songs from composer Weill's catalog. It begins Broadway performances April 12th at the Biltmore Theatre.

The Manhattan Theatre Club staging also stars Tony Award winner and Michael's Passion costar Donna Murphy as Lotte Lenya. Also in the cast are David Pittu (as Bertolt Brecht) , John Scherer (as George Davis), Judith Blazer (Titanic), Edwin Cahill, Herndon Lackey (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Parade), Erik Liberman, Ann Morrison (Merrily We Roll Along), Graham Rowat (Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Dr. Zhivago), Rachel Ulanet (King David) and Jessica Wright (2006's Company, 2005's Sweeney Todd).

Rehearsals began March 5 (at the same time Michael was performing daily in King Lear). Suggested by the letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, LoveMusik features a book by Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy, Parade), "a full range of Kurt Weill songs," musical staging by Patricia Birch (A Little Night Music), and direction by 21-time Tony Award winner Harold Prince (The Phantom of the Opera, Cabaret and Sweeney Todd).

LoveMusik, officially opens on May 3rd. It "follows the lives of the unlikeliest of lovers — the brilliant, intellectual German composer Kurt Weill (Cerveris) and the woman who became his muse and star, Lotte Lenya (Murphy)," according to MTC. "LoveMusik is an epic romance, set in Berlin, Paris, Broadway and Hollywood, spanning 25 years in the lives of this complicated couple."

Act One is called "Europe," and Act Two is called "America."

LoveMusik features the lyrics of Maxwell Anderson, Bertolt Brecht, Howard Dietz, Roger Fernay, Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Langston Hughes, Alan Jay Lerner, Maurice Magre, Ogden Nash, Elmer Rice and Kurt Weill.

LoveMusik is produced by Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, artistic director, Barry Grove, executive producer) by special arrangement with Marty Bell, Aldo Scrofani, Boyett Ostar Productions, Tracy Aron, Roger Berlind/Debra Black, Chase Mishkin and Ted Snowdon. (The commercial names attached indicate a hope for a future life beyond its not-for-profit MTC launch.

The LoveMusik design and production team are Beowulf Boritt (scenic design), Judith Dolan (costume design), Howell Binkley (lighting design), Duncan Edwards (sound design), Paul Huntley (wig design), Angelina Avallone (makeup design), Mark Simon (casting), Jonathan Tunick (orchestrations), Kristen Blodgette (musical supervisor), Seymour Red Press (music coordinator), Milton Granger (additional vocal arrangements), and Nicholas Archer (conductor).

LoveMusik tickets are currently on sale through June 17.

Tickets are available by calling Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200, (800) 432-7250 outside the NYC metro area, online at Telecharge.com, and at the Biltmore Theatre box office (261 West 47th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue). Tickets range in price from $76.25-$101.25.

Visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com for more information.

Busy Actor’s Long, Long Day: Shakespeare, Weill and Rock

"THE alarm clock woke Michael Cerveris with a Kurt Weill recording at 7:30 a.m. on a recent, blustery Tuesday morning. By 9 Mr. Cerveris, the “Sweeney Todd” star, had showered, dressed, checked e-mail and was out walking his dog, Gibson. His distinctive shaved head covered by a stocking cap, he ducked into a deli and bought a healthful-looking green juice, which he consumed in his living room with a bowl of organic oatmeal and some vitamins. Crouching down, he gently fed Gibson a few vitamins of her own, dipping them in peanut butter...."

read entire article

Michael joined other Broadway stars in an all day marathon celebrating Shakespeare's birthday. The Shakespeare Society's second annual free Shakespeare Birthday Marathon is on April 9 at 6:30 PM at the Kaye Playhouse.

The actors will perform scenes, speeches and songs from the Bard's comedies and romances such as A Winter's Tale, The Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing.

The event will also include an excerpt of Kenneth Branagh's upcoming film version of As You Like It starring Kevin Kline, Bryce Dallas Howard and Alfred Molina.

The Kaye Playhouse is located at Hunter College on 69th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues. The event is free and open to the public. For more information visit http://www.shakespearesociety.org/or call (212) 327-3399.

read more information

Playbill online reports:

"PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Translations — Nothing Lost in Hynes' Sight
By Harry Haun

29 Jan 2007 Also in rehearsal — times two, in fact — was Michael Cerveris. "Right now, there's sort of a battle between Kurt Weill and King Lear for my chin and what grows on it," he said. He's about to start playing Kent to Kevin Kline's Lear at The Public by night while rehearsing Weill to Donna Murphy's Lotte Lenya in LoveMusik for Broadway by day. What a juggling act! "I know: no sense, no fear," he shrugged, "but it's two thrilling, exciting things to work on — and I'm not going to say no to challenges like these."

Michael is currently shooting a movie called Brief Interviews With Hideous Men directed by John Krasinski (the Office USA).

Michael will also appear as Kent in King Lear at the Public starring Kevin Kline early next year before returning to Broadway in LoveMusik.

Michael will appear on December 18 in a reading of The Philanderer, the latest installment in Project Shaw, will be presented Dec. 18th at 7pm at the Players Club.

