Cole Porter News

Jenna gives a rundown of where she's been and what's coming up in the world of cabaret (and sometimes beyond!) Today's column features the marvelous Marilyn Maye and her new show 'The Happiest Sound In Town' at Feinstein's at Loews Regency.

A mostly grey-haired matinee audience smiling, bopping heads, tapping feet and singing along with classics like 'Fly Me to the Moon,' Night and Day,' 'That Old Black Magic,' and of course, 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco.'

6th Street Playhouse presents 'Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins' by Stephen Temperley May 11-27.

Today we are completing our extensive three-part look at THE SOUND OF MUSIC at Carnegie Hall with an career-spanning chat with one of Broadway biggest rising stars, the amiable and accomplished Laura Osnes. Since her Broadway debut in GREASE - coming after the reality casting competition TV series, YOU'RE THE ONE THAT I WANT - in 2007, Osnes has found great success with lead roles in three more Broadway musicals, spelling for Kelli O'Hara in SOUTH PACIFIC at Lincoln Center as Nellie Forbush, as well as taking on the title role in Frank Wildhorn's BONNIE & CLYDE with Jeremy Jordan and playing Hope Harcourt in the Roundabout revival of ANYTHING GOES alongside Sutton Foster and Joel Grey. In addition to outlining her experiences in those shows and her reflections on her time spent on Broadway thus far, Osnes also opens up about her recent essaying of three Rodgers & Hammerstein roles, having just starred with Will Chase in PIPE DREAM at Encores!, her just-confirmed casting in a new Broadway-bound stage adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein's CINDERELLA that has recently had a workshop production (and will have another in July, again co-starring Santino Fontana) as well as all about the star-studded Carnegie Hall concert presentation of THE SOUND OF MUSIC co-starring Tony Goldwyn and Brooke Shields which she headlines on April 24. Plus, she recounts her experiences participating in the recent Kennedy Center Honors salute to Barbara Cook alongside a dizzying roster of divas and tackling FOLLIES in the spectacular SONDHEIM! THE BIRTHDAY CONCERT presentation now available on DVD - and she also clues us in on her favorite shows, acting influences, plans for the future and much, much more!

The 2012 LOST MUSICALS season presents two extraordinary musical productions - the fantastical 1951 FLAHKOLEY and Cole Porter's magical 1958 ALADDIN at the Lillian Baylis Studio, Sadler's Wells in May and August 2012.

Musicals Tonight will be presenting Cole Porter's SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS May 1-13 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.

Ladies and gentlemen, time for a battle of wits! In one corner: urbane, wealthy American Cole Porter. In the other corner, making his way from genteel poverty to the top of English society: Noel Coward. Guest artistic director Mark Waldrop serves as referee in 92nd Street Y's Lyrics & Lyricists'™ Mad Dogs & Educated Fleas: Noel & Cole, A Battle Of Wits. Interpreting the songs of these two master lyricists are vocalists La Tanya Hall, Jeff Harnar, Edward Hibbert, Colleen McHugh andT. Oliver Reid with special guest Harriet Harris.

In the 62nd Season at Totem Pole Playhouse-Fayetteville, PA, audiences will be treated to six shows never before seen on the Totem Pole stage plus a special preseason presentation. Some favorite company actors, such as Sean Fri from 2011's Honus and Me, Artistic Director Ray Ficca and long time favorite Wil Love have already committed to performing in the 2012 season.

The Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre will honor esteemed stage actress Patti LuPone with the company's third Stephen Sondheim Award. The award, established in 2009 in honor of America's most influential contemporary musical theater writer and composer, will be presented at a black-tie Gala Benefit on April 16, 2012 at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC. Signature Theatre Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer said, 'I am thrilled that Patti LuPone will be this year's recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award. With her wonderful performances in Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, Company, Passion, and more - she has had an amazing connection to Steve's words and music. It's wonderful to add her name to the distinguished honorees Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters. We look forward to saluting Patti and her extraordinary talents in April.'

To inaugurate its 10th anniversary season, Stolen Chair has partnered with Lady Mendl's Tea Salon to offer a unique theatrical experience, "tea theatre." Stolen Chair will pair its 15th original work, The Bachelors' Tea Party, with a classic 5-course tea service. Written by Stolen Chair's resident playwright, Kiran Rikhye, and directed by Jon Stancato, 'one of the most daring and imaginative directors of his generation' (Martin Denton, NYtheatre.com), the play is open to the press on April 15 (5pm). Stolen Chair veteran Liz Eckert (Stage Kiss and Kinderspiel) is joined onstage by Jody Flader (The Vineyard Theater's Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island).

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 Friday, 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.

Will Pomerantz, director of The Blue Flower at Prospect Theater Company and Second Stage and Dai at the Culture Project, will direct Prospect Theater Company's upcoming production of Cole Porter's 1933 musical Nymph Errant. Performances will begin July 7 at the Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row.

Noted performer and music historian, Benjamin Sears has an unprecedented familiarity with both Irving Berlin's work and the writings about him, much of which he has brought together in the new, The Irving Berlin Reader, part of the Readers on American Music Series from Oxford University Press, available in stores on April 6, 2012.

The Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs Art Museum presents the return engagement of one of today's most celebrated sibling acts, the Tony-nominated actresses Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway, who will reprise last season's sold out engagement for one night only, April 7 at 8:00 pm. The concert will feature highlights form their critically acclaimed shows "Sibling Rivalry", "Relative Harmony" and their newest show "Boom".

Today in 2011, the third Broadway revival of Anything Goes opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, where it is still running. Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London. Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress Hope Harcourt, who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy #13 Moonface Martin aid Billy in his quest to win Hope. The musical introduced such songs as 'Anything Goes', 'You're the Top', and 'I Get a Kick Out of You.'

ANYTHING GOES, which received the 2011 Tony Award for a winning revival, will start its national tour on October 2 after a four-week rehearsal period in Cleveland. The Cole Porter 1934 musical will be staged by director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall.