Carolyn Leigh News

Arriving in the UK for the first time, hit musical The Life makes its long awaited London debut, directed by the show's original Broadway director Michael Blakemore.

92Y announces casting for Lyrics & Lyricists new season. Having garnered audience and critical acclaim, the country's premier American Songbook series begins 2017 with Judy Kuhn, Santino Fontana, Rebecca Luker, Christiane Noll and Lauren Worsham among the performers.

I once fell in love with an album cover: Barbra Streisand, dressed in the height of granny chic, in a straw hat, drapey black cardigan and maxi skirt, and men's-style oxfords with rakish white socks...a desolate stage littered with sheet music...a rich burgundy-and-black color scheme. I first discovered Sondheim through that 1985 record, 'The Broadway Album,' and I still can't hear 'Pretty Women' without thinking of Streisand's sinuous interpretation. The talent who first burst forth onstage in 1962 in 'I Can Get It for You Wholesale'; who made a hilarious, touching 'Funny Girl' her signature role; who tackled 'A Star Is Born' in its third film incarnation-and who has stayed mostly in the spotlight professionally and mostly out of it personally over the last 54 years-has mellowed, but her voice is still completely unique, and her fans (old and new) still utterly devoted. Her political activism has become part of her shtick, and her recent live performance of a 'Send in the Clowns' parody mocking Donald Trump has become a popular clip online. She is, for lack of a less battered word, an icon, and fans thrilled to see her-as always, dressed for the occasion-hand the Tony for Best Musical to 'Hamilton' this year.

Light Opera Works will become Music Theater Works in 2017, opening with CANDIDE  (June 3-11), followed by GYPSY (August 19-27), DUKE ELLINGTON'S GREATEST HITS (October 6-15), and PETER PAN (December 23-January 1, 2018).

The Ziegfeld Society of New York City launches its Eighth Season tonight, September 17, 2016 with Some Enchanted Evenings: The Glittering Life and Times of Mary Martin, written and hosted by David Kaufman, based on his new bestselling biography of the same name.

The Ziegfeld Society of New York City launches its Eighth Season on September 17, 2016 with Some Enchanted Evenings: The Glittering Life and Times of Mary Martin, written and hosted by David Kaufman, based on his new bestselling biography of the same name.

Occasionally in cabaret, one encounters a performer with 'star power.' Other times, one sees a legitimate star in a cabaret setting---say, Patti LuPone or Ben Vereen---and knows instantly why the person is a star. But in his Feinstein's/54 Below solo debut show, Tony Danza: Standards & Stories, Tony Danza reminds audiences what it means to be a star, onstage as well as off.

Lakewood Theatre Company will begin its 64th season with six productions on its Mainstage and three productions on its Side Door stage beginning tonight, July 8, 2016.

San Francisco Playhouse (Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director) concludes its thirteenth Mainstage season with the ingenious, award-winning crime noir musical City of Angels, directed by Bill English.

Fly away with Peter, Wendy, Tinkerbell, and Captain Hook in the musical PETER PAN, back by popular demand! Based on the classic play and novel by J.M. Barrie, this classic musical about the "boy who wouldn't grow up" has been cleverly re-imagined for the HCTO stage. Come back to Neverland, and remember what it's like to pretend!

92Y announces Lyrics & Lyricists 2017, the 47th season of the country's preeminent American Songbook series. L&L brings together top music directors, lyricists, artists and music historians to present original revues featuring award-winning Broadway and cabaret performers.

Broadway's WAITRESS began performances on Friday, March 25 with a bang, setting a house record for a single performance the Brooks Atkinson Theatre and announcing a new block of tickets on sale through January 1, 2017. WAITRESS opens today, April 24, 2016. Get ready for tonight's opening bows by scrolling down to learn more about the company, plus watching highlights from the show!

"I'm a black woman in America; breathing is political," stated Natalie Douglas, wryly, early in her March 21 concert at Birdland to celebrate the release of her excellent new recording Human Heart. I felt myself inwardly fist pump-yes! Douglas dared to acknowledge the contemporary political circus-which I, for one, am completely obsessed with-on the cabaret stage! Okay, I can relax-I will make it through this show without listening to a political podcast or reading a David Brooks New York Times opinion column after all. Phew! I have not entered a purely escapist fantasyland, but surrendered to the capable musical ensemble on stage. Douglas wore a long white gown (chosen out of the pile when her husband made an approvingly bawdy comment as she tried it on for him) and her band-all six of whom appear on the record-wore all black. The appearance was a study in contrast, but the group, was most assuredly a cohesive instrument.

Lakewood Theatre Company will begin its 64th season with six productions on its Mainstage and three productions on its Side Door stage beginning July 8, 2016.

On a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Fireside Theatre, just hours before the new work week was set to begin, adults in the audience for Peter Pan smiled along to the repeated utterance of "I won't grow up." Indeed, in a world like ours who would want to abandon their childish dreams?

From Sweet Charity to City of Angels, "Witchcraft" to "The Best is Yet to Come," Cy Coleman lived on both Broadway and the pop charts, with firm roots in the jazz world. He wrote standards made famous by such singers as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole, and partnered with lyricists like Carolyn Leigh, Dorothy Fields and Peggy Lee. Grammy-winning singer-pianist Billy Stritch, a friend and protege of Coleman, celebrates the jazz side of this versatile, quintessentially New York composer in Witchcraft: The Jazz Magic of Cy Coleman.

Michael Weber, artistic director of Porchlight Music Theatre, has announced Porchlight Music Theatre's 2016 - 2017 mainstage season which includes In The Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda's first big hit and winner of four Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score, September 9 - October 16, 2016; End of the Rainbow, the Chicago premiere of the Judy Garland bio musical play, a recent smash hit in London and New York, November 4 - December 4, 2016; The Scottsboro Boys, the long-awaited Chicago premiere of the final collaboration of Kander and Ebb concerning one of the most infamous events in American history, February 3 - March 12, 2017; Marry Me a Little, Jeff Award-winning Porchlight Artistic Associate Austin Cook stars in this rarely seen Stephen Sondheim production, April 14 - May 21, 2017.

Rehearsals begin Monday, February 8 for the spring Broadway production of Waitress, following its sold-out limited engagement at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. 

Cabrillo Music Theatre proudly announces the 2016-2017 season of shows.   Cabrillo's High-Flying Season features three Cabrillo debuts and one classic favorite not seen in nearly 15 years.  All of Cabrillo's productions are locally produced, auditioned and rehearsed in Southern California, and performed exclusively at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

On Monday, January 4, 2016 (mostly)musicals returned to the E Spot Lounge for the 4th time with songsforanewYEAR, the company's 15th entry in a series of themed cabarets. 'We were excited to get 2016 - and the 3rd season of (mostly)musicals - off to a happy start, so the only theme was 'happy music'! There were no sad songs allowed at this show,' explains producer amy francis schott.