Janice Hall News

In THE WORLD ACCORDING TO KURT WEILL, one of the more than 20 shows put together to form the Winter Rhythms festival benefiting arts education, old met new and timeliness met timelessness. At Urban Stages on December 6, six skilled performers were assembled to interpret several of the most well-known songs of the composer Kurt Weill (who died in the year 1950), through the lens of the world as we see it in 2016. This meant that each song from shows such as ONE TOUCH OF VENUS or THREEPENNY OPERA was introduced with a framing device that was the statement of an accurate and modern headline or situation ("The Refugee Crisis in Syria Worsens," "Donald Trump Wins the Election in Shocking Upset").

Urban Stages has confirmed the line-up for this year's award-winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin tomorrow, Thursday, December 1, and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

Urban Stages and Stephen Hanks' Cabaret Life Productions has announced that on Saturday, December 3 at 7 pm, the 2016 Urban Stages Winter Rhythms Festival (December 1-11 at 259 West 30th Street, NYC) will present highlights from seven of the 16 shows that have been presented at Hanks' highly praised monthly series at the Metropolitan Room--New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD)--and two shows that will be featured in the series in 2017.  

Urban Stages has announced the line-up for this year's Award Winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin Thursday, December 1 and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

'Without Dietrich, there would have been no Madonna...and no Gaga,' Janice Hall announced at the outset of her brilliant revival of GRAND ILLUSIONS: THE MUSIC OF MARLENE DIETRICH, the most recent installment of Stephen Hanks' New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Co-produced by Father Jeffrey R. Hamblin and flawlessly directed by Peter Napolitano, Hall's show---for which the former opera singer won both MAC and Bistro awards in 2011 and 2012, respectively---seamlessly weaves together the music and life of the enigmatic movie star and international cabaret sensation whose greatest creation, in Hall's words, 'was herself.'

No matter the song, style, or setting, Janice Hall, the multi-talented opera singer, cabaret chanteuse, and character actress, is her own master. She broke into the cabaret scene in 2010 in a big way with the 2011 Bistro Award Winner for Best Tribute Show and 2012 MAC Award Winner for Best Female Vocalist. The show that earned her those awards? 'GRAND ILLUSIONS: THE MUSIC OF MARLENE DIETRICH,' which Hall debuted in 2010 and will revive for one night on September 13 at 7:00 pm at the Metropolitan Room. Before Hall takes the stage this upcoming Tuesday night, we sat down for a discussion on career invention, reinvention, and versatility--- both Dietrich's and her own.

When a show at the Metropolitan Room starts over thirty minutes late because the staff is frantically trying to find chairs and room for the better part of New York's cabaret community, you know you're in store for something truly special. And unless there's a chair thief on the loose in Flatiron who doesn't like Broadway, someone clearly oversold this show and/or lost track of comps; this was extremely vexing with a heat advisory in effect. Still, the mood was festive in anticipation of Jeff Harnar's 1959 Broadway Songbook, the 12th installment in Stephen Hanks' impressive (and increasingly well-known) New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits series. Harnar's show premiered 25 years ago at the Algonquin's Oak Room. Two years later, PBS filmed the collaboration with musical director Alex Rybeck, whose arrangements honor the original compositions but reimagine them in sometimes astonishing ways, making them genuinely creative acts.

Cabaret audiences who fell head over heels for opera singer Janice Hall's 2010-2011 solo debut show—Grand Illusions: The Music of Marlene Dietrich—will get to fall in love all over again (and a new audience can become smitten for the first time) when Hall reprises her Award-winning show at the Metropolitan Room on September 13 at 7 pm, in the 12th installment of Stephen Hanks' monthly New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits Series (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD). Hall's Marlene Dietrich show is directed by Peter Napolitano, with Matthew Martin Ward as Musical Director/Pianist and Ritt Henn on bass and ukulele.

NiCori Studios and Productions in association with the Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center announces a new installment of the monthly concert series, Music at the Mansion, on Sunday, June 26, at 3pm. Performers include Janice Hall, Garry Novikoff and Ilene Angel.  The Young Musician Moment will be Elizabeth Nucci.

We are lucky in New York City. The talent here is unbelievable. Sometimes you settle in for an intimate evening at a little local club and you get your socks blown off. On Friday the 13th (of May, to be exact), I had such an experience at the latest monthly installment of Stephen Hanks' Metropolitan Room series (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD), New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. The featured performers were Vocalist Laurie Krauz and her Musical Director Daryl Kojak celebrating their 25-year musical collaboration “It's a 'Greatest Hits' show within a Greatest Hits series!” Hanks extolled before introducing his stars for the evening.

