Howard McGillin News

Last week, the stars came out to 54 BELOW to catch Jenifer Lewis with Marc Shaiman, Andrea McArdle and Lea Delaria. Visitors included Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg, the legendary Bette Midler, Tony Award winners Nathan Lane, Tommy Tune, Dick Latessa and Cady Huffman, Emmy Award winner John Turturro, star of Broadway's Gore Vidal's The Best Man Cybill Shepherd, Dreamgirls and SIde Show composer Henry Krieger, Miss Abigaiil's Guide and 'The Brady Bunch' star Eve Plumb, McArdle's Annie successor Shelley Bruce, and star of the upcoming Broadway production of Rebecca Karen Mason.

This August and September 54 BELOW will present a new lineup of stars. Located just below legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street, 54 Below also continues to present its special series: Backstage, Broadway's Sunday evening cocktail party and songfest; The Green Room, live, music, cocktails and lite fare for the after-theatre crowd.

Grant Park Music Festival concert in Chicago's Millennium Park will host a a concert on July 13 and 14, 2012, entitled “Perfectly Frank: From Broadway to Hollywood.' The show is a tribute to Frank Loesser, featuring Broadway's Rebecca Luker, Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, Howard McGillin. Check out the cast in rehearsal below!

Among all the summer-time concerts taking place in the Chicago area this month, one concert stands out--free, accessible, chock-full of hit songs and performed by an unmatched quartet of Broadway stars. And it's only in Chicago. "Perfectly Frank: From Broadway to Hollywood" isn't happening anywhere else except the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, courtesy of the Grant Park Music Festival. It's this weekend, and early arrival is recommended.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Divas on parade: Menzel, Cook, Hudson, Luker and Mazzie, plus the new year's offerings from Broadway In Chicago and local productions of 'Fame,' 'Little Shop' and more!....

Among all the summer-time concerts taking place in the Chicago area this month, one concert stands out--free, accessible, chock-full of hit songs and performed by an unmatched quartet of Broadway stars. And it's only in Chicago. "Perfectly Frank: From Broadway to Hollywood" isn't happening anywhere else except the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, courtesy of the Grant Park Music Festival. It's this weekend, and early arrival is recommended.

Summer in Chicago continues this month with the Grant Park Music Festival, led by Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar and the Grammy Award-nominated Grant Park Orchestra, along with Chorus Director Christopher Bell and the Grant Park Chorus in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park. The Festival will bring performances by outstanding guest conductors and guest artists from around the world, in a month of exciting programming that includes a world premiere commission, a live concert screening of Frozen Planet, the latest hit series from BBC/Discovery Channel, a tribute concert to Broadway and Hollywood legend, Frank Loesser and other Festival favorites.

On Thursday, three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Richard Adler passed away at the ripe old age of 90. Responsible for two of the biggest Broadway smash hits of the 1950s, THE PAJAMA GAME and GAMN YANKEES, Adler never quite managed to equal his career-high double-hitter of that era, yet his earlier work with Tony Bennett ('Rags To Riches'), Doris Day ('Everybody Loves A Lover') and Marilyn Monroe (the iconic 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President') surely shall solidify his place in the firmament of entertainment history along with his two classic musicals from the Golden Age. Winning both Best Score and Best Musical for both THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES, Adler's partnership with lyricist Jerry Ross - which began on Broadway in 1953 with JOHN MURRAY ANDERSON'S ALMANAC - was tragically cut short just months after the DAMN YANKEES premiere when Ross was diagnosed with lung disease and passed away soon thereafter. Yet, thanks to the beloved film versions of THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES and continued interest in the entities as expressed in the revivals and reappraisals of both onstage from Broadway to Biloxi to Bombay year after year, the snappy, snazzy tunes of Adler and Ross live on eight times a week all around the world - even now, more than fifty years after they premiered. Unfortunately, Adler's subsequent shows with other collaborators post-1955 failed to capture the early magic of his previous projects with Ross and his earlier musical and theatrical endeavors in the pop arena, with the racially charged KWAMINA flopping on Broadway in 1961 (though he took home a Best Composer Tony Award for his efforts anyway) and the awkwardly titled MUSIC IS failing to recreate the magic of its source material, Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, in 1976. A MOTER'S KISSES, starring Bea Arthur and a young Bernadette Peters, died on the road, as well. In the intervening years, Adler attempted musical adaptations taken from a number of intriguing sources - OF HUMAN BONDAGE and others among them - though only his ballet scores seemed to reach an audience; particularly his last, commissioned for a new production of Lorca's THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA in 1998. Of course, THE PAJAMA GAME has had two Broadway revivals - most recently the rapturously received Kathleen Marshall-directed production starring Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara; and DAMN YANKEES famously returned to the Great White Way with much ado in 1994 starring Victor Garber. Now seems particularly ripe for remounting YANKEES, as we approach twenty years in its absence - especially given the musical's seriously smashing showing at Encores! in 2007. Who knows, perhaps some risky producer will even take a chance on a new production of KWAMINA, MUSIC IS, A MOTHER'S KISSES or one of the bottom drawer shows someday soon to see if they possess any of the limitless potential shown by Adler's earlier work. Or maybe a stage treatment of his TV musical GIFT OF THE MAGI (originally composed for then-wife Sally Ann Howes)? Or, better yet, how about a revue? What a stupendous songstack Adler created over the course of his career - 'Whatever Lola Wants' to 'Hey There' to 'Hernando's Hideaway' to 'You Gotta Have Heart' to 'Steam Heat' to the aforementioned Bennett, Day and Monroe standards and so many more chestnuts.

