Artie Butler News

Two new albums featuring Barbra Streisand will be released next month. EVERGREENS: Celebrating Six Decades on Columbia Records and YENTL: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition will both be available on Friday, October 27. Learn more about both albums, and how to pre-order them now, here!

Donned in aviation attire, nautical garb, and their vacation finest, some 175 guests took to the skies as they gathered at Hiller Aviation Museum to honor TheatreWorks Silicon Valley at its spring fundraiser A Muse Ball: Take a Journey with TheatreWorks, a high-flying celebration of art and inspiration.

 On Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) next Wednesday, April 7 at 7:30pm, the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan will present a virtual conversation and musical event focused on the 2011 Broadway musical The People in the Picture, which follows a grandmother recalling her life in the Yiddish Theater in pre-war Poland.

The Las Vegas entertainment community has banded together and recorded a new song, a?oeNeeding Each Other,a?? along with an accompanying video. The song and video can be seen online on YouTube and was created as a fundraiser to assist the entertainment community.

The musical, The People in the Picture, is getting a makeover as a new production is being mounted at 3Below in San Jose, California with performances beginning April 26th. Making its west coast premiere, it's the first time the show has been back on stage since its 2011 debut on Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company's Studio 54 starring Donna Murphy, who was nominated for a Tony Award for her role as Bubbie/Raisel.

The original producers of Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber & Stoller, Broadway's longest running musical revue, announced today that the show will return to New York this summer following a limited engagement at Maine's Ogunquit Playhouse. Preview performances will begin at New York's Stage 42 (422 West 42nd Street) on July 6 and opening night is set for July 22. Tickets will go on sale on Monday, March 12 through telecharge.com and the box office will open on June 25. Casting is to be announced.

The acclaimed Broadway musical The People in The Picture is heading west! Having garnered Tony winner Donna Murphy a best actress nomination, the show will begin its run at the famed 3 Below Theater in San Jose, CA, on April 12th. The musical was also nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics awards in 2011 for outstanding book and music.

Outside of an arena, few performers can earn a minutes-long ovation without even opening their mouths. But the inimitable Marilyn Maye is certainly one of those performers.

Lynn Henderson delighted a small but enthusiastic audience at Don't Tell Mama in the final performance of her new show, T'AIN'T NOBODY'S BIZNESS IF I DO! With musical director Douglas J. Cohen, a multi-award winning songwriter (including a Drama Desk Award nomination and the Noel Coward Prize), and bass player Bob Sabin (himself the winner of numerous jazz awards, who sits on the music faculty both at the prestigious Hunter College High School and NYU), the veteran big band, choral, and lounge singer combined material from her 2014 CD, If We Only Have Love, with classics from the Great American Songbook (George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Kander and Ebb, among others). Ably directed by 10-time MAC Award winner Barry Kleinbort, the show also included more contemporary material by Billy Joel, Jerry Herman, and Randy Newman.

We are lucky in New York City. The talent here is unbelievable. Sometimes you settle in for an intimate evening at a little local club and you get your socks blown off. On Friday the 13th (of May, to be exact), I had such an experience at the latest monthly installment of Stephen Hanks' Metropolitan Room series (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD), New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. The featured performers were Vocalist Laurie Krauz and her Musical Director Daryl Kojak celebrating their 25-year musical collaboration “It's a 'Greatest Hits' show within a Greatest Hits series!” Hanks extolled before introducing his stars for the evening.

Last Sunday, New York's Birdland Jazz Club welcomed the third and fourth shows in Ann Hampton Callaway's This is Cabaret series that is subsequently aired on National Public Radio (check local listings for dates and times). As increased exposure is vital to the health of the art form, one can only applaud its emergence. Callaway's special guests (one in each hour segment) were jazz performer Kurt Elling and cabaret Goddess Marilyn Maye.

“Are You Havin' Any Fun?” the formidable Barbara Cook breezily asks in song with the intimacy of an old friend. Having had her first paid (50 cents) singing job at the age of eight, Cook looks back on a lengthy career feeling lucky. It's been weeks since she's sung due to health issues laying her low, but Cook is not, she assures us, by any means down and out. “I like to feel people are on my side and you sure sound like you are.” Throughout her show last night as part of the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center's The Appel Room, the artist performs with honesty, commitment, and the compelling interpretation for which she's well known. She asks that lights be turned up in order to see those with whom she communicates.

A year ago this summer (July 31, to be exact), Terri White performed a one-off show at 54 Below that was so stirring in its show-woman ship she was voted the winner of the 2013 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award for 'Best One-Show Special Event.' Based on the Broadway and nightclub veteran's performance in her recent June 22 show at the same club, White should be a candidate to pick up the award once again this year. Maybe it's time to just call her, 'Terri Terrific.'

Over two dozen stars of film, stage and television were given a standing ovation by a sold out crowd for the 30th Anniversary of S.T.A.G.E. at the historic Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA Saturday, May 10, 2014. And, on hand to get up close and personal with the stars, were BWW TV's longtime Los Angeles Correspondent and Co-Producer Michael Sterling with Videographer/Co-Producer, Jordan Santacana. Check out the video below!

Theodore Bikel celebrates 75 years in show business with a concert in his honor at the Saban Theater on June 16th at 7:30 pm.

There was a lovefest for the great mezzo Marilyn Horne in New York last week, filled with the music of friends, acquaintances and admirers at Carnegie Hall's sibling, Zankel Hall.

On September 15th, 1 host, 12 singers, 2 musical directors, 1 comedian, and a packed house of friends and invited guests celebrated Michael Sterling's birthday at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. The night, appropriately titled A Sterling Affair, was a sparkling tribute to the man whose name has come to be synonymous with Los Angeles cabaret.

Mike Stoller, of the legendary Grammy Award-winning songwriting team of Leiber & Stoller, will appear for a book signing of "Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography" at 1:00 p.m., followed by a Question and Answer Session and screening of the 1957 Warner Bros. classic film (originally made by MGM), "Jailhouse Rock" starring Elvis Presley at 2:00 p.m. today, August 19, 2012 at the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, Calif. The screening will celebrate the life of The King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley, while simultaneously commemorating the 35th Anniversary of the late singer's passing.

Mike Stoller, of the legendary Grammy Award-winning songwriting team of Leiber & Stoller, will appear for a book signing of "Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography" at 1:00 p.m., followed by a Question and Answer Session and screening of the 1957 Warner Bros. classic film (originally made by MGM), "Jailhouse Rock" starring Elvis Presley at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 19, 2012 at the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, Calif. The screening will celebrate the life of The King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley, while simultaneously commemorating the 35th Anniversary of the late singer's passing.