Alan Jay Lerner News

More loverly than ever! MY FAIR LADY is coming to select theaters nationwide for a limited engagement, beginning October 18th. The special screening is in celebration the 50th Anniversary restoration of the classic film.

For diehard cabaret fans and lovers of live music, there's nothing like experiencing a classic show once again or seeing an award winning 'blast from the past' for the first time. That's how cabaret show producer and publicist Stephen Hanks felt and so through his new company, Cabaret Life Productions, he's launching a new monthly series at New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street) titled New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Hanks wanted the cream of the New York cabaret crop to open the series and tapped veteran cabaret star Mark Nadler, who the New York Times critic Stephen Holden has called 'Mr. Show Business' and 'an immensely talented latter-day Al Jolson.' On August 26 (7-8:30 pm), Nadler will perform his critically acclaimed show Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award for 'Raising Standards of Cabaret Performance,' and received MAC and Nightlife Award Nominations for 'Outstanding Performance in a Major Engagement.'

Westport Country Playhouse announces its 2016 season, featuring two Tony Award-winning plays in repertory, an Off-Broadway hit, a new thriller by a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, a witty comedy by Joe Orton, and a reimagined musical by Lerner and Loewe.  The works will be staged next year from May through October. Under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos, 2016 will mark the Connecticut professional theater's 86th season.  2016 season subscriptions are now on sale.

Today in 1981, the second Broadway revival of My Fair Lady opened at the Uris Theatre (now the George Gershwin Theatre), where it ran for 120 performances. My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so that she may pass as a well born lady. The musical's 1956 Broadway production was a hit, setting what was then the record for the longest run of any major musical theatre production in history. It was followed by a hit London production, a popular film version, and numerous revivals.

Gettysburg Community Theatre, the not-for-profit 501c3 organization located in the former Elks Lodge at 49 York Street within the first block of Lincoln Square in historic downtown Gettysburg, PA, will present Lerner & Loewe's CAMELOT tonight, August 14, through August 23, 2015 at 7pm on Fridays and Saturdays and at 2pm on Sundays.

For the first time in 15 years, cabaret star Julie Reyburn brings back her award-winning show, Fate Is Kind, to a New York nightclub stage when she performs the classic at the Metropolitan Room on Monday, September 14 at 7 pm as part of the new monthly series, New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits, produced by Stephen Hanks' Cabaret Life Productions with cabaret supporter Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD as Associate Producer. [Reyburn's show will follow the Series launch on August 26 at 7 pm with Mark Nadler's critically acclaimed Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award.] Reyburn and her celebrated Musical Director Mark Janas (Producer of the Award-Winning Open-Mic show Salon) introduced Fate Is Kind in February 2000 at The Singer's Forum as a benefit cabaret for their scholarship program. It then moved to Judy's Chelsea in March 2000 for its official cabaret debut, and the show ran off and on there for most of the year. Fate Is Kind world earn Reyburn MAC and Bistro Awards in 2001 for "Outstanding Female Cabaret Debut."

Opera Australia Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini AM and leading theatre producer John Frost AM will present a brand new production of Lerner and Loewe's masterpiece My Fair Lady at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House in 2016, celebrating the iconic musical's 60th anniversary. My Fair Lady will be directed by world-renowned actor and director Dame Julie Andrews with choreography by Tony Award-winning Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, The King and I, South Pacific).

RUTHLESS! The Musical's leading man, Peter Land, collapsed onstage at the top of the second act on Friday evening, July 17th. EMT's arrived on the scene and Mr. Land was transported to the hospital where he received emergency surgery for a tear in the aorta. His recovery is going extremely well and he was even discharged from the hospital earlier this week. Paul Pecorino has assumed the role of Sylvia St. Croix and Mr. Land hopes to return to the show in the near future. Author Joel Paley bravely filled in for several performances in the week following the accident (triumphantly, according to all eyewitnesses).

Liz Robertson will star as VALERIE HOBSON in a solo show by Max Tiarks, directed by Matthew Gould at Jermyn Street Theatre this Sunday 26th July 2015. 

Kritzerland at Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal presents YOU'RE GONNA HEAR FROM ME: THE SONGS OF ANDRE PREVIN on Sunday, August 2, 2015 at 7:00 PM.

Paris Je t'dore! And Vive La France! French-flavored Broadway shows and songs are tres magnifique. The romantic 'City of Lights' and the lure of romance with a French accent has served as the inspiration for many musicals through the years. And since France and all of the world's Francophiles celebrated Bastille Day earlier this week, BroadwayWorld's Jeff Walker and Matt Tamanini are taking a look at the shows and tunes that make us go 'oo-la-la!'

Stuart Moulton's Austin (Texas) Cabaret Theatre (may it thrive and prosper) turned 15 in tandem with his own 50th birthday. In celebration on Wednesday night, the Theatre's Artistic Director (also a performer himself) invited alumni and hopefuls to strut their stuff on the stage of 54 Below. The result was a wildly mixed bag of a show--featuring a few great vocalists and infectiously enthusiastic wannabes--which ran so exhaustively long that Moultan was able to change his clothes twice.

Last December, Texas treasure Holland Vavra made her 54 Below debut in Cuz We're F#cking Talented, a concert where a handful of artists showed off their skills. Last night, she made a special trip from Houston to premiere her tribute to Frank Sinatra, Holland at the Sands: My Blue Eyed Sinatra. With her own brand of lovable, quirky humor and her golden instrument, Vavra made her solo cabaret debut a delightful spectacle.

For diehard cabaret fans and lovers of live music, there's nothing like experiencing a classic show once again or seeing an award winning 'blast from the past' for the first time. That's how cabaret show producer and publicist Stephen Hanks felt and so through his new company, Cabaret Life Productions, he's launching a new monthly series at New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street) titled New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Hanks wanted the cream of the New York cabaret crop to open the series and tapped veteran cabaret star Mark Nadler, who the New York Times critic Stephen Holden has called 'Mr. Show Business' and 'an immensely talented latter-day Al Jolson.' On August 26 (7-8:30 pm), Nadler will perform his critically acclaimed show Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award for 'Raising Standards of Cabaret Performance,' and received MAC and Nightlife Award Nominations for 'Outstanding Performance in a Major Engagement.'

Today in 1980, the first Broadway revival of Camelot opened at the New York State Theatre, where it ran for 56 performances. Camelot is a musical by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music). It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White tetralogy novel The Once and Future King. The original 1960 production, directed by Moss Hart and orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J. Lang, ran on Broadway for 873 performances, winning four Tony Awards and spawning several revivals, foreign productions and a 1967 film version. The 1980 cast starred Richard Burton, Christine Ebersole, and Richard Muenz.

Gettysburg Community Theatre, the not-for-profit 501c3 organization located in the former Elks Lodge at 49 York Street within the first block of Lincoln Square in historic downtown Gettysburg, PA, will present Lerner & Loewe's CAMELOT August 14-23, 2015 at 7pm on Fridays and Saturdays and at 2pm on Sundays. 

Carla Ching's family caper comedy FAST COMPANY completes the 2015-16 Lyric Stage season!

The third annual summer season at Weill Hall + Lawn at the Green Music Center (GMC) begins tonight, July 4, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. with an all-American program featuring Broadway and television star Megan Hilty with the Santa Rosa Symphony, led by Principal Pops Conductor Michael Berkowitz.

The BroadwayWorld community is nothing if not vocal and yesterday's critical column revealing my top picks for the most important gay musicals of all time inspired many reactions in the feedback, on Facebook and on social media, ranging from 'I LOVE LOVE LOVE COCO' to 'No FUN HOME?' to 'Where's THE FAGGOT?' and far beyond. As with any list such as this, historical perspective is an essential element and a musical such as FUN HOME that has only been on Broadway mere months is obviously too new to truly assess insofar as its historical influence and impact on the overall legacy of gay musicals on Broadway in toto - going as far back as 1969's COCO and covering all the way up to 2013's KINKY BOOTS, as yesterday's list did. So, as a result, we are giving you more of what you asked for and sharing 10 more musicals that have been important to the gay movement, all of which cited in yesterday's column but not included on the actual top ten. What follows are my personal choices, so what are yours? Let us know and perhaps we will even need to do another list to shine a light on even more LGBT touchstones.

Below, check out photos from Theatre By The Sea's production of MY FAIR LADY, running thru July 18, 2015. For tickets and information call (401) 782-8587, visit www.theatrebythesea.com, or visit the box office in person at 364 Cards Pond Rd., Wakefield, RI.