The cast for the one-night-only reading of George Bernard Shaw's comic play, hosted by Howard Kissel, will also include Karen Ziemba, Nancy Anderson, David Garrison, Peter Bartlett, Timothy Jerome and Liz Morton.

The Philanderer, according to press notes, "introduces Leonard Charteris, a man committed to remaining unattached. He is a philosophizing philanderer who believes that only conventional people marry while advanced people form 'charming friendships.' But when he meets a self-described 'new woman' who belongs only to herself and is the property of no man, he finds he may have met his match, if not his mate."

The Project Shaw series is produced and directed by David Staller, who last year acted with Dana Ivey in Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession at the Irish Repertory Theatre. Dates stretching throughout 2006 and beyond will provide an airing of every sketch, full-length and one-act play by the playwright.

The Players is located at 16 Gramercy Park South. For reservations call (212) 475-6116 beginning Dec. 1. Visit www.projectshaw.com for more information.

Michael will join the Loser's Lounge Tribute to Elton John
Thursday December 14 at 9pm and Friday December 15th at 7pm and 9pm

As of September 18th, 2006; Joe's Pub will be changing our ticketing systems.
Please note a few changes in policy:

Tickets can be purchased 24 hours a day online at joespub.com. Between the hours of 10am and 9pm, tickets can be purchased by phone at 212-967-7555. Between the hours of 11am and 5pm tickets can be purchased and dinner reservations can be made simultaneously by calling 212-539-8778.

You may buy tickets in person at The Public Theater box office, located at 425 Lafayette Street from 1:00 pm to 6:00pm on Sundays and Mondays and 1:00pm to 7:30pm from Tuesday through Saturday. Tickets are also available for purchase in person at Joe's Pub from 6:00pm to 10:00pm, seven days a week. Please note that many shows at Joe's Pub do sell out in advance, so door sales are subject to availability.

There is no service fee charged at the box office or at the door at Joe's Pub.
For all phone and web sales, there is a ticket service fee of $2 for tickets $15 and under and $3 per ticket for tickets higher than $15 (a substantial reduction from the service fees prior to September 18th).

Michael Cerveris will appear in the Tim Crouch's an oak tree, a two-character play at the Barrow Street Theatre in which one character is played by a different actor each performance.

Each guest actor, male or female, plays "the Father." Crouch directs the play, and plays "the Hypnotist." The premise of the play is that father's daughter has just been killed in a car accident involving the hypnotist.

The guests have never seen the play nor read the script before walking on stage. They get their lines and directions via an earpiece, a clipboard and from Crouch's dialogue — it varies throughout the play

Past guests have included F. Murray Abraham, Charles Busch, Reed Birney and James Urbaniak.

Presenters of an oak tree are the Perry Street Theatre (Martin Platt, David Elliot, co-directors), Rosalie Beer, A.J. Epstein and Richard Jordan Productions in association with Barrow Street Theatre.

Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 9:30pm
The Barrow Street Theatre
27 Barrow Street, near Seventh Avenue.
Tickets are $45
Calling (212) 239-6200.
For more information visit http://www.perrystreettheatre.com/.

Michael will be joining the wonderful 'losers' in their tribute to Talking Heads on October 5, 6 & 7th. Be sure to get your tickets early because these shows sell out quickly!

Joe's Pub
425 Lafayette Street
between East 4th and Astor Place

You can buy tickets online here.

Thursday, October 5th: 9:30pm
Friday, October 6th: 7pm & 9:30pm
Saturday, October 7th: 7pm & 9:30pm

Directions: Adjacent to the 6 train. Stop at the Astor Place station at Lafayette Street and 4th Avenue. A block and a half away from the N/R/W train. Stop at the 8th Street/NYU stop at Broadway and walk one block over to Lafayette Street.

Taken from Time Magazine:
By Barbara Kiviat & Sonja Steptoe
Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006
YET ANOTHER CUTTING-EDGE ROLE

Playing a barber might seem a tame choice for JOHNNY DEPP. But not when it's Sweeney Todd. Depp and director Tim Burton--who previously teamed up on Edward Scissorhands and last year's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--are reuniting for a movie version of the Stephen Sondheim musical about the murderous London barber who shaves his clients a little too closely. Depp, who will do his own singing, popped by the Broadway revival earlier this year and chatted with Michael Cerveris, the Tony-nominated thesp who plays Sweeney. The part is grueling, Cerveris says, but "we know Johnny Depp is very good with scissors. Razors shouldn't be a problem."

Sweeney Todd will be closing on Sunday September 3rd so be sure to get your tickets now.

Order Tickets Here from Telecharge

To order SWEENEY TODD tickets by phone, call 212-239-6200 (NYC Metro Area)
or 1-800-432-7250.

