Johnny Mercer News

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were established hit makers when they teamed up to make a musical about cowboys and farmers. What follows was a miracle-Oklahoma!, then Carousel and South Pacific; the list of extraordinary hits goes on. On April 5, 6 and 7 get to know these legends even better at Getting to Know You: Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lyrics & Lyricists first look at the two songwriters as a team. Guest artistic director, writer and host Ted Chapin, head of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, shares an insider's perspective on the pair, gleaned from his years with the Rodgers and Hammerstein families; joined by vocalists Lewis Cleale, Mandy Gonzalez, Jonathan Groff, Rebecca Luker, and Phillipa Soo.

On March 31st, Andre is presenting a concert of his original work at The Laurie Beechman Theatre, downstairs at the West Bank Cafe.

Florida International University's School of Music (FIU) has come together with The Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF) to enrich music education in Miami-Dade County schools by developing innovative educational opportunities, delivering high-quality instructional materials, and providing professional development opportunities for music and language arts teachers.

This just in! New York City Center's acclaimed Encores! Off-Center series, under the artistic direction of Jeanine Tesori, will return this summer for a second season of landmark Off-Broadway musicals. The season opens with Jonathan Larson's tick, tick… BOOM!, June 25 - 28, starring Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo, directed by Oliver Butler, and continues with a one-night only performance of Randy Newman'sFaust: The Concert, with Randy Newman as the Devil, directed by Thomas Kail, on July 1. Pump Boys and Dinettes, withbook, music and lyrics by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann , directed by Lear deBessonet and choreographed by Danny Mefford, wraps up the season, running July 16 - 19. Chris Fenwick is the Encores! Off-Center music director.

Tonight, Brian D'Arcy James made me fall in love with him all over again. One of the stars gracing the Kennedy Center stage in Barbara Cook's Spotlight Series, he brought his warm presence and glorious sound to the nation's capital.

Era il 1953 quando la Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer diede il via alla produzione di due dei suoi film musicali piu 'classici,' ossia Seven Brides for Seven Brothers e Brigadoon. Non e un mistero che la Casa del Leone fosse piu interessata all'ultimo, adattamento cinematografico del primo successo teatrale di Alan Jay Lerner e Frederick Loewe (My Fair Lady, Camelot, Paint Your Wagon) e lo dimostra il fatto che il budget per Sette Spose venne drasticamente tagliato a 2,540,000 dollari (rispetto ai 3,019,000 di Brigadoon). L'investimento 'risicato' creo non pochi problemi alla produzione che, non disponendo dei mezzi necessari, dovette girare in studio anche le scene all'aperto facendo ricorso a fondali non proprio realistici. Nonostante gli ambienti visibilmente artificiali, all'uscita del film nel 1954, l'indimenticabile love story tra Milly e Adamo, le coreografie di Micheal Kidd, l'indovinato cast capitanato da Jane Powell e Howard Keel - in cui figurava, nel ruolo di una delle spose, la Catwoman Julie Newmar - e la splendida partitura di Gene de Paul e Johnny Mercer conquistarono gli spettatori di ogni parte del mondo rendendo Seven Brides for Seven Brothers una delle punte di diamante del repertorio MGM. Brigadoon, per contro, nonostante la presenza di Gene Kelly e Cyd Charisse, non ottenne il successo sperato.

January and February have seen sell-out performances at the Crazy Coqs and March and April look set to continue the trend.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and The Johnny Mercer Foundation announced today a partnership on a unique new program, the only of its kind in the country, for 100 Newark and East Orange middle school students. In The Johnny Mercer Foundation /NJPAC Musical Theater Residency Program, students from four schools - Maple Avenue School (Newark), LINK Community School (Newark), Marion P. Thomas Charter School (Newark), and Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts (East Orange) - will study the history of the American Musical and the creative, rehearsal and performance process. Each class will then individually create sections of a joint musical, coming together at the finale to perform the full, collaborative musical on May 21, 2014 at NJPAC.

The Johnny Mercer Foundation and the American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University will present the 9th Annual Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project. The weeklong songwriting workshop for emerging songwriters and writing teams will take place from June 22 through 28, on Northwestern's Evanston campus.

