Bette Midler News

TITUSS BURGESS - the rising R&B vocalist and songwriter who has starred on television in the Emmy Award winning NBC comedy "30 Rock" and on Broadway in Jersey Boys and The Little Mermaid - will celebrate his exciting and personal debut R&B/Soul album Comfortable with a special concert event at The Cutting Room (44 East 32nd Street in New York) on Monday, May 13 at 9:00 PM. Tickets, $15 in advance and $20 at the door, include a copy of the CD and are available at Ticketfly.com. A full dinner is available and there is a $20 food and beverage minimum. Comfortable will be available on Tuesday, May 14 at iTunes, Amazon.com and CDBaby.com.

The greatest songwriters revered him. And his songs-from 'All the Things You Are' to 'The Way You Look Tonight'-remain a vital part of our cultural conversation. It is no accident that Jerome Kern is also known as 'The Dean.' Author and Lyrics & Lyricists series artistic director Deborah Grace Winer takes the helm as artistic director/writer/host for The Song is You: Jerome Kern Coast to Coast, on May 4, 5 and 6. Winer is joined by vocalists Karrin Allyson, Debby Boone, Jeffry Denman, bassist Jay Leonhart, Howard McGillin, Paula West and Karen Ziemba, with special guest Barbara Carroll.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's Artistic Director David Van Asselt and Managing Director Brian Long have announced that because of rave notices and sell-out houses, the world premiere of Buyer & Cellar, written by Jonathan Tolins, directed by Stephen Brackett, and starring Michael Urie, will extend for one week, through Sunday, May 12, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, west of Seventh Avenue South.

Each year, United Solo, the world's largest solo theatre festival, nominates artists for its special uAward. This honor recognizes those with outstanding achievements in popularizing the form of solo performance. A resident company at Theatre Row on 42nd Street in New York City, United Solo has nominated several artists for its special 2013 uAward.

On Saturday, May 4th the Kupferberg Center presents An Evening with Michael Feinstein in the Colden Auditorium at 8:00 pm as part of the Kupferberg Center's Best of the Best Series.

On Friday, May 3rd at 12 noon, Brave New World Enterprises, LLC will present a Special Pre-Broadway Workshop Table Reading of the new musical based on Aldous Huxley's novel, BRAVE NEW WORLD. The presentation, directed by SHERYL KALLER, with musical direction by JOHN McDANIEL, will take place at the Snapple Theatre Center (1627 Broadway) for invited industry audiences only.

Lakeshore Records releases the THE CALL – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on March 12th and in stores today, April 16, 2013. John Debney (TV's Hatfields & McCoys, The Passion of the Christ) composed the original score.

Tickets go on sale today for New York City Center Encores! Off-Center, a new series featuring seminal Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today's most innovative artists, opening on July 10. In keeping with City Center's founding mission to make the arts accessible to all, the majority of tickets will be $25.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College (BCBC) presents Fiddler on the Roof today, April 14, 2013 at 3pm. All tickets are $45/$36 (orchestra/mezzanine) and can be purchased by phone at 718-951-4500 (Tues-Sat, 1pm-6pm), or online at www.BrooklynCenterOnline.org.

Hold on to your hat! You Ain't Seen Nothing Like This at the Straz before! The first national tour of 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert the musical', part of the Best of Broadway Tampa Bay series, exploded into Carol Morsani Hall at the Straz Center in Tampa, Tuesday night!

Hotel Nikko San Francisco and multi-platinum entertainer Michael Feinstein have announced the opening of Feinstein's at the Nikko. Located within Hotel Nikko (222 Mason Street, San Francisco), Feinstein's at the Nikko will present a wide range of local, regional and national entertainers in an intimate 140-seat cabaret setting. Two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Anything Goes, The Drowsy Chaperone) will take the stage May 8 - 12, 2013 for the inaugural performances. Tickets range in price from $60-100 and are available now by calling 866.663.1063 or visiting www.ticketweb.com.

