Cole Porter News

Craig Smith, Managing Partner of the new Alhambra Theatre & Dining announced this morning that Joyce DeWitt will star in Sam Bobrick's romantic comedy, Remember Me. Miss DeWitt is most widely known to audiences for her starring role as 'Janet Wood' in the ABC Television hit series "Three's Company," but she is no stranger to live theater, working both as actress and director in a stage career which spans over forty years. She recently starred in A Scattered, Smothered and Covered Christmas Musical and the Canadian productions of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Dinner With Friends and Alfred Uhry's Tony Award-winning play The Last Night of Ballyhoo.

Craig Smith, Managing Partner of the new Alhambra Theatre & Dining, announced that Joyce DeWitt will star in Sam Bobrick's romantic comedy, REMEMBER ME. Miss DeWitt is most widely known to audiences for her starring role as 'Janet Wood' in the ABC Television hit series THREE'S COMPANY. DeWitt has worked both as actress and director in a stage career which spans over forty years. She recently starred in A SCATTERED, SMOTHERED AND COVERED CHRISTMAS MUSICAL and the Canadian productions of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning play DINNER WITH FRIENDS and Alfred Uhry's Tony Award-winning play THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO. Other recent stage performances include the North American premiere of the Australian comedy DAYLIGHT SAVINGS, the British farce NOISES OFF, the revival of Cole Porter's ANYTHING GOES, and the Broadway musical OLYMPUS ON MY MIND, for which she completed the cast recording - her first record album.

Few musicals capture the flavor of the early Cole Porter revues and Busby Berkeley musical films quite as well as Dames at Sea. Its constant silliness, instantaneous breaks - for no apparent reason - into song and dance... and parody of just about every musical show, especially 42nd Street, make it delicious, frothy and lots of fun. Now onstage at the Colony Theatre, under the smooth direction of Todd Nielsen, Dames at Sea starts out a tad slow, but builds momentum and gives its audience what they came for: a rollicking good time.

ROZ RYAN will play Miss Bea Haven and as Lucille, Liberace's secretary and Nurse Lil'Lil in Alexander DeJong's pre-Broadway workshop presentation of ALL THAT GLITTERS. The musical is aiming for an April 2013 Broadway Opening.

Kicking off the plot-packed night, Cole Porter's classic KISS ME, KATE showbiz paean "Another Op'nin', Another Show" was given a full-bodied and exciting rendition by Christian Borle - with a gloriously accentuated arrangement courtesy of SMASH songwriter Marc Shaiman; seemingly channeling Barbra Streisand and Peter Matz - and, with that, the SMASH train left Manhattan and hit Boston for the tryout of the musical-within-the-series, BOMBSHELL. While Rebecca Duvall (Uma Thurman) may play the director of the show, Derek (Jack Davenport), better than she does her actual role in the musical - Marilyn Monroe - she is not the only member of the rich and varied ensemble on SMASH to be playing or being played (or both) - or hitting the occasional wrong note or two. With only two episodes left in Season One, the threads are being wrapped up into what is shaping up to be a pleasingly complex and colorful tapestry.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) kicks off the 10th anniversary of its Uptown Series with the world premiere of The Bad Guys, written by Alena Smith and directed by Hal Brooks. The Bad Guys will feature Michael Braun (War Horse), Roe Hartrampf (Unnatural Acts), James McMenamin (Suicide, Incorporated), Tobias Segal (The Miracle Worker) and Raviv Ullman (Russian Transport). Previews begin on May 22nd and opening night is Monday, June 4th.

Cheyenne Jackson has announced on Twitter that his first single and music video 'Drive' will be available on iTunes and YouTube on May 10.

Musicals Tonight presents Cole Porter's SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS tonight May 1 through May 13 at The Lion Theatre (410 West 42nd Street). Tickets are $25 at the Box Office or from Telecharge at (212)239-6200 or telecharge.com.

Prospect Theater Company presents its annual gala, 2012's Spring Soiree, in the Harbor View Room at Battery Gardens, a waterside location nestled at the southernmost corner of Battery Park.

The Bistro Award-winning singer Grace Cosgrove premieres "Spend an Evening with Grace" in a five-show prime-time engagement at the Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, beginning Sunday, April 29. Directed by the legendary Marilyn Maye, "Spend an Evening with Grace" opens up a wide panorama of American classics -- from Johnny Mercer to Laura Nyro, and from Burt Bacharach back to Cole Porter. As she ranges through a number of distinct stylistic territories, Cosgrove, who is also an Edward R. Murrow and Emmy Award-winning television editor, weaves together these widely dispersed songs into a storybook of Americana.

Colin Donnell, who currently plays the role of 'Billy Crocker' in Anything Goes, is set to depart the production on April 29. Bill English, who played the role while Donnell was filming a pilot in January, will take over started May 1.

