Barbara Cook News

I don't care how old you are, I'm pretty sure this recording sounds like home. Nat King Cole, with his velvety croon, sings one of the more perfect songs ever written with simplicity and good taste. It's been recorded thousands of times, in every conceivable style - with riffs and shrieks and all kinds of dazzlement. But this arrangement and performance is the only one I want to hear.

If you have spent more than twelve minutes with me, you know that I am in love with a fake person named Miranda Sings. I first saw her on YouTube when she gave a 'free voice lesson' to the interwebs. I thought she was a neo-Florence Foster Jenkins, as did most everyone. I wrote to 'her,' inviting her to Cast Party, my weekly open mic night at Birdland. I heard back from her creator, Colleen Ballinger, a wildly intelligent and brilliantly funny actress. That was the beginning of a wonderful friendship and subsequent business relationship. 'Miranda' became a regular on my Broadway at Birdland concert series, until our walls couldn't hold her fan base. Now, she's playing the biggest theaters in the world (Kennedy Center!), just signed for the second season of her Netflix sit-com 'Haters Back Off,' had a #1 book on the New York Times Bestseller List, has guested on the Tonight Show, and hangs with Jerry Seinfeld. Colleen's online following rivals the Catholic Church (almost a billion hits), yet she's still as funny and normal and adorable as ever. This insane video clip makes me hysterical, as do most of her awkward shenanigans.

This ravishing song has an interesting history. The lyric was written in 1946 by a nineteen-year old Frank Pooler, as a gift to a girlfriend he was missing. Twenty years later, a nineteen-year old Richard Carpenter set it to music. In four years, this recording by The Carpenters went to #1, which it did for three consecutive holiday seasons. It sounds as fresh today as it did in 1970, partly because of Richard's lush arrangement and backup vocals, and that famous tenor sax solo. But honestly, it's all about Karen. For my money, Karen Carpenter had one of the warmest and truest voices in the history of popular music. Sometimes the universe makes a terrible mistake and we lose someone way too soon…long before they've finished. That's how I feel about Karen Carpenter.

I know, I know, this isn't really a song about Christmas, but's it's a standout from Carol Hall's wonderful 'Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' score! I used to sing this song with a vocal trio, and everytime we'd get to 'Maybe I'll count the stars until dawn. Me, I will go on,' my eyes would well with tears. It's a song of passion, strength and looking forward to brighter days. If that's not what this season is about, I don't know what is. In this clip, Jenn Colella, Adrienne Warren and Keala Settle perform the song on the Birdland stage for the Lilly Awards. Three better singers, you won't find.

I know, I know, this isn't really a song about Christmas, but's it's a standout from Carol Hall's wonderful 'Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' score! I used to sing this song with a vocal trio, and everytime we'd get to 'Maybe I'll count the stars until dawn. Me, I will go on,' my eyes would well with tears. It's a song of passion, strength and looking forward to brighter days. If that's not what this season is about, I don't know what is. In this clip, Jenn Colella, Adrienne Warren and Keala Settle perform the song on the Birdland stage for the Lilly Awards. Three better singers, you won't find.

Due to demand, SubCulture artist-in-residence Jason Robert Brown will welcome Kelli O'Hara for a second show in January, the venue has just announced.

I know, I know, this isn't really a song about Christmas, but's it's a standout from Carol Hall's wonderful 'Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' score! I used to sing this song with a vocal trio, and everytime we'd get to 'Maybe I'll count the stars until dawn. Me, I will go on,' my eyes would well with tears. It's a song of passion, strength and looking forward to brighter days. If that's not what this season is about, I don't know what is. In this clip, Jenn Colella, Adrienne Warren and Keala Settle perform the song on the Birdland stage for the Lilly Awards. Three better singers, you won't find.

Manhattan Concert Productions has just announced lead casting for their 25th anniversary concert version of Gershwin's musical comedy Crazy for You. Tony award nominees Tony Yazbeck and Laura Osnes, will co-star as Bobby Child and Polly Baker for this one night only event at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center on February 19, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. Five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman will direct the Tony Award-winning Crazy for You 25 years to the day from its opening night on Broadway. The performance features Stroman's choreography from the original production, a chorus of 240 singers from across the United States, a professional cast and creative team, and the enlarged forces of the New York City Chamber Orchestra. Following the success of The Secret Garden earlier this year, Crazy for You marks the fifth installment of Manhattan Concert Productions' critically acclaimed Broadway Series that has also included Parade, Titanic, and Ragtime.