Today, one week before Donna Summer's posthumous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) releases Donna Summer ICON, a new single-disc collection featuring 11 of the legendary singer's biggest hits and fan favorites.

JetBlue Airways (JBLU), New York's Hometown Airline, today announces its Sixth Annual 'One Thing That's Green' (OTTG) campaign, the first major tree planting in New York since Hurricane Sandy. JetBlue is partnering with New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and its MillionTreesNYC initiative to plant more than 2,400 trees, remove trash and complete beautification projects in Highland Park, an area identified by the New York City Parks Department as a priority location for revitalization efforts. Over 30,000 trees were lost throughout New York City as a result of Hurricane Sandy. This tree planting event is an important step in rebuilding the city's tree canopy.

I'LL EAT YOU LAST began previews on Friday, April 5 and opens Wednesday, April 24 at the Booth Theatre (222 West 45th Street). Appearing on Broadway for the first time in 30 years, Tony and Grammy Award-winning superstar Bette Midler will play the legendary Hollywood agent Sue Mengers (1932-2011) in the new, one-character play. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at Midler's name in lights below!

GLEE mastermind Ryan Murphy has taken to his Twitter to announce a pivotal bit of new casting: Katey Sagal will play Artie (Kevin McHale)'s mother on the show!

New York City Center goes Off-Broadway this summer with the launch of Encores! Off-Center, a new series featuring seminal Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today's most innovative artists. In keeping with City Center's founding mission to make the arts accessible to all, the majority of tickets will be $25.

The Girls in the Band is a documentary about female jazz and big band instrumentalists that chronicles their inspired journeys and struggles for recognition from the late 1920s to the present day. The film will be screening for one week beginning May 10 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center. Written and directed by Judy Chaikin and executive produced by Michael Greene, who are also the film's producers, The Girls in the Band is being hailed as a "real crowd-pleaser" by Variety and "extraordinary" by The Hollywood Reporter. The film won the Audience Choice Awards at the Palm Springs Film Festival, the Victoria Film Festival and the Omaha Film Festival as well as the Best Music Documentary Award at DocUtah Film Festival. The film has also screened at many other festivals including the Atlanta Film Festival, the Dubai International Film Festival, the Cleveland International Film Festival and the Washington D.C. International Film Festival. Screen Daily International declared The Girls in the Band to be "a fascinating, moving and wonderfully tuneful documentary." More info on the film can be found at the film's website: http://www.thegirlsintheband.com/home/.

I'LL EAT YOU LAST, the new one-woman play which marks Bette Midler's return to Broadway, announces its rush ticket policy: A limited number of $35 rush tickets (including facility fee) will be available for purchase in-person at the Booth Theatre box office (222 West 45th Street) when it opens for that day's performance(s) only. There is a limit of two tickets per person. Tickets are subject to availability and may not be offered at all performances.

Fans of the Disney film 'Hocus Pocus' starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker as the Sanderson sisters, wicked witches brought back to life on Halloween to steal the souls of children, are gathering online as a grassroots movement to bring it to Broadway. Following the success of musicals such as NEWSIES, MARY POPPINS, SISTER ACT and MATILDA; Winnie, Mary and Sarah are ready to enchant Broadway audiences.

As an undergraduate theater major in the early 1970s, I heard music everywhere. It seemed to pour out of every office and workspace around the department. (And in the LP era, if you wanted more than the radio, this meant schlepping a twenty pound record player and a dozen or so albums from your home to the campus, sometimes requiring back-and-forth trips from the car. If you go to that much trouble, you want to keep the music playing.) In the hushed costume shop with its quietly industrious all female staff, Broadway ruled, with Stephen Sondheim's recent Company and Follies in heavy rotation. It was 'men only' in the scene shop where I listened to male balladeers like James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot while unhappily working off assigned crew hours. Jazz classes (my favorites) in the dance department were conducted to the pre-disco sounds of Isaac Hayes and the Temptations. And late night cast parties were never complete without spins of Bette Midler's first two albums.