3-D Theatriclas presents Funny Girl Sept 6 - Sept 22, 2013 at the Plummer Auditorium, and Sept 27 - Sept 29, 2013 at Redondo Beach. Funny Girl is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway, film star and comedienne Fanny Briceand her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein. Its original title was My Man.
One of the biggest downers perpetrated by American culture is the characterization of Labor Day weekend as the 'unofficial end of summer.' But given what has passed for cabaret entertainment-at least the shows I was able to attend--since the 'unofficial start of summer' on Memorial Day weekend, the end of summer can't come soon enough. But my dismay over the hours lost watching average shows this season was tempered a bit by the pride and joy I felt watching the June performances of three strikingly attractive and talented 30ish brunettes with powerhouse voices-- Jackie Kristel, Karen Gross and Jodi Beck, who all staged entertaining shows as spring was turning to summer.
The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) announced today that Tony winners Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone) and Lillias White (The Life) along with Sierra Boggess (Disney's The Little Mermaid), Kerry Butler (Catch Me If You Can), Patti Murin (Lysistrata Jones), Dee Hoty (The Will Rogers Follies), Susan Egan (Disney's Beauty and the Beast), and Grammy winner Amanda McBroom ('The Rose') are among the performers that will headline SHOW OFF!, a benefit concert celebrating 25 years of NAMT's Annual Festival of New Musicals on Sunday, October 20 at 7pm at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square).
Join Theater Company of Lafayette for a musical celebration of womanhood! Comedic and poignant, 'A...My Name Will Always Be Alice' presents 25 songs and vignettes examining friendships, relationships, motherhood, marriage, widowhood, sisterhood, and sexual longings.
Musical theatre and opera star, Lucy Schaufer has just released a new album 'Carpentersville,' featuring the Ruth Wallis hit, 'The Dinghy Song' from Off-Broadway's Boobs! The Musical. Extensively researching her material, Lucy contacted Boobs! The Musical original producer/choreographer Lawrence Leritz for some tips. 'I was more than happy to assist such a wonderfully talented artist. I love her rendition of the song. It's really sensational.'
A few weeks before BroadwayWorld.com Cabaret Reviewer and Columnist Stephen Hanks was about to stage the opening night of his debut solo cabaret show on May 31, a number of cabaret performers asked him if he was going to write about the experience in some way, with some even encouraging him to keep a diary. 'It might be really interesting to read how your perspective about cabaret performers and performing might have changed and how it might impact your reviews now that you're doing it yourself,' commented one singer. 'It was a fascinating notion and one that I had already thought about,' Hanks admits, 'but between a full time job, attending shows, writing reviews, taking vocal lessons, rehearsing, etc., finding the time and the energy to keep even a weekly diary was not in the cards.' Hanks certainly didn't think he'd forget even the little things that have gone into making his journey what he calls 'an amazing, fantasy-fulfilling, almost surreal experience.' On the eve of his last performance of his three-show run (over three weeks) at the Metropolitan Room of Beyond American Pie: The Don McLean Songbook, BroadwayWorld.com sat down with our lead cabaret reviewer to get his insights and perspective on what's it been like to be on the performer end of things.
Thirty years after directing and choreographing the Odyssey Theatre's award-winning West Coast premiere, and following a wildly successful off-Broadway revival at the York Theatre last season, Bill Castellino reunites with musical director Gerald Sternbach to charm audiences with a revitalized, updated version of Ionescopade at the Odyssey Theatre, beginning May 31. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!
Unless the host is particularly warm, funny, and charismatic (think Dana Lorge and her new monthly vehicle at the Metropolitan Room) or the show is a way to champion a good cause (like Joseph Macchia's Cabaret Cares events), for the most part cabaret variety shows are clunky affairs which can be too long, too rambling, give too much time to average talent or not enough of a showcase to outstanding talent. I ran into one of the rare exceptions last month (April 23) in the form of the The Concerts for City Greens' First Annual Gala & 2012 Songwriting Contest Finale, a variety show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre that served as a fund raiser for the launch of a new non-profit called Music and Art for Green which will incorporate Concerts for City Greens within its umbrella.
Four songs into Lauren Robert's show at Iridium this past Tuesday night (her third appearance at the jazz club since last August), she was already producing her usual pulsating, percussive, and passionate presentation of hard-driving blues and soulful pop when the show took a transformative turn and reached a higher ground. The mature, sultry, blue-eyed blonde, whose sound goes beyond blue-eyed soul, put on her Louisiana accent cultivated from years playing down south with her old band, Mojo Hand, and told her audience that the set's fifth song was 'inspired by the swamps and sexy action of N'awlins.' Then Robert and her new band, which included three members of the old gang, really got their mojo going, jumped into a musical swamp boat and navigated through a Robert original called 'Two Alligators' (from Mojo Hand's 1992 album Zulu Parasol), an intense and rhythmic mix of blues, hard rock n' roll, and Zydeco, and that featured a cool background vocal arrangement and Robert playing a washboard-better known as a fotoi (fo-twa)-draped down her chest. Like an alligator, the song stalked and then snapped, and with Noe Matos supplying some frenetic percussion, it was a draw-dropping number that wouldn't let you stop bouncing in your seat.
