Charles Strouse News

You'll please forgive me if I've run out of superlative adjectives with which to describe the work of Marilyn Maye, who, after a 15-year absence from New York's cabaret scene, just opened her 4th Metropolitan Room show in a baker's dozen months.

In the 1979 revival of Oklahoma!, Christine Ebersole insisted that when it comes to men she 'cain't say no,' and this weekend she's showing City Center audiences that when it comes to performing, the same words apply.  Despite suffering musical theatre's most talked-about flu since Faith Prince played Miss Adelaide in the last revival of Guys and Dolls (Okay, so Miss Adelaide only has a cold, but you get my point.) Ms. Ebersole is nevertheless positively luminous as Margo Channing in the Encores! staged reading of Applause.

'Wives and Lovers' is a new debut cabaret show co-created by singer Adrianne Hick and Sheldon Forrest. It explores themes of love, sex, relationships, flirtation, seduction, and infidelity.

Camp Broadway®, Broadway's Original Summer Camp, salutes legendary composer Charles Strouse this summer at its two music-filled 5-day sessions in celebration of his 80th birthday (June 7) by featuring excerpts from his enduring musical comedy Annie and the timeless musical, Bye, Bye Birdie.

Stephen Schwartz, composer-lyricist of the hit stage musical WICKED, will be honored with the 2,359th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, April 8 at 11:30 am sharp, in front of the Pantages Theatre, where the hit musical is now in its second year.

Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group has announced that two world premiere musicals, 9 to 5: The Musical and Minky's will be part of the 2008-2009 Ahmanson season, along with Spring Awakening and Frost/Nixon...

FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY, the nightclub proclaimed 'Best of New York' by New York Magazine, and 'an invaluable New York institution' by The New York Post, continues its Spring 2008 season with the return engagement of Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner RITA MORENO from April 1 - 5. Her show will include songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Kander & Ebb, Harold Arlen and Charles Strouse. Also added to the Feinstein's season will be LINDA EDER, who will return to the club for five shows only from April 24 - 26. All performances will be at the Regency Hotel (540 Park Avenue at 61st Street).

On March 20, the production team and cast of Life After Tomorrow held a discussion, performance and signing at Barnes and Noble. Life After Tomorrow, a documentary about the trials and tribulations of several dozen women who were on Broadway and in the road companies of Annie, was co-directed and co-produced by Gil Cates Jr. and Annie alum Julie Stevens. Stevens created the film after starting the website AnnieOrphans.com

In The Heights begins previews tonight, February 14, at the Richard Rodgers Theater on Broadway, and opens on Sunday, March 9. Williamson Music is proud to announce its immediate music publishing representation of the score of the new Broadway musical In The Heights and Lin-Manuel Miranda, as the composer, lyricist, and star.

On March 20, join the production team and cast of Life After Tomorrow for a discussion, performance and signing at Barnes and Noble. Life After Tomorrow, a documentary about the trials and tribulations of several dozen women who were on Broadway and in the road companies of Annie, was directed and produced by Annie alum Julie Stevens. Stevens created the film after starting the website AnnieOrphans.com, which reunited many of the former child stars. They quickly discovered a sisterhood and many found that their post-Annie lives and experiences could only be understood by their fellow alumni. For some, like Broadway Annie Sarah Jessica Parker (who appears in the film) and touring orphans Alyssa Milano and Molly Ringwald (who do not appear), Annie was a springboard to teen and adult stardom. For others, they found themselves overwhelmed by trying to return to the normalcy of home and school. Over 40 women appear in the film, relaying the perks that came with starring in a cultural phenomenon and the hard knocks of growth spurts, stage mothers and the fear that their careers had peaked before adolescence. The film won Best Documentary and Best Director at the Phoenix Film Festival before debuting on Showtime on Christmas Day. It came out on DVD on February 26, 2008.

On June 7, 2008, Charles Strouse, the award winning composer of Annie, Bye Bye Birdie and some of the most popular music from the last 50 years of Broadway, film and television, turns 80. To mark the occasion, a year-long celebration of events including concerts, international tributes, revivals of popular favorites and premieres of new works will take place across the United States and around the world.

West End Sound of Music star Connie Fisher swapped her nun's wimple for an adjudicator's hat at the Grand Theatre, Swansea on Saturday March 1st as a member of the adjudicating panel for the 2008 Welsh Young Musical Theatre Singer of the Year contest. During the evening Connie also made a welcome return to the stage where she was herself the 2006 winner of the contest before going on to earn stardom as the winner of the BBC's How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria talent show. After being greeted by rapturous applause from the audience in her native Wales, she treated the crowd to a rendition