Ethel Merman News

Honeymoon in Vegas, the eagerly anticipated new musical comedy with book by Blazing Saddles and Fletch writer Andrew Bergman and score by three-time Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown, opened on Thursday, January 15, 2015 at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). BroadwayWorld was there for the opening night festivities, including the sacred Gypsy Robe Ceremony. Check out photos of the event below!

Pride Films and Plays announces that Sam Button-Harrison* and Dan Gold join Libby Lane* as the cast of The Book of Merman, a new musical comedy by Jeff Award-winning playwright Leo Schwartz. The show opens tonight, January 17, 2015 at Mary's Attic, 5400 North Clark Street.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. The BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards Celebration was great! Now onward to '50 Shades,' 'Mr. Burns' and 'Book Of Merman,' plus two from Christopher Pazdernik,' 'Ordinary Days,' 'First Wives Club,' tributes to John Hughes and Stephen Sondheim and a showtune film cameo!

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its nightly performances, January 14 - 25, 2015. Details below!

The four-night Mabel Mercer Foundation's annual Cabaret Convention at Lincoln's Center's Rose Hall in late October has become arguably the most important cabaret event of the year. For the most part, it is a star-studded affair featuring celebrated veteran performers and exciting young newcomers. Night four of this year's 25th Convention featured a 'Songs of Irving Berlin' theme hosted by the popular Klea Blackhurst, and starring acclaimed cabaret entertainers such as Anita Gillette, Karen Mason, Sidney Myer, Karen Oberlin, and Stacy Sullivan. Also in the lineup was a relatively unknown vocalist named Celia Berk.

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its nightly performances over the next couple weeks, January 6 -18. Details below!

Broadway Across America/Baltimore is proud to announce that the new U.S. National Tour of ANNIE will play January 20- February 1, 2015 at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore. Directed by original lyricist and director Martin Charnin for the 19th time, this production of ANNIE will be a brand new physical incarnation of the iconic Tony Award-winning original.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, the acclaimed comedy/variety show, will return to JOE'S PUB at The Public Theater on Sunday, January 18 at 9:30 PM to open the Winter/Spring 2015 Season. The Meeting* has been called 'delicious and delightfully droll' by The New York Post and 'hilarious and sardonic' by The Village Voice. A story for Slate.com called the evening 'so deliciously icy that it left me shivering with fear and delight.' The Fall 2014 shows sold out after a New York Times 'Arts & Leisure' piece ran in September. The January show will include a tribute to Broadway legend Ethel Merman, with special guests Klea Blackhurst, Erin Markey, Nora Mae Lyng, Molly Pope and Ben Rimalower. Tracy Stark serves as the show's Music Director.

If you've been a regular reader of this particular reviewer's musings, you know that every year there are long stretches of time where I just haven't been able to critique all the shows I've seen that deserve commentary. So I end up playing what they call in sports, 'Catch-up ball,' and post a mash up of belated reviews from past shows. It's kind of like a critic's version of the song 'Six Months Out of Every Year,' from Damn Yankees. Give or take a month or two, that's usually the time period during which I store unpublished reviews in my fevered brain and then unload them all in one seemingly endless column-like this one is going to be. If my cabaret-show reviewing days will be over (as chronicled here), I might as well go out with a bang-and relieve my procrastination guilt during holiday season. Now I can scratch one New Year's resolution off the list.

It's your last week to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Columbus Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 26th. Voting closes at the end of the year, in under one week!

What better way to commemorate the 100th birthday of one of the nation's most storied theaters - The Shubert Theater in New Haven, Connecticut - than with a special video starring the national company of Irving Berlin's White Christmas, the first show to take the stage in the theater's centennial year?

Birdland presents the fifth annual "A Swinging Birdland Christmas" celebration at Birdland Jazz Club starring Birdland regulars Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch. To celebrate the holidays Blackhurst, Caruso and Stritch will perform swinging arrangements of beloved seasonal specials like "Christmas Waltz," Kay Thompson's "Holiday Season," "Sleigh Ride," and "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" among other favorites.

Time is ticking on your last chance to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Columbus Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 19th. Voting closes at the end of the year!

The Houston Symphony welcomes Broadway legends, iconic conductors, and programs for the whole family in February 2015.

You know how those 'Saturday Night Live' skits are where it's a fantastic premise and really funny to start out but then they have no idea how to end it so it drones on and on. Well the current off-kilter holiday production out at ArtsWest is like that. Filled with gut busting laughs and wonderful musical numbers in Act One but then turns into something very different in Act Two and keeps going on and on and ends about four different times.

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Columbus Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 4th.

Falcon Theatre will present A Carlin Home Companion, written by and starring Kelly Carlin, directed by Paul Provenza, the fourth production of the Falcon Theatre's 2014-2015 Subscription Season.

The feature film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's beloved fairy tale musical INTO THE WOODS is coming to movie theaters nationwide on Christmas Day and BroadwayWorld celebrates the man behind the music and lyrics with a new series highlighting the work of the iconic composer and lyricist, kicking off today with a look at his work in the 1950s and 1960s.

Nothing says Christmas like watching Mommie Dearest descend the stairs in four inch heels, a robe, sheer pantyhose, and a smug grin of self-satisfaction.This holiday tradition is true, however, for the members of the Crawford family in StageQ's recent production of Christmas with the Crawfords written by Richard Winchester and Mark Sargent. Based loosely on the memoir made film 'Mommie Dearest' written by Joan Crawford's daughter Christina and combined with a menagerie of guest stars of a bygone era, this is a comedy just bursting with eccentricities.

The holiday season is upon us. Many local theatres are geared to make your days merry and bright. Curtains have or will shortly go up on the likes of 'A Christmas Carol,' 'A Christmas Story,' and 'Santaland Diaries.' Even The Key Bank Broadway series is ringing in the season with a holiday musical, 'Irving Berlin's White Christmas.'