BOX OFFICE
Eugene O'Neill Theatre
230 W. 49th St.
Box Office Hours:
Monday through Saturday, 10am-8pm
Sunday, 12pm-6pm

Michael played to a sold out Bowery Ballroom and raised $6500 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

CERVERIS

with appearances by
Manoel Felciano
Lauren Molina
Ben Magnuson
Donna Lynn Champlin
and many other members of the Sweeney Todd company

and VERY special guests
NELLIE McKAY and
DUNCAN SHEIK

Monday, August 21 (8:00 PM doors)
@ BOWERY BALLROOM nyc's premiere music venue
6 Delancey Street (near Bowery), NY, NY 10002
phone: 212.533.2111

$20 advance/$25 at the door
16 AND OVER WITH A GOVERNMENT ISSUED PHOTO ID

For one night only, the company of Sweeney Todd--one of the more remarkable performing ensembles in town--are forsaking the rarefied environs of Broadway and reconnecting with their downtown roots for an evening of new and unexpected non-musical theater musical stylings. Michael and his band will be performing songs from his first album, Dog Eared as well as debuting songs from his forthcoming release The Hinterlands EPs (both available on Low Heat Records) due out in early autumn. Mano, Lauren, Ben, Donna Lynn and the rest of the cast will be performing a mixture of their own songs and covers, joined by many other members of the Sweeney Todd company of actor/musicians. They will be joined by the quixotic and exquisite Nellie McKay (Threepenny Opera) and the silver-voiced Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) performing songs of their own and others.

The evening is being organized by Cerveris as a benefit for BC/EFA, an entertainment industry leader in the fight against AIDS and in the support and care of persons afflicted with and affected by this devastating illness.

Tickets are onsale now and available with cash at the box office at the Mercury Lounge, or with a credit card through TicketWeb. TicketWeb accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.

www.boweryballroom.com/index.php

www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=nyc&query=detail&event=680576

Box Office: located at the Mercury Lounge
217 East Houston Street
(between Ludlow and Essex)
NYC
Hours are Monday through Saturday,
12 noon to 7 p.m.
212-260-4700
Take the F train to Second Avenue

Concert to Benefit the Youth Programs of the New York Civil Liberties Union

Featuring:
Tony Award winners and stars Michael Cerveris (Sweeney Todd, Assassins); Audra McDonald (A Raisin in the Sun, Ragtime, Carousel); William Finn (Spelling Bee, Falsettos); Cady Huffman (The Producers) Celia Keenan-Bolger (Spelling Bee); Leah Hocking (Mamma Mia!); Cheyenne Jackson (All Shook Up); Richard Easton (The Invention of Love); Jenn Gambatese (All Shook Up, Tarzan); Brenda Braxton (Chicago); Leah Hocking (Mamma Mia!); Barrett Foa (Avenue Q); Amanda Green (High Fidelity); Thos Shipley (Miss Saigon); Todd Buonopane (Spelling Bee); and founding performers Erich Bergen and Liana Stampur

Musical Director: Seth Rudetsky
Director: Daniel Goldstein

Click here to purchase tickets, or contact Jaclyn Stoll at 212-607-3343 or jstoll@nyclu.org.

Peter Norton Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York City
Monday, July 24, 2006 at 7.30pm

Sponsor Packages begin at $250
Priority Tickets $100 and up
General Admission Tickets $50
Discount Tickets $10 (students, NYCLU/Symph Space members, low-income, seniors, and union members)
You may also order general admission and discount tickets through the Symphony Space box office at 212-864-5400 or www.symphonyspace.org.

Michael will participate in this year's Broadway Under the Stars. It will be presented for the first time on Cental Park Lawn. It will be directed by Jeff Calhoun and will pay tribute to veteran director-producer Hal Prince.

The evening will feature choreography by Chase Brock and musical direction by Phil Reno, who will lead a live orchestra. Fireworks will follow the 8 PM performance.

Also performing will be Michael Arden (Big River), Carolee Carmello (Mamma Mia!), Kevin Clay, Manoel Felciano (Sweeney Todd), Renée Elise Goldsberry (The Color Purple), Donna McKechnie (A Chorus Line), Matthew Morrison (The Light in the Piazza), Anika Noni Rose (Caroline, or Change), Kelli O'Hara (The Pajama Game), Elaine Stritch (Company), John Cullum (Urinetown), Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens), Sutton Foster (The Drowsy Chaperone), Shuler Hensley (Tarzan), Brian d'Arcy James (The Lieutenant of Inishmore), Jane Krakowski (Nine), Rebecca Luker (Mary Poppins), Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago), the cast of Jersey Boys (Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard and J. Robert Spencer) and Grammy Award winner Lee Ann Womack.

In a statement, director Calhoun said, "Talk about 'a walk in the park'! How often does a director have the opportunity to work with this many of Broadway's most shining stars as well as 12 of the most accomplished dancers in the city? Collectively they have been nominated for over 40 Tony Awards and have garnered 18. This is an evening of music from the shows of the greatest director/producer in the American musical theatre. It doesn't get much better than this."

Those attending should enter the park at West 81st Street at Central Park West or East 79th Street at Fifth Avenue. For more information visit broadwayunderthestars.com.

Michael has been nominated for a Tony Award for his critically acclaimed performance of Sweeney Todd.

