Irving Berlin News

The Actors Fund's annual gala on Monday, April 12, 2010 at the Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway, will honor three stars of stage, screen and business: three-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening ('Being Julia,' 'American Beauty,' 'The Grifters'), four-time Tony Award-winning producer Kevin McCollum ('Rent,' 'Avenue Q,' 'In the Heights,' 'Private Lives'), and Chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels Jonathan Tisch.

As previously announced, this year's Ravinia Festival includes a new production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun; a gala concert celebrating Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday and featuring highlights from Ravinia's Sondheim productions; Ravinia Music Director James Conlon's 60th birthday celebration taking the Chicago Symphony Orchestra into the Martin Theatre for two Mozart operas, featuring mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade in Così fan tutte and baritone Nathan Gunn in The Marriage of Figaro; Leonard Bernstein's Vocal Suite from Candide; Broadway vocalist Kelli O'Hara and pianist Hershey Felder in intimate solo shows in the Martin Theatre; world premieres with Concert Dance, Inc. and the debut of Delfos Danza Contemporánea; the presentation of Ballet Folklorico de Mexico; and a national radio broadcast of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. Today, the Ravinia organization revealed that George Hearn has been added to the cast of Annie Get Your Gun as Buffalo Bill Cody, joining Patti LuPone as Annie Oakley and Brian Stokes Mitchell as Frank Butler. Paul Gemignani will conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the show's three performances, Aug. 13-15. Hearn and LuPone also reunite with Michael Cerveris, Audra McDonald and the CSO for an all-Sondheim gala concert on July 31.

Reprise Theatre Company presents Jerry Seinfeld Live! hosted by Jason Alexander, for one performance only on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 8:00 pm, at the Saban Theatre, Beverly Hills (formerly the Wilshire Theatre). This extraordinary event will feature the hilarious comedy of Jerry Seinfeld and will reunite him with Reprise's Artistic Director and the evening's host, Jason Alexander. Ticket sales support Reprise and its mission to produce musical theatre and provide arts education programs for underserved members of our community.

Nickelodeon and Broadway Across America bring Storytime Live! to Atlanta's Fabulous Fox Theatre from June 11-13, 2010 as a 2010-2011 Broadway Across America - Atlanta season special. Storytime Live! is the first-ever live family theatrical tour featuring characters from four of the current top-rated preschool shows on television today : Dora the Explorer, The Backyardigans, The Wonder Pets! and Ni Hao, Kai-lan;. Preschoolers and their parents can see their favorite Nick Jr. characters come to life in one action-packed on-stage adventure hosted by Nick Jr.'s Moose A. Moose and Zee. The tour will visit more than 70 cities in 2010.

Kaufman Center and New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), acclaimed by New York Magazine as 'The best classical music programming in New York,' will present an all-new program on May 4 and 6 at 8 PM of American composers, including the premiere of Beautiful Ohio, a song cycle by 2009 Pulitzer Prize- finalist Harold Meltzer, with texts of poet James Arlington Wright and composed specifically for the young American tenor Paul Appleby.

Sony MASTERWORKS announces the signing of 4TROOPS. Their debut self-titled CD will be available on May 11th with a portion of the proceeds from the sales to benefit veteran-related organizations. Sony chose to release the album during Armed Forces Week (May 8-May 15) which honors Americans serving in all five services - Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard.

The First National Tour of Legally Blonde: The Musical will begin performances at the Aronoff Center, on May 11, 2010 and run through May 23, 2010 as a Fifth Third Bank Broadway Across America 09/10 Season Presentation.

Jazz, once a singularly American invention and one of the United States' greatest exports, has become a truly international phenomenon, with important players from all over the world making valuable contributions to the music's evolution. Europe, previously home to many of the most devoted connoisseurs of the art form, is now also the producer of some of the most innovative voices in jazz. With the inauguration of its European Modernists series Dreyfus Jazz is proud to bring U.S. audiences some of the best creative music being made on the continent today. The first releases in the collection showcase musicians from Belgium, France and Italy, spotlighting two long respected veterans and a pair of important younger voices. Taken together, Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine, French pianist Jean-Michel Pilc and Italians, drummer Aldo Romano and saxophonist Rosario Giuliani, these artists represent the continuing trend of noteworthy original music emanating from European environs.

