Carol Channing News

The Drama Desk Award-winning Celebrity Autobiography will perform its new edition,Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chapter on Wednesday, February 15, at 8pm, as a special benefit for SLAM (Sobriety, Learning and Motivation), a board dedicated to the creation of New York's first recovery based high school. Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chapter performs at the Triad Theater, 158 West 72 Street.

From Nick Jonas and Michael Urie to the Ladies of THE VIEW to Adam Pascal, Raul Esparza, Barbra Streisand to Alan Menken, Bernadette Peters to Susan Boyle, Colin Quinn to GLEE and Everything in Between - It's the BroadwayWorld.com 2012 Valentine's Day Special - It's the Biggest Ever!

Sixteen years ago, Michael Flatley created and launched Lord of the Dance (www.lordofthedance.com); today, it is selling out arenas and theatres as the world's highest grossing Irish dance show.

The Southern California Motion Picture Council (SCMPC) will present their annual St. Valentines Ball with Oscar winning actress, Miss Margaret O'Brien, as the evening's hostess. The highlight of the gala will be the presentation of the 2012 Golden Halo Award to actress, singer and humanitarian, Ms. Barbara Van Orden.

A benefit for Walk To End Alzheimer's at The Loft in The Mesquite Country Club on Thursday, February 23rd will feature an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner and the acclaimed one-man hit The Judy Show starring local celebrity Michael Holmes.

Let's face it, nobody produces a song and sketch revue based on the plays of Ionesco in a theatre on the western outskirts of 55th Street expecting a commercial smash.  During the ten days in 1974 when the original production of Ionescopade ran Off-Broadway, lovers of musical theatre were lining up at box offices to see stars like Carol Channing in Lorelei, Debbie Reynolds in Irene, and Patty and Maxene Andrews in Over Here!  Younger playgoers were discovering themselves with Pippin and rocking out to Grease, while those who go for intellectual snob hits had their choice of the revival of Candide or the new Sondheim/Prince romance A Little Night Music.  Those venturing to Off-Broadway were still flocking to that fresh new musical, The Fantasticks, then in only its fifteenth year.

The week's big casting news includes Megan Hilty in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for Encores! and Samantha Barks in the screen version of Les Miserables.

A small piece of the national tour of "West Side Story" remains in Sacramento these next two months, but it's not what you might think. And while many anticipate the arrival of the hit musical "Wicked," they can get their Wicked kicks at California Musical Theater's Cosmopolitan Cabaret, but with more humor than magic. Songs from these and many more shows are part of a Broadway revue in downtown Sacramento playing through March 18. But this isn't your typical revue. This revue has four fantastic actors constantly changing from excessive costume to excessive costume as they take on some of the most well know Broadway tunes with a revised, "forbidden" twist. The tunes are there, but the cleverly reinvented lyrics of "Forbidden Broadway" make fun of everything musical theater.

Entertainment One US is releasing Carol Channing: LARGER THAN LIFE in New York and San Francisco on Friday, February 3, following the documentary's successful premiere in Los Angeles on January 20, 2012. The film, directed by Dori Berinstein (ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway, Some Assembly Required, Gotta Dance), examines the life and career of Tony Award-winning Broadway legend, Carol Channing - her extraordinary stage life, her offstage struggles and survival and the extraordinary storybook romance that found her reunited with her junior high school sweetheart after over 70 years. Channing shares a little bit about the film, her career, and more below!

Megan Hilty has been cast as Lorelei Lee, the diamond-loving blonde made famous by Carol Channing, in the Encores! production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, opening May 9 at New York City Center. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes will be directed by John Rando with music direction by Rob Berman and choreography by Randy Skinner and will play for seven performances, May 9 - 13, at New York City Center, 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

Happy Birthday Carol Channing! She is the recipient of three Tony Awards (including one for lifetime achievement), a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. Channing is best remembered for originating, on Broadway, the musical-comedy roles of bombshell Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and matchmaking widow Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly! She also appeared in two New York revivals of Hello, Dolly!, and toured with it extensively throughout the United States. Channing also appeared in a number of movies, The First Traveling Sales Lady (1956) with Ginger Rogers, the cult film Skidoo and Thoroughly Modern Millie, opposite Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore.

The Southern California Motion Picture Council (SCMPC) will present their annual St. Valentines Ball with Oscar winning actress, Miss Margaret O'Brien, as the evening's hostess. The highlight of the gala will be the presentation of the 2012 Golden Halo Award to actress, singer and humanitarian, Ms. Barbara Van Orden.

The Drama Desk Award-winning Celebrity Autobiography returns with its new edition, Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chapter, to the Triad Theater for two February shows-Monday, February 13 and a special benefit performance on Wednesday, February 15. Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chapter performs at the Triad Theater, 158 West 72 Street.

The Finborough Theatre's 'Celebrating British Music Theatre' series follows Perchance to Dream with Ivor Novello's last musical.

Pittsburgh CLO has announced the cast for the CLO Cabaret premiere of the hysterical off-Broadway comedy Ruthless! The Musical, which will run January 26 through May 6 at the CLO Cabaret.

Actress Shirley Jones, winner of the 1961 Oscar(R) for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for 'Elmer Gantry,' will be honored by Variety, The Children's Charity of Southern Nevada, at Oscar Night(R) Las Vegas.