Andrew Cuomo News

The 2014 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival continued its upward trend of annually attracting more visitors to Jamestown, NY, highlighted by a sold-out performance by Jay Leno.

The September broadcasts of The New York Philharmonic This Week - the weekly radio series of concerts and recordings by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin - begins with Music Director Alan Gilbert launching the Philharmonic's 2014 Bravo! Vail residency with Nielsen's Maskarade Overture; Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, with the 2013-14 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman as soloist; selections from Grieg's Peer Gynt; and Liszt's Les Preludes. The second week, Alan Gilbert conducts the Orchestra in a performance of R. Strauss's Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks; The Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Oboe Concerto, with Principal Oboe Liang Wang as soloist; and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy. The following week, Bramwell Tovey conducts the New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail in Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man; Gershwin's "Strike Up the Band" from Strike Up the Band; Copland's Clarinet Concerto, with Associate Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio as soloist; and Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite. In the final week of September, Music Director Alan Gilbert conducts the New York Philharmonic in a program of Mozart's final three symphonies - Nos. 39, 40, and 41, Jupiter -recorded in November 2013.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, recognized as a vital “American Cultural Ambassador” to the world and New York City Center's Principal Dance Company, will return to the New York City Center stage for the 43rd consecutive year from December 3, 2014 – January 4, 2015. The Company will present 39 performances during an exciting annual season that has become a joyous holiday tradition.

BALAM Dance Theatre (BALAM) has received a grant from the Fund for Creative Communities. The grant will provide seed money to present a new Baroque dance workshop series and a performance for the Washington Heights community in New York City to experience and engage with the arts.

The Playwrights Realm has announced casting is confirmed and tickets are now on sale for the world Premiere of MY MAÑANA COMES by Elizabeth Irwin, directed by Chay Yew (Artistic Director for Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago). The production runs August 26th through September 20th, 2014 with a September 4th opening at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 W. 42nd Street, NYC).

Tickets go on sale to the general public starting today, Wednesday, July 23 for the Playwrights Horizons New York premiere production of BOOTYCANDY, a new play written and directed by Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara (director of In the Continuum, author of Antebellum and Insurrection: Holding History). Rehearsals for the season opener of the acclaimed theater company's 2014/2015 Season are set to begin next Friday, August 1.

Mount Tremper Arts presents the Obie award-winning 600 HIGHWAYMEN's Employee of the Year.

Following is an updated chronological listing incorporating changes to the New York Philharmonic's 2014–15 season since the artists and programs for the season were announced on January 22, 2014. Highlights include:

Be the first to see the fabulous musical talents of Katie Zaffrann in this brand new showcase cabaret, sure to be enjoyed by hopeless romantics and commitment-phobes alike! Join this bride-to-be (getting married in Sept.) as she sings the bliss, beauty, wonder . . . terror, resistance and panic of being loved. Katie (who starred in Almost Maine 3 years ago) returns with Marry Me a Little, a cabaret exploring the emotional journey from 'I love you' to 'til death do us part'.

Mount Tremper Arts has quickly established itself as an innovative arts center that supports and presents leading contemporary artists in the remarkable setting of the Catskill Mountains.

THE DEPOT THEATRE in Westport, NY, now in its 36th season of bringing quality professional theatre to the Adirondacks of New York, has announced final casting for its 2014 Summer Season.

Aery Theatre Company, along with the Philipstown Depot Theatre, is accepting submissions for the 8th Annual Aery Theatre 20/20 Play Festival. Submissions must be e-mailed not later than MONDAY, JULY 28, 2014. The Festival will be held at the Philip-stown Depot's 67-seat theatre in Garrison Landing, Garrison, NY, OCTOBER 3-12, 2014.

Final performances for American Ballet Theatre's New York Summer Intensive Program are scheduled for Friday, July 25, 2014 at 12 P.M. and 4 P.M. at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, New York. The performances mark the conclusion of ABT's 19th annual New York Summer Intensive, a five-week training program for dancers ages 12 to 22.

Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer) and The Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy will present "Started Here…Everything's Coming Up Rosie," a showcase starring alumni of The Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy.

The Shakespeare Players program of the Rochester Community Players will present eleven performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare, July 5 to 19, 2014. Performances will be presented every night between July 5 and 19, except Mondays and Thursdays. All performance times are 8:00 PM. There is no admission charge for this FREE Shakespeare in the Park production (donations will be solicited).

The New York Philharmonic will salute departing Principal Trumpet Philip Smith - who will step down from his position at the end of the 2013-14 season following 36 seasons of service - in A Celebration of Phil Smith, a concert featuring the New York Philharmonic Brass and Percussion Ensemble, conducted by Mr. Smith and Bramwell Tovey, July 5, 2014, at 2:00 p.m. The program will also include works that showcase brass: an arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov's Procession of the Nobles; a Horn Quartet by Gershwin; Tomasi's Liturgical Fanfares; an arrangement of The Great Gate of Kiev from Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition; and Pollack's That's a Plenty, which the New York Philharmonic Principal Brass Quintet, of which Mr. Smith was a founding member, has frequently performed as an encore on the Orchestra's tours. Philharmonic musicians will introduce the works and speak about Mr. Smith.

Continuing the Jewish Museum's slate of lectures, discussions, and events, July 2014 programs include a performance of Minimalist music in partnership with Bang on a Can, inspired by the exhibition Other Primary Structures; a screening of Sign Painters, a 2012 documentary; and the next event in the popular after-hours series, The Wind Up.

Frozen and Broadway star Jonathan Groff was among the grand marshals of New York's Gay Pride parade, held on Sunday, June 29th.

From today, June 25 to August 1, The Kitchen will present The Rehearsal, a group exhibition in which Courtesy the Artists, Discoteca Flaming Star and Georgia Sagri revisit an unreleased film by blacklisted, American film maker Jules Dassin. Filmed 40 years ago in the building that is now The Kitchen, Dassin's film, also tilted The Rehearsal, is a cinematic indictment of the Greek military junta (1967-74) and features Dassin, his wife, Greek actress Melina Mercouri, along with Laurence Olivier, Olympia Dukakis, Arthur Miller and Lillian Hellman, among others. For this exhibition, the artists will engage the themes, resonances and Brechtian structures of Dassin's work placing them in conversation with recent narratives of collective action for autonomy on the global stage.

From June 25 to August 1, The Kitchen will present The Rehearsal, a group exhibition in which Courtesy the Artists, Discoteca Flaming Star and Georgia Sagri revisit an unreleased film by blacklisted, American film maker Jules Dassin. Filmed 40 years ago in the building that is now The Kitchen, Dassin's film, also tilted The Rehearsal, is a cinematic indictment of the Greek military junta (1967-74) and features Dassin, his wife, Greek actress Melina Mercouri, along with Laurence Olivier, Olympia Dukakis, Arthur Miller and Lillian Hellman, among others. For this exhibition, the artists will engage the themes, resonances and Brechtian structures of Dassin's work placing them in conversation with recent narratives of collective action for autonomy on the global stage.