Barbara Siegel News

Broadway By the Bay, the largest theatre organization on the Peninsula, completes its 43rd season with DEFYING GRAVITY: STEPHEN SCHWARTZ AND FRIENDS featuring Stephen Schwartz live, composer and lyricist of Broadway hits including Wicked, Godspell, and Pippin.

Colm Wilkinson, the world's original Jean Valjean, returned to the New York stage for 'one day more' on Saturday, October 18th for the second show in the 4th Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival series, Broadway & Beyond.

Last night, in the exciting finale of the first annual 'MetroStar Talent Challenge' at The Metropolitan Room, Anne Steele was picked as the event's first grand prize winner.

The final concert in Town Hall's Summer Broadway Festival, ALL SINGIN'! ALL DANCIN!' took place on July 28th at 8PM. The production of ALL SINGIN'! ALL DANCIN'! featured well known Broadway showtunes sporting brand new choreography exclusively created by Joshua Rhodes and danced by the talented Broadway hoofers of today, including Kendrick Jones, Megan Sikora, Melinda Sullivan, Lisa Gadja and Lorin Latarro.

Although that bountiful cornucopia of high praise, John 'I Loved It!' Simon, chose to heap lavish compliments on those he saw as standouts with his usual critical generosity, I'd rather not review the performances showcased by Scott and Barbara Siegel in their second annual concert of new talent, Broadway's Rising Stars. Oh, if I did, words like dazzling, beautiful and heartfelt would certainly come to mind, but I'd rather see last Monday night's show as a celebration of all the new faces without comparing their abilities at this early stage of their careers.

A NIGHT AT THE OPERETTA on July 14th featured the sounds of Broadway music one rarely gets to hear anymore - Operetta - including music by Sigmund Romberg, Rudolph Friml and Victor Herbert. A NIGHT AT THE OPERETTA featured Alexander Gemignani, Lisa Howard, William Michals, Jennifer Hope Wills, Christine Andreas, Bill Daugherty, Brian Charles Rooney, Karen Murphy, John Easterlin, Jason Graae and Milla Ilieva. The show featured the dance talents of Eric Sean Fogel, J. Austin Eyer, Billy Harrigan Tighe, and Ben Franklin. The show is under the direction of Dan Foster with musical direction by Fred Barton

The award-winning intimate concert venue The Metropolitan Room has picked a unique cross-section of performers, journalists and industry figures to serve as judges for the club's first 'Metrostar Talent Challenge,' a seven-week jury and audience-voted elimination-round competition that begins July 7.

The award-winning intimate concert venue The Metropolitan Room has picked a unique cross-section of performers, journalists and industry figures to serve as judges for the club's first 'Metrostar Talent Challenge,' a seven-week jury and audience-voted elimination-round competition that begins July 7.

On May 18th 2008 the winners of this years Drama Desk Awards were announced. The 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards were held in the LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center.

Brian d'Arcy James, Marc Kudisch, Gregg Edelman, Julia Murney, Kendrick Jones, Shannon Lewis, Melinda Sullivan, Julie Reyburn, Brandon Cutrell, Lorin Latarro, and more starred in THE BROADWAY MUSICALS OF 1965 at The Town Hall, Monday, May 12 at 8pm.

Nominations for the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced this morning at the New York Friars Club by Bebe Neuwirth and Len Cariou, multi-award winning stage, screen and television stars. They were joined for the announcement by William Wolf, Drama Desk President, Barbara Siegel, Chairperson of the Drama Desk Nominating Committee, Robert Blume, Executive Producer of the Drama Desk Awards, and Randie Levine-Miller, Director of Special Events for the Drama Desk.

Nominations for the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced this morning at the New York Friars Club. 'A Catered Affair' led the way with 12 nominations.

The cast of [title of show], the original musical that will open on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in July, will host the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards on Sunday, May 18, at 9:00 PM, it was announced by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the awards ceremony, and William Wolf, President of the Drama Desk.

This morning, April 18th, 2008 Michael Riedel reported on the resignation of Tony Phillips from the Drama Desk Committee. Phillips is a national arts correspondent for the gay-themed Edge Publications. Phillips wrote a stinging letter to the committee bashing chairwoman Barbara Siegel as an 'imminent danger to the integrity of the organization'. Riedel goes on state that Phillips claims he has 'watched with growing alarm as Siegel steered this organization away from its mission statement into some wan, doddering, second-rate mock of the Tony Awards.' William Wolf, the Drama Desk responded today with the following letter

A Broadway Baker's Dozen of great talents will took The Town Hall stage by storm on Monday, April 7 at 8pm when Broadway by the Year saluted 1954. Songs from famous shows like The Pajama Game, Peter Pan, The Boy Friend, and Fanny were featured in this critically acclaimed concert series that is now in its 8th Season.

Nominations for the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards will be announced on Monday, April 28, 2008, at 9:45 AM at the New York Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street, in Manhattan.

'The Broadway Musicals of 1947,' kicked-off the eighth season of The Town Hall's critically acclaimed Broadway by the Year series on March 3 at Town Hall. The star-studded cast included Howard McGillin, Marc Kudisch, Eddie Korbich, Noah Racey, Donna Lynne Champlin, Meredith Patterson, Kerry O'Malley, Kendrick Jones, Alexander Gemignani, Christiane Noll and Jeffry Denman.

Stars from the worlds of Broadway, television, R & B, cabaret, comedy, jazz, and country convened at The Town Hall on Monday, January 28 at 7PM to celebrate The 2008 Nightlife Awards.

The 53rd Annual 'Drama Desk Awards' will take place on Sunday, May 18, 2008, at 9 PM at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, it was announced by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony and telecast, and William Wolf, President of the Drama Desk, an organization of theater critics, writers and editors that honors excellence in all areas of New York theater, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and not-for-profit theater.

The fourth annual 'Broadway Unplugged' concert - featuring Broadway stars performing without microphones - was presented Monday, November 19 at 8PM at The Town Hall