Billie Holiday News

Theatre Three announces a five-show season for its Theatre Too downstairs studio space, including revamped classics, a world premiere and a chilling Conor McPherson thriller.

Directed by B'Anca and written and starring singer Sybil Harris, the production is billed as 'a show with songs.' The latter part is certainly true.

It's midnight in March of 1959 at a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday's final appearances, just four months before her death. In between funny and heartbreaking stories about her life and career, "Lady Day" sings her most beloved songs including "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Crazy He Calls Me," "God Bless the Child" and "Strange Fruit."

Joey Arias, vocalist/songwriter/actor/performance artist/host, has been on the scene here since the 1980s. Visually and vocally distinctive, Arias's signature black bangs and ponytail have been on stages such as Club 57, Astor Theater, HERE, and Abrons Art Center--not to mention playing Mistress of Seduction at Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity in Las Vegas.  To say the physically diminutive Arias is larger than life is a comment on her fully inhabited, unique presence and talent. On May 30 (the third of seven show run through late July), she's aided and abetted in Little Black Book (no idea what the title means) by Musical Director (and superb bass player) Ben Allison and guitarist Brandon Seabrook.

Reji Woods, a Lancaster area stage and song fixture, has a full plate this summer, with his PORTRAIT OF A LADY series and two summer shows in Philadelphia and Vermont. He talks about producing and performing at the same time.

Two-time Drama Desk Award-nominee & YouTube sensation Christina Bianco, two-time Nightlife Award-winner Scott Coulter (who travels around the world performing with Stephen Schwartz), Jeannette Bayardelle (original cast of The Color Purple) and Cooper Grodin (plays The Phantom in the National Tour of Phantom of the Opera), will join previously announced Tony-nominee Christiane Noll (Ragtime) & Drama Desk Award-nominee Kerry O'Malley (Into the Woods, Irving Berlin's White Christmas) at Town Hall's Broadway by the Year Series on Monday, May 23 at 8pm, THE BROADWAY MUSICALS OF THE 1960s (this is the 16th year of the series).

Formed by bandleader Evan “Bibs” Palazzo and lead singer “Miz Elizabeth” Bougerol, The Hot Sardines' sophomore studio album, French Fries & Champagne, will be released June 17

Sally Kellerman, the Oscar-nominated 'Hot Lips' Houlihan of the original Robert Altman film 'M*A*S*H,' will bring her acclaimed show 'A Little Jazz, A Little Blues, a Little Rock and Roll,' to the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood on Wed., June 1 at 8:30 PM. The show is a celebration of her 40-year cabaret career, from early years at Reno Sweeney in Greenwich Village up to recent performances in New York, L.A. and San Francisco.

The pianist Lara Downes and the essayist Adam Gopnik come together to make an evening of music about New York City: its anthems, its atmosphere, its ambitions.

The great musician Corky Hale needs no introduction. She and her husband composer Mike Stoller have worked with everyone in the music business including Sinatra and Steisand. She is currently producing a revue entitled I Only Have Eyes For You about the music of Al Dubin. It will open at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre Friday May 13. In our chat Hale talks about the show, Dubin and about her incomparable show business life.

Sally Kellerman, the Oscar-nominated "Hot Lips" Houlihan of the original Robert Altman film "M*A*S*H," will bring her acclaimed show "A Little Jazz, A Little Blues, a Little Rock and Roll," to the Iridium in New York on May 11-12, the Rrazz Room at the Prince in Philadelphia on May 13 and the Rrazz Room in New Hope, PA on May 14.

Producer Corky Hale's I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU - The Life and Lyrics of Al Dubin, features lyrics by Al Dubin, most music by Harry Warren, a book by Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner, and musical direction by Gerald Sternbach.  The production is directed and choreographed by  Kay Cole.  BroadwayWorld TV's own LA on-air Host Michael Sterling was invited to take a sneak peek at rehearsals last week and interview some of the show's stars and creative team.  

Sally Kellerman, the Oscar-nominated "Hot Lips" Houlihan of the original Robert Altman film "M*A*S*H," will bring her acclaimed show "A Little Jazz, A Little Blues, a Little Rock and Roll," to the Iridium in New York on May 11-12, the Rrazz Room at the Prince in Philadelphia on May 13 and the Rrazz Room in New Hope, PA on May 14.

'...as Willie Dixon has said so many times, 'the blues are the roots, the rest of the music are the fruits.'

If you want to see a group of voice teachers and voice scientists turn from a generally gregarious and collegial group into an angry mob, ask them to strictly define vocal registers, or the "gears" of the voice that are responsible for different types of sounds.  

Valerie June brings her bluesy voice from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to the South Orange Performing Arts Center June 12 at 7:30 p.m. Valerie's astonishing and singular sound is a blend of rural Roots and Country that bridges Alan Lomax's acoustic field recordings with biting, electric Indie-Blues. The singer-songwriter's voice percolates somewhere between Dolly Parton and Billie Holiday. It is a stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks kind of voice, the kind that grips your imagination and paints her Southern portraits in vivid detail.

MIGHTY REAL: A FABULOUS SYLVESTER MUSICAL, the hit musical celebration of the life and music of the original 1970s 'Queen of Disco,' Sylvester, returns to New York City tonight following an acclaimed, sold-out engagement in San Francisco at The BRAVA! Theater. 

The pianist Lara Downes and the essayist Adam Gopnik come together to make an evening of music about New York City: its anthems, its atmosphere, its ambitions.

?Sally Kellerman, the Oscar-nominated "Hot Lips" Houlihan of the original Robert Altman film "M*A*S*H," will bring her acclaimed show "A Little Jazz, A Little Blues, a Little Rock and Roll," to the Iridium in New York on Thurs, May12 with two shows at 8:30 and 10:30 PM.  The show is a celebration of her 40-year cabaret career, from early years at Reno Sweeney in Greenwich Village up to recent performances in New York, L.A. and San Francisco.

Carnegie Hall's season-long 125th anniversary celebration reaches its pinnacle today, May 5 at 7:00 p.m.- exactly 125 years to the day that the Hall first opened its doors in 1891-when many of the world's most beloved musicians take to the Hall's legendary stage for an all-star gala benefit concert.