Marvin Hamlish News

Actors Theatre's first-ever No Sweat (For You) Summer Season heads into the final four weeks with two plays and three cabaret-style concerts surrounding the main productions of The Book Club Play (through Aug. 17) and The Cottage' (through Aug. 10) at Black Theatre Troupe, 1333 E. Washington St. in Phoenix.

Actors Theatre's first-ever No Sweat (For You) Summer Season heads into the final four weeks with two plays and three cabaret-style concerts surrounding the main productions of The Book Club Play (through Aug. 17) and The Cottage" (through Aug. 10) at Black Theatre Troupe, 1333 E. Washington St. in Phoenix.

If anyone was destined for a career in the arts, it was Leslie Uggams. With a father who was a singer and a mother who was a dancer, it was appropriate that Leslie would be a professional by the age of six. She attended school with the composer, Marvin Hamlish and the son of Gypsy Rose Lee and Otto Preminger, Erik Lee Preminger. Ms. Uggams has worked with everyone from Ethel Waters to Kermit the frog. Yet, it is her latest venture that proves there are still many barriers to break for African Americans in the industry.

Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory may be best known for its unparalleled scientific endeavors such as landing the Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars, but tonight, January 7, another side of the organization will be on display. The JPL Chorus joins the Donald Brinegar Singers for a choral celebration of winter with Epiphany. This free concert takes place at Pasadena City College's Westerbeck Recital Hall at 8pm.

Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory may be best known for its unparalleled scientific endeavors such as landing the Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars, but on Tuesday, January 7, another side of the organization will be on display. The JPL Chorus joins the Donald Brinegar Singers for a choral celebration of winter with Epiphany. This free concert takes place at Pasadena City College's Westerbeck Recital Hall at 8pm.

Thom Fogarty will direct the Premeire of THE CAROLE BAYER SAGER PROJECT: ALBUM ONE, which will be presented January 17th and 18th in two different venues, presented by 360REPCO. Performance stars Crystal Rona Peterson as "Carole" and Jenny Selig and Micah Bucey as "The Carolettes", with Musical Direction by Michael Conley. The entire evening was was created and directed Thom Fogarty.

Director Stephen Nachamie has taken great care to give Olney audiences as authentic an experience of the original show as possible and packed the cast with genuine Broadway gypsies. The results are joyful, invigorating and touching, right down to the mis-steps and mistakes (carefully choreographed, mind you) that add the all-important element of spontaneity, the illusion that you're watching a crew of dancers desperate for work, willing to do anything to land the gig.

Richard Eyre will direct the world premiere of Stephen Ward, opening in the West End later this year. Tickets go on sale on 28 June 2013 for the production which will preview at the Aldwych Theatre from 3 December 2013 with press night on 19 December 2013 and is currently booking to 1 March 2014.

Dress Circle posted news today that the 2013 West End revival of A Chorus Line is getting an original cast recording! The album is set for release on September 16th, 2013. Tracklisting to follow.

Packed with a plethora of talent heading the cast - Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Debbie Reynolds, Rob Lowe, Scott Bakula, Cheyenne Jackson and Dan Aykroyd - and supposedly the final feature film from Academy Award-winning auteur Steven Soderbergh, HBO's BEHIND THE CANDELABRA is a shimmering, glittering Hope Diamond of a musical biopic - and, also, an all-too-befitting final film to feature musical arrangements by the late, great Marvin Hamlish.

Musicals galore fill the schedule of the annual Summer Festival of Shows, August 10-19th, at the Centenary Stage Company Young Performers Workshop (YPW), with a cast of talented young thespians from Morris, Warren, Hunterdon and Sussex counties. The festival will feature the musicals "Over The Moon" by fiction writer Jodi Picoult, Jake Van Leer, and Ellen Wilber; Bob Fosse's "Pippin", Neil Simon's "They're Playing our Song" (with music by the late Marvin Hamlish), "The Roundabout Inn", and The One Act Playhouse. Performances will be held in Little Theatre on the campus of Centenary College at 400 Jefferson Street, Hackettstown, NJ. The YPW is led and directed by Broadway, film and television veteran, Michael Blevins.