"I slept through the nominations, as I always do. Anything I need to know, I'll find out when I get up at a reasonable hour! I woke up to a lot of texts and messages from friends and family.
read more of Michael's reaction to the news

Also nominated for Leading Actor in a Musical are: Harry Connick, Jr. (The Pajama Game), Stephen Lynch (The Wedding Singer), Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone), John Lloyd Young (Jersey Boys).

The show has also been nominated for Best Revival of a Musical. Patti LuPone is also nominated for Leading Actress in a Musical and Manoel Felciano for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. John Doyle is nominated for Best Director and Sarah Travis for Best Orchestrations.

Here are just some of the critics' response to Michael's performance as the demon barber of Fleet Street.

The Wall Street Journal:
"Michael Cerveris gives the performance of a lifetime in the title role, one all the more potent because of the production's bare-bones simplicity. With next to no scenery to distract you -- not even a barber's chair -- it's easy to lose yourself in the mad intensity of his demonic stare. Mr. Cerveris, whose head is as smooth as a cue ball, looks like an apostate monk on the prowl, and when he proclaims that "they all deserve to die," you know he means to slit every throat within razor's reach. "

The New York Times:
" Mr. Cerveris's stunningly realized Sweeney seems destined to haunt the nightmares of anyone who sees him. His face shadowed into hollows by Richard G. Jones's superb lighting, his eyes glazed with obsession and all-encompassing contempt, he brings to mind black-and-white photographs of serial killers from decades ago - pictures you at first avert your eyes from and then stare at in fascination. His voice has both the fiery sheen and coldness of Sweeney's silver razors. He is, in a word, magnificent. (He also plays a lovely lyric guitar.)"

NY1:
"Michael Cerveris is extraordinary. He is an equally accomplished actor and singer, and we're moved by his Sweeney, who is chillingly creepy and sympathetic."

The New York Post:
" As Sweeney, a surly, vibrant-voiced Cerveris dominates the action, getting crazier as the body count mounts."

Associated Press:
"As Sweeney, Cerveris is younger than most of the others who have played the role. Yet what the actor lacks in weight and age, he makes up for in passion. There is a scary, cadaverous physicality to his performance, and he sings the part with ferocity."

The New York Daily News:
"Michael Cerveris brings a sensuality to Sweeney, and his voice is full of genuine anguish. Especially in the first-act finale with Patti LuPone, who plays Mrs. Lovett, we see that revenge and murder have their lustful side."

Michael and Sweeney Todd have already collected several awards from the Drama League, the Drama Critics Circle and the NY Theater Wire Critics.

Broadway.com is having a online audience awards. You can vote here.

The Broadway musical version of Alice Walker's The Color Purple led the list of 2006 Broadway.com Audience Award nominees, earning an impressive 13 nods. Also proving to be favorites with Broadway.com users were Sweeney Todd and The Drowsy Chaperone, earning nine and eight nominations, respectively.

Final voting for the Broadway.com Audience Awards takes place through 11:59PM on Thursday, June 1. Winners will be announced on Monday, June 5.

And stay tuned May 16 for the Tony nominations and May 15th for Outer Critics Circle nominations...

Patti LuPone was also honored with the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award. The Drama League Awards, hosted by Alan Cumming, was held on Friday, May 5th at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square.

Michael will appear on 'Theatre Talk' on Friday, May 19th at midnight on channel 13 in New York. It will also air on PBS affiliates in Boston, Hartford, and Washington, D.C.

This year, Michael will be one of the hosts for the annual Easter Bonnet Competition April 24 and 25 at the New Amsterdam Theatre. The two-day spectacular (April 24 at 4:30 PM and April 25 at 2 PM) will feature the companies of various Broadway, Off-Broadway and touring productions, and the shows will offer skits, songs and/or dances as well as a bonnet created specially for the competition.

A benefit for BC/EFA, the Easter Bonnet Competition ends a six-week period of intensive fundraising by the assorted Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. Curtain speeches, autographed posters and program sales, auctions and cabaret performances are all part of the fundraising effort, which brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars. The company that raises the most funds for BC/EFA will be awarded a prize at the Easter Bonnet Competition. A second prize will be awarded to the company with the best bonnet design and presentation. Additional awards will be presented to the Broadway play, national tour and Off-Broadway production raising the most money.

Last year's competition raised a record-breaking $2,849,067 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which is the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fund-raising and grant-making organization.

Tickets for the event are priced $350 VIP orchestra (front and center); $200 priority orchestra (middle and side); $100 rear orchestra and front mezzanine; $40 mezzanine; and $20 balcony. Those interested in attending the event should call (212) 840-0770, ext. 268 or visit www.broadwaycares.org.

The New Amsterdam Theatre is located at 214 West 42nd Street.

Michael will appear on the Isacc Mizrahi Show. It will air on The Style Network on March 3rd, 2006 at 7:00PM. It will be repeated on E! Network on a separate date (TBD).