We've all seen Becca Ayers on Broadway in Addams Family, South Pacific, Les Miserables and Avenue Q. She's a kickass singer, fabulous actress and very handy with a puppet. But did you know she writes great folky-poppy tunes? 'Simple Wish' is a witty, charming and slightly bitter ode to the search for holiday love!

Composer Lisa Bielawa's Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser will feature world-renowned opera star Deborah Voigt singing a role created for her in Vireo's Episode Eleven, "Circus," to be shot on January 20, 2017 at the 16th Street Oakland Train Station in Oakland, California. 

I couldn't be more thrilled to share some of my all-time favorite holiday tunes with the BroadwayWorld readers! Rob Diamond, BroadwayWorld and I have had a long history together, with countless podcasts, interviews, and kajillions of photo flashes to our credit. The consistent support the site gives to the entire entertainment community is a thing to behold, and one that all of us consider a great present!

BroadwayWorld has teamed up with renowned caricature artist Ken Fallin, a life-long theater enthusiast, who has drawn many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. Below, check out his latest illustration, featuring Ben Platt and Mike Faist in DEAR EVEN HANSEN.

The School of Theatre is proud to present the tenth annual Benefit Concert with a performance of Meredith Willson's The Music Man on the Fallon Stage, Saturday, December 17th.

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Evans Haile, Interim Executive Director; David McCoy, Chairman of the Board), dedicated to the development of new musicals and preserving musical gems from the past, has announced Robert Creighton (Cagney), and Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens) will join some of Broadway's best - Carolee Carmello (Finding Neverland), Sutton Foster (Anything Goes), Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago), Rory O'Malley (The Book of Mormon), and Bernadette Peters (George M) (all subject to change) - scheduled to appear as guest performers to honor legendary Oscar® and Tony® Award-winner Joel Grey with the 25th Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre at the 2016 Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala on Monday, December 5, 2016 at The Asia Society (725 Park Avenue).

BroadwayWorld has teamed up with renowned caricature artist Ken Fallin, a life-long theater enthusiast, who has drawn many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. Below, check out his latest illustration, featuring Bobby Conte Thornton in A BRONX TALE.

Known for her powerful and riveting vocals, Broadway diva N'Kenge (Motown: The Musical and Sondheim and Sondheim) will grace the stage at ISO's 31st edition of Yuletide Celebration under the direction of conductor Jack Everly for 31 performances, with opening night tonight, December 2nd, continuing through December 23, 2016.

Dress Circle Publishing will celebrate their new book THE UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY, VOLUME 3 - the latest in a series by acclaimed historian and producer Jennifer Ashley Tepper - with a special event at The Drama Book Shop (250 West 4oth Street in Manhattan) today, December 1 at 5:30 PM.

The York Theatre Company, dedicated to the development of new musicals and preserving musical gems from the past, has announced that several of Broadway's best - Carolee Carmello (Finding Neverland), Sutton Foster (Anything Goes), Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago), Rory O'Malley (The Book of Mormon), and Bernadette Peters (George M) (all subject to change) - are scheduled to appear as guest performers to honor legendary Oscar- and Tony Award-winner Joel Grey with the 25th Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre at the 2016 Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala on Monday, December 5, 2016 at The Asia Society (725 Park Avenue).

Maestro Luke Frazier and The American Pops Orchestra - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - will continue their all-star 2016-2017 season with Don't Rain on My Parade: 75 Years of Barbra Streisand on Friday, January 13, 2017 at 8:00 PM at The George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium (730 21st Street NW, Washington, DC).

Frequent collaborators, Broadway stars, and Tony Award nominees Laura Osnes and Santino Fontana join the NSO Pops and Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke for the National Symphony Orchestra's annual A Holiday Pops! concerts on Friday, December 9, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, December 10, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.