As BroadwayWorld reported earlier today, composer Marvin Hamlisch passed away Monday evening at 68 years old following a brief illness. We celebrate the life and career of the legend below.

The admirable mission of Gigi Naglak and MeghAnn Williams, writer/performers of Chlamydia Dell'Arte: A Sex Ed Burlesque, is to remove some of the awkwardness in open discussions about human sexuality by treating intimate issues with humor.  Their modestly produced show, which just completed a week-long run at Los Kabayitos, is obviously built to travel, coming to Gotham via stints in Philly and DC, and the amiable pair pulls off their mission with endearing enthusiasm.

NEW bergenPAC shows on sale: Cinderella (June 26th), Meat Loaf (July 23rd), Marvin Hamlish (October 21st), David Caserta (October 28th) on sale Friday,April 13th at 11:00am. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com or bergenPAC.org or by calling the box office at 201 227 1030.

Today we are talking to a five-time Grammy Award winning recording artist and concert star who is perhaps best known for her nearly forty albums - most in the gospel genre - but who soon will be taking on the titanic title role in a starry regional production of Jerry Herman's classic musical HELLO, DOLLY! - co-starring Tony-winner Gary Beach, no less - the cheery and incredibly talented Sandi Patty. In addition to discussing all aspects of her fantastic new musical theatre-influenced album BROADWAY STORIES - with tunes from THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE MUSIC MAN, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, LES MIZ, and the film version of HELLO, DOLLY!, among others - we also discuss her recent concert collaboration with Michael Feinstein and what we can expect from her upcoming dates throughout the rest of 2011. Also, we analyze the performances of some of the great Broadway vocalists - Barbra Streisand, Dame Julie Andrews, Liza Minnelli and more included! Plus, she even shares her experiences working for a decade on the Christmas spectacular YULETIDE! in Indianapolis, as well as some of the songs she would like to have a chance to perform in the future and special concert material - and much, much more.

The Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director and Stephen Eich, Executive Director) announced their 2011-2012 Season today. The season will include one world premiere musical, one new play starring Academy Award-nominee Angela Bassett (Fences at The Pasadena Playhouse), a Tony Award-winning smash hit, an American classic and will conclude with a new musical to be announced. The 2011-2012 Season begins September 2011.

Freda Payne returns to the Iridium Nov 12-14 doing her tribute Ella and now Lena. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Freda grew up listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, which inspired her growing interest in music. While still in school, she began her musical career by singing radio commercial jingles. It was then that her polished voice first caught the attention of music executives and other artists. She was wooed with offers of contracts from the likes of Berry Gordy and Duke Ellington, but her mother wanted her to finish school first. After she did, the legendary Pearl Bailey gave Freda her first professional job and this paved the way for her to share the stage with other legends such as Lionel Hampton, Sammy Davis Jr., Billy Eckstine, Quincy ]ones, Bill Cosby and many others. Freda toured with Quincy Jones during his big band era, performing at the world famous Apollo in New York and the Regal in Chicago, among others, and soon after, recorded her first album When The Lights Go Down for Impulse Records.

Freda Payne returns to the Iridium Nov 12-14 doing her tribute Ella and now Lena. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Freda grew up listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, which inspired her growing interest in music. While still in school, she began her musical career by singing radio commercial jingles. It was then that her polished voice first caught the attention of music executives and other artists. She was wooed with offers of contracts from the likes of Berry Gordy and Duke Ellington, but her mother wanted her to finish school first. After she did, the legendary Pearl Bailey gave Freda her first professional job and this paved the way for her to share the stage with other legends such as Lionel Hampton, Sammy Davis Jr., Billy Eckstine, Quincy ]ones, Bill Cosby and many others. Freda toured with Quincy Jones during his big band era, performing at the world famous Apollo in New York and the Regal in Chicago, among others, and soon after, recorded her first album When The Lights Go Down for Impulse Records.