You can find out what what new music Michael recommends in a new article he has written for the New York Times:

" Michael Cerveris plays the throat-slicing, guitar-picking Sweeney in the pared-down revival of "Sweeney Todd." Though it's his fourth leading role in a Broadway musical (there were turns in "Assassins," "The Who's Tommy" and "Titanic"), Mr. Cerveris would rather be a rock star. In 2004, he released "Dog Eared" (Low Heat), with cameos by members of Sonic Youth and Sleater-Kinney. His vocals and guitar can also be heard on the "Sweeney Todd" cast album, released on Nonesuch in January, and he has plans for an early summer release of an EP, "hinterlands (the history of tears)" (Low Heat). Mr. Cerveris spoke with Winter Miller about what he has been listening to. "

read full article

Michael will join other Broadway stars at "So In Love: A Night of Romance at the Rainbow Room". The concert will raise funds for the Drama Leauge and also feature Harry Connick Jr., Liz Callaway, Julia Murney, Mary Testa, Marian Seldes, Richard Easton, Katie Clarke, Tina Fabrique, Liz McCartney and Roz Ryan. Hugh Jackman serves as Honorary Chairman.

Tickets for So In Love are $500-$2,500 which includes the concert, a pre-gala cocktail reception and a full three-course dinner. A limited number of “show only” tickets are also available for $85 each.

To arrange tickets for the concert or for any additional information about The Drama League, please call Derek Travis Collard, The Drama League’s Director of Special Events at (212) 244-9494, ext. 5. For more information, please visit www.dramaleague.org.

The original cast recording for Sweeney Todd is now available. " Like everything else in this show and on this stupendous album, Cerveris and Lupone have rendered their version the definitive one.

Michael and the rest of the cast were showered with red and white roses from the audience and shouts of Bravo during the long enthusiastic standing ovation on Sweeney Todd's opening night.

The Wall Street Journal:
"Michael Cerveris gives the performance of a lifetime in the title role, one all the more potent because of the production's bare-bones simplicity. With next to no scenery to distract you -- not even a barber's chair -- it's easy to lose yourself in the mad intensity of his demonic stare. Mr. Cerveris, whose head is as smooth as a cue ball, looks like an apostate monk on the prowl, and when he proclaims that "they all deserve to die," you know he means to slit every throat within razor's reach. "

The New York Times:
" Mr. Cerveris's stunningly realized Sweeney seems destined to haunt the nightmares of anyone who sees him. His face shadowed into hollows by Richard G. Jones's superb lighting, his eyes glazed with obsession and all-encompassing contempt, he brings to mind black-and-white photographs of serial killers from decades ago - pictures you at first avert your eyes from and then stare at in fascination. His voice has both the fiery sheen and coldness of Sweeney's silver razors. He is, in a word, magnificent. (He also plays a lovely lyric guitar.)"

NY1:
"Michael Cerveris is extraordinary. He is an equally accomplished actor and singer, and we're moved by his Sweeney, who is chillingly creepy and sympathetic."

The New York Post:
"The cast is tremendous, keeping the proceedings going with such style, simplicity and involvement that they make it impossible to imagine the musical being performed in any other way or by anyone else. As Sweeney, a surly, vibrant-voiced Cerveris dominates the action, getting crazier as the body count mounts."

Associated Press:
"As Sweeney, Cerveris is younger than most of the others who have played the role. Yet what the actor lacks in weight and age, he makes up for in passion. There is a scary, cadaverous physicality to his performance, and he sings the part with ferocity."

Theatremania:
"Cerveris as a bald Sweeney is both an accomplished guitarist and an accomplished Sweeney -- tightly wound, glowering, raising his razors triumphantly high. "

The New York Daily News:
"Michael Cerveris brings a sensuality to Sweeney, and his voice is full of genuine anguish. Especially in the first-act finale with Patti LuPone, who plays Mrs. Lovett, we see that revenge and murder have their lustful side."

USA Today:
"Doyle.. has acquired a company whose virtuosity is matched by a breathtaking chemistry. This is especially true of Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone, who play the avenging Todd and Mrs. Lovett, the piemaker who devises a scheme to make his bloodlust profitable."

Read entire reviews here.

Michael and his exciting new role as Sweeney Todd is mentioned in numerous magazines this month including: The New York Times, New York Magazine, Vogue, Time Out and the upcoming issues of Elle and Oprah Magazines.

From Oprah Magazine:
" On guitar, Michael Cerveris' Sweeney Todd is a shattering study of rage and desolation. As in all Sondheim musicals, the wit is lacerating, the melancoly is incandescent, the truth is timeless. Says Cerveris (who has a Tony of his own for Sondheim's Assassins). "Temperance and tolerance are being shouted down in this country. You don't have to look past the front page to see what revenge leads to and that's the meaning of Sweeney Todd." "

Read entire articles here.

Michael Cerveris will return to Broadway this fall, starring as the legendary demon barber of Fleet Street. This exciting new production puts new twists on Sondheim's masterpiece musical thriller. This time the action takes place in a mental hospital and the cast do double duty as actors and musicians. Michael will play guitar. Patti LuPone costars as Mrs. Lovett and is set to play tuba.

Eugene O'Neill Theatre
230 West 49th Street
New York, NY 10019

Previews start October 3rd 2005 and the show opens on November 3rd.

