The Barn Theatre, Michigan's oldest professional summer theatre, under the artistic leadership of Brendan Ragotzy, announced today the 70th Anniversary season of plays and musicals to be presented for the 2016 summer season at the landmark theatre.
We are lucky in New York City. The talent here is unbelievable. Sometimes you settle in for an intimate evening at a little local club and you get your socks blown off. On Friday the 13th (of May, to be exact), I had such an experience at the latest monthly installment of Stephen Hanks' Metropolitan Room series (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD), New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. The featured performers were Vocalist Laurie Krauz and her Musical Director Daryl Kojak celebrating their 25-year musical collaboration “It's a 'Greatest Hits' show within a Greatest Hits series!” Hanks extolled before introducing his stars for the evening.
Musical Theatre Guild, the winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in the theatre, has announced an exciting quartet of shows to celebrate its twenty-first season of Broadway in Concert musicals. The MTG 2016-2017 season includes: PROMISES, PROMISES; THE SPITFIRE GRILL; HALLELUJAH, BABY! and STATE FAIR.
Just in time for the Tony Awards, Joseph Lorenzo Wise is back in the tap shoes on his new single, 'I MISS MY BROADWAY SHOW' an original Broadway classic by writers Joseph Lorenzo Wise and Cody T. Gillette, which features tap dancing in the audio track. "I hadn't tapped in years", Wise laments. Wise was one of the original Four Porters in "ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY" where he tapped across the stage at the St. James Theater for over year and a half!
Musical Theatre West's (MTW) Reiner Staged Reading Series (RRS) returns in with On the Twentieth Century, Sunday, May 15, 7pm at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Tickets are now on sale at the Musical Theatre West Ticket Office, by calling (562) 856-1999 ext. 4. Advance general admission tickets for this one-night-only performance are $27 in advance or $32 on the day of the performance. Seating is general admission. For tickets or more information, call Musical Theatre West at (562) 856-1999, ext. 4 or go to www.musical.org.
92Y'S Lyrics & Lyricists will host I HAVE CONFIDENCE: RODGERS AFTER HAMMERSTEIN, with Ted Chapin, Artistic Director, Writer & Host, Joseph Thalken, Music Director, and Lorin Latarro, Stage Director & Choreographer. Scheduled to perform at the event are Ben Crawford, T. Oliver Reid, Betsy Wolfe, Karen Ziemba and guest artist Larry Pine. The event will be held Saturday, May 21 at 8pm; Sunday, May 22 at 2pm and 7pm; and Monday, May 23 at 2pm and 7:30pm.
Drama Desk Award-winning theatre star JOSE LLANA will celebrate his debut American solo album Altitude with his debut concert at Joe's Pub at The Public on Monday, May 16 at 9:30 PM.
Writers seeking fame and recognition are generally advised to steer clear of the task of writing books for Broadway musicals. Regarded by theatre insiders to be perhaps the most vital, yet most underappreciated element of a successful musical, the book oftentimes receives the least credit when a musical's a hit, but is the first thing blamed if it's a flop.
Today in 2001, the first Broadway revival of Bells Are Ringing opened at the Plymouth Theatre (now the Gerald Shoenfeld Theatre), where it ran for 68 performances. Bells Are Ringing is a musical with a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne. The story revolves around Ella, who works at an answering service and the characters that she meets there. The original Broadway production, directed by Jerome Robbins and choreographed by Robbins and Bob Fosse, opened on November 29, 1956 at the Shubert Theatre, where it ran for slightly more than two years, and starred Judy Holliday as Ella and Sydney Chaplin as Jeff Moss.
In THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN MUSICAL, Jack Viertel takes about musicals, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love with the art form all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next-by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion from OKLAHOMA! to HAMILTON and onward.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has dazzled many audiences with its clever wit and humor. Winner of the Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Book by Rachel Sheinkin, and featuring a fun and vibrant score by William Finn, this bee is an experience you won't forget. The show will be performed at the Off-Off Broadway House- Hudson Guild Theatre (441 West 26th Street, New York, NY), May 5-15th.
From Momma Rose to Annie Oakley to Reno Sweeney, nobody belted the big roles like Ethel Merman, who never had a flop in over three decades encompassing Broadway's Golden Age. George Gershwin told her never to take voice lessons, and he and fellow scribes from Berlin to Porter worshipped Merman as a muse. Tony Award-winning music director Ted Sperling pays tribute to the star and the songs she inspired in Everything's Coming Up Ethel: The Ethel Merman Songbook.
Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah's premier professional theatre, will open its 2016-17 season with the THE LAST SHIP, the new musical with music and lyrics by the pop superstar Sting and book by the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning writers John Logan and Brian Yorkey. PTC's production will be the first since the show's Broadway run in 2014-15.
DO RE MI (1960) has music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Garson Kanin wrote the libretto and directed the production. DO RE MI opened on December 26, 1960, and ran for 400 performances.
Artistic Director Robert Falls announces the 2016/2017 Season-his 30th year as "Chicago's most essential director" (Chicago Tribune) and the creative force behind the 92-year old not-for-profit Goodman Theatre, "one of the country's most respected stages" (NPR ).
Following the success of their concert performances and subsequent recording of Bernstein's West Side Story, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Fransisco Symphony will present Leonard Bernstein's musical On the Town May 25-29. The concert production will feature the talents of many of the 2014-15 Broadway revival cast, including: David Garrison and Tyne Daly (narrators), Clyde Alves (Ozzie), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Chip), Tony Yazbeck (Gabey), Megan Fairchild (Ivy), Alysha Umphress (Hildy), Isabel Leonard (Claire), Shuler Hensley (Pitkin)
SONGBOOK is an album featuring ten live performances by Joseph Lorenzo Wise. It also features a bonus track 'Papaparazzi,' the new hit single featuring the Beethoven Fifth. The inspirational songs range from spirituals, to pop hits, to Sibelius. The CD also features one original song -- 'Dreams' -- written in New York City in the '80s by Joseph Lorenzo Wise.
DO RE MI (1960) has music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Garson Kanin wrote the libretto and directed the production. DO RE MI opened on December 26, 1960, and ran for 400 performances.
YELLOW SOUND LABEL will release the debut American solo album from Drama Desk Award-winning theatre star JOSE LLANA on Friday, May 13. Altitude - based on his acclaimed concert at the Lincoln Center American Songbook Series last year - celebrate his 20 years on Broadway with a savvy collection of songs he performed on and off the main stem, in addition to pop favorites. Tony Award winner Ruthie Ann Miles, his co-star in the Off-Broadway smash Here Lies Love, is featured as special guest. Altitude is produced by Michael Croiter with Kimberly Grigsby serving as Music Director. Pre-order the album at www.YellowSoundLabel.com.