Aretha Franklin News

Jason Alexander, new artistic director of Reprise! Broadway's Best, announced that Cleavant Derricks, Meg Gillentine, Amelia McQueen, Ken Page, Ty Taylor, Lillias White and Jackee Harry would head up the cast of Damn Yankees. Damn Yankees will perform Tuesday, November 6 through Sunday, November 25 (opening November 7) at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

This September, Upright Cabaret returns to the place it all began for a festival of new generation cabaret. From a Broadway Diva to a Goddess...from a future Fashion Mogul to a Farm Girl. Shane Scheel, Chris Isaascson and Trapper Felides are thrilled to present an eclectic mix of some of the hottest talent in the country...

Frankenstein, a new musical inspired by Mary Shelley's epic, will begin performances off-Broadway at 37 Arts (450 West 37th Street) on Wednesday, October 10th.

Feinstein's at the Regency will open their Fall 2007 season with the return of Ashford and Simpson from September 12 - 29. Following their 2006 debut at the club, which opened to packed houses, the celebrated songwriters and performers will perform many of their greatest hits including 'I'm Every Woman,' 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough,' 'Solid' and 'Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand.' All shows are at the Regency Hotel

Hairspray film star Queen Latifah will be among a score of headliners at an upcoming fundraising concert.

'Not to brag, but I've stood upon some pretty rarified podiums,' writes Glen Roven. 'But to be honest, nothing competes in the thrill department with playing a piano for a Broadway legend who is recreating an original performance. Talk about musical comedy heaven.'

Once left at Broadway's sacrificial altar, the stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning MGM musical - and number three favorite musical of all time according to a BBC poll - is now living happily ever after in the theater world's less urbane communities

According to NYTimes.com, the lineup for New York Stage and Film and Vassar College's 23rd Powerhouse summer theater season will include productions of John Patrick Shanley's Romantic Poetry: A Musical Play, featuring a score by Henry Krieger (Dreamgirls) and starring Mark Linn-Baker and Idina Menzel, Stephen Belber's (Match) new play, Geometry of Fire, and concert readings of Pete Towshend's new rock opera, The Boy Who Heard Music, and R-E-S-P-E-C-T, a musical featuring hit songs originally by Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett and more.

When the show rocks, it really rocks. When it talks, it becomes embarrassingly amateurish. * * 1/2 (out of five)

The previously announced musical based on the life of Aretha Franklin is tenatively slated to premiere in Detroit next March.

Aretha Franklin, known internationally as the Queen of Soul, is presently searching for performing talent for a musical stage production of her autobiographical book, From These Roots

On Saturday, January 13th, the Palm Springs International Film Festival honored Dreamgirls star Jennifer Hudson with its Breakthrough Performance award

'On Broadway with Melba Moore' will play at the Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College, Sunday February 11th.

Jennifer Hudson, who is earning much positive buzz for her star turn as Effie in the upcoming Dreamgirls film, has signed with Arista Records

The Ravinia Festival's 2007 summer season will include performances by such Broadway stars as Tony-winners Brian Stokes Mitchell, Lillias White and Heather Headley, as well as a staged concert production of The Most Happy Fella

This one is for the girls-and the boys, and the adults, and the kids...once you accept this show for what it is, you'll be in for one heck of a fun ride, complete with some of your favorite songs from the twentieth century.

'Beehive' swarms the El Portal for a toe-tapping trip back to the 1960's