Nickelodeon and Broadway Across America bring Storytime Live! to Atlanta's Fabulous Fox Theatre from June 11-13, 2010 as a 2010-2011 Broadway Across America - Atlanta season special. Storytime Live! is the first-ever live family theatrical tour featuring characters from four of the current top-rated preschool shows on television today : Dora the Explorer, The Backyardigans, The Wonder Pets! and Ni Hao, Kai-lan.

Glen Roven, Peter Fitzgerald, and Richard Cohen recently announced the formation of a new CD label, GPR Records, (www.GPRRecords.com), which will record and distribute Broadway, classical, spoken word, and children's music. GPR aims to surprise listeners with recordings that are both unusual and entertaining. Last night on April 4th, the group presented 'Poetic License: 100 Poems by 100 Performers' at The Bowery in celebration of the release of its first recording. BroadwayWorld was there to capture the event.

Rehearsals begin today, Monday, April 5 for the World Premiere production of PARADISE FOUND, a new musical under the combined direction of Theater legend and 21-time Tony Award winner Harold Prince (the original productions of Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, The Phantom of the Opera, Company, Follies, Evita) and 5-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman (Crazy For You, Show Boat, The Producers, Contact). This is their first collaboration since the landmark, Tony Award-winning revival of Show Boat. Following the New York rehearsal period, the production will open at London's acclaimed Menier Chocolate Factory with performances running May 19 through June 26.

Donna Murphy, star of the upcoming production of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE at City Center, recently sat down with the New York Daily News to discuss her feeling on the production and her upcoming Disney film.

Glen Roven, Peter Fitzgerald, and Richard Cohen recently announced the formation of a new CD label, GPR Records, (www.GPRRecords.com) which will record and distribute Broadway, classical, spoken word, and children's music. GPR aims to surprise listeners with recordings that are both unusual and entertaining. On April 4th, the group will present 'POETIC LICENSE: 100 Poems by 100 Performers' at The Bowery.

American Stage Theatre Company's new Cabaret Series performed in the Susan R. Hough performance space in the Raymond James Theatre continues with four new productions in April, TOO LEGIT TO QUIT, SHAKESPEARE OPEN MIC, ROMANTIC JAZZ JAM, HAVING FLASHBACKS and the return of THE DUMB SHOW.

FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY, the nightclub proclaimed 'Best of New York' by New York Magazine and 'an invaluable New York institution' by The New York Post, will continue its all-star Spring 2010 season with the debut engagement of award winning vocalist, SHEERA BEN-DAVID.

Signature Theatre, the current recipient of the Tony Award® for Regional Theatre, presents the world premiere musical Sycamore Trees by Ricky Ian Gordon, composer of the acclaimed opera The Grapes of Wrath and the OBIE Award-winning Orpheus and Euridice, as well as the musicals My Life with Albertine and Dream True.

Now celebrating 13 glorious years of girls, glitz, and glamour on the Great White Way, CHICAGO, the record-breaking, smash hit musical and sixth longest-running production in Broadway history, will make a stop in Columbus at the Palace Theatre as part of its national tour.

Donna Murphy, Sutton Foster and Raúl Esparza will star in Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents' Anyone Can Whistle, the final New York City Center Encores! production of the 2009-2010 season. Anyone Can Whistle, running for five performances April 8 - 11, will be directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw with musical direction by Rob Berman.

Joseph, who was in 4 B'way musicals last year, will go straight from the hit 'Yank!' into the latest Encores! show.

Theatre Under The Stars' (TUTS) President and CEO John C. Breckenridge announces TUTS' 2010-2011 Sensational Season: It Shines! October 2010 through June 2011 at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.