George Gershwin News

Pacific Symphony tackles the music of one of America's most celebrated composers -- George Gershwin -- for a memorable night of timeless music, as Mercedes-Benz presents Summer Festival 2014 continues with “Gershwin Greats.” Gershwin was a composer who conducted it all -- taking Broadway by storm, selling out concert halls and opera houses and, as a result, defining an era. This program of classic Americana, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair (conducting the first concert of his 25th anniversary season), features guest pianist Jeffrey Biegel, the extraordinary voices of Angela Brown (soprano), Kevin Deas (bass), and the Carver Cossey Singers. Along with the orchestra, they perform some of the most popular and best-known Gershwin works -- from the jazz-filled melodies of “Rhapsody in Blue” to the enduring sounds of “An American in Paris” and the groundbreaking “Porgy and Bess,” to the rousing overture to “Strike up the Band.” “Gershwin Greats” takes place on Sunday, July 20, at 7:30 p.m., under the stars at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine.

The Town Hall 2014 Summer Season: Broadway Preludes will launch tonight, June 27 at 8PM with the American premiere of a lost Cole Porter treasure, The Ambassador Revue.

The DCR's Hatch Shell on the Esplanade comes alive with orchestral splendor on Wednesday evenings during July and August, as the Boston Landmarks Orchestra returns for its 2014 main series.

The Town Hall 2014 Summer Season: Broadway Preludes presents Broadway Rising Stars, the annual revue giving recent graduates from the nation's leading performing arts schools a chance to showcase their talents and perform on the legendary stage. Directed by Scott Coulter, Broadway Rising Stars is created, hosted and written by Scott Siegel and features the brightest talent from AMDA, CAP 21, Circle in the Square, Juilliard, Marymount, The New School, NYU's Steinhardt and Tisch, Pace University, and more. The event will feature a special guest appearance by Tony Award winner Bill Irwin (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Fool Moon). Broadway Rising Stars plays one night only, Monday, July 14 at 8PM at The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street.)

What we get from the King's Singers is some sensational six part a cappella male voice harmony, and completely revised versions of the familiar songs

"Cello goddess" (The New Yorker) Maya Beiser releases her next album Uncovered on August 26, 2014 on the Innova label, followed by aUS tour in September 2014 to cities including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and more (tour schedule to be announced in early July). Uncovered is an album of startling classic rock tunes, re-imagined and re-contextualized, in stunningly moving performances by Maya Beiser. A cover tune can be an homage to the original, but these "uncovers," in new arrangements by Evan Ziporyn, attempt to do more - to evoke the unprecedented power of the music of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Janis Joplin, Howlin' Wolf, King Crimson, Muddy Waters, and AC/DC as musical masterpieces and as totems of our collective consciousness.

They say that everyone has a twin somewhere in the world. Well, I'm sure that Ethel Merman is proudly smiling down at hers as Heather Carvel boldly tackles the role of a lifetime in the World Premiere of Warehouse Theatre Company's BIG VOICE: THE ETHEL MERMAN EXPERIENCE. Directed, conceived and written by Kristofer Green, every look, nuance, expression, and style is exactly dead-on, from hair to dress to even the way Ethel raised her eyebrows and smiled after a song.

BroadwayWorld.com's SHOW BIZ: Rush, Lottery & Standing Room Only Ticketing Policies - updated on 6/20/2014.

Today in 1993, the second Broadway revival of Camelot opened at the George Gershwin Theatre, where it ran for 56 performances. Camelot is a musical by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music). It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White tetralogy novel The Once and Future King. The original 1960 production, directed by Moss Hart and orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J. Lang, ran on Broadway for 873 performances, winning four Tony Awards and spawning several revivals, foreign productions and a 1967 film version. The 1993 cast starred Robert Goulet, Steve Blanchard, and Patricia Kies.

The magic of the Stratford Festival's hit musical Crazy for You has been immortalized in the first full-length cast recording in the Festival's history. The album is filled with beloved Gershwin tunes and a sensational cast bursting with talent: who could ask for anything more?

Following the wildly enthusiastic reception for Hershey Felder as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, Berkeley Repertory Theatre invites audiences back this July for Hershey Felder's Monsieur Chopin, a celebrated musical biography of legendary composer Fryderyk Chopin. You've seen Felder as George Gershwin on the hot streets of 1920s New York.

The story and music of the great composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein comes to life on stage whenThe Town Hall 2014 Summer Season: Broadway Preludes presents Maestro Bernstein, a new play with music written and performed by award-winning actor and musician Hershey Felder (Broadway's GeorgeGershwin Alone). Directed by Joel Zwick, Maestro Bernstein plays one night only, Thursday, July 17 at 8PMat The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street.)

MusicalFare Theatre is proud to announce THREE upcoming events in their Premier Center Cabaret.

I am very pleased to announce a brand new BroadwayWorld Toronto contest! I'll be giving away two tickets to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's Gershwin Highlights on Friday June 20th, at 7:30 PM EST. To enter the contest, please send an email to torontocontest@broadwayworld.com with your favorite song composed by George Gerswhin. Entries missing a song title will be discarded. All entires due by 12:00 PM on Thursday, June 19, 2014. The winner will be contacted immediately after noon on Thursday to claim their prize.

Cabaret performers thinking about launching duo shows could certainly take a lesson in chemistry from watching and listening to singer Karen Oberlin and guitarist Sean Harkness in their current show, A Wish, which is based on their superb recently released CD of the same title, launched with two shows at Kitano on February 1 (to celebrate the CD release), and has taken up a once a month residency until late August at the Metropolitan Room (the next show is on June 25 at 9:30 pm). While theirs is not a romantic off-stage chemistry (both are happily quite happily married, thank you), on stage and in the recording studio Oberlin and Harkness have concocted a delicious musical interaction that conjures up romance to the nth degree.

After a sold-out engagement last September, two-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens, 42nd Street) returns to Feinstein's at the Nikko with her newest concert, 'Strings Attached," for two performances only - Today, June 14 (7 p.m.) and Sunday, June 15 (7 p.m.). Joined by The Aaron Weinstein Trio, Ebersole will celebrate the release of her recent CD, 'Strings Attached.' The evening will include classic standards from the '20s, '30s and '40s, featuring songs by such legends as Fats Waller ("Jitterbug Waltz"), Cole Porter ("Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye"), Johnny Mercer ("This Time the Dream's on Me") and George Gershwin ("Shall We Dance") to name a few. Tickets for Christine Ebersole range in price from $60 - $85 and are on-sale now and available by calling 866.663.1063 or visiting www.ticketweb.com.

According to The New York Times, City Center has set the 2015 Encores! 2015, which will open with George and Ira Gershwin's first complete musical, LADY, BE GOOD,. Performances are slated to begin on Feb. 4, and run through Feb. 8.

BroadwayWorld.com's SHOW BIZ: Rush, Lottery & Standing Room Only Ticketing Policies - updated on 6/13/2014.

Named Chicago's Best Musical, Best New Play and Funniest Show, Musical of the Living Dead makes it East Coast premiere in July 2014.