Billie Holiday News

A los nueve años descubre su pasion por la musica y junto a su guitarra criolla interpreta piezas clasicas variadas en el conservatorio Juan Sebastian Bach, obteniendo el titulo de profesora de teoria y solfeo.

John Schreiber, NJPAC's President and CEO, and David Rodriguez, Executive Producer of the Arts Center, announced today a 2014-15 season packed with new, NJPAC- created, season-long series', collaborations with renowned artists and companies, an expansion of diverse programming, further integration of NJPAC's arts education programs within mainstage performances, and a continuation of the Arts Center's 17-year tradition of presenting world-class artists. With over 100 performances and special events announced for the acoustically superb 2,800- seat Prudential Hall, intimate 514-seat Victoria Theater, 250-seat Chase Room, and outdoors in Theater Square, by artists ranging from Patti LaBelle to The Metropolitan Opera Rising Stars; from Chris Botti to Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience; from Golda's Balcony with Tovah Feldshuh to the Brick City Jazz Orchestra; from Bela Fleck to Lula Washington Dance Theatre; from Beres Hammond to Audra McDonald; and from The Second City to Dinosaur Train Live!, NJPAC's new season has something for everyone.

This has been an exciting year on Broadway. The Tony Awards will be announced soon. In preparation, I went to New York to see some of the nominated shows. Here's some brief comments:

I was just a little more than a year into my new side career as a cabaret show reviewer when I first saw a Karen Oberlin show. It was Valentine's Day night 2012 and Oberlin—with guitarist Sean Harkness and guest violinist Aaron Weinstein—would be performing her romance-laced set, Stringing Along With Love, at the Metropolitan Room. At the time, all I knew about Oberlin was that she was considered among New York's best female cabaret singers, and I hadn't researched her performing history pre-show. About a third of the way into her set I leaned over to my wife (it was Valentine's Day after all) and whispered, “You know, she has a real Doris Day quality in her voice and in the way she delivers some lyrics.” This immediately ratcheted up my appreciation for Oberlin since there are four passions I inherited from my Dad—baseball, reading the morning papers, sports writing and Doris Day (well, also Sophia Loren, but that's for another column). Since Dad had grown up during the prime of the Big Band Era of the 1940s, I heard the sultry sounds of a young Doris Day singing songs like “Sentimental Journey” on the family stereo more than a few times. Once I saw Day's strikingly adorable blondness on a record cover and her rocking body in one of her films, I knew what Dad was talking about. As popular, famous, and near iconic as Doris Day became, in my book, as a singer and screen beauty she's always been vastly underrated. Little did I know that Karen Oberlin had been doing a Doris Day tribute show so since 2001 at places like Firebird, Iridium, and the late Danny's Skylight Room, and produced a CD, Secret Love: The Music of Doris Day, in 2002. Karen Oberlin had instantly become my secret love.

Veronic had a surprise guest in the audience last night when 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' star Jai Rodriguez stopped by to take in the acclaimed vocal impressions in her hit show

Tickets for Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts' new 2014-15 season will go on sale to the public on Saturday, May 3, at 10 a.m. Among the offerings are more than 50 live performances of dance, music, theater, comedy and more. Additional events will be announced at a later date.

Audra McDonald stopped by last night's THE COLBERT REPORT to chat about her Broadway role as Billie Holiday in 'Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill' and perform two numbers from the show.

After touring the world with The Vaudevillians, RuPaul's Drag Race favorite and Bistro Award nominee Jinkx Monsoon makes her much anticipated return to New York with JINKX MONSOON: THE INEVITABLE CONCERT. Monsoon will appear live with her band, premiering an evening of songs from her upcoming CD, The Inevitable Album. The CD will be released the week of the show and will available to buy at the theatre. Performances run May 8 - 11 at 7pm at The Laurie Beechman Theater (inside West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street -- at Ninth Avenue, accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,V,F,1,2,3 trains at 42nd Street). Tickets are $25 (plus a $15 food/drink minimum). A $50 VIP ticket including priority seating and meet-and-greet is also available. To purchase tickets, call 212-352-3101 or visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com.

The Tony winner talks about her Brooklyn upbringing, her Broadway triumphs and her brand-new cabaret show.

Will Friedwald's 'Clip Joint: A Video Music Mixtape' will premiere on Tuesday, April 29 at 7 PM at Stage 72 / The Triad (Green Room.

Internationally renowned guitar superstar Joe Bonamassa will play with the Fabulous Fox on Saturday, November 15th at 8pm. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 2 at 10am online at metrotix.com, by calling

WLIW21 New York Public Television will air a special presentation of noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s groundbreaking series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Sunday, May 11 and 18, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. with enhanced content that offers a unique local approach to the issues covered in the nationally acclaimed series. During the intermission breaks between episodes, interviews include Tony and Grammy Award winners Dee Dee Bridgewater and Audra McDonald.

Tomorrow is one of the most exciting mornings of the year for any theatre fan. The 2014 Tony Award Nominations will be announced from The Diamond Horseshoe at the Paramount Hotel. The Tony Nominations can be viewed LIVE (8:30am ET) on BroadwayWorld.com. Be sure to follow us throughout the day for reactions from the nominees, analysis and much more. With only hours left until the big moment, catch up on all of this year's eligible shows and how they fared with the critics (including BroadwayWorld's own Michael Dale) in BroadwayWorld's Season Wrap-Up!

RAIN PRYOR stars in this effervescent solo show, which recounts her upbringing in a biracial household (her mother was Jewish) in Beverly Hills, Calif. Ms. Pryor, who sings & portrays a range of characters (including, poignantly, her father Richard in a spot-on impression), will appear in FRIED CHICKEN & LATKES.

This weekend past weekend, the Philadelphia Museum of Art opened an important retrospective featuring the life and works of fashion designer Patrick Kelly. Almost 25 years after Kelly's untimely death of AIDS in 1990, we continue to experience his profound impact on fashion. Yet, 'Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love' is the first of its kind to comprehensively display the breadth and diversity of this designer's influential work.

The Tony Awards Administration Committee meets for the final time tomorrow, April 25, to determine the fates of the 2013-14 season's productions. And if they decide LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL is a 'play with music' rather than a musical, leading lady Audra McDonald, who stars as Billie Holiday, will have the chance to win a Tony for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Play -- her only category without a Tony trophy.

Guests who haven't yet seen Vegas' hottest headliner no longer have any excuses. The Strip's favorite vocal vixen is offering up reduced-price tickets to a one-night-only dress rehearsal for her critically-acclaimed show, co-produced by Celine Dion, VERONIC Voices, at Bally's Las Vegas tonight, April 24 at 9:30 p.m.

'Lady Day' Producer Jeffrey Richards and actor Will Swenson (wowing audiences as 'Javert' in the Broadway revival of 'Les Miserables') were sad because the late great Al Hirschfeld was not here to draw Swenson's wife, Broadway superstar Audra McDonald, in her title role in 'Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill.' But wait! In stepped Margo Feiden, gallerist to the stars, and exclusive rep for Al Hirschfeld's work.