Little Richard News

City Winery Chicago has announced that Katharine McPhee will perform on Monday, November 5th. City Winery also announced many other shows, including its annual 10,000 Maniacs Valentine's run. The following shows go on sale to the public on Thursday, September 27 at noon. All tickets will be available at citywinery.com/chicago.

Billy Porter won a Tony Award for his performance as Lola in Kinky Boots. His other Broadway credits include Shuffle Along, Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe, Grease, and Smokey Joe's Caf . Off-Broadway,

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today's top stories: the cast recording of Pretty Woman is now available, the National Tour of Miss Saigon launches today, and more!

“Dancing with the Stars” is back with a new, dynamic cast of 13 celebrities who are ready to move out of their comfort zones and hit the ballroom floor on a special two-night premiere. The competition begins with a two-hour season premiere, live, MONDAY, SEPT. 24 (8:00-10:00 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network, streaming and on demand. The show will kick off with an exciting opening number featuring the full cast dancing to Erin Boheme's “I Won't Dance,” choreographed by the show's own Emmy®-winning Mandy Moore.

One of the most innovative music performers to ever set foot on the stage, Big Jay McNeely, passed away on Sunday morning at Riverside University Health System Center after battling prostate cancer and a hip injury. The Cleopatra Records family extends its heartfelt condolences to the McNeely family and encourages all to remember Big Jay for both his incredible music as well as his boisterous personality and warm heart. Cleopatra Records president Brian Perera issued this statement about Big Jay McNeely this morning:

Craft Recordings is proud to announce the release of The Complete Cuban Jam Sessions 5-LP and 5-CD box sets on November 9, 2018. Compiled here in their entirety and original format for the first time, the five volumes of Panart's Cuban Jam Session albums were recorded over a span of almost a decade, from 1956-1964. Together these albums encapsulate a stylistic and historic panorama of Cuban music, from big band son montuno to Afro-Cuban rumba, mambo, cha-cha-chá and country acoustic guajira music. At the same time, they attest to Cuba's long relationship with popular American music and jazz.

Afflicted with Ataxic Cerebral Palsy that required nine major surgeries before he hit his teens, Reggie Codrington has a mother, Joyce Codrington, who used to exercise him four times a day. Now she is the one in pain and when her son learned that the antioxidants in cherries can help reduce pain and inflammation, he brought her some. It worked. She began to feel better and her discomfort eased. That's the inspiration behind “Cherry Sweet,” the joyous first single from the urban-jazz saxophonist's “Against The Odds” album from M.A.N.D.A.T.E. Records.    

Following a successful and crowd-pleasing 2018 engagement, Neil Berg is back with an all new lineup of hits! Neil Berg's 50 Years of Rock & Roll Part 2 comes to The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts on Saturday, February 9, 2019 at 8 pm. Tickets are now on sale to members and go on sale to the public on Tuesday, September 11 at 10 am.

Rock and roll is a cornerstone of American culture - Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Little Richard are all household names across the country. And yet, the names of the women who pioneered the genre are largely unknown, as are their stories. “Marie and Rosetta,” which opened Mosaic Theater's fourth season, seeks to change that.

When it comes to soul, Stax Records owned the '60s. Classic records from Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus & Carla Thomas, and a legion of others helped transform what was once known as rhythm 'n' blues into rugged, emotionally bare 'soul' music. This made Stax one of the decade's most influential labels of any genre. It all crescendoed in 1968, a tempest-tossed year when the label redefined its own sound and, in the process, channeled a larger historical zeitgeist.

On Friday, October 19, 2018 at 7:30 p.m., Neil Berg will be returning to the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg, PA to present his outstanding show, “50 Years of Rock and Roll”! From the birth of rock 'n roll in in the 1940s, through the glory years of the '50s, '60s, and '70s, up until MTV in the early '80s, Neil Berg's 50 Years of Rock & Roll uses fascinating stories and groundbreaking music, with tributes to such important and iconic rock stars/groups/genres as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Frankie Valli, The Beatles, Beach Boys, Motown, Aretha Franklin, The Who, Janis Joplin, Woodstock, Simon & Garfunkel, Carole King, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Disco, New Wave, Journey, and others!

Cream was a chemical explosion like no other, the blueprint for every supergroup to follow and the heavy blues precursor to Hendrix, Zeppelin and so much more. Fifty years since their earth-shaking debut album, the bloodlines of that hallowed trilogy come together to pay tribute to Cream's legendary four-album reign over the psychedelic frontier of the late 1960s. See The Music of Cream: 50th Anniversary Tour at the Capitol Center for the Arts on Saturday, October 13, 2018 at 8PM. The event is sponsored in part by The Lawson Group and Ross Express.  

This musical is one that everyone loves, but it is not an easy one to put together and do right. Tor Campbell, the Director and Choreographer, has accomplished that with an abundance of clever ideas, high energy, style, conviction and talent. The entire Cast is on top of it, feeling and selling this Broadway treasure like nobody's business! There is so much heart in this large Cast that it just spills out everywhere on stage all the way to the back of the house. Besides non-stop movement, full-out everything across the board performancewise, each Principal and each Ensemble member puts their all into it. Book and Lyrics by Tom Eyen, music by Henry Kreiger, Originally Choreographed and Directed by the great Michael Bennett.

Marcie Gorman, Executive Producer & Artistic Director for MNM Theatre Company, today announced the cast of its fourth and final production in 2018, the rock n' roll musical GREASE, the most popular movie musical in history. Co-presented by MNM and the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, the show with a 15-person cast and backed by a live six-piece band, will run November 16 through December 2 in the Kravis Center's Rinker Playhouse.

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) presents The Greatest Piano Men is a rock'n'roll salute to the greatest piano icons in music history, from Beethoven to Billy!

What would summer be without live music, a wild love triangle, and mistaken identities? Add into that mix free entertainment, a picnic under the stars and the Bard and you have this year's edition of Shakespeare in Clark Park (SCP). SCP will showcase Philadelphia's finest actors alongside local student musicians for a glam rock inspired Twelfth Night, directed by Jack Tamburri, which is set to run July 25-29, 2018 in Clark Park in West Philadelphia. The show will wrap up with a special 'Fifth Night Feast' Fundraiser before the show on July 29.

A sentimental, old-fashioned musical can be corny and slow in the wrong hands, but this production is as fresh as the heather on the hill.

What would summer be without live music, a wild love triangle, and mistaken identities? Add into that mix free entertainment, a picnic under the stars and the Bard and you have this year's edition of Shakespeare in Clark Park (SCP). SCP will showcase Philadelphia's finest actors alongside local student musicians for a glam rock inspired Twelfth Night, directed by Jack Tamburri, which is set to run July 25-29, 2018 in Clark Park in West Philadelphia. The show will wrap up with a special 'Fifth Night Feast' Fundraiser before the show on July 29.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Gelsey Bell and Viva DeConcini in Molly Rice's ANGELMAKERS:  Songs for Female Serial Killers on August 15th at 9:30pm.

A dynamic cast and exciting score make up Teatro Anayansi's production of GREASE, running from July 12 to July 15.