Vincent Youmans News

Bucks County Playhouse Producers Robyn Goodman and Alexander Fraser announce the launch of a musical theatre development program focusing on the importance of lyrics in the creation of new musicals: The Oscar Hammerstein Festival - named in honor of the master writer whose countless accomplishments during his illustrious career include having mentored a young Stephen Sondheim at Hammerstein's Bucks County farm -- is a year-long program that offers expert mentorship to early career composers and lyricists. The Oscar Hammerstein Festival will culminate in a weekend with musical theatre experts, artists, and enthusiasts and various events open to the general public. The Festival will launch this weekend, September 26 - 28, 2014.

Bucks County Playhouse Producers Robyn Goodman and Alexander Fraser are thrilled to welcome the addition of Broadway's beloved Marin Mazzie to the cast of GETTING TO KNOW YOU: An Enchanted Evening of Oscar Hammerstein II, the Saturday night benefit concert of the inaugural Oscar Hammerstein Festival.

Bucks County Playhouse Producers Robyn Goodman and Alexander Fraser announce the launch of a musical theatre development program focusing on the importance of lyrics in the creation of new musicals: The Oscar Hammerstein Festival - named in honor of the master writer whose countless accomplishments during his illustrious career include having mentored a young Stephen Sondheim at Hammerstein's Bucks County farm -- is a year-long program that offers expert mentorship to early career composers and lyricists. The Oscar Hammerstein Festival will culminate in a weekend with musical theatre experts, artists, and enthusiasts and various events open to the general public. The Festival will launch September 26 - 28, 2014.

Principal casting has been announced for the upcoming world premiere production of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. The cast will include Robert Fairchild as Jerry Mulligan, Leanne Cope as Lise Dassin, Veanne Cox as Madame Baurel, Jill Paice as Milo Davenport, Brandon Uranowitz as Adam Hochberg, and Max Von Essen as Henri Baurel.

Tony and Grammy Award winner and 2011 Kennedy Center Honoree Barbara Cook will be returning to New York-area stages with her new concert ARE YOU HAVIN' ANY FUN? Barbara Cook in Concert, with upcoming performances scheduled for: Saturday, April 26 at Symphony Space in Manhattan; Saturday, May 10 at the Colden Auditorium at the Kupferberg Center at Queens College; Saturday, May 31 at the South Orange Performing Arts Center in South Orange, New Jersey; and at the Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, NY on Saturday June 14.

The internationally-acclaimed Pacific Chorale in Orange County, CA will be presenting a new work created by American opera composer Jake Heggie, and the versatile librettist Gene Scheer entitled 'THE RADIO HOUR'. The choral opera will be conducted by Pacific Chorale's Artistic Director, John Alexander, and stage-directed by James R. Taulli. The premiere work will be performed by the organization's chamber choir, The John Alexander Singers, accompanied by an 8-member ensemble of musicians who are members of Pacific Symphony. The performance is on Sunday, May 18 at 5:30 p.m. at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, CA. Scroll down to see an interview with composer Jake Heggie and conductor John Alexander!

Norm Lewis makes his eagerly anticipated solo debut at American Songbook on Saturday night at 8:30pm. The show is SOLD OUT, and has been for weeks, and he has been in what he calls 'training' for the last few months. His musical director is Joseph Joubert (Motown, The Color Purple, Violet, Leap of Faith) and the evening is directed by Richard Jay-Alexander., for whom Norm did 'Javert' along with Hugh Panaro as 'Valjean' in last summer's blockbuster success of LES MISERABLES at The Muny in St. Louis.

First the good news. Alexei Ratmansky's Piano Concerto #1, set to the Shostakovich piece of the same name, is as bracing as ever. Now, the bad news. Ratmansky's The Tempest, set to a Sibelius score, is in a state of choreographic disorder. It sets out to tell a Shakespearean play in 45 minutes, and even with the input of dramaturg Mark Lamos, the ballet can't dance, let alone move.

