Chip Deffaa News

Rare--and in many cases, never-before-recorded--Irving Berlin love songs are the focus of Chip Deffaa's latest album, 'Irving Berlin Revisited,' being released today. 

'The Chip Deffaa Songbook'—a double-album featuring nearly 40 theater songs by ASCAP Award-winning playwright/songwriter Chip Deffaa--is out now.  The two-CD set gathers songs that Deffaa wrote or co-wrote for such shows of his as 'George M. Cohan Tonight!,' 'The Seven Little Foys,'  'Mad About the Boy,' 'Presenting Fanny Brice,' 'The Family that Sings Together,' 'Yankee Doodle Dandy,' 'Song-and-Dance Kids,' and 'Theater Boys.' The set, with a suggested  list price of $17.00, is available from Amazon, CDBaby, iTunes, Footlight Records, etc.   It may be ordered here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thechipdeffaasongbook.

'The Chip Deffaa Songbook'--a two-CD set, featuring nearly 40 theater-songs by ASCAP Award-winning playwright/songwriter  Chip Deffaa--will be released November 30th.  The album features songs that Deffaa wrote or co-wrote for such shows of his as 'Theater Boys,' 'The Seven Little Foys,' 'Mad About the Boy,' 'Yankee Doodle Dandy,' 'The Family That Sings Together,' 'The Fanny Brice Story,' 'Song-and-Dance Kids,' and 'George M. Cohan Tonight!'  

Lost, forgotten, and  unknown Irving Berlin songs are the focus of  Chip Deffaa's new album, 'The Irving Berlin Songbook,'  being released today.  

Award-winning playwright/director Chip Deffaa's 'Irving Berlin Songbook' album--part of an ongoing 'Irving Berlin Project' which Deffaa has been developing at the 13th Street Theater in New York City--will be released August 16th.  The album--with two-dozen members of New York's theatrical community singing 29 rare Berlin songs--includes many songs that have never before  been recorded.  Deffaa--one of the world's foremost authorities on Berlin's music and the author of five different shows about him--went through every song in the Berlin archive, some 1500 in all, in preparation for the project.

A decade after it opened Off-Broadway in New York at the Irish Repertory Theater, 'George M. Cohan Tonight!' -- written and directed by Chip Deffaa, and starring Jon Peterson -- has opened in Seoul, Korea, with the original Off-Broadway team. D

A total of four scholarships are being offered to children and teens for a Manhattan musical theatre program in July at the historic 13th Street Repertory Company, with two weeks of training and rehearsals that culminate in a fully staged performance there. With tuition for the nine days (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) of intensive skill building and preparation set for regular students at $750, those competing for the scholarships will be chosen based on their talent and motivation displayed at an audition and interview, as well as their submitted essays titled "Why Being in Theatre Is My Dream." The Edith O'Hara Summer Scholarships, with the full tuition waived, are named in honor of the founder of the 13th Street Rep, Edith O'Hara, who turned age 99 this year and still resides in the building of the organization she founded in 1972.   

Legendary songwriter Irving Berlin (1888-1989) was so fanatical about his privacy that in his lifetime he prevented anyone from dramatizing his life. 'They can do what they want after I'm dead,' he declared. Since Berlin's  passing, ASCAP award-winning writer/director Chip Deffaa has written no less than five different shows about Berlin, developing them at the 13th Street Theater in New York City. 

The premiere recording of ASCAP award-winning writer/director Chip Deffaa's musical play 'Irving Berlin: In Person,' which was developed at the 13th Street Theater in New York City, will be released June 3rd.  Jed Peterson, who's starred Off-Broadway in such shows as 'Hard Times' and 'Nevsky Prospect,' and has been featured on television's  'Madame Secretary,' stars as Mr. Berlin.  Richard Danley is musical director.  Choreography and tap-dancing are by Rayna Hirt.  Hawkins Gardow is special guest artist. Music preparation is by Donald Brown.   Peter Charney and Matthew Nardozzi are assistants to the producers.  The CD, being distributed exclusively in the United States via CDBaby, will be available on CDBaby.com, Amazon.com, iTunes, Footlight Records, Google Music, etc.

New York's venerable 13th Street Repertory Company is the only theater company in the world headed by a centenarian.

Jon Peterson, once a fixture of West End musicals, but disappearing around the millenium to the charms of the new world, is returning to London for three performances only, in the off-Broadway show that got him a Drama Desk nomination back in '06 for best solo performance in New York.

Jon Peterson, once a fixture of West End musicals, but disappearing around the millenium to the charms of the new world, is returning to London for three performances only, in the off-Broadway show that got him a Drama Desk nomination back in '06 for best solo performance in New York.

Some never-before-recorded Irving Berlin songs will get their recording debuts when the original cast album of Chip Deffaa's musical play IRVING BERLIN & CO. is released in the U.S. by CDBaby on Monday, December 21st.

The original cast album for Chip Deffaa's musical play 'Irving Berlin & Co.' (published by Eldridge Plays and Musicals)  will be released December 21st.  The album can be pre-ordered now from CDBaby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/irvingberlinco); as of the 21st, it will be available from Amazon, iTunes, Google Music Store,  SoundExchange, Rhapsody, etc.  This is the 13th cast album of Deffaa's to be released, and the fourth dealing with Berlin.  Cast-members will help celebrate the release with performances of songs at Birdland and on 'The Barry Z Show.'  

As a last-minute addition to the very end of North Hollywood's brand new NOHO FRINGE FESTIVAL, Chip Deffaa's 'George M Cohan Tonight!', the hit 2006 Off-Broadway tour-de-force one-man musical storms into Los Angeles for its premier west coast performances - but for TWO SHOWS ONLY!

'The Barry Z Show,' which has been covering the New York theater scene on cable TV for more than 20 years, will salute ASCAP award-winning playwright/director Chip Deffaa's theatrical productions, on a show being taped for future broadcast 10 pm, October 1st at the midtown club Don't Tell Mama. Host Barry Z, who's often saluted Deffaa's productions over the past 20 years, will be celebrating the release of Deffaa's 12th cast album, 'The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue.' And he will present an array of performers doing numbers from an assortment of Deffaa's shows.

'The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue' is being released today, September 15th.

The original cast album of 'The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue,' which set box-office records at the 13th Street Theater, is being released September 15th.  To celebrate the release, members of the company  will be singing at Birdland, and on Barry Z's TV show, and promoting the album on radio programs hosted by George Bettinger, Moe Banshee,  Gail Kubik, and others.