Bruce Kimmel News

Broadway and TV performer, and newly turned teenager Melody Hollis will make her cabaret debut as she becomes one of the youngest, if not the youngest person ever to perform a solo one- (not quite a) woman show at Vitello's nightclub in Studio City.

On Wednesday July 6 Kritzerland at the Gardenia presented a salute to the lesser known music of Kander and Ebb - The Kander and Ebb Album - two of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. Think Chicago or Cabaret, and you need go no further. These two wildly popular shows still receive international mountings and provide us with some of the greatest Broadway pop tunes ever. Ahead of their time, Kander and Ebb produced shows with a substantially dark and biting edge not found in other composers' music and lyrics. Bruce Kimmel, whose Kritzerland recording company continues to enjoy enormous success worldwide, again served as narrator of the evening telling short, funny anecdotes about his encounters with John Kander and also detailing Kander and Ebb's failures as well as successes. Liza Minnelli's Broadway career soared because of K & E - it started with Flora the Red Menace in the 60s and continued through the next couple of decades with hits and flops such as The Rink and 1977's The Act, which began in LA as Shine It On. K & E certainly didn't fare too badly either with Liza's name on their bill. Think of what she did for the movie Cabaret with her Academy Award winning turn as Sally. However, such was not the case with their film New York, New York which received some pretty scathing reviews in the late 70s; the pair were none too pleased that a small musical The First Nudie Musical (Bruce Kimmel)fared far better than their multi-billion dollar disaster. It's always such fun for theatre lovers to hear about the down side of the business, and particularly via Kimmel's straight-forward, droll take on it.

David Elzer &Peter Schneider, producers of the smash-hit, award-winning productions of The Marvelous Wonderettes and Life Could Be A Dream, are thrilled to announce that their critically-acclaimed, smash-hit, Ovation Recommended, world premiere original musical, HAVING IT ALL, music by John Kavanaugh, book by David Goldsmith & Wendy Perelman, lyrics by David Goldsmith, conceived by Wendy Perelman, with musical direction by Greg Nabours and directed by Richard Israel is EXTENDING through Sunday, May 29 at the NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd. (at Lankershim) in North Hollywood.

From the Cast of ANYTHING GOES and SPIDER-MAN, to the Ladies of THE VIEW, Raul Esparza, Barbra Streisand, Alan Menken, Bernadette Peters, Susan Boyle, Kelsey Grammer, GLEE and everyone in between...it's the BroadwayWorld.com 2011 Valentine's Day Special! Its Biggest Ever!

On Wednesday, January 12 Kritzerland at the Gardenia, a series presented on the first Wednesday of every month - January being the exception, and which originated in September of 2010, offered The Sondheim Albums. The series, based on Bruce Kimmel's record label and albums, honors a composer's lesser known material, oft times cut from an original score. Nine skilled singers participated in the fine evening; they were: Damon Kirsche (photo at left), Kim Huber, Zachary Ford, Juliana Hansen, Alet Taylor, Shannon Cudd, Aleah Whaley, Holly Long, and very special guest artiste Millicent Martin.

Over the course of our ninety minute conversation earlier this week, Tony-winning Broadway star Alice Ripley was kind enough to open up about her role in the phenomenon of the Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical NEXT TO NORMAL, which is now kicking off a US Tour beginning in Los Angeles, as well as offer thoughts on many of her significant stage roles that she has taken on over the course of her impressive and varied career. Pete Townshend and THE WHO'S TOMMY to Andrew Lloyd Webber and SUNSET BOULEVARD and TELL ME ON A SUNDAY, to Sondheim with COMPANY (as the greatest Amy of all time), and even a turn in ROCKY HORROR; Alice Ripley has seemingly done it all, and her passion, dedication and insight into her craft are amply evident in both her studied performances on stage as well as in discussing the art of acting in musical theatre in conversation and what she has taken as her inspirations to play Diana Goodman, ranging from Albee to O'Neill to actors like Cynthia Nixon, Toni Collette and more. In this portion of her most comprehensive interview to date, BroadwayWorld is proud to present Part I of InDepth InterView: Alice Ripley.

Michelle Nicastro performs 'Disneyland' at the Unsung Musicals concert in the mid-90s at the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse in NYC.

BroadwayWorld.com has learned from her longtime friend and record producer Bruce Kimmel that Michelle Nicastro has passed away at the age of 50 from cancer.