Two of cabaret's most popular and honored vocalists of the last decade, Tanya Holt and Marcus Simeone, bring their dynamic new show, Quiet Storm, to the Metropolitan Room for six Saturday shows running once monthly through November 16 (with a summer break.)

Tickets for these performances go on sale Saturday, August 10 at 10 am. More shows will be announced.

Wolf Trap announces the first set of performances for the 2013-2014 Season at The Barns. Tickets for these performances go on sale Saturday, August 10 at 10 am. More shows will be announced.

Back on April 1, when he posted his third compilation of delayed cabaret reviews from shows staged during the winter, BroadwayWorld.com's lead New York cabaret reviewer promised Number 4 would come with arrival of summer. Okay, so he missed his self-imposed deadline by a couple of weeks. but here's yet another catch-up column with critiques of a half dozen spring shows performed by Bryan Batt, Dawn Derow, Lynly Forrest, Dennis McNeil, Anastasia Barzee, and Nina Hennessey.

Wednesday night was the second of Marilyn Maye's first 54 Below run (which will continue until March 16) and she sashayed around the stage in front of an almost full house like a woman of 35. Like most of her shows, Maye's performance was a 'live' cabaret Master Class for budding cabaret performers and seasoned professionals alike, and this 'Maye-den Voyage' never went adrift (thanks in part to solid and unobtrusive support from Tedd Frith on piano, Tom Hubbard on bass, and Jim Eklof on drums).

By the last August, I had fallen so far behind on writing reviews of cabaret shows from the spring and early summer (I guess it's a positive when there are more performers and shows in New York than days in the week) that I decided to play catch up by combining a bunch of critiques into one big column. I hadn't planned on doing that again, but this fall there were so many shows that once again I couldn't keep up. but at least I've beaten my self-imposed deadline New Year's Eve deadline of posting these reviews of 12 shows, all staged between September-December by lovely, attractive women (okay, so one is a gender-bender) of varying talents and levels on the cabaret depth chart, from established stars to MAC and Bistro Award-winners to comeback 'kids' to interesting beginners and occasional performers who are in the game to follow their bliss. Whether their performances were rave-worthy, earning of qualified praise, or not quite up to snuff, they all deserve kudos for taking the plunge.

JEncore Series, Inc., presenter of Peter Nero and The Philly POPS®, today announced the first concert series of the 2012/2013 Season will be held October 12-14, 2012 in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. "Dancing and Romancing" will commence The POPS 34th Annual Season and contains a tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, featuring nationally acclaimed dancers, Joan Hess and Kirby Ward, Spanish guitarist Pablo Sainz Villegas and violinist Michael Ludwig.

Encore Series, Inc., presenter of Peter Nero and The Philly POPS, have announced the first concert series of the 2012/2013 Season will be held October 12-14, 2012 in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. "Dancing and Romancing" is a tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, featuring nationally acclaimed dancers, Joan Hess and Kirby Ward.

JEncore Series, Inc., presenter of Peter Nero and The Philly POPS®, today announced the first concert series of the 2012/2013 Season will be held October 12-14, 2012 in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. "Dancing and Romancing" will commence The POPS 34th Annual Season and contains a tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, featuring nationally acclaimed dancers, Joan Hess and Kirby Ward, Spanish guitarist Pablo Sainz Villegas and violinist Michael Ludwig.

Encore Series, Inc., presenter of Peter Nero and The Philly POPS, have announced the first concert series of the 2012/2013 Season will be held October 12-14, 2012 in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. "Dancing and Romancing" is a tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, featuring nationally acclaimed dancers, Joan Hess and Kirby Ward.

In the video below, Sierra Boggess and Julian Ovenden perform the balcony scene from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story as part of BBC Proms 2012 from the Royal Albert Hall, London. Watch below!

Part of the BBC Proms 2012 series from Royal Albert Hall in London, John Wilson conducted the John Wilson Orchestra and Maida Vale Singers in MAME by Jerry Herman, with featured soloists Sierra Boggess, Anna-Jane Casey, Rodney Earl Clarke, Elizabeth Llewellyn, Seth MacFarlane and Julian Ovenden. Watch a video of the performance below!