Frank Sinatra News

The Ziegfeld Society will present Tony Award winning Broadway Conductor Donald Pippin in A MAESTRO'S MEMOIRS on Saturday, May 17th, a multi-media presentation of his life in the theatre.

The show is a celebration of the life of Maurice Hines, his brother Gregory, and their parents who Maurice fondly remembers throughout the show. Adding to emotional content, moveable screens that divide the orchestra from the performing area were often used to display photographs of the Hines family in their early days. And throughout the show, Hines, now a young 70 years old, expresses sheer joy in entertaining his audience, singing and dancing with a passion from deep within his soul. You can't help but be pulled into the magic!

In honor of this weekend's sure-to-be spectacular BroadwayWorld special event EVERYTHING'S COMING UP BROADWAYWORLD.COM: A JULE STYNE TRIBUTE, today we honor the man behind the music for many of the greatest musicals of all time.

The Wallis Center for the Performing Arts presents Maurice Hines is Tappin' Thru Life for 19 performances only from today, May 9 - 24, 2014 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater.

Time Square Arts, in partnership with Allied Partners and Brickman Real Estate, will present Jim Findlay's Dream of the Red Chamber, a performance for a sleeping audience, produced by Collapsable Giraffe and 3-Legged Dog.

Michael Feinstein will join Nick Ziobro, the 17 year-old pop/jazz vocal sensation, as a special guest for his CD release concert at Birdland Jazz Club (315 West 44th Street in Manhattan) on Thursday, May 22 at 6:00 PM. The CD's all-star band - led by Tedd Firth and featuring music legend Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Jay Leonhart on bass, Ray Marchica on drums, Brian Pareschi on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Marc Phaneuf on saxophone and clarinet - will also join the concert. Nick's debut album A Lot of Livin' to Do is produced by Michael Feinstein, the two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Award-nominated vocalist, pianist and musicologist. Tickets - which include a complimentary CD - are $20 with an additional $10 minimum. Visit BirdlandJazz.com for more information.

I was just a little more than a year into my new side career as a cabaret show reviewer when I first saw a Karen Oberlin show. It was Valentine's Day night 2012 and Oberlin—with guitarist Sean Harkness and guest violinist Aaron Weinstein—would be performing her romance-laced set, Stringing Along With Love, at the Metropolitan Room. At the time, all I knew about Oberlin was that she was considered among New York's best female cabaret singers, and I hadn't researched her performing history pre-show. About a third of the way into her set I leaned over to my wife (it was Valentine's Day after all) and whispered, “You know, she has a real Doris Day quality in her voice and in the way she delivers some lyrics.” This immediately ratcheted up my appreciation for Oberlin since there are four passions I inherited from my Dad—baseball, reading the morning papers, sports writing and Doris Day (well, also Sophia Loren, but that's for another column). Since Dad had grown up during the prime of the Big Band Era of the 1940s, I heard the sultry sounds of a young Doris Day singing songs like “Sentimental Journey” on the family stereo more than a few times. Once I saw Day's strikingly adorable blondness on a record cover and her rocking body in one of her films, I knew what Dad was talking about. As popular, famous, and near iconic as Doris Day became, in my book, as a singer and screen beauty she's always been vastly underrated. Little did I know that Karen Oberlin had been doing a Doris Day tribute show so since 2001 at places like Firebird, Iridium, and the late Danny's Skylight Room, and produced a CD, Secret Love: The Music of Doris Day, in 2002. Karen Oberlin had instantly become my secret love.

Philanthropist and jewelry designer Joan Hornig will receive the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor Award presented annually by The National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO) to Americans who have made it their mission to share with those less fortunate their wealth of knowledge, indomitable courage, boundless compassion, unique talents and selfless generosity; all while maintaining the traditions of their ethnic heritage as they uphold the ideals and spirit of America. The awards will be presented May 10 on historic Ellis Island at an elegant ceremony and dinner that embodies the spirit of America in their celebration of patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity. Scroll down for photos of Joan and her work!

Theater League of Kansas City presents Hackett Miller's hit musical, 'Sandy Hackett's Rat Pack Show" at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts for its Broadway Series in Kansas City, Mo. May 27 through June 1.

Symphony Space's annual Spring Festival has become one of the season's most keenly awaited events. This year's installment, Sleeping Around: The Cultural Lives of New York's Hotels, may be the most provocative yet. Running from April 26 to May 21, the monthlong festival celebrates New York's landmark hotels, their occupants, and the lengendary boites that nurtured and sustained the evergreen songs and performers of cabaret. Sleeping Around also credits New York's hotels as incubators for film, classical music, and literature, with programs devoted to Andy Warhol, Virgil Thomson, and Dorothy Parker.

Excellent seats ($59 & $56) are available! Call the Box Office at 575.336.4800 or go to www.spencertheater.com for tickets. A pre-show beef & shrimp kebabs lobby buffet will be available for $20 at 6 p.m.

Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly will lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and an incredible cast of singers and dancers in a production of works by the award-winning, four-decade songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb on Thursday, May 15 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore, Friday, May 16 at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The evening will include a series of showstoppers, from Cabaret, Chicago, New York, New York, Kiss of the Spider Woman and more.

The Hippodrome's live entertainment programme continues with a varied offering of music, burlesque, cabaret and more including a four night run from popular US songwriter Scott Alan, a concert celebrating the best of The Great British Musicals hosted by Nicholas Parsons, an exclusive preview of award-winning singer Sarah Jane Morris' new album, and the return of Mitch Winehouse's monthly residency in aid of The Amy Winehouse Foundation which will feature an array of very special guests.

Paper Mill Playhouse is hosting its largest fundraising event of the year, Curtain Up on the 76th Season Gala tonight, May 2nd, at the renowned Hilton Short Hills. Curtain Up on the 76th Season Gala is sponsored by Hilton Short Hills. Other gala sponsors include: PNC Bank, Tiffany & Co., Dior, and American Airlines, the official airline of Paper Mill Playhouse.

Last night I had the particular privilege of discussing the intricacies and intrigue of William Shakespeare's legendary history play RICHARD III with one of the greatest actors of our age and a true patron of the arts - two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey. Discussing the finer points of his characterization of the hunchback antihero, Spacey paints a vivid portrait of his experiences in reteaming with his AMERICAN BEAUTY collaborator, director Sam Mendes, on bringing a truly 21st century take on the classic play to the stage - and then bringing the production all the way from the hallowed ground of Spacey's own The Old Vic in London, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City to a whirlwind worldwide tour spanning the globe. NOW, a compelling new documentary following the project from rehearsal through to opening night and ensuing world tour is set to be released next month and is highlighted by the fly-on-the-wall intimacy and access it provides viewers, as well as offering copious performance footage of Spacey and company in action onstage. Additionally, Spacey and I address and analyze the undeniable connections between RICHARD III and his super-successful Netflix dramatic series HOUSE OF CARDS, touching upon not only the dramatic parallels, but the lucky sequence of events that made the entire endeavor possible in the first place. After all, Frank Underwood is the modern Richard III in many ways - bloodlust, ambition, ego, humor and darkness included; but, also, the humanity. Plus, Spacey expresses his enthusiasm for starting work on Season Three of the series now that they have been granted Maryland filming tax breaks once again, which was holding up production until this week. Besides all of that, Spacey also clues us in on his future endeavors of interest, mentioning his spate of recent musical performances and his desire to pursue a musical role once again sometime soon following his acclaimed turn as Bobby Darin in musical biopic BEYOND THE SEA. FOLLIES, perhaps?! A wide-ranging conversation with a stage and screen mega-star like none other awaits in today's special spotlight.

Sleeping Cutie: A Fractured Fairy Tale Musical with Music by Doug Katsaros and Lyrics / Book by Diane Sampson - A world premiere production in this exclusive Off a Cliff / PlayGround co-production in San Francisco has been extended! Due to popular demand - six Performances have been added! Now playing thru May 21, 2014.

Cheyenne Jackson won the hearts of a sold-out crowd by completely opening his own in his debut performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday night. The self-professed goal of the tall, dark and handsome singer was simply 'to blanket the audience with love,' which he did repeatedly in a program that paid tribute to the '50s and '60s with his Music of the Mad Men Era

Emmy and Tony award winner and Oklahoma Hall of Fame inductee Kristin Chenoweth will be inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame at this year's Opening Night at the Hollywood Bowl, Saturday, June 21, at 8 pm. Chenoweth will be inducted by actress and comedienne Carol Burnett.

In addition to the musicals and dramas featured in the Theatre's 2014/15 season (The Foreigner, Fiddler on the Roof, The Wiz, Glengarry Glen Ross and LES MISERABLES), the Theatre will present a spectacular lineup of all-new concerts and special productions, along with select beloved favorites.