Barbara Cook News

Eric Michael Gillett's Careless Rhapsody: An Evening Dedicated to the Lyrics of Lorenz Hart, will play 54 Below, tonight, February 4 at 7pm, February 7 at 9:30pm and February 26 & 27 at 7pm.

Broadway legend Barbara Cook returns to Segerstrom Center to celebrate her 85th birthday year with a performance in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on Saturday April 13 at 8 p.m.

Now, Disney Theatrical Productions has confirmed that Aladdin, a new musical based on the Academy Award winning animated film, will play its pre-Broadway engagement at Toronto's Ed Mirvish Theatre(formerly the Canon) November 13, 2013 to January 12, 2014 and will open at Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre in 2014. The show will feature music by Alan Menken; lyrics by the late Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin with a book by Beguelin. Casey Nicholaw will direct and choreograph.

You don't have to travel all the way to NYC in order to hear songs from theatre, jazz, Great American and International Song Books and classical stages performed by award-winning singers & instrumentalists. At Classic Quiche in Teaneck, NJ on the last Friday of each month, through November, Broadway Concerts Direct presents top performers in a cozy, intimate salon type setting, with an eclectic mix of musical styles and delicious food. -- All in one evening! "Imported" by Broadway Concerts Direct producer, John Hiller, BCD is hoping to turn this into an ongoing Salon series of musical treasures.

In the Paramount's production, directed and choregraphed by Rachel Rockwell, the show lives and breathes in the very music that a con man and flim-flam artist, "Professor Harold Hill," uses to sell band instruments, uniforms and instruction booklets to the parents of young boys he knows he cannot really teach. Music is everywhere,...

As a kid growing up in the Philippines, I remember being completely enamored by the incredibly talented Lea Salonga, one of my native country's premier superstars. Much to my delight, this Tony Award-winning international star agreed to answer a series of silly, rapid-fire questions from me before her cabaret concert appearance on January 19 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.

On September 25, award-winning guitarist JESSE COOK, who has sold over a million albums during the course of his recording career, released his eighth studio album, The Blue Guitar Sessions. Cook's independently produced television special 'Jesse Cook - Live in Concert' airs this fall on Public Television stations throughout the U.S., and he will embark on a five-month U.S. tour beginning this January, in over 60 markets.

Legendary singer-actress Lainie Kazan and versatile performer Maurice Hines will be honored, along with 16 others, at the 28th Annual Bistro Awards gala, which recognizes outstanding achievement in New York cabaret, jazz, and comedy. The celebration will take place on Monday, March 4 at Gotham Comedy Club, 208 West 23rd Street (between 7th & 8th avenues).

On Saturday January 12 and Sunday January 13 internationally renowned Cabaret pianist/singer Steve Ross, who has been called the 'Crown Prince of Cabaret', brought one of his many evenings of song The Music of Fred Astaire called Puttin' On the Ritz to Vitello's Upstairs in Studio City. Ross began his career, some forty years ago, primarily as a pianist, at Ted Hook's Backstage in New York. With no singing experience, he thrust himself into the spotlight singing at the piano, developing his unmatched, uncanny style of song and repartee... and the rest is history.

Eric Michael Gillett's Careless Rhapsody: An Evening Dedicated to the Lyrics of Lorenz Hart, will play 54 Below, February 4 at 7pm, February 7 at 9:30pm and February 26 & 27 at 7pm.

Making it on Broadway is one thing - but staying on Broadway is quite another. Four Broadway legends - Joel Grey, Barbara Cook, Sheldon Harnick and Mary Rodgers - visit 92Y on Monday, Jan. 21 to share unique and intimate insights on how they endured as entertainers over the long haul, and how they remain active and relevant in their octogenarian years. The talk, moderated by WNYC's Leonard Lopate, is part of 92Y's ongoing "Relevant Octogenarians" series. It also includes Dennis S. Charney, M.D., Dean of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and co-author of the new book, Resilience. Dan Kaplan, former 92Y Board Chairman and President who has produced many 92Y galas, is the event's producer and the creator of the "Relevant Octogenarians" series.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. This week: Our TOP TEN HOT TOPIX for the second half of 2012!!

Jack Viertel, Artistic Director of New York City Center's Encores! series, today announced the directors and choreographers of the Encores! 20th Anniversary season, opening on January 30, 2013. The Tony Award-winning series welcomes back directors Gary Griffin, John Rando and Warren Carlyle, choreographers Alex Sanchez and Joshua Bergasse, and Guest Music Director Rob Fisher.

The holiday season totally snuck up on me this year. I'm writing this on December 11, just TWO WEEKS before Christmas (and already three nights into Hannukah), and I'm more than a little bit panicked!! Two weeks to do all of my shopping? EEK to say the least. Luckily I have the BC/EFA Catalogue of Giving, which offers hundreds of Broadway-themed gifts, my favorite of which I'll share with you below. Proceeds to the wonderful causes supported by Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS, which this year includes help for victims of Hurricane Sandy and similar disasters.

The following list of CDs and books has been compiled to give readers-especially interested in showbiz folks and theatre- an idea of some of the best out there, in time for Holiday gift-giving:

Shana Farr, who last month won The Mabel Mercer Foundation's 2012 Julie Wilson Award as "a cabaret singer who is a rising star," has just completed her debut CD, titled Shana Farr: Out Of The Shadows , which will be introduced at a CD release party and performance at The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park South, in New York City tonight, November 30, at 9 PM. Ms. Farr is backed by a trio comprised of Music Director Jon Weber (piano), Adam Fisher (cello) and Dan Levinson (clarinet).

FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: ALIVE AND KICKING, The UN-Original Cast Album features Gerard Alessandrini's parodies of Broadway's biggest shows and brightest stars, including Annie, Newsies, Once, The Book of Mormon, Spiderman, Evita, Porgy and Bess, Anything Goes, and Follies, as well of send-ups of Catherine Zeta Jones, Matthew Broderick, Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, among others.