DECADES OF DIVAS Set for Count Basie Theatre Tonight

DECADES OF DIVAS makes its world premiere ahead of a national tour tonight, Nov. 8, 2014 at the Count Basie Theatre, 99 Monmouth St., Red Bank, NJ. Show time is 8 p.m. Tickets $59, $39, $29 and $19 on sale NOW at www.countbasietheatre.org or through the box office at (732) 842-9000.

DECADES OF DIVAS stars popular New Jersey shore vocalist-dancer Lisa Sherman, the show's co-creator, who leads an arsenal of singers and musicians across a pair of nightclubs (G-Dog's Jazz Café and the Roxie Lounge) and right down Memory Lane, which runs between them, to evoke and pay tribute to the greatest divas we've embraced through the decades. DECADES OF DIVAS features the songs of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, Carole King, Janis Joplin, Celine Dion, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Adele and so many more! Indeed, there is something in every genre for EVERY generation to enjoy.

"These legendary divas and songs are part of the fabric we, and the generations before us, all grew up with and loved," says Previte. "So the show follows each singer passing the torch to the next. The performers show how they're influenced by each diva .They don't just sing the songs and sound like the artist. There's a theatrical thread throughout. It's a journey of five singers celebrating the divas who have influenced them."

Previte, who earned an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Grammy nomination for writing "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," the iconic No. 1 hit from Dirty Dancing, has put together a multi-media experience which comes to life in large part through the multiple performing talents of Sherman, a former Radio City Rockette, veteran of several Broadway shows and star of her own TV show in New Zealand. She's supported by some of the tri-state region's most dynamic and "unsung" singers - Layonne Holmes, Eryn Shewell, Reagan Richards and Jilly Sentino - and backed by musicians who've played with Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Mariah Carey, Lou Reed, Art Garfunkel, Les Paul, Dave Mason, Gloria Gaynor, and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, among others.