Billy Joe News

For a truly unforgettable gift this holiday season, let us entertain you with the magic of live theatre!

Grace Music School will hold a press conference on November 10 at 1 PM to launch a first-of-its-kind piano competition featuring classical works from Billy Joel's album 'Fantasies and Delusions."  

FST's second Cabaret show, Piano Men brings the passion and pizazz of some of the greatest known piano players of the twentieth century to center stage.

'New theatre work is important because it is more likely to reflect what is actually going on in the world; it can speak to global happenings and events and find ways to digest them and cope with them.' Artistic Director of Maine State Music Theatre Curt Dale Clark is talking about his recent visit to the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) Conference and Festival of New Musicals in New York on October 24-28, 2016. Clark, who has been a NAMT Board member for the past two years and currently co-chair of the membership committee, is proud that his theatre company, MSMT, has been a founding member of the organization since its inception thirty-six years ago, and praises 'our continued efforts on its behalf that help cement the relationship between the two not-for-profits.'

NYC's Backpack Theatre Co. to presents Songs for Fred, a cabaret event benefitting the Huntington's Disease Society of America, on November 16th, 2016.  The event is dedicated to Fred Rekstis, a father of three daughters diagnosed with Huntington's Disease in 2006.  Directed by Julia Karis & Brendan Stackhouse (both friends of Fred's oldest daughter Emily Rekstis), the evening will feature performances by a wide selection of NYC-based talent singing from a library of Fred's favorite songs that include the hits of Carole King, Billy Joel, the Beatles, and other great artists that remind his family of him.  

Looking back. Looking Forward. That is the theme for the year-long anniversary celebration at Alhambra Theatre & Dining, the nation's longest running professional dinner theater. In late July of 1967, there was but one table - on an empty lot on Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida, an unlikely spot 50 years ago for what would become an icon in the Jacksonville cultural landscape and within the national theater scene.

Direct from Las Vegas! An Evening with Celine Dion, Stevie Wonder, Andrea Bocelli, Barbra Streisand, Cher, and many more! The world famous impersonators, The Edwards Twins will be bringing their dynamic show, Christmas with the Stars to Ocean State Theatre for the first time on December 7.

The Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway and television star Alan Cumming's critically-acclaimed touring show, ALAN CUMMING SINGS SAPPY SONGS, comes to PBS Friday, November 18 at 9:00 -10:00 p.m. ET, as part of the sixth annual PBS ARTS FALL FESTIVAL.

By all accounts, Kate Baldwin is pure Broadway Baby. Having made her Great White Way debut in the 2000 production of THE FULL MONTY, she went on to star in Broadway's THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, WONDERFUL TOWN, and the celebrated 2009 revival of FINIAN'S RAINBOW, banking a Tony nomination for the latter. She will also, thrillingly, return to the boards this spring, starring as Irene Molloy alongside Bette Midler in the overdue revival of HELLO, DOLLY! And yet, in EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE, Baldwin's most recent string of concerts at Feinstein's/54 Below, audiences were in for nary a show tune amongst her versatile and surprising set. At the second of the four shows on October 27, Baldwin made clear her intent: not to elude her Broadway background but to highlight the other colors of her voice along with her own musical affinities.

Urban Stages has announced the line-up for this year's Award Winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin Thursday, December 1 and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

No matter your age, no matter your experience with the story, no matter if you believe in mermaids or not, you and your family will want to be front and center when the curtain goes up on the Paramount Theatre's magical new production of Disney's The Little Mermaid, November 23, 2016 through January 8, 2017.

Jonny Fritz released his video for “Stadium Inn” today via American Songwriter. The song appears on his new LP Sweet Creep, produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket, is out now via ATO Records.

Pianomen will pay tribute to the compositions and songwriting of two of the most iconic composers of the 20th Century, Billy Joel and Elton John, at the intimate City Theatre on Friday, March 17 through Sunday, March 19. 

This November, Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. Scroll down for details!

Lincoln Center's acclaimed American Songbook series returns for its 18th season of celebrating the best in American singing and songwriting. During February and March 2016, established and rising singers and singer-songwriters across a range of genres-Southern soul, bluegrass, folk, R&B, indie rock, pop, musical theater, and more-will take The Appel Room stage for concerts that explore the many iterations of American song. And in spring, American Songbook will return to Alice Tully Hall with two dynamic women whose artistry in two very different arenas demonstrates the expansive reach of American song embodied in the series.

When you first start digging into the vast array of musical theatre styles and genres out there, it can be pretty overwhelming. However, don't let this trepidation stop you from jumping in with both feet. You will be amazed with the help of all the great Broadway documentaries and archived recordings available on the Internet how easy it can be to immerse yourself in these classic scores, and immerse you must. Broadway music is traditionally very self-referential, and directors expect working actors to understand basic tropes like the Act I "what do I want" ballad or the eleven o'clock gospel number. Trust me, you don't want to be the only chorus member in Urinetown to miss that  "Snuff that Girl" is an affectionate tribute to "Cool" in West Side Story.

We're thankful for this amazing November lineup at Blue Note Hawaii, the state's premier venue for the world's most celebrated artists.

Grace Music School will hold a press conference on November 10 at 1 PM to launch a first-of-its-kind piano competition featuring classical works from Billy Joel's album 'Fantasies and Delusions."  

Next week at Feinstein's/54 Below, 2014 Tony Nominee Jarrod Spector will premiere a brand new show, Jukebox Life (running November 1-5 & 13), following his celebrated A Little Help From My Friends concert tour and CD.

Dueling Pianos returns to the historic Capitol Center for the Arts in Downtown Concord on Saturday, November 26 at 8PM.   Tickets are $19-23, plus any applicable fees for phone/Internet sales.