Bob Merrill News

With a host of summer offerings in Austin, here are the Austin Editorial staff's Top Seven Picks for summer theatre excitement:

Ken Mackenzie-Forbes, Artistic Director today announced the full cast for Funny Girl. Opening The Production Company's 2016 Season on 23 July in the State Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne, Funny Girl features a cast of thirty and an orchestra of twenty-seven.

Die Spielzeit 2016/2017 des Theater Pforzheim fugt sich in ein großes Jubilaum der Stadt ein - 2017 wird  feiert Pforzheim den 250. Geburtstag der Schmuck- und Uhrenindustrie. Dementsprechend stehen Sinn und Unsinn des Goldrauschs, das Funkeln und die Widerspruchen des Strebens nach Macht und Reichtum auch im Zentrum des Programms. In der Sparte Oper stehen zwei Musicalpremieren auf dem Program, SUGAR basierend auf dem Billy Wilder Film, und die deutsche Erstauffuhrung von SHYLOCK! inspiriert von Der Kaufmann Von Venedig. Aus der letzten Saison wiederaufgenommen werden WEST SIDE STORY und das TRIBUTE TO THE BLUES BROTHERS.

In 2009 and 2010, opera singer turned cabaret performer Maureen Taylor staged a cabaret show tribute to Bob Merrill's music at the Metropolitan Room in New York and critics raved. Six years later, on July 13 at 7 pm, Maureen Taylor will reprise her highly praised show, Taylor Made: Bob Merrill, at the Metropolitan Room in cabaret's hottest monthly series, New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits, produced by Stephen Hanks (with Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD, Associate Producer). Taylor's Musical Director is Matt Castle on piano, with Joe Brent on guitar, mandolin, and violin. Her special guest performer is two-time MAC Award winner Rev. Yolanda (Roger Anthony Yolanda Mapes).

Bill Hanney's award-winning North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) will soon stage a sparkling new production of FUNNY GIRL, starring Broadway's Shoshana Bean in the lead role of Fanny Brice. FUNNY GIRL starts performances on Tuesday, June 7 and plays through Sunday, June 19, 2016. The cast is currently in rehearsals, and Bean just released a preview of her take on the show's classic 'Don't Rain on My Parade' - check it out below!

Singer IRA LEE COLLINGS returns to Don't Tell Mama, 343 West 46th Street, NYC to celebrate his 80th birthday with his new show Simply, Ira Lee (A Gay Geezer Celebration Through the Looking Glass..warts and all) on Wednesday, June 15th and Monday, June 20th at 7 PM. He will be joined by Musical Director John M. Cook on piano.

We are lucky in New York City. The talent here is unbelievable. Sometimes you settle in for an intimate evening at a little local club and you get your socks blown off. On Friday the 13th (of May, to be exact), I had such an experience at the latest monthly installment of Stephen Hanks' Metropolitan Room series (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD), New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. The featured performers were Vocalist Laurie Krauz and her Musical Director Daryl Kojak celebrating their 25-year musical collaboration “It's a 'Greatest Hits' show within a Greatest Hits series!” Hanks extolled before introducing his stars for the evening.

Pre-orders for the Menier Chocolate Factory production that transferred to the West End's Savoy Theatre are now being taken by Amazon.

Bill Hanney's award winning North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) is announcing full cast and creative team is being announced for the sparkling new production of FUNNY GIRL. They will be joining Shoshana Bean who was previously announced in the role of Fanny Brice. FUNNY GIRL starts performances on Tuesday, June 7 and plays thru Sunday, June 19, 2016. 

Meg Fofonoff and Stacey Stephens, Producing Artistic Directors of Fiddlehead Theatre Company, announced today that the Boston-based professional theater company will stage two full-scale musical productions at the Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre for their 23rd Anniversary season, in partnership with the Citi Performing Arts Center and Josiah A. Spaulding, Jr., President and CEO.

Theatre in the West End. The transfer follows a sold-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and the show is booking until October 8. Smith takes on Barbra Streisand's iconic role of Fanny Brice, the Brooklyn singer and comedienne who became a Broadway sensation under producer Florenz Ziegfeld. The cast also features Darius Campbell as Nicky Arnstein, Marilyn Cutts as Mrs Brice,Maurice Lane as Mr Keeney, Valda Aviks as Mrs Meeker, Gay Soper as Mrs Strakosh, Natasha J Barnes as Emma/Mrs Nadler, Bruce Montague as Florenz Ziegfeld, and Joel Montague as Eddie Ryan.

