Ira Gershwin News

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT comes to Dallas Summer Musicals and Bass Hall in September.

Three continents, multiple awards and an avalanche of international acclaim later, ...MISKIEN is back in Cape Town 2-27 September.

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, the award-winning musical comedy that played Broadway from 2012-2013, will launch its national tour in North Texas next month. The tour kicks off at the Music Hall at Fair Park September 2-14, presented by Dallas Summer Musicals. Then the tour rolls into Fort Worth, where it'll play at Bass Performance Hall September 16-21, presented by Performing Arts Fort Worth.

Casting and dates have been announced for the upcoming national tour of NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT. Alex Enterline and Mariah MacFarlane will star as wealthy playboy Jimmy Winter and feisty bootlegger Billie Bendix, respectively. The tour will launch September 2 at the Music Hall at Fair Park in Dallas.

Theo Ubique artistic director Fred Anzevino and musical director Jeremy Ramey, who teamed up for the company's Jeff-award Best Musical winner The Light in the Piazza as well as Aspects of Love and Master Class, are collaborating on this collection of songs by the German born classical composer-turned-Broadway-songsmith Kurt Weill. Ramey is providing exciting new arrangements as well as musical direction. Christie Kerr is also on the team as choreographer for the cabaret to be performed at the No Exit Cafe, 6970 N. Glenwood Ave., Chicago, from September 19 to October 19, 2014.

'Backwards in High Heels,' now playing through August 23rd at The Winter Park Playhouse, is as entertaining as it is educational. The story is an account of the transformation of a young girl, Virginia Katherine McMath, into one of the country's best-known dancing idols; you may know her by her pseudonym Ginger Rogers, the bright-eyed teenager with dreams of dancing her way through Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.

The Long Center is kicking off its 2014-15 Broadway Season with 'Nice Work If You Can Get It,' one of two Broadway shows in the Long Center Presents Season that are brand new to Austin audiences! 'Nice Work If You Can Get It' runs October 1 and 2 in Dell Hall. Tickets are on sale now and start at $29.

San Francisco Opera and KQED 9 partner once again bring the glory of grand opera to the living rooms of the Bay Area. Recorded in impressive high-definition and in 5.1 surround sound at the War Memorial Opera House, the television specials showcase the imaginative stagings and all-star casts from San Francisco Opera's recent productions of I Capuleti e i Montecchi, the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet accompanied by some of Bellini's most beautiful melodies; Verdi's Attila, a complex look at a legendary warrior tormented by fierce internal doubts; Mefistofele,Boito's resplendent retelling of Goethe's Faust; and Verdi's Rigoletto about a vengeful court jester desperately trying to protect his daughter from disaster.

Bay Area Cabaret, devoted to presenting audiences with top performers who expand the definition of cabaret, launches its 11th season this fall at the Fairmont San Francisco's historic Venetian Room with an Opening Night Gala celebrating the work of songwriter/composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell, Pocahontas, Enchanted, Prince of Egypt). The evening will feature two on-stage interviews with Mr. Schwartz by ASCAP's Director of Musical Theatre Michael Kerker, and performances by Saturday Night Live's Ana Gasteyer, who performed the role of 'Elphaba' in Wicked on Broadway, and by two masterful interpreters of Schwartz' work, Liz Callaway and Michael McCorry Rose. Bay Area Cabaret's Opening Night Gala Tribute to Stephen Swartz will take place 8 pm, Saturday, September 27, 2014 at the Venetian Room of the Fairmont San Francisco, 950 Mason Street, atop Nob Hill, San Francisco.

New York City's consummate cabaret star Michael Feinstein performs at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center tonight, August 9 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $95, $125, $150 and are available online at www.whbpac.org.

New York City Center's 2014-15 season features an exciting lineup of dance and musical theater that begins with the 11th season of City Center's acclaimed Fall for Dance Festival. The Festival features 24 acclaimed dance companies and artists from around the world, and will kick off in September with two free dance performances at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park in association with The Public Theater, followed by five unique programs at City Center in October. The Band Wagon, an Encores! Special Event starring Brian Stokes Mitchell, follows in November, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, City Center's Principal Dance Company, returns for a month-long engagement in December.

Bay Area Cabaret, devoted to presenting audiences with top performers who expand the definition of cabaret, enters its 11th season this fall with a sparkling lineup at the Fairmont San Francisco's historic Venetian Room. The new season features a star-studded lineup of performers making their Bay Area Cabaret debuts, as well as the return of a few favorites. The season kicks off on Saturday, September 27, 2014 with a tribute to songwriter Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell, Pocahontas, Enchanted, Prince of Egypt), starring Mr. Schwartz, SNL's Ana Gasteyer, Broadway's Liz Callaway and Michael McCorry Rose. The season continues November 2 with Tony winner Leslie Uggams (Hallelujah, Baby!, Beulah, Roots) and December 7 with Andrew Lloyd Webber protege and star of Broadway's Phantom of the Opera and Little Mermaid Sierra Boggess.

Some insight into what's happening in the West End throughout August -what we'll bid goodbye to and what we'll welcome in...

This August and September 54 BELOW presents an exciting lineup of the brightest talent from Broadway and beyond. Located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street.

The Stratford Festival of Canada, whose present artistic director is Atoni Cimolino, started on July 13, 1953, when Sir Alec Guiness walked onto a stage located in a large tent and spoke the first lines of what has become the internationally-recognized celebration of theatre. Now housed in five theatres, offering plays and other entertainment from late April to November, Stratford is the largest repertoire theatre in North America. The offerings are not only the writings of Shakespeare, but a variety of classical and contemporary works, including musicals.

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts unveiled its 2014-2015 Season this evening during a standing-room-only celebration that included live pop-up performances, spectacular costumes and festive refreshments, underscoring that the Ordway provides a unique experience with every show. The Ordway celebrates the performing arts with a rich variety of offerings that includes Broadway shows, world music and dance concerts, family events and a special St. Patrick's Day performance in the new Ordway Concert Hall.

The new musical, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, will open at the Palace Theatre on April 12, 2015 following its world premiere in December, 2014 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. Below, check out a first look at the show's stars, Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope, in just-released publicity images!

Estelle Parsons, a theatre legend whose illustrious stage career spans six decades, will play a 92-year-old French matron in Palm Beach Dramaworks' production of My Old Lady by Israel Horovitz, which runs from December 5, 2014 through January 4, 2015 at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre (201 Clematis).

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

Today we are saluting one of Broadway's best-loved leading ladies in honor of her new cabaret show kicking off this week at 54 Below, the one and only Patti LuPone.