Atlantic Theater Company and Atlantic for Kids is tuning up to present the New York premiere of Mr. Chickee's Funny Money, an all-new, rhythm and blues family musical, featuring music and lyrics that groove to an original score by Motown legend Lamont Dozier (hits include Stop in the Name of Love, Sugar Pie Honey Bun, How Sweet it Is, more;) and his son, Paris Dozier, with a book by David Ingber (Major League Baseball Fan Cave), directed by Jade King Carroll (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Portland Stage), and musical supervision by Brian Usifer (Kinky Boots, Book of Mormon).

Ocean State Theatre Company (OSTC), currently celebrating its first full season in its new state-of-the-art theatre in Warwick is proud to present the international hit, The All Night Strut! from February 26 - March 16.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, the performance venue located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond:

Emily Keeler, San Francisco Arts Education's Artistic Director, announced today that the San Francisco Arts Education Project's 2014 musical is Li'l Abner, the 1956 Broadway musical featuring music by Gen De Paul and lyrics by the great Johnny Mercer. Li'l Abner runs for eight performances beginning tonight, February 14 through Sunday, March 2, 2014 at the Eureka Theatre (215 Jackson Street, San Francisco).

The Actor's Temple presents Accentuate the Positive: An Evening with Johnny Mercer in a benefit evening performance. Accentuate the Positive was created & directed by Karin Baker Kayne based on the music of the award winning singer, songwriter, and lyricist Johnny Mercer. The cabaret-style show features Juliet Ewing, Bambi Jones, Patti Mariano, and Joyce Nolen, with David Hancock Turner at the piano.

For the first DG Conservatory of the new year, the Dramatists Guild is thrilled to team up with the writers who created Behind the Music-al, Kyle Ewalt and Michael Ian Walker, today, February 11, 2014, at 6:00 p.m.

The Broadway at Birdland concert series presented the songwriting team Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne in Tim & Charlie Go Solo on Monday, February 3 at 7pm. Check out a look back below!

After a string of highly successful shows and CD's (culminating with the 2013 Bistro Award for Outstanding Recording for Some People's Lives), Moira Danis returns to the cabaret stage with a brand new show and a new venue. Oops…I Fell In Love!, which will open at the Metropolitan Room on Sunday, March 23, 2014 at 4:00pm, explores a love affair from beginning to end to beginning again.

For the first DG Conservatory of the new year, the Dramatists Guild is thrilled to team up with the writers who created Behind the Music-al, Kyle Ewalt and Michael Ian Walker, on Tuesday, February 11, 2014, at 6:00 p.m. The event will take place at the Dramatists Guild's New York office, in the Frederick Loewe Room, 1501 Broadway (between 43rd and 44th Streets), Suite 710. This free seminar is opening a limited number of seats to the public and reservations are required.

MAUDE MAGGART - the acclaimed vocalist hailed as 'singular and arresting' by the New York Times, 'wonderful' by Business Week and 'ingenious' by the Village Voice - will make her debut at the Cafe Carlyle with a special engagement from February 25 to March 1. Her new show 'The Door Opened' will feature numbers by golden-age songwriters Irving Berlin ('I Used To Be Color Blind'), Harry Warren ('Serenade In Blue') and Dorothy Fields ('Blue Again'), in addition to rarely-heard songbook gems including 'Why Am I So Romantic?' (introduced in the legendary Marx Brothers film Animal Crackers) and 'I May Be Wrong, But I Think You're Wonderful' (performed by Maude's grandmother). The evening will feature Music Director John Boswell on piano. She will preview the Carlyle run with two performances at the Gardenia in Los Angeles on February 14 and 15.

The Wallis has announced that Tony nominee Judy Kuhn (She Loves Me, Chess and Les Miserables) and Tony winner and five-time Emmy nominee John Glover (Love! Valour! Compassion!, 'Smallville') will star in Love, Noel: The Letters and Songs of Noel Coward, devised and written by Coward authority Barry Day, and directed by Jeanie Hackett, who over saw The Antaeus Theatre production of Noel Coward's Tonight at 8:30 and the three-year development of the Antaeus production of Coward's Peace in Our Time. The musical direction and piano accompaniment is by David O. Due to popular demand, additional performances have been added and Love, Noel will now be performed February 14 through 23 in the Lovelace Studio Theater.