Cabaret performers and musicians and fans of the art form tend to refer to the people in this tight-knit niche as "the Cabaret Community." Well, that community is really coming together for one of its own with a benefit concert to raise funds for the extremely popular actor, director, and cabaret performer Erin Cronican, one of a very rare group of women in her 30s who is staging a fierce battle with breast cancer. The star-studded show, billed as Cabaret Beats Cancer and a call to arms to "Crush The Beast" is at Don't Tell Mama (343 West 46th Street, 212-757-0788) on February 27 at 5 pm.

There are milestones in everyone's life--events that are so strongly embedded in your memory that you can actually recall the date, the time, the place, and the feelings you had when they occurred. Events like a joyful marriage, the birth of a child, or the loss of a loved one all help to define us as human beings. For a woman you can add to that list a diagnosis of breast cancer. Erin Cronican, a young professional singer, director, writer, show business coach, and self professed “Actor and All-Around fun gal” is a beloved member of the New York theatrical and cabaret communities who is currently undergoing 28 radiation treatments (having previously completed three months of intense chemo therapy) for breast cancer.

Cabaret performers and musicians and fans of the art form tend to refer to the people in this tight-knit niche as “the Cabaret Community.” Well, that community is really coming together for one of its own with a benefit concert to raise funds for the extremely popular actor, director, and cabaret performer Erin Cronican, one of a very rare group of women in her 30s who is staging a fierce battle with breast cancer. The star-studded show, billed as Cabaret Beats Cancer and a call to arms to “Crush The Beast” is at Don't Tell Mama (343 West 46th Street, 212-757-0788) on February 27 at 5 pm.

Stephen Hanks' Cabaret Life Productions and Associate Producer Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD, are bringing back Karen Oberlin's 2010 Frank Loesser Tribute Show (with original Musical Director Jon Weber and bass player Sean Smith) as the first 2016 installment of the 'New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits' series at the Metropolitan Room on January 13 at 7 pm. 'I entered the cabaret world as a reviewer in late 2010 so I never saw this show,' says Hanks. 'I'm thrilled Karen Oberlin agreed to bring it back so those like me who didn't experience it will get a chance now.'

Voting has opened for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Delaware Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of November 27th. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31.

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director, Peter Napolitano, Producer/Director of Musical Programming) today announced the line-up for this year's Award-Winning Musical event WINTER RHYTHMS 2015, which will begin Wednesday, December 2 and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through December 13, 2015 at Urban Stages Theatre. WINTER RHYTHMS 2015 marks the seventh year that Urban Stages has brought noted musical artists to its stage during the holiday period. The mission of Winter Rhythms is to bring the talents of known and unknown singers, musicians, lyricists and composers to the attention of the New York theater community while performing at Urban Stages Theater. Winner of the 2015 Ruth Kurtzman Benefit Series MAC Award, WINTER RHYTHMS benefits Urban Stages' acclaimed Outreach Program, which brings more than 200 free "arts in education" presentations to libraries and schools throughout the five boroughs. This year's event features 20 shows and more than 100 artists.

Urban Stages announces the line-up for this year's Award Winning Musical event WINTER RHYTHMS 2015, which will begin Wednesday, December 2and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through December 13, 2015 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30thStreet, just East of 8th Avenue). Tickets are $25 per show and may be purchased by visiting urbanstages.org or by calling (866) 811-4111. For complete schedule information, visit urbanstages.org.

The Actors Fund, in association with Michael Childers, will present a one-night only special event, Tradition: The Jewish Legacy of Broadway, a celebration of the great Jewish composers, lyricists and performers who graced the stages of Broadway from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, on Monday, December 14 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at John Jay College (524 West 59th Street).   All proceeds will benefit the programs and services of The Actors Fund.

On Saturday, September 12, 2015, William V. Madison, author of Madeline Kahn: Being the Music, A Life (University Press of Mississippi, 2015), hosted a musical tribute to the late singing actress as part of Metropolitan Room's GONE TOO SOON series, produced by Joseph Macchia. Directed by three-time MAC Award-winner Peter Napolitano, The Music of Madeline Kahn, with music director Jeff Cubeta on piano, featured friends & colleagues of the comic legend, as well as performers who have been inspired by her.