Cary Hoffman's show My Sinatra is part karaoke, part cabaret show, part one-man jukebox musical, and all self-indulgent personal therapy session. It's also a surreal, seriously flawed, yet strangely poignant and compelling piece of performance art that true Ol' Blue Eyes aficionados will either love or hate. If you're not a Sinatra fan, it's like a theatrical car wreck from which you can't avert your eyes.

Today we are talking to a Broadway superstar beloved from the time of her breakthrough performance in the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's PASSION nearly twenty years ago all the way to two tremendous revivals in the early 00s - KISS ME, KATE and MAN OF LA MANCHA - to her most recent trio of roles on Broadway, first appearing in the straight drama ENRON, then as the troubled lead character of Diana in the Pulitzer Prize-winning NEXT TO NORMAL, and, most recently, as the tortured Margaret White in the long-awaited New York return of CARRIE - the one and only Marin Mazzie. Recalling many memories of working on the original productions of such seminal musicals as INTO THE WOODS, PASSION, RAGTIME, SPAMALOT and NEXT TO NORMAL with some of Broadway's best and brightest talents, Mazzie expresses her sincere appreciation for the unforgettable shows she has been associated with and opens up about her experiences as both an originator of a role, as in the cases of PASSION and RAGTIME, and also as a replacement star and the challenges that that position poses for a performer. Additionally, Mazzie shares her enthusiasm for the words and music of the Tony Award-winning RAGTIME creators Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, whom she will be saluting alongside a starry assortment of notables on Monday at the NY Pops JOURNEY ON Gala at Carnegie Hall. Plus, Mazzie clues us in on all aspects of her journey with the recent New York reworking and reappraisal of CARRIE and gives us first news on recording the cast album, which is set for a Fall release, as well as news on her second duets album with husband, Jason Danieley and solo album thoughts. All of that and much, much more!

Goody Goody, the American Classics resident female vocal trio of Valerie Anastasio, Mary Ann Lanier (Somerville) and Heather Peterson, with pianist Robert Humphreville, performs a unique concert saluting the popular girl groups of American popular music, from the jazzy stylings of the Boswell Sisters, the tight harmony of the Andrews Sisters, the 50s sounds of the McGuire Sisters and the Chordettes, and the classic ensembles of the 60s with the Shirelles and the Supremes, through to the Roches and solo singers like Carole King. Featured hit songs include Bei Mir Bist Du Schon, Lollipop, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time, On the Atcheson, Topeka, and the Santa Fe, and Baby Love. Performances are Friday, May 18 at 7:30pm at Pickman Concert Hall of the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Sunday, May 20 at 3 pm at Follen Community Church, 755 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, Massachusetts.

Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble, one of New York's longest-running experimental theatres, premieres its production of The Beggar's Opera, the original source of The Threepenny Opera in less than three weeks. The production opens tonight, April 27 and closes Saturday, May 19. Performances are scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m., with an additional performance Tuesday, May 1 at 7 p.m. There are no performances on Mondays, Thursdays or any other Tuesday.

The Guthrie Theater today announced complete casting for the sparkling new musical Roman Holiday. This song-filled delight-based on the iconic 1953 Paramount Pictures film starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck-includes timeless music and lyrics by Cole Porter and a book by Paul Blake. The production will play from June 9 - August 19 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage and features soul-stirring Porter standards like "Easy to Love," "Just One of Those Things" and "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye." Guthrie Associate Artistic Director John Miller-Stephany (1776, God of Carnage and A Streetcar Named Desire) will direct.

Marcus Gardley is a poet-playwright whose most recent play every tongue confess premiered at Arena Stage starring Phylicia Rashad and directed by Kenny Leon. It was nominated for the Steinberg New Play Award and the Charles MacArthur Award for outstanding new play. His musical, ON THE LEVEE premiered last summer at Lincoln Center and was nominated for 11 Audelco Awards including outstanding playwright. Last Spring, his play AND JESUS MOONWALKS THE MISSISSIPPI was produced at the Cutting Ball Theater and received the SF Bay Area Theater Critics circle Award nomination for outstanding new play. He has had six plays produced including: DANCE OF THE HOLY GHOST at Yale Repertory Theatre (now under a Broadway option,) (L)IMITATIONS OF LIFE, at the Empty Space and LIKE SUN FALLIN' IN THE MOUTH at the National Black Theatre Festival. He is the recipient of the Hellen Merrill Award, a Kellsering Honoree, the Gerbode Emerging Playwright Award, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Award, the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Scholarship, and the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale Drama School and is a member of New Dramatists, The Dramatists Guild and the Lark Play Development Center.

Theatre World Media has announced the latest volume of the series, Theatre World, set for publication May 8. Theatre World Volume 67: 2010-2011 is not just a casual browse: it is the ultimate reference guide for complete, authoritative information for all venues from Broadway to regional theatre. The amount of comprehensive information found within its pages cannot be found in one location anywhere else in print or online.