Ryan Silverman, just announced for the role of Maxim de Winter in Broadway's upcoming production REBECCA, released a new music video today for 'Come on Down to My House.' Watch the video below!

REBECCA, the new musical based on the classic novel by Daphne du Maurier novel, has found its male and female leads: Jill Paice will play the role of "I" and Ryan Silverman the role of "Maxim de Winter." REBECCA will open on Broadway Sunday, November 18 at The Broadhurst Theatre. Previews will begin Tuesday, October 30.

The second annual 'Night of A Thousand Judys' - the Pride concert to benefit The Ali Forney Center - will take place at Playwrights Horizons on Monday, June 18.

Today in 1993, the first Broadway revival of She Loves Me opened at Criterion Center Stage Right, where it ran for 354 performances. She Loves Me is a 1963 musical with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock. The plot revolves around Budapest shop employees Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash who, despite being consistently at odds with each other at work, are unaware that each is the other's secret pen pal met through lonely-hearts ads. The Revival cast featured Boyd Gaines as Georg, Judy Kuhn as Amalia, Sally Mayes as Ilona, Howard McGillin as Kodaly, Lee Wilkof as Ladislav, Brad Kane as Arpad, and Louis Zorich as Mr. Maraczek. A revival cast recording was released by Varèse Sarabande.

The 68th annual Theatre World Awards were just held last night, June 5th, 2012. The winners for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performances during the 2011-2012 theatrical season were:

Yesterday, June 3, the Dramatists Guild Fund hosted their 50th Anniversary Gala at the Mandarin Oriental New York. This year's event, hosted by Jon Cryer, honored Chicago and Cabaret composer John Kander. Performances and tributes were given by well-known members of the theater community including Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, Bebe Neuwirth, Christie Brinkley, Stockard Channing, Joel Grey, Rob Marshall, Susan Stroman, Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba and Joshua Henry.

REBECCA, the new musical based on the classic novel by Daphne Du Maurier novel (and later turned into an Oscar-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock) will open on Broadway Sunday, November 18 at The Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). Can't wait until November? BroadwayWorld brings you highlights from the Stuttgart production below!

Tickets to the general public are now available for REBECCA, the new musical based on the classic novel by Daphne du Maurier novel (and later turned into an Oscar-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock) which will open on Broadway Sunday, November 18 at The Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street).

The 68th annual THEATRE WORLD AWARDS, which will take place on Tuesday, June 5th at 2 pm at The Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44th Street, NYC., will include special performances by Broadway favorites Brian Stokes Mitchell, Michael Cerveris, Howard McGillin and Stephanie Umoh. The by-invitation-only ceremony will present Theatre World Awards to 12 actors for their Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performances during the 2011-2012 theatrical season. The event also includes presentation of the 4th Annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence. This year The Theatre World Awards will have ASL interpretation.

On Sunday, May 6, George Street Playhouse paid tribute to playwright and director Arthur Laurents with the naming of the theatre's mainstage as The Arthur Laurents Stage at George Street Playhouse and the establishment of The Arthur Laurents Fund for the Development of New Work.

Actress/singer Elaine Paige, having originated Evita, Chess, Piaf and Anything Goes in London, is unquestionably the queen of the West End, and with a Drama Desk nomination securely in place for her Broadway performance in the new Kennedy Center production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, which opened at the Ahmanson May 9, Paige is fast becoming a theatrical sensation in the US as well. In our chat, she says what she thinks about Stephen Sondheim, Follies, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Barbara Cook, her favorite career highlights including her leading men, as well as her popular radio talk show for the BBC entitled Elaine Paige on Sunday.