Today, perhaps the greatest gift a Broadway baby could receive was benevolently bestowed upon me in the form of an indepth and revealing discussion with the foremost composer and lyricist of his generation, one of the greatest writers in American history in any medium - the unmatched musical and lyrical genius himself, Stephen Sondheim. In this portion of our complete discussion we discuss his new book, FINISHING THE HAT, as well as take a look back at his legendary career both in Hollywood and on Broadway. Merman to Madonna, Brecht to Barbra Streisand, COMPANY to GROUNDHOG DAY (or not) - we cover it all. See here just a glimpse of the reason why the name Stephen Sondheim means more to musical theatre than any other name in the last fifty years. Plus, his promise to - in his own immortal words from SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE - 'give us more to see' in the very near future. That moment cannot come soon enough, as any fan of theatre - or art in America, for that matter - can assuredly attest.

Composer-in-Residence Andrew Lippa and the head of the Musical Theatre department (and Broadway alum) Kaitlin Hopkins took some time to speak to BroadwayWorld about their upcoming collaboration. In addition to Lippa's presence at Texas State next week (during which he will be working on his new musical, The Man In The Ceiling), TSU's Musical Theatre students will be doing a production of Lippa's The Wild Party in Spring 2011. Read on to see what Lippa and Hopkins had to say about this exciting venture!

Award-winning jazz/cabaret artist Milla Ilieva will bring her new show 'Ten!Ten!Ten!' to 'The Nightclub of New York,' Feinstein's at Loews Regency (540 Park Avenue, at 61st Street) for a one-night-only evening on Sunday, October 10th (8:30PM).

Award-winning jazz/cabaret artist Milla Ilieva will bring her new show "Ten!Ten!Ten!" to "The Nightclub of New York," Feinstein's at Loews Regency (540 Park Avenue, at 61st Street) for a one-night-only evening on Sunday, October 10th (8:30PM).

Award-winning jazz/cabaret artist Milla Ilieva will bring her new show "Ten!Ten!Ten!" to "The Nightclub of New York," Feinstein's at Loews Regency (540 Park Avenue, at 61st Street) for a one-night-only evening on Sunday, October 10th (8:30PM).

Award-winning jazz/cabaret artist Milla Ilieva will bring her new show 'Ten!Ten!Ten!' to 'The Nightclub of New York,' Feinstein's at Loews Regency (540 Park Avenue, at 61st Street) for a one-night-only evening on Sunday, October 10th (8:30PM).

Kritzerland has announced their latest remixed and remastered release - a special 2 CD limited edition of the Original Cast Album of SUGAR with Music by Jule Styne Lyrics by Bob Merrill.

According to a post made in Damon Kirsche's blog, the actor will be appearing with Jason Graae, Lesli Margherita, Pamela Myers and Alet Taylor at the Gardenia Lounge in West Hollywood on September 1. The show, Kritzerland at the Gardenia- Lost in Boston, is the first of the Gardenia's new series of Kritzerland at the Gardenia, a set of shows based on Bruce Kimmel's record label and albums. This show will be under the musical direction of Shelly Markham.

According to a post made in Damon Kirsche's blog, the actor will be appearing with Jason Graae, Lesli Margherita, Pamela Myers and Alet Taylor at the Gardenia Lounge in West Hollywood on September 1. The show, Kritzerland at the Gardenia- Lost in Boston, is the first of the Gardenia's new series of Kritzerland at the Gardenia, a set of shows based on Bruce Kimmel's record label and albums. This show will be under the musical direction of Shelly Markham.

Today, we are continuing where we left off last week in our complete overview of Stephen Sondheim's career in honor of his 80th birthday, as well as the opening of his new musical SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, by taking a listen to all the Sondheim-related soundtracks available on CD and MP3...

Today we are taking a listen to Stephen Sondheim's musicals of the 1980s, each a striking artistic achievement attempting to do something never done before in Broadway history and improving the very genre of musical theatre itself with his work on these three very different shows. MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE and INTO THE WOODS...

Today we continue our critical appraisal of the entire English-language recorded canon of Stephen Sondheim - at the very least, all the major productions which were recorded - beginning where we have left off with the round-ups of GYPSY and WEST SIDE STORY, as well as the 2009 Revival Recording of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, from the last few weeks. The last show for which Sondheim wrote lyrics-only, before he was quite able to get his own musical scores produced, was his collaboration with Richard Rodgers, DO I HEAR A WALTZ? Next, we continue with the first show for which he wrote music and lyrics, SATURDAY NIGHT, as well as the first show he wrote music and lyrics for that actually made it to Broadway, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM.