Burt Bacharach News

Tony and Emmy Award Winner Kristin Chenoweth visited Toronto today to coach and mentor the nine girls currently vying for the role of Dorothy on the CBC reality TV show Over the Rainbow. The Broadway superstar sat down to talk with BWW about her advice for the girls, her recent injury, embracing being different and why she hopes Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber will create a great role for a forty-something short blonde girl!

Following the success of two stellar productions in season 2012 The Producers and Chess, The Production Company's final production for 2012 is the award-winning Broadway musical Promises, Promises.

Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal welcomes television and Los Angeles Ovation Award nominated theatre composer and performer Brett Ryback in the premiere of The Kid with The Keys tonight, September 16, 2012.

The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, opens the 2012 Crossing the Line festival with three unique concerts by Grammy Award-winning guitarist and composer Bill Frisell. In a career spanning more than 35 years and more than 250 recordings-including over 40 albums of his own-the guitarist, composer and bandleader has established himself as a visionary presence in American music.

Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal welcomes television and Los Angeles Ovation Award nominated theatre composer and performer Brett Ryback in the premiere of The Kid with The Keys Sunday, September 16, 2012.

In her current cabaret show at 54 Below, Marin Mazzie, who has starred in Passion, Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate, Man of La Mancha, Spamalot and Next to Normal, pays homage to her childhood and teenage years in Rockford, Illinois, to the songs her parents loved, and to some of the 1960s and 1970s hits that fed Mazzie's passion to be a singer. ("These songs were the foundation for what was to come.") And man, was she sexy doing it.

With her star turns in the original productions of LES MISERABLES and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA she gave us our first Cosette, our first Christine. Much loved and much honoured, she is Australia's leading lady - welcome to Marina Prior's brain on musical theatre!

The Recording Academy released a statement on the passing of Hal David yesterday, September 1st, at the age of 91. 'Grammy winner Hal David was an exquisite lyricist who penned timeless songs that have become classics in the American songbook...' President/CEO Neil Portnow began.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has released a statement on the passing of Hal David.

Early Saturday morning, legendary lyricist Hal David passed away at the age of 91, so today we will be celebrating his life by partaking in some of the most memorable and entertaining moments from his starry, sixty-year career as captured on the internet.

The Associated Press reports that at age 91, 'Hal David died of complications from a stroke Saturday morning in Los Angeles, according to Jim Steinblatt, spokesman for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.'

The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, opens the 2012 Crossing the Line festival with three unique concerts by Grammy Award-winning guitarist and composer Bill Frisell. In a career spanning more than 35 years and more than 250 recordings-including over 40 albums of his own-the guitarist, composer and bandleader has established himself as a visionary presence in American music.

Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal presents television and Broadway star Ilene Graff in First You Dream tonight, August 26.

Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal presents television and Broadway star Ilene Graff in First You Dream on Sunday, August 26.

Today we are talking to one of the most alluring and anomalous recording stars on the rise all about this week's US release of her sophomore album, BOYS DON'T CRY, a tribute to male songwriters of the 1970s - the ethereal Rumer. Discussing many aspects of this new release, as well as her previous studio work - such as her Burt Bacharach Christmas EP - Rumer sheds some light on what makes her such an arresting and intriguing performer to follow for the enthusiasts of intimate, revealing, performance-based artists around the world, as she herself reveals the early influences - Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and Karen Carpenter most of all - that have shaped the unmistakable sound she continues to perfect on this moody, subdued and intoxicating new cover album. Plus, Rumer offers forth candid recollections of participating in recent gala concert presentations - none the least of which would be her superb "A House Is Not A Home" on the PBS Burt Bacharach edition of IN PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE - as well as recounts her own favorite performances, performers and albums and what she plans for the future; another new album is already in the ether! Additionally, Rumer also shares her thoughts on GLEE, provides amusing anecdotes about famous friends like Darryl Hall and Duffy, compares the recording industry now to the era BOYS DON'T CRY pays tribute to, recalls reactions to her dynamic new covers of these rare pop gems - all of that as well as much, much more!

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, the new performance venue located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54thStreet, will present Victor Garber, Natalie Joy Johnson and more.

Today we are talking to a multi-talented performer who has performed on Broadway in everything from BROOKLYN to WICKED who made her most recent Broadway bows standing by in both ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER and PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT - the dynamic and compelling Julie Reiber. Talking all about her new solo album, LOVE TRAVELS, and its various inspirations as well as casting a look back at her many Broadway, touring and regional roles thus far in her eclectic career - ALL SHOOK UP, SWEENEY TODD and many more included - Reiber and I attempt to illustrate her unique place on Broadway and what she would like to pursue in the future, both on the stage and in the recording studio. Additionally, Reiber opens up about her exhaustive song selection process for LOVE TRAVELS and shares candid stories of the recording process of her solo debut, including providing some background on the songs that did not make the cut, how the sterling arrangements arose out of the material and the process of becoming a singer-songwriter in her own right over the project's three-year-long creation. Also, Reiber outlines her experiences performing in the out-of-town tryout of the new musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's TALES OF THE CITY penned by rock super group Scissor Sisters and expresses her desire to continue with future iterations of the 70s-set Broadway-bound tuner as she looks ahead to her new roles of recording artist, and, also, she is happy to announce, mother. Plus, Julie offers details on her role in the heretofore little-known Meat Loaf-inspired movie musical ECLIPSE OF THE HEART (hopefully released some red moon soon), expresses her thoughts on GLEE and SMASH, compared Broadway now versus a decade ago - and much, much more!

At BroadwayWorld we pride ourselves in showcasing theater content from all corners of the globe. Our regional contributors do an amazing job each day of bringing you the latest theater news in their cities and countries and to acknowledge this, we are launching a new weekly column called 'Around BWW: Regional Highlights of the Week'. Read on for this week's edition of BWW's regional highlights!

This week at Joe's Pub, August 7 through August 12, 2012, features Wouter Kellerman, Diego Garcia, Cathy Grier, Turbotronics, McGinty & White, The Alternate Routes, Kate McGarry Band, Daria Musk, Katie Goodman, Our Lady J, Tamar Kaprelian and Die Roten Punkte. See below for more details.

Who was one of the most prolific singers of romantic pop in the 60s/70s/80s? And who created the little gems she sang? If you answered Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach, you win today's prize. Well, ...on Sunday, August 5 Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland paid tribute to the musical genius that is Burt Bacharach - most songs with lyrics by Hal David - @ Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. With a splendid group of singers that included Kim Huber, Danny Gurwin, Dennis Kyle, Jane Noseworthy, Daisy Eagan and Lisa Livesay...and Mr. Kimmel as congenial host, the evening was the 24th Kritzerland show, and most definitely one of its finest.