Performances from October 3rd to November 5th are:
Evenings Monday - Saturday at 8pm
Matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm

From November 6th: Evenings Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm
Matinees Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm

The show runs for two hours, 20 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.

Call Telecharge on 212-239-6200 or go to telecharge.com.
Tickets cost from $36.25 - $101.25.

more information

The First-Ever Broadway Game Show!!!

Michael will be performing in Play on Broadway!

The Event is in support of the Todd Lundquist Benefit fun and will be hosted by Julie Halston (Gypsy, Hairspray). In the tradition of great television game shows, PLAY ON BROADWAY is a one-of-a-kind, fully interactive event in which Broadway celebrities will play alongside audience members for chances to win fabulous prizes. The evening will consist of games inspired by all-time TV favorites tailored to test our celebrity and our audience's knowledge of Broadway. Each game will conclude with one celebrity winner and one audience prize winner.

Date: Sunday, October 16, 2005
Time: 7:30pm
Place: Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for the Arts (111 West 46th Street).
Tickets: $75 (mezzanine), $150 (rear orchestra, $75 of which is tax deductible) and $275 (front orchestra, $200 of which is tax deductible). The $275 seats include admission to the exclusive post-show celebration at Balzano’s (1515 Broadway at Shubert Alley). To purchase tickets, please call TheaterMania.com at 212-352-3101. To order, or for more information, please call 917-664-1779.

more information

Talkin' Broadway: "Cerveris, whose stature as premier Sondheim leading man was established by his Tony win for Assassins and his television performance in Passion, holds on to his crown quite easily with this performance. Refreshingly, we got to see him play a happy and well-adjusted if legally insane character this time, rather than one of the tormented souls of Assassins, Passion, and Sunday in the Park with George. Sporting a Mike Meyers look-alike wig, Cerveris goes positively goofy as Hapgood, having fun with “Simple” while delivering a relaxed but sincere rendition of “Everybody Says Don’t” .. Cerveris found a way to make this underwritten character work. He avoided the temptation to make Hapgood a latter-day Harold Hill or any type of traditional leading man, but instead a warm and funny scamp who relishes the opportunity to make mischief for the corrupt Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper and her coterie of scoundrels. Vocally, he had a tonal color and a confident delivery that certainly surpassed the recorded performances.."

Chicago Sun Times: " As for Cerveris, who will play the demon barber Sweeney Todd on Broadway this season, he could not have been more charming. Looking startlingly different in a shaggy wig, he was a sweet, offbeat foil for McDonald's seriousness, bringing an especially lovely, childlike quality to "Everybody Says Don't." "

more

Michael will be starting off the summer with an exciting gig at Bowery Ballroom this Saturday July 23rd. He and his band will open for Teenage Fanclub.

Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub played on Michael's debut album, Dog Eared.

Bowery Ballroom is at 6 Delancey, NY, NY 10002
phone: 212.533.2111


tickets: http://www.ticketweb.com/

They are also available at Mercury Lounge without a service charge

Be sure to pick them up IMMEDIATELY if you can, because it will certainly sell out!

Michael will make perform at this years annual concert "Broadway Under the Stars". The show will be at 8:30pm in Byrant Park.

Christina Applegate (Sweet Charity) and the Radio City Rockettes, Rorbert Leo Butz, Raul Esparza, Dan Fogler, Hunter Foster, Victor Garber, Cheyenne Jackson, Marc Kudisch, Christopher Sieber and Tom Wopat are also scheduled to perform.

Tony Award winner Scott Wittman — of Hairspray fame — will direct this year's concert, which will celebrate the songs of the late Cy Coleman and Fred Ebb and will feature a 30-piece live orchestra conducted by Phil Reno.

The concert will be broadcast on CBS-2 in Manhattan Saturday, June 18 at 7 pm ET.

Bryant Park
Between 40th and 42nd Streets, off Sixth Avenue
tickets: FREE

Michael will make a special guest appearance on Saturday afternoon, May 28 right before the matinee performance of Captain Louie.

Michael will entertain audience members of the kid-friendly musical by reading portions of the book upon which the Stephen Schwartz musical is based. Captain Louie, which plays the York Theatre Company through June 12, is based on Ezra Jack Keats' "The Trip," a 1978 children's picture book.

Saturday, May 28th
11:30 AM and 2:30 PM
The York Theatre Company
619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street.

Tickets: $35, are available by calling (212) 868-4444 or by visiting www.smarttix.com.

read more

Michael will be joining the Losers Lounge special presentation "The Cure vs. The Smiths"
The First Ever Loser's Lounge Battle Royale. He will be performing the Smiths' classic "How Soon is Now".

Friday, June 3 @ 8pm & 11pm
Saturday, June 4 @ 8pm & 11pm

Knitting Factory
74 Leonard Street
New York, NY 10013

phone 212-219-3132

Knitting Factory website

Buy tickets here at Ticketweb.com

Michael will star along with Kristin Chenoweth in the New York City Center’s annual Gala on May 16, 2005, featuring a special benefit performance of Encores! The Apple Tree, The event is honoring Broadway producers Fran and Barry Weissler. This exciting evening includes a pre-performance cocktail reception, and post-performance dinner.

