Colin Quinn News

Name your musical The Road To Qatar! and in less than five words and an exclamation point you've communicated to your audience what to expect; a zany, lightweight, tuneful fish-out-of-water comedy set in an exotic locale featuring a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby-ish pair with a healthy dose of sex and romance provided by a Dorothy Lamour-ish babe.  And for a good deal of their pocket-sized ninety-minute musical, Stephen Cole (book and lyrics) and David Krane (music) deliver as promised.  At its best, The Road To Qatar! is a funny, breezy musical comedy hoot with some legitimately toe-tapping melodies.  But while enjoyable, the material isn't quite memorable, though the current production at The York has the feel of an early version of something that could be whipped into a pretty terrific show.

In April of 1949, Rodgers and Hammerstein shocked the Theatre World by writing a song for their new musical professing that humans developed racial prejudice by nurture and not by nature.  Later that same year, a scene in the new musical by Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill showed two racially different young boys innocently striking up a quick friendship, unaware of why anyone would object.

Vocal powerhouse Tina Fabrique stars in Ella, a musical portrait of Ella Fitzgerald, launching its national tour in Charlotte Feb. 11-13 in the Knight Theater at Levine Center For the Arts. Tickets are on sale at BlumenthalCenter.org, 704-372-1000 or from the box office in the Belk Theater lobby, 130 N. Tryon St.

Back in the 1930s, when hip New Yorkers got their doses of political satire by taking in the latest Broadway musical comedy, it wasn't uncommon for then-President FDR to pop up in a show; either in person, as played by George M. Cohan in Rodgers and Hart's I'd Rather Be Right or, more frequently, through comical lyrics, such as those penned by Harold Rome in Pins and Needles and Cole Porter in Leave It To Me!

Budd Friedman and Mark Lonow's world-famous Improv Comedy Club at Harrah's Las Vegas showcases a different marquee of acts each week.

Cringe Humor Entertainment is pleased to announce today the production of Mike DeStefano's new one man show Drugs, Disease and Death: A Comedy.

HBO will shoot the current Broadway hit 'Colin Quinn Long Story Short' for a special to debut on the network in April, it was announced today by Nancy Geller, senior vice president, HBO Original Programming. Recently extending its run at the Helen Hayes Theatre through March 5, the one-man show features the comedy veteran's take on world history and is directed by Jerry Seinfeld.

Budd Friedman and Mark Lonow's world-famous Improv Comedy Club at Harrah's Las Vegas showcases a different marquee of acts each week.

Few comics today can say they have worked with the likes of George Burns, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin.

The Broadway League and NYC & Company, New York City's official tourism, marketing and partnership organization, today announced winter marketing programs - including the first ever Broadway Week featuring 2-for-1 tickets to participating shows from January 24 - February 10, 2011 - to encourage residents and visitors to experience the best New York City has to offer this winter.

How remarkably tragic it is that the triumphant opening night of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, perhaps the greatest comedy ever penned in the English language, was also the event that led to the author's personal downfall and eventual public and financial ruin.

I'll resist the temptation to call director Paul Alexander's Off-Broadway mounting of Dracula anemic or toothless, but will note his remarkable achievement of assembling a production that manages to be aggressively bad in so many ways and yet never achieves the 'you gotta see how bad this is' status.  Though plagued by inept acting, questionable character choices, cheap-looking (and sounding) effects and a glacial pace, the evening is too dull to be enjoyed on any level.

Few comics today can say they have worked with the likes of George Burns, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin.

The Broadway League and NYC & Company, New York City's official tourism, marketing and partnership organization, today announced winter marketing programs - including the first ever Broadway Week featuring 2-for-1 tickets to participating shows from January 24 - February 10, 2011 - to encourage residents and visitors to experience the best New York City has to offer this winter.

Today, in a rare moment of Broadway synchronicity between several theater owners and producers, deals were struck to move two Broadway shows to alternate theatres for mutual benefit. The five-time Tony Award nominated musical ROCK OF AGES will move from The Brooks Atkinson Theatre to the Helen Hayes Theatre in March 2011 and the acclaimed Beatles concert RAIN - A Tribute To The Beatles on Broadway at The Neil Simon Theatre will move to The Brooks Atkinson Theatre and begin performances on February 8, 2011. In their current homes, ROCK OF AGES will play its final performance on Sunday, January 9, 2011 and RAIN, which has now been extended twice, will play its final performance on Saturday, January 15, 2011.

Former 'Saturday Night Live' and Comedy Central star Colin Quinn's one-man show, Colin Quinn Long Story Short, directed by Jerry Seinfeld, will extend its run for the second time at the Helen Hayes Theatre through Saturday, March 5th. Preview performances began on Friday, October 22nd and the show officially opened on Tuesday, November 9th. The show was initially scheduled to end its 11-week limited engagement on Saturday, January 8th and was previously extended through February 5th.

Last Tuesday night I went out for some pre-holiday coffee with my good friend, BroadwayWorld Senior Editor Jessica Lewis (Actually we were so engrossed in conversation that we forgot to order coffee.  Sorry, Starbucks.), and naturally the topic of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark came up.  Jessica had seen the show already and I mentioned how comical it was becoming that, with what right now stands as an eight-week preview period, the reviewing press will be attending long after the Internet has helped establish a firm word-of-mouth opinion.

2010 was quite a year for Broadway with some spectacular opening nights. We'll be sharing highlights from the year in photos, videos, interviews and more throughout this final week of the year. First off is a look at some of the star and excitement filled opening night curtain calls of 2010. Photos by Walter McBride / WM Photos / Corbis

This February, COMEDY CENTRAL is celebrating Black History Month with specials such as Patrice O'Neal's first COMEDY CENTRAL Original World Premiere Stand-Up Special, 'Patrice O'Neal: Elephant In The Room,' the Network Television Premiere of 'Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me,' programming from Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams, Kevin Hart and Sinbad and stack of favorite movies. Also debuting in February is the one hour World Premiere Special from 'Mike and Molly's' breakout star, 'Billy Gardell: Half Time.' Spend this Valentine's Day with TV's most loving bar owners with a stack of episodes of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' and tune in for all new episodes of the 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,' 'The Colbert Report,' 'Tosh.0,' 'Onion SportsDome' and 'COMEDY CENTRAL Presents' all February long.

Jerry Seinfeld and comedian Tom Papa (host of "The Marriage Ref") will be joined by some of the biggest names in stand-up for a comedy show to benefit the family of the late Greg Giraldo.