Freda Payne News

Forest VanDyke, Darius-Anthony Robinson, and Kris Coleman performed 'Quiet' by Jonathan Reid Gealt as a tribute to Black Lives Matter.

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the 101 greatest protest songs from 1939-2020. See if your favorite songs or artists made the list!

The TD Edmonton International Jazz Festival presents the 2020 Festival from the comfort of your home. Join us online starting opening weekend June 19-21 and every weekend until July 31 to enjoy free performances and interviews from musicians locally and around the world.

Performer, teacher, and choreographer Alan Onickel will be making his Green Room 42 debut in That Instant. Beginning in South Africa with a life-altering near-fatal car crash, this autobiographical show follows Alan from his visit to 'Coma Land' through multiple surgeries, therapies, doctors, pharmaceuticals, recuperation and finally his return to New York City. Music composed by the incomparable Drama Desk and Helen Hayes award winner Ed Dixon and played by gifted Musical Director Chip Prince. Everyone deals with obstacles in life. That Instant tells of Alan Onickel's unpredictable journey surviving those hurdles.

Performer, teacher, and choreographer Alan Onickel is thrilled to be making his Green Room 42 debut in That Instant.

Michael Childers' presents One Night Only benefitting the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center. a?oeThe Way We Were: Songs of the '70'sa?? features the best of Broadway and pop music from that era, for one performance only on April 22 at 6:30 pm, at The McCallum Theatre. With Direction & Choreography by Scott Coulter and Music Direction by Todd Schroeder, the cast features the best of Broadway and Hollywood performers. I had the chance to catch up with director, Scott Coulter, as he was preparing the production for rehearsal. Here are a few excerpts from that conversation:

Back to the Backlot, a live musical comedy variety show, will bring back many of West Hollywood's famed Backlot Theatre's original showcase stars to commemorate the end of an era of one of the country's most famous venues for live entertainment. The event will mark the beginning of the preservation project known as Robertson Lane, which will re-build the venue formally known as The Factory and the famous Studio One Nightclub. The historic building opened in 1929 as the home of Mitchell Cameras, an early and important movie camera maker for the large movie studios. It was then the Studio One nightclub/Backlot Theatre from the late 1970s through the 1990s.

Cortland Repertory Theatre Downtown at 24 Port Watson Street in Cortland is proud to present The Jazz Ensembles from Cornell University with a unique and exciting concert on Friday October 25 at 7:30 PM. Directed by Paul Merrill, the talented student musicians will present a concert entitled 'Mythology, Folklore, and Freedom: Train Imagery in Early Blues, Folk, Jazz and Pop.' With a central theme of songs about trains and a?oeriding the railsa??, the concert features music by Johnny Cash, Duke Ellington, Bob Marley, Arlo Guthrie, Thelonious Monk, Lead Belly, Elizabeth Cotton, Henry Thomas, Mary Lou Williams, and The O'Jays.  Special guest musician/singer Miché Fambro will also join the group, bringing his own unique sound to the concert.  Tickets for $10.00 for adults and seniors, and $8.00 for youth under 22.

Broadway star Eden Espinosa, recording legend Freda Payne, and Newsies star Dillon Klena have joined the cast of Rockin' in Paradise, a concert to support the Anaheim Performing Arts Center Foundation, it was announced today by Ronn Goswick Entertainment.

Patsy Cline's trailblazing spirit is remembered in a?oeMy Patsy Cline Songbook,a?? the first-ever, full-length jazz tribute album arriving August 23, 2019.  Drawing on her country roots, vocalist Staci Griesbach's debut album explores looking at the Nashville Songbook as another treasure trove to consider reinterpreting for jazz, much like the traditional Great American Songbook.

DONELLE DADIGAN (FounderPresident of The Hollywood Museum), gathered a celebrated roster of stars including Anita Pointer and her sister Bonnie Pointer fro the unveiling of the EVER AFTER exhibit at The Hollywood Museum

On Sunday night, the Tony Awards honored legendary orchestrator and arranger Harold Wheeler with one of three 2019 Lifetime Achievement Awards. Wheeler is currently represented on Broadway with AIN'T TOO PROUD - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS. Watch Howard Wheeler accept the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award here.

Kevin Black, one of South Florida's best-known producer/director/choreographers, is once again collaborating with award-winning vocalist Mimi J to create a concert program that will appeal to audiences of all ages. The two have worked together several times developing shows that achieved great success - most notably On the Radio: Sounds of the 70s, which debuted at Stage Door Theatre in 2014, and eventually morphed into I Will Survive.  That show went on to play several other area venues. 

The Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival presents its annual programming for the West Hollywood area to the Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036 on Saturday, July 20, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.

According to the New York Times, actress Rosemary Harris, musician Harold Wheeler and playwright Terrence McNally will all be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 2019 Tonys.

Acclaimed Jazz harpist-pianist-vocalist Corky Hale will present a 102nd Birthday Show honoring Billie Holiday on Thursday, April 6, at 7:30 PM, at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. Hale is one of the few people still performing who was actually a close friend of Holiday's, playing for her on the 'Stars of Jazz' TV show, and on several recordings and live appearances, and was the only female pianist to regularly accompany her.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents the West Coast premiere of the roof-raising musical play Marie and Rosetta. Developed at TheatreWorks' 2015 New Works Festival by Lucille Lortel Award-winner George Brant, Marie and Rosetta shares the saga of a musical legend. From stirring up churchgoers in the morning to rocking the Cotton Club at night, Sister Rosetta Tharpe inspired Elvis, Ray Charles, and more on her way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Growing competition on the 1940s Gospel Circuit finds Rosetta auditioning a new partner with a voice made from heaven. Will they break, blend, or find harmony at last? Directed by Robert Kelley, 

The 2019 Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival features an extraordinary roster of twenty-two musical groups, highlighted by the festival debut of Grammy award winning artist Norah Jones, and the return of jazz legend George Benson and festival favorite Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Back by popular demand is also Los Van Van 50th Anniversary, Django Festival All-Stars with Edmar Castañeda and Grace Kelly, Joshua Redman Quartet, and James Carter Organ Trio. Fifteen emerging artists making their Saratoga debuts include Kandace Springs, Donna Grantis, Joey DeFrancesco Trio, Mercy Project which features Jon Cowherd, Brian Blade, John Patitucci, and Steve Cardenas, Antonio Sanchez & Migration, and Cha Wa. The festival will also feature a record number of groups led by women artists, highlighted by Allison Miller, Veronica Swift, Ruthie Foster and Youn Sun Nah.

The new Avenel Performing Arts Center (APAC) is a multi-disciplinary performing arts center located in Avenel, New Jersey. Funded by the Woodbridge Arts Alliance, this 13,500 square foot venue promises to energize Avenel and surrounding communities by programming exceptional, professional theatre, music, comedy, dance and more.

The Recording Academy and Clive Davis will present the annual Pre-GRAMMY® Gala on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019, at The Beverly Hilton, the evening preceding the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards®. As part of the celebration, Clarence Avant will be recognized as the 2019 GRAMMY Salute To Industry Icons® honoree for his groundbreaking contributions to the music industry.