The Apple Tree is a unique evening of three one-act musicals about men, women and a little thing called temptation from the songwriting team of Fiddler On The Roof and She Loves Me. The first one-act based on Mark Twain’s "The Diary Of Adam and Eve" is a quirky, touching spin on the tale of the world's first couple. The second, “The Lady Or The Tiger?," explores the fickleness of love in a fable set in a mythical barbarian kingdom. Finally, "Passionella" is based on Jules Feiffer's offbeat Cinderella-story about a chimney sweep, whose dreams of being a "glamorous movie star" nearly sabotage her one chance for true love. Notable songs include "What Makes Me Love Him?", "Go To Sleep Whatever You Are" and "Oh, To Be A Movie Star".

Ticket are $25 to $90 and are available now online or
by calling CityTix® at 212-581-1212 or 1-877-581-1212 (outside metropolitan NYC, NJ, & CT) or through the City Center Box Office, on West 55th Street between 6th & 7th Avenues


visit website

Wednesday, April 13, 7:00 p.m. – Michael will join director Des McAnuff in the Museum’s Fourth Floor Theater to talk about the Broadway production of Tommy.

Tickets to this event are $5 and are currently on sale.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
One Key Plaza
751 Erieside Ave
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

The Rock Hall is located at: One Key Plaza, 751 Erieside Ave, Cleveland, Ohio 44114. Drive toward Downtown Cleveland on I-77, I-71 or I-90. Take the East 9th Street exit and drive north until you reach the Hall of Fame and Museum. If you drive into Lake Erie, you've gone too far.

If you choose public transit, take a bus or the Rapid downtown to Public Square. Transfer to the Waterfront Rapid Line for a short ride to the North Coast Harbor station. From there, it's a short walk to the Museum. For more information on public transportation, call RTA at (216) 621-9500.

read press release

visit website

photo by Richard Termine
(larger Image)

The New York Times: "Giorgio, the object of Fosca's intemperate desire, is played by Michael Cerveris, the foremost interpreter of this equally demanding role in recent years. (He also played it in the Kennedy Center production of 2002, and in concert last fall with Ms. Murphy and Marin Mazzie.) In the early scenes he sings with a bright clarity that darkens and takes on stronger emotional coloring as Fosca's presence comes to dominate Giorgio's thoughts, her voice seeping into the corners of his psyche like a spreading bloodstain.

Giorgio has never had to think about love, because it has come as naturally into his life as sunlight. Fosca forces him to confront this ignorance, to examine the depth and color of his feelings for his lover, Clara, who is played - magnificently - by Audra McDonald. (Her bright, burnished soprano is sunlight itself.) The macabre paradox of "Passion" is that Giorgio's emotional awakening nearly destroys him. Mr. Cerveris makes palpably clear that as he rises to the challenges of Fosca's love, Giorgio is as physically ravaged as he is spiritually ennobled." read entire review

Variety: "The true force of this "Passion" is the gifted Cerveris, especially when compared with the original cast's wooden Jere Shea. Cerveris is quietly masculine and charismatic, and his rich, bold baritone invests thrilling emotion into the role, in particular the reproachful "Is This What You Call Love?" and "No One Has Ever Loved Me," sung with the clarity of a character whose eyes and heart have been freshly opened. As much as Fosca, this is a show about the painful enlightenment of Giorgio's journey to love, and Cerveris makes that journey vivid and compelling."

Talking Broadway: "Cerveris is up to the challenge, as a veteran of Giorgio who's played the role a number of times already (including at the Kennedy Center in 2002). He continues to grow in the role, which he interprets with an increasingly wary youthful alacrity, and manages to find new dramatic colors as his character moves from love to agitation to outrage and then to passion and despair."

NY Daily News: "Few male performers have the vocal richness or dramatic intensity of Michael Cerveris, who plays Giorgio superbly."

"If "Wall to Wall" had any real star, however, it was Cerveris -- a newly minted Tony winner for his work in the revival of Sondheim's "Assassins" last season. From number to number, he showed a seemingly inexhaustible range. His steeliness opposite Errico in the title number from "Sunday in the Park With George" contained exactitude and was thus terrifically unnerving. After blowing a lyric in "Color and Light," also from "Sunday," not only did he recapture his footing, but he gave audiences unfamiliar with the tuner some clues about its Pulitzer Prize-winning craftsmanship.

