Ravinia Festival News

According to an interview with the Windy City Times, Idina Menzel is considering 'a couple' of new Broadway projects.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. It's the Top Ten Hot Topix for the first half of 2012! Is your favorite production on the list?

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's July 4th performance as part of the Ravinia Festival will feature vocalist Ashley Brown, who won rave reviews in the title role of Mary Poppins on Broadway and recently made her Lyric Opera debut in an acclaimed production of Show Boat. Brown appeared on Windy City Live for a preview of her Ravinia debut. Watch the interview and her performance in the video below!

Patti LuPone won her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, as well Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, for her performance as Rose in the most recent Broadway production of Gypsy, and created the title role in Evita on Broadway with her now legendary performance, for which she won her first Tony and Drama Desk Awards. Today, July 4th and tomorrow, July 5th, she will make her Provincetown debut at The Art House, with Sirius/Radio star Seth Rudetsky at the piano, for 3 shows only.

Legendary Broadway soprano Barbara Cook celebrates her 85th birthday with her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut on Sunday, July 15, in a 5 p.m. concert led by conductor Richard Kaufman in his festival debut.

New York Philharmonic Board Member and Radio Host Alec Baldwin has given a $1 million gift to the New York Philharmonic in honor of departing President and Executive Director Zarin Mehta, who is concluding his 12-year tenure at the end of the 2011-12 season.

4TH WALL THEATRE will host an end of season fundraiser entitled 'A JERSEY VOICE: Sinatra to Springsteen...and Everyone in Between" featuring John Michael Coppola, a former Bloomfield resident. The concert will be held on Monday, July 16 at 7:30 pm, at the Westminster Arts Center on the campus of Bloomfield College in Bloomfield, NJ. The concert is the final fundraising event of 4th Wall's 15th anniversary season.

MAC Award nominated songwriters Sam Carner & Derek Gregor (Unlock'd) and Drew Fornarola (COLLEGE The Musical) team up for AWKWARD THREESOME: Carner & Gregor and also Fornarola at The Duplex Thursday, June 28 at 9:30pm. They will be joined by some of Broadway's top young performers. The songwriters will present selections from their shows, as well as debuting a new song co-written by all three of them. The evening will be directed by Marlo Hunter with music direction by Gregor and Emily Whitaker. Scheduled to perform are Claybourne Elder (Bonnie and Clyde); Ali Ewoldt (Les Miserables); Alyssa Fox (Wicked - SF); Julie Reiber (Wicked); A.J. Shively (La Cage Aux Folles); Brian Sills (The Lion King Tour); Sarah Stiles (Avenue Q); and Dashaun Young (The Lion King).

Cellist Maya Beiser, described by the Boston Globe as having "virtuoso chops, rock-star charisma, and an appetite for pushing her instrument to the edge of avant-garde adventurousness," will see the New York premiere of her new production, ELSEWHERE

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. The new musicals 'Eastland' and 'Hero,' new and newish shows based on hats, songbooks, TV shows and recordings, 'Floyd Collins' and Ashley Brown, and more!

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the crown jewel of Ravinia's classical programming, kicks off its annual summer residency at the festival with a concert of American favorites at 5 p.m. on July 4.

Fresh from a triumphant spring crowned by her 2012 Richard Tucker Award win, Ailyn Perez will spend her summer in the spotlight, headlining major productions with leading companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Her tour begins in Moscow, where she sings the role of Suzel in Mascagni's L'amico Fritz at the Moscow State Philharmonic Society (June 25). A brief stop in New York is highlighted by a special performance at the Greene Space (June 27) celebrating her Tucker Award win. From there, she heads to Ohio to sing Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at Cincinnati Opera (July 25-29), followed by performances as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflote with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia (Aug 16-18). The summer comes to a peak at the Salzburg Festival (Aug 23), when the lyric soprano reprises her star turn as Mimi in Puccini's La boheme.

Ravinia announces a mix of artist debuts and festival favorites. In addition to the permanent screens flanking the pavilion stage, the festival will also install a temporary large screen on the north lawn for all pavilion performances from June 25 through July 1, in addition to the first live videocast ever from inside the Martin Theatre for the June 26 performance by Zukerman ChamberPlayers.

With a career spanning over two decades and accolades as "one of the greatest contemporary solo voices of our time," Linda Eder brings her one-woman show to The Cabaret.

According to an Equity casting notice, SUPER FLY, the musical based on the 1972 film directed by Gordon Parks, has taken new steps toward a Broadway production. A workshop for the new show was held back in March, and another will be held August 6- September 14. This workshop is being held in anticipation of a future Broadway run as the notice states. Bill T. Jones is still on board to direct and choreograph.

Fresh from a triumphant spring crowned by her 2012 Richard Tucker Award win, Ailyn Perez will spend her summer in the spotlight, headlining major productions with leading companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Her tour begins in Moscow, where she sings the role of Suzel in Mascagni's L'amico Fritz at the Moscow State Philharmonic Society (June 25). A brief stop in New York is highlighted by a special performance at the Greene Space (June 27) celebrating her Tucker Award win. From there, she heads to Ohio to sing Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at Cincinnati Opera (July 25-29), followed by performances as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflote with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia (Aug 16-18). The summer comes to a peak at the Salzburg Festival (Aug 23), when the lyric soprano reprises her star turn as Mimi in Puccini's La boheme.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. The Sidetrack all-time Top Ten list, Make Music Chicago, Chicago concerts by Chenoweth, Callaway, Mason, Menzel and Eder, two puppet musicals, 'Next Stop,' 'The Hunchback Variations' and more!

MAC Award nominated songwriters Sam Carner & Derek Gregor (Unlock'd) and Drew Fornarola (COLLEGE The Musical) team up for AWKWARD THREESOME: Carner & Gregor and also Fornarola at The Duplex Thursday, June 28 at 9:30pm. They will be joined by some of Broadway's top young performers. The songwriters will present selections from their shows, as well as debuting a new song co-written by all three of them. The evening will be directed by Marlo Hunter with music direction by Gregor and Emily Whitaker. Scheduled to perform are Claybourne Elder (Bonnie and Clyde); Ali Ewoldt (Les Miserables); Alyssa Fox (Wicked - SF); Julie Reiber (Wicked); A.J. Shively (La Cage Aux Folles); Brian Sills (The Lion King Tour); Sarah Stiles (Avenue Q); and Dashaun Young (The Lion King).

Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) are off on an extensive U.S. summer tour, which began in early June and continues through the end of September. The CSN U.S. Summer Tour stops in Providence at the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) tonight, June 15, 2012 at 8P.