The Duplex News

Hilarious music duo MEL & EL are back with a brand new edition of their long- running monthly comedy show. THE MEL & EL SHOW returns to NYC at Stage 72, 158 W. 72 Street, on Friday, April 25th at 7:00PM.

NYC cabaret artist Angela Shultz takes to the stage with her 2014 show 'Reality Check' on Saturdays, April 26 and May 10, both shows at 5:30pm, at Don't Tell Mama (343 West 46th Street, NYC - 212-757-0788; www.donttellmamanyc.com). There is a $20 cover charge plus a 2-drink minimum. (Members of MAC -- $15.) Reservations may be placed by calling (212) 757-0788 after 4pm daily or by visiting www.donttellmamanyc.com

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Jeffrey Johnson in Edie Beale LIVE at Reno Sweeney on May 1st, 2014 at 9:30PM. 'Little Edie' Beale, of GREY GARDENS fame, performed a cabaret act at Reno Sweeney Nightclub in New York City over the New Years week of 1978…this is that act.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, the acclaimed comedy/variety show, will make its premiere performance at THE RRAZZ ROOM on Thursday, April 17 at 8:00 PM. After extended runs at 54 Below and Joe's Pub in New York, the show will make its Pennsylvania debut with this show. The Meeting* has been called 'delicious and delightfully droll' by The New York Post, and 'hilarious and sardonic' by The Village Voice. A recent story for Slate.com called the evening 'so deliciously icy that it left me shivering with fear and delight.' The show will feature special guests Colleen McHugh.

The YALE INSTITUTE FOR MUSIC THEATRE has selected two original book musicals to be developed in an intensive lab setting in New Haven, June 3-15. Afterland, with music and lyrics by Benjamin Velez and book and lyrics by Kathryn Hathaway, will be directed by Mark Brokaw; and Clouds are Pillows for the Moon, with music by Tidtaya Sinutoke and book and lyrics by Ty Defoe, will be directed by Leigh Silverman. The Institute culminates with open rehearsal readings of each project, presented as a part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, on June 14 and 15.

After a sold-out run at NYC's Duplex Cabaret Theatre in 2013, the hit show Gay Camp will play a weekly run until April 25, 2014.

TUNE IN TIME, New York City's exciting, new songwriting challenge will premiere at Stage 72 at The Triad Monday April 7 and 14 at 7PM. A lineup of great musical theater songwriters is ready to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. Three teams of composers and lyricists take on the challenge of a title picked from a hat and the spin of the dreaded Genre Wheel. Will it be rock? Traditional, a la Rodgers & Hammerstein? Experimental? Or even [insert name of large theme-park owning mega-corporation-turned-Broadway-megalopolis here]?

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre continues its 44th season with the second play of 'The Ed Bullins Project' dedicated to the pioneer of the Black Arts Movement and one of America's most important and influential playwrights: The Fabulous Miss Marie, first produced in 1971 at the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem will begin performances April 17th and continue through May 18th, with opening night set for May 1st. Woodie King Jr directs a cast that features Tony and Drama Desk Award winner Tonya Pinkins and Roscoe Orman ('Sesame Street') along with Toccarra Cash, Michael Chenevert, Ugo Chukwu, Aaliyah Habeeb, Beethovan Oden, G. Alverez Reid, Ashley C. Turner, and Brittany N. Williams.

Jared Isaacson is making his solo cabaret debut in, 'It's 11 O'Clock Somewhere', at The Duplex on April 7.

Obie Award winning off-off-broadway New York City theater, Dixon Place is presenting the premiere of Michael Harren's new solo work, Tentative Armor. Equal parts music and monologue, Tentative Armor is a darkly comedic collection of the performer's first-person stories of grief, sexuality and self-discovery. Tentative Armor's one-night-only event will go up tonight, March 19 at 7:30 pm.

Everything old is new again--and vice versa-at PAST IS PRESENT, up-and-coming lyricist SARAH REBELL's Metropolitan Room debut March 24 at 9:30pm. By turns hilarious and touching, sexy and historical, this concert features Rebell's lyrics paired with the music of promising young composers including DANNY ABOSCH (Fancy Nancy), WILL BUCK (Only Anne), JOSH FREILICH, (The Star Child), ELIZABETH HAGSTEDT (Rose Petals), TERESA LOTZ (The Birds and the Bees) , MADELINE MYERS (Legends and Lore) and WILLEM OOSTHEUYSEN (Prodigy).

The Deer Players (Producers Julia Piker and Peter Staley) will present the World Premiere of THE BRINK OF US by Delaney Britt Brewer (Wolves at 59e59) April 25-May 17 at South Oxford Space (138 South Oxford Street between Atlantic Ave and Hanson Place, Brooklyn). The production will be directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni (AliceGraceAnon with New Georges) and feature Daniel Cuff, Tom Kelsey, Starr Kirkland, Annelise Nielsen, Julia Piker, Peter Staley, Zachary J. Smith, and Linda Tardif. The creative team will include Set and Lighting Design by Nick Francone (Vampire Cowboys) with assistance from Rachel Schapira, and Costume Design by Ethan Berube. The production is presented with support from New Georges.

August Strindberg's 'To Damascus, Part 1' will be adapted to Harlem, 1962 in the next production of August Strindberg Repertory Theatre (www.strindberg.org). The play will be presented with a multi-racial cast April 18 to May 11 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (East Village). It is the first part of a trilogy (called 'The Road to Damascus' in earlier translations) that has been described as 'Strindberg's most complex plays' and as 'his greatest plays,' due to their synthesis of a wide variety of myths, symbols and ideas with a profound spiritual analysis in a new dramatic form. August Strindberg Rep will present Part 2 in March, 2015 and Part 3 in 2016. It will be the first time the trilogy will have been presented complete in any language in 99 years.

Nightlife, Bistro and MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) Award winning artist, Gretchen Reinhagen brings her new show, 'Listen to the Music: The Songs of My 70s' to the Duplex next month. Following a successful sneak preview in December at Urban Stages, the Duplex plays host to the official 4-night opening run tonight, March 13th; Saturday, March 15th; Tuesday, March 18th (all at 7:00PM); and Sunday March 23rd at 4:30PM.

Pittsburgh CLO has announced the cast for the rousing musical hit Ring of Fire, which will run May 22 through August 17 at the CLO Cabaret.

PAN ASIAN REPERTORY THEATRE continues its 37th Milestone Season with the New York premiere of FISHING FOR WIVES, a comic battle of the sexes written by Edward Sakamoto and directed by Ron Nakahara. The production will begin previews on April 5, 2014 and run until April 27, 2014 at the Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row (410 W 42nd Street between 9th and Dyer). The official opening is on Thursday April 10th at 7:30PM.

PAN ASIAN REPERTORY THEATRE continues its 37th Milestone Season with the New York premiere of FISHING FOR WIVES, a comic battle of the sexes written by Edward Sakamoto and directed by Ron Nakahara. The production will begin previews on April 5, 2014 and run until April 27, 2014 at the Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row (410 W 42nd Street between 9th and Dyer). The official opening is on Thursday April 10th at 7:30PM.

The 29th Annual Bistro Awards gala, set to take place tonight, March 4, has announced two new presenters. Stephen Schwartz, the Oscar, Tony, Grammy, and Golden Globe-winning composer/lyricist, who wrote the scores to such musicals as Pippin, Wicked, Godspell, and The Magic Show, will present Ben Vereen, the Tony Award-winning actor-singer-dancer, with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

After a sold-out run at NYC's Duplex Cabaret Theatre in 2013, the hit show Gay Camp will play a weekly run beginning tonight, February 28, 2014.