He was also fantastically consistent. Opposite Mary Beth Peil, he sang "Beautiful," also from "Sunday," with quick-to-the-draw tenderness. Then, in "Loving You" from "Passion," opposite Judy Kuhn, he segued into well-tended emotion. In the title song from "Anyone Can Whistle," his delivery was suffused with yearning, while in "The Gun Song" from "Assassins," performed with Becky Ann Baker, James Clow, and Merwin Foard, he was mordantly funny. In "The Ballad of Booth," also from "Assassins," he was paired with Patrick Cassidy, who starred in the original 1991 production and showed an extraordinary generosity of spirit. Finally, Cerveris showed he could be an ensemble player as well: His part in "A Weekend in the Country" from "A Little Night Music" was on a flawless, decidedly un-hammy par with Kate Baldwin, Laura Benanti, John Dossett, Randy Graff, and Danny Gurwin."

read entire review

Michael will also join Christine Baranski, Polly Bergen, Barbara Cook, Alan Cumming, Boyd Gaines, Victor Garber, Judith Ivey, Judy Kuhn, Marin Mazzie, Debra Monk, Donna Murphy and Bernadette Peters at the Roundabout Theatre Company's annual spring gala honoring Stephen Sondheim, April 11.

The event — which will include an intimate dinner and entertainment — will take place at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York City. Scott Ellis (Twelve Angry Men) will direct the evening's highlight of an "original, all-star musical tribute," according to an announcement.

Sondheim will be presented with The Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre — named for the stage and screen actor who served on Roundabout's Board of Directors.

For more information, contact Steve Schaeffer at (212) 719-9393 or visit www.roundabouttheatre.org.

Michael will join the Loser's from Loser's Lounge as they encore their sold out Queen tribute at Bowery Ballroom.

Saturday, April 9th at Bowery Ballroom
Tickets only $17 in advance
The Queen tribute sold on in record time at Fez, so buy tickets early & often!

Bowery Ballroom
6 Delancey Street NYC
http://www.loserslounge.com/

Michael will rejoin Ravinia cast mates Patti Lupone and Audra MacDonald, this Spring in the Lincoln Center's performance of Passion. Lonny Price will direct and Paul Gemignani is the musical director.

Wednesday, March 30: 7pm
Thursday, March 31: 8pm
Friday, April 1: 8pm

The Rose Theater
Lincoln Center
The Rose Theater is located on the 5th floor of the Time Warner Center at Broadway and 60th St.
Directions:
By subway: Take the A, B, C, D, #1 or #9 trains to 59th Street/Columbus Circle.

By bus: The M5, M7, M10, M11 and M104 bus lines all stop within one block of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Buy tickets online now at LincolnCenter.org

The show will also be broadcast on PBS. Read more.

Michael will join other Broadway stars to celebrate Stephen Sondheim's 75th Birthday. The event "Children and Art" will take place on March 21 at Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre. All proceeds will benefit Young Playwrights Inc., an organization founded by Stephen Sondheim in 1981.

New Amsterdam Theater
March 21st
7:30pm

tickets range from $500-$5,000 and are now available by calling Young Playwrights Inc. at (212) 594-5440. Tickets at the $1,500 level and above include an exclusive post-show dinner with Stephen Sondheim at the Four Seasons (99 East 52nd Street). Balcony tickets are available at $150 and $250.

For more information visit www.sondheim75.com.

Read more

Michael will join other Broadway stars part of Symphony Space's Wall to Wall Stephen Sondheim salute March 19 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre.

The 35th Wall to Wall concert is set to begin at 11 AM and will continue for 12 hours at the New York City landmark.

Michael will be performing:
Sunday In The Park With George with Melissa Errico @ 2:50
Beautiful with Mary Beth Peil @ 3:01
Color & Light with Melissa Errico @ 3:10
Scene 11 from Passion with Judy Kuhn @ 4:27
Ballad Of Booth with Patrick Cassidy @ 6:13
The Gun Song with the Broadway cast @ 9:12
Franklin Sheppard Inc. with Lonny Price @ 10:19

The event will also be live all day on XFM satellite radio and also online
3 Day free trial of XFM online:
http://xmradio.com/xstream/registration/registration.jsp?userForward=default

and from NOON to 4PM on WNYC

Tickets to Symphony Space are first come first served all day. People will be lining up VERY early and they'll try to get people in as people leave during the day.

For more information visit:

http://www.symphonyspace.org/genres/eventPage.php?genreId=1&eventId=1005

Read More

Michael will join Ana Gasteyer, Jackie Hoffman, Andrea Martin, Steven Pasquale, Bruce Vilanch and Tom Wopat in the upcoming Miscast in MCC Theatre's popular annual benefit, March 14.

The celebrated signature musical revue directed by Scott Wittman (Hairspray) will perform this year at Roseland. Miscast features Broadway performers singing popular Broadway showtunes. The catch is each performer sings songs for roles in which they would never be cast.

Miscast begins at 6:30 PM with cocktails and a 7:30 PM welcome, dinner and awards presentation. Dessert follows with the performance set for a 9 PM start.

Tickets range from $350-$2,000 for individuals. Tables are available at $7,500 $20,000. For reservations, call (212) 727-7722, extension 32. A live and silent auction will also be held, items can be previewed and bid upon online at www.mcctheater.cmarket.com.

Michael has co-created a play with music along with director Nick Phillippou and writer Michael Tisdale entitled, "The History of Tears". The experimental piece is an adaptation of Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther", an 18th century German Romantic novel of youth love, loss and suicide.

The work is being performed by undergraduates at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts on Feb 17-20 and 22-26 @ 8 and one matinee on the 26th at 2pm.

see flyer