Christine Ebersole News

VJ John Bantay will play his final night at Spash's Musical Mondays next Monday May 20th after 10 smash years. Bantay leaves to join Avenue Q as stage manager.

On May 9, just before NBC announced SMASH's cancellation, the series' star Katharine McPhee talked to The Hollywood Reporter about what the experience has meant to her, saying 'this show was a huge gift.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC has officially dropped SMASH after two seasons. The series moved to Saturdays this March, and the show's wide fanbase was unable to boost the numbers. SMASH finishes averaging around 3 million total viewers.

BENJ PASEK and JUSTIN PAUL have added a second show at Joe's Pub at The Public on Wednesday, May 15. An 11:30 PM show was just added due to popular demand after the 9:30 PM show sold out. The Tony Award nominated composer and lyricist team is celebrating the new Ghostlight Records cast recording of Dogfight. Both shows will features performances by the original cast of the Second Stage Theatre production and other special guests. Dogfight just won the 2013 Lucille Lortel Award for "Outstanding Musical." Tickets to Joe's Pub are $25 and on sale now at JoesPub.com.

New York actors Sam LaFrage and Martha Hearn will return to Columbia in June to teach workshops in Advanced Acting and Improvisation for the Actor at Columbia Children's Theatre. Mr. LaFrage's Advanced Acting Workshop will run from June 3 - 14 from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Ms. Hearn's Improvisation for the Actor will run from June 3 - 7 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 noon.

Christine Baranski, Kelli Barrett, Walter Bobbie, Jeremy Cohen, Dalton Harrod, Randy Skinner, Shonn Wiley, Karen Ziemba,New York City Ballet Principaldancer Joaquin De Luz and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Irina Dvorovenko will star in Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes, the final Encores! presentation of the 2012-13 New York City Center season.

The greatest songwriters revered him. And his songs-from 'All the Things You Are' to 'The Way You Look Tonight'-remain a vital part of our cultural conversation. It is no accident that Jerome Kern is also known as 'The Dean.' Author and Lyrics & Lyricists series artistic director Deborah Grace Winer takes the helm as artistic director/writer/host for The Song is You: Jerome Kern Coast to Coast, tonight, May 4 and May 5, 6. Winer is joined by vocalists Karrin Allyson, Debby Boone, Jeffry Denman, bassist Jay Leonhart, Howard McGillin, Paula West and Karen Ziemba, with special guest Barbara Carroll.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, written by Christopher Durang, today won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2012-2013 season. Matilda received the award for Best Musical. The selections were made at the 78th annual voting meeting of the organization today at the offices of Time Out New York in Manhattan.

Ann Hampton Callaway returns to Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola to pay tribute to NEA Jazz Master and GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award winner Sarah Vaughan, the singer to whom Callaway is most often compared. Callaway takes the comparison as a compliment, having already demonstrated her comfort with several daring, assured, and well-received tributes to her influences and contemporaries; from covers of classic ballads that already have decades-old 'definitive' renditions, to the 'Streisand Songbook,' Callaway knows how to add her own voice to a wide range of popular repertoire. Check out photos from the concert below!

Bay Area Cabaret will conclude its 2012-2013 season by honoring the memory and legendary career of composer Marvin Hamlisch. Selections from his work (A Chorus Line, The Way We Were, They're Playing Our Song) will be performed by special guests including Broadway stars Lisa Vroman (The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd) and Karen Mason (Mamma Mia!, Sunset Boulevard), Grammy Award winner Billy Stritch, 2012 Bay Area Teen Idol winner Bobby Conte Thornton, Academy Award-winning songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and other guest artists to be announced. Having performed with Bay Area Cabaret for the grand re-opening of the Venetian Room in 2010, Mr. Hamlisch will always hold a special place in Bay Area Cabaret's history. This tribute to his legacy will take place on the late composer's 69th birthday, Sunday, June 2, 2013, at 8pm in the historic Venetian Room of the Fairmont San Francisco (950 Mason Street). Tickets ($75 - $100) are available at www.bayareacabaret.org or by phone at City Box Office (415) 392-4400.

Two-time Tony Award-winning singer/actress Christine Ebersole joins jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein and his trio for Strings Attached, a special late-afternoon performance at 92nd Street Y on Thursday, May 16 at 4 pm. Ebersole and the trio showcase classics standards from the '20s and '30s by Fats Waller ("Jitterbug Waltz"), Cole Porter "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye"), Johnny Mercer ("This Time the Dream's on Me") and George Gershwin ("Shall We Dance"). Strings Attached debuted in November 2011 at a sold-out engagement at Birdland Jazz Club; this performance is 92Y's annual Kathryn W. Stein Memorial Concert.

The company of the Keen Company production of Marry Me A Little, Lauren Molina and Jason Tam, will enter the studio today, April 26th, to preserve the Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording for Ghostlight Records. A summer release is planned. Joel Moss will produce the album, with Kurt Deutsch serving as Executive Producer. Musical Director is John Bell.

There are only a few more performances to catch for Gerard Alessandrini's FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: ALIVE AND KICKING! at the 47th Street Theatre (304 West 47th Street). The smash musical, which received unanimous raves from critics and audiences alike, broke all box-office records at the 47th Street Theatre and won spots on the Top Ten Lists of Time Magazine and the Associated Press, will begin its hiatus on Sunday, April 28, in order to make room for The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre's own season, as required by the show's lease agreement with the theatre.

CONCERT TO END BULLYING, a benefit performance featuring the nation's premier vocal group and stage and screen star Taye Diggs - best known for his roles on ABC-TV's 'Private Practice' and on Broadway and feature film versions of Rent - will take place tonight, April 20, 2013 at The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

Hotel Nikko San Francisco and Michael Feinstein have announced the spring lineup - featuring legendary stars of stage and cinema - for the all-new Feinstein's at the Nikko. Located within Hotel Nikko (222 Mason Street, San Francisco), Feinstein's at the Nikko will present a wide range of local, regional and national entertainers in an intimate 140-seat cabaret setting. Tickets for all performances are on-sale now and available by calling 866.663.1063 or visiting www.ticketweb.com.

Since launching the series two years ago in Provincetown, Broadway @ The Art House's success has most recently spawned runs in New Orleans, Sydney, Melbourne, this June in London and this coming fall/winter in Santa Monica.

The greatest songwriters revered him. And his songs-from 'All the Things You Are' to 'The Way You Look Tonight'-remain a vital part of our cultural conversation. It is no accident that Jerome Kern is also known as 'The Dean.' Author and Lyrics & Lyricists series artistic director Deborah Grace Winer takes the helm as artistic director/writer/host for The Song is You: Jerome Kern Coast to Coast, on May 4, 5 and 6. Winer is joined by vocalists Karrin Allyson, Debby Boone, Jeffry Denman, bassist Jay Leonhart, Howard McGillin, Paula West and Karen Ziemba, with special guest Barbara Carroll.