Last night, the Sheridan Smith-starring revival of FUNNY GIRL opened at the Savoy Theatre in the West End. The transfer follows a sold-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and the show is booking until October 8. Smith takes on Barbra Streisand's iconic role of Fanny Brice, the Brooklyn singer and comedienne who became a Broadway sensation under producer Florenz Ziegfeld. The cast also features Darius Campbell as Nicky Arnstein, Marilyn Cutts as Mrs Brice, Maurice Lane as Mr Keeney, Valda Aviks as Mrs Meeker, Gay Soper as Mrs Strakosh, Natasha J Barnes as Emma/Mrs Nadler, Bruce Montague as Florenz Ziegfeld, and Joel Montague as Eddie Ryan.

With previews in full swing at the Savoy Theatre, director Michael Mayer continues to polish the new revival of FUNNY GIRL, starring Sheridan Smith, which premiered at Menier Chocolate Factory.

Following a sold-out Menier Chocolate Factory run, Sheridan Smith leads Michael Mayer's production of FUNNY GIRL into the West End. The Broadway classic is now playing at the Savoy Theatre, booking until October 8. As well as Smith's Fanny Brice, it features Darius Campbell as Nicky Arnstein, Marilyn Cutts as Mrs Brice, Maurice Lane as Mr Keeney, Valda Aviks as Mrs Meeker, Gay Soper as Mrs Strakosh, Natasha J Barnes as Emma/Mrs Nadler, Bruce Montague as Florenz Ziegfeld, and Joel Montague as Eddie Ryan.

The West End transfer of Funny Girl, receives its first preview tomorrow night, 9 April 2016 - with opening night on 20 April, at the Savoy Theatre. Michael Mayer directs Sheridan Smith as Fanny Brice, Darius Campbell as Nicky Arnstein, Marilyn Cutts as Mrs Brice, Maurice Lane as Mr Keeney, Valda Aviks as Mrs Meeker, Gay Soper as Mrs Strakosh, Natasha J Barnes as Emma/Mrs Nadler, Bruce Montague as Florenz Ziegfeld, and Joel Montague as Eddie Ryan.                

London is never short of theatre temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From Kit Harington's Faustus and Glenn Close's Norma Desmond to Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winner and a heist farce, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews…

Jack F. Lee (born John Francis Lee), beloved musical director of both stage and screen, passed away peacefully on March 2, 2016 in his home at the age of 86. Mr. Lee was one of Broadway's leading conductors and musical directors who worked with composers/lyricists John Kander & Fred Ebb, Cy Coleman & Dorothy Fields, Jule Styne, Richard Rogers, Stephen Sondheim, Charles Strouse, Alan Jay Lerner, Maury Yeston, Robert Wright & George Forrest, Sandy Wilson, Bob Merrill, Betty Comden & Adolph Green and Harvey Schmidt & Tom Jones.

Sheridan Smith, star of the current West End production of FUNNY GIRL, turned to Twitter to announce that she would be unable to perform at last evening's performance. Today, producers of the musical issued the following statement on her absence

The brainchild of Metropolitan Room managing partner Bernie Furshpan, his General Manager Joseph Macchia, and Cabaret Scenes Magazine Publisher Peter Leavy, New York's first International Cabaret Festival (February 17-21) debuted Wednesday night at the Met Room with performances and inductions into the newly established Cabaret Hall of Fame (an actual location for Hall and its memorabilia to be determined at a later date). Clubs hosting this year's festival include The Metropolitan Room, Don't Tell Mama, The Duplex, Feinstein's/54 Below, Iridium, Joe's Pub, and Stage 72 (formerly The Triad).

FUNNY GIRL returns to the London stage for the first time since its 1966 premiere in a sold-out run, led by Olivier and BAFTA award-winning actress Sheridan Smith as 'Fanny Brice'. The multi award-winning Michael Mayer directs the production, opening tonight, 2 December, at Menier Chocolate Factory before a West End transfer. Let's see what the critics had to say...