Shana Farr, the multi-talented actress/singer who won the coveted Julie Wilson Award at the Mabel Mercer Foundation's 23rd Annual Cabaret Convention last October at Jazz at Lincoln Center, will make her London singing debut at The Crazy Coqs (20 Sherwood Street) in London, England, tonight, May 14 - 18, 8:00 PM with two late-night shows May 17 - 18, 10:30 PM.
Shana Farr, the multi-talented actress/singer who won the coveted Julie Wilson Award at the Mabel Mercer Foundation's 23rd Annual Cabaret Convention last October at Jazz at Lincoln Center, will make her London singing debut at The Crazy Coqs (20 Sherwood Street) in London, England, on May 14 - 18, 8:00 PM with two late-night shows May 17 - 18, 10:30 PM.
Thirty years after directing and choreographing the Odyssey Theatre's award-winning West Coast premiere, and following a wildly successful Off Broadway revival at the York Theatre last season, Bill Castellino reunites with musical directorGerald Sternbach to charm audiences with a revitalized, updated version of Ionescopade at theOdyssey Theatre beginning May 31.
The Concerts for City Greens may be a Spring and Summer music extravaganza held in the lovely early evening air of Manhattan's East Side, but Broadway actress and cabaret headliner Raissa Katona Bennett, who is the concert series' founder and producer, is launching the 2013 season indoors-with a gala benefit concert featuring a star-studded lineup of performers, including quadruple-platinum songwriter and Today Show regular David Friedman as a special guest performer (with Bennett in photo, left). A celebratory retrospective of the program's first five seasons will be staged at The Laurie Beechman Theatre, 407 West 42nd Street, tonight April 23 at 7pm.
The Concerts for City Greens may be a Spring and Summer music extravaganza held in the lovely early evening air of Manhattan's East Side, but Broadway actress and cabaret headliner Raissa Katona Bennett, who is the concert series' founder and producer, is launching the 2013 season indoors-with a gala benefit concert featuring a star-studded lineup of performers, including quadruple-platinum songwriter and Today Show regular David Friedman as a special guest performer (with Bennett in photo, left). A celebratory retrospective of the program's first five seasons will be staged at The Laurie Beechman Theatre, 407 West 42nd Street, on Tuesday April 23 at 7pm.
Shana Farr, the multi-talented actress/singer who won the coveted Julie Wilson Award at the Mabel Mercer Foundation's 23rd Annual Cabaret Convention last October at Jazz at Lincoln Center, will make her London singing debut at The Crazy Coqs in London, England, on May 14 - 18, 2013 where she will present her critically acclaimed cabaret show, Whistling Away The Dark, Through Songs of Julie Andrews.
It's April 1st. Do you know when your Spring is coming? During another longggggg New York winter, the good news is that there were a ton of warming cabaret shows. The bad news is that there were so many, even during this seemingly endless winter our intrepid reviewer Stephen Hanks didn't have enough time to review them all right after the performances. So in what is becoming a seasonal ritual, here he offers yet another compilation of 13 'catch-up' cabaret show reviews.
The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs has just announced the winners of the 2013 MAC Awards, which were presented last night at the 27th Annual MAC Awards Show. The awards ceremony was held at B.B. King Blues Club, and the show was directed by Lennie Watts and produced by Julie Miller. Lifetime Achievement awards were presented to Tom Wopat and Penny Fuller. The Board of Directors Award was presented to 54 Below, and a special award was presented in memory of Ruth Kurtzman. The Hanson Award was presented to Elaine St. George. The show was hosted by KT Sullivan, with music direction by Tracy Stark, and stage management by Amy Wolk.
The Amanda McBroom Project: 1 Great Songwriter, 4 Magical Nights, 30 Incredible Women! played the Laurie Beechman Theatre on March 8, 9 and 15, and continues tonight, March 16 at 7pm. BroadwayWorld was there for the concert and brings you photos below!
The Ojai Playwrights Conference (OPC) will launch its 16th season with its annual Benefit themed "Farm to Stable: A Feast of Creativity" scheduled for today, March 9, 2013, beginning at 4 pm, at a private ranch in Upper Ojai, California.
CenterStage has announced that legendary cabaret performer and Golden Globe Award Winner Amanda McBroom will be the final artist in the 2012-13 U.S. Trust Life is a Cabaret! Series: A Celebration of the Great American Song Book.
