Richard Harris News

To coincide with the 20-year anniversary of the Ford Partnership Program, which nurtures locally based artists and arts organizations, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission presents the inaugural Zev Yaroslavsky Signatures Series. This two-concert program benefiting the Ford Theatre Foundation pairs world-renowned performers with a local artistic treasure, celebrating Los Angeles as a destination for world-class artists, who find here both collaboration with, and inspiration from, celebrated local artists.

One of Australia's best loved ladies of musical theatre, Marina Prior, will perform her new one-woman show Leading Lady at The Regal Theatre 275 Kensington Road, Kensington, Adelaide from 23 to 25 May at 8.00pm with a 2.00pm matinee on Saturday 25 May.

Broadway's master songman, Mandy Patinkin, accompanied by Paul Ford on piano, will bring his critically acclaimed theatre concert to Long Wharf Theatre for one performance only at on Friday, June 7, 2013 on the Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Mainstage Theatre.

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS Warner Bros. Pictures' soaring whirlwind tale of adolescent wizardry, featuring wizards-in-training Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), airs as the 'ABC Today Movie of the Week,' TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 16 (8:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network

How do you stage the performance of an amateur tap class believably? Should the big contest production number be like the finale of A Chorus Line, the way I have seen it done on the Equity stage, or should it be shown less professional, somewhat flawed, in a more play it as it comes fashion? The thing to remember about the script of Stepping Out is that it's not a musical, but a play with music and it's about a community tap class for adults - which means that most are amateurs who will learn to tap but not so well that they will go on to have a dance career! Director Stan Mazin has wisely chosen the more realistic approach, keeping his actors focused on the play and on characterization in Group rep's current production of Stepping Out onstage through March 24. For all its worth, great tapping is always fun to watch - and it's not bad here when you stop and consider that most of the actors have never tapped before their prep for this show. Urgent to keep in mind: in Stepping Out, the play's the thing, about problematic people and how they support one another. It's an ode to friendship, to community living, warts and all, and to the joy a little once-a-week evening class can bring into people's lives. Group rep's production certainly gives us all of this, while displaying miles of heart.

The Group Rep presents Richard Harris' Stepping Out directed by Stan Mazin, produced by Linda Alznauer, tonight, February 8 - March 24, 2013.

A couple's road trip transforms their relationship. A country bumpkin leaves the family farm for the peacetime Air Force, much to the dismay of his new sergeant. A missionary and his bride travel to Hawaii to spread their Christian beliefs. An American dancer goes to London and falls in love. Stories of relationships and travel make up Reel13's featured classics in February.

Even her biggest fans among the opening night crowd were likely befuddled, slightly bothered, and even a tad bewildered when they heard that Christine Andreas' first cabaret show at 54 Below was called "Bemused," and not exactly sure what that meant. But they would ultimately end up being thoroughly bewitched by a wonderfully engaging show by this totally entertaining pro. While most current or former Broadway stars who are staging shows at 54 Below are performing what amounts to mini-concerts, the lady who first became a Broadway audience favorite as Eliza Doolittle in the 20th anniversary production of My Fair Lady (and is two-time Tony Award nominee) knows her way around cabaret and developed a charmingly creative conceit for this run (continuing on Jan. 29, Feb. 1, 2 at 8:30 pm and Jan. 30, 31 at 7 pm), which included songs from Broadway, pop, the Great American Songbook, and even Edith Piaf.

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS Warner Bros. Pictures' soaring whirlwind tale of adolescent wizardry, featuring wizards-in-training Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), airs as the "ABC Saturday Movie of the Week," FEBRUARY 16 (8:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network

Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) is producing Lerner and Loewe's four-time Tony Award winning masterpiece Camelot, running tonight, Jan. 22 - Feb. 3 at the Hobby Center for The Performing Arts.

The Group Rep presents Richard Harris' Stepping Out directed by Stan Mazin, produced by Linda Alznauer, February 8 - March 24, 2013.

ROBERT CUCCIOLI, who electrified audiences in Broadway's smash hit musical, Jekyll & Hyde, is electrifying listeners again with the release of his debut solo album, ROBERT CUCCIOLI - THE LOOK OF LOVE. It includes 28 magnificent American Songbook classics from the '30s and '40s. Cuccioli who is currently starring in Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark will be appearing on WLNY's 'On The Couch' tomorrow morning, January 4 to perform a song from the album. The program airs 7 AM-9 AM ET on Channel 10 in Long Island, Queens and Staten Island.

Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) is producing Lerner and Loewe's four-time Tony Award winning masterpiece Camelot, running Jan. 22 - Feb. 3 at the Hobby Center for The Performing Arts.

Seanachaí Theatre Company has announced its 2012-13 Season 'Rag-Tags and Wayward Souls', feautring the World Premiere of IN PIGEON HOUSE by Honor Molloy, October 17 - November 18, 2012, and the U.S. Premiere of LAY ME DOWN SOFTLY by Billy Roche, March 27 - April 28, 2013.

With her star turns in the original productions of LES MISERABLES and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA she gave us our first Cosette, our first Christine. Much loved and much honoured, she is Australia's leading lady - welcome to Marina Prior's brain on musical theatre!

Multi-platinum recording artist Trace Adkins and Emmy and Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth return as hosts of the third annual AMERICAN COUNTRY AWARDS, airing from Las Vegas this December on FOX. The awards show will take place at Mandalay Bay. Nominations to be announced soon.

This week at Joe's Pub, August 7 through August 12, 2012, features Wouter Kellerman, Diego Garcia, Cathy Grier, Turbotronics, McGinty & White, The Alternate Routes, Kate McGarry Band, Daria Musk, Katie Goodman, Our Lady J, Tamar Kaprelian and Die Roten Punkte. See below for more details.

Stepping Out by British TV writer Richard Harris is not a musical, although it was turned into one in 2010. It's a play with music and is set in Northern England in 1984, the same time period and place as Billy Elliot. It's the tale of eight women and one man who take a weekly local tap class in their church hall. Workers and mates by day, these folks are generally disillusioned and unhappy, each for a different reason, and without the class, they might just cash it in. What you see on stage, now at the Welk Resort Theatre in Escondido, are the amateur characters as they arrive at class and spill their guts for a brief time about their various issues and how they adapt themselves to each other and to learning how to tap. First efforts are rusty at best, but as the play proceeds, the group get to know and tolerate each other and to tap better, and eventually are given a chance to participate in a local one-night annual entertainment gala. My first misgiving with the play is that you never get to know each person thoroughly or totally understand their motivations, but after careful consideration, what you see is what you get: an entertainment that brings the people together, that brings a much needed joy into their lives ... and to the audience at large. It's real, funny and musically fun - about a mini Chorus Line but with amateur dancers whose stories do not involve the profession - and that by itself is enough to give it universal appeal.

Rachel York will join Megan Hilty in the Encores! production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, opening May 9 at New York City Center. York will play the brunette, Dorothy Shaw, best friend of Lorelei, the diamond-loving blonde played by Hilty. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes will be directed by John Rando with music direction by Rob Berman and choreography by Randy Skinner and will play for seven performances, May 9 - 13, at New York City Center, 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

Florida Repertory Theatre announced the opening of Black Tie, a BRAND-NEW comedy from A.R. Gurney, author of Florida Rep's nationally acclaimed Sylvia. Making its regional premiere at Florida Rep after a successful 2011 Off-Broadway run, The New York Times called Black Tie one of Gurney's 'most enjoyable plays…a gratifying, engaging, touching comedy.'