Damon Kirsche News

Paul Garman, Executive Director/Producer, and Steven Glaudini, Artistic Director, have announced the opening of MAN OF LA MANCHA, previewing February 10 and running for fourteen performances through February 26, 2012.

Fred Barton returns to the Metropolitan Room on Sunday, Feb. 12, at 7:00 PM with FRED BARTON PRESENTS - AND THINKS YOU'RE GONNA LOVE IT! - in which he hosts, sings and plays with his 9-piece Broadway Band, bringing back classic Broadway show music, with some swing on the side. At each monthly performance, Fred features two of his favorite singers, with additional special guests.

In these days of ever-shrinking Broadway orchestras, it's rather refreshing to walk into a cabaret room and find that seats have been removed from an otherwise sold-out house in order to fit a nine-piece musical ensemble.

Paul Garman, Executive Director/Producer, and Steven Glaudini, Artistic Director, are proud to announce the cast of MAN OF LA MANCHA, previewing February 10 and running for fourteen performances through February 26, 2012.

The Metropolitan Room announced January performances.

The Metropolitan Room announced January performances.

It is a well-known fact that during the creation of a new musical, songs will come and go. Rewrites are a painstaking part of the process and there are many reasons why a song - even a good one - may never make it to opening night. As the story develops it might no longer makes sense, the character who sings it could be cut from the show, or a better song may come along to replace it.

The Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy presents LOST AND UNSUNG- An Evening of Cut Songs from Great Musicals and Great Songs from Flops.

The Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy presents LOST AND UNSUNG- An Evening of Cut Songs from Great Musicals and Great Songs from Flops.

The award-winning Musical Theatre Guild, a company of professional performers who present concert-staged readings of seldom seen musicals, will continue their 16th season with the 1954 musical FANNY. The performance will take place on Monday, November 14, 2011 at 7:30 PM at the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale.

The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia's 2011 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre took place on Wednesday, October 3, 2011! The nominees were selected by an independent committee of 66 voters who each saw 8 of the 147 shows nominated this year. Four additional awards-Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service Award, the Ted and Stevie Wolf Award for New Approaches to Collaborations, Brown Martin Philadelphia Award and the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist-will also be distributed at the ceremony.

The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia's 2011 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre are tonight! The nominees were selected by an independent committee of 66 voters who each saw 8 of the 147 shows nominated this year. Four additional awards-Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service Award, the Ted and Stevie Wolf Award for New Approaches to Collaborations, Brown Martin Philadelphia Award and the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist-will also be distributed at the ceremony.

The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia today announced 121 nominations in 23 categories for the 2011 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre. The nominees were selected by an independent committee of 66 voters who each saw 8 of the 147 shows nominated this year. Four additional awards-Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service Award, the Ted and Stevie Wolf Award for New Approaches to Collaborations, Brown Martin Philadelphia Award and the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist-will also be distributed at the ceremony.

On Wednesday July 6 Kritzerland at the Gardenia presented a salute to the lesser known music of Kander and Ebb - The Kander and Ebb Album - two of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. Think Chicago or Cabaret, and you need go no further. These two wildly popular shows still receive international mountings and provide us with some of the greatest Broadway pop tunes ever. Ahead of their time, Kander and Ebb produced shows with a substantially dark and biting edge not found in other composers' music and lyrics. Bruce Kimmel, whose Kritzerland recording company continues to enjoy enormous success worldwide, again served as narrator of the evening telling short, funny anecdotes about his encounters with John Kander and also detailing Kander and Ebb's failures as well as successes. Liza Minnelli's Broadway career soared because of K & E - it started with Flora the Red Menace in the 60s and continued through the next couple of decades with hits and flops such as The Rink and 1977's The Act, which began in LA as Shine It On. K & E certainly didn't fare too badly either with Liza's name on their bill. Think of what she did for the movie Cabaret with her Academy Award winning turn as Sally. However, such was not the case with their film New York, New York which received some pretty scathing reviews in the late 70s; the pair were none too pleased that a small musical The First Nudie Musical (Bruce Kimmel)fared far better than their multi-billion dollar disaster. It's always such fun for theatre lovers to hear about the down side of the business, and particularly via Kimmel's straight-forward, droll take on it.

World, pop, jazz, dance and theater collide on stage at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, April 7 to May 1, as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA).

World, pop, jazz, dance and theater collide on stage at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, April 7 to May 1, as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA).

On Wednesday, January 12 Kritzerland at the Gardenia, a series presented on the first Wednesday of every month - January being the exception, and which originated in September of 2010, offered The Sondheim Albums. The series, based on Bruce Kimmel's record label and albums, honors a composer's lesser known material, oft times cut from an original score. Nine skilled singers participated in the fine evening; they were: Damon Kirsche (photo at left), Kim Huber, Zachary Ford, Juliana Hansen, Alet Taylor, Shannon Cudd, Aleah Whaley, Holly Long, and very special guest artiste Millicent Martin.

There's this old showbiz cliche that says one should never work with kids and/or animals. Well, either species probably never really scared producers from creating ANNIE, the much-beloved musical classic now in production for Musical Theatre West in Long Beach, California through November 14. Here, the kids steal every scene, and the dog... well, how can you not love a musical with a lovable (trained) dog? With famous populist origins and quite a hummable, familiar score, this long-standing musical's saccharine sweet portrayal of pre-Depression era New York City amps up the long-lost American idea of optimism. And, in a bit of inspired stunt casting, Andrea McArdle--who made her Tony-nominated debut in the original 1977 Broadway production as the title role--steps into the role of the wicked Ms. Hannigan for this production.

Musical Theatre West is proud to announce the complete cast for its upcoming production of ANNIE at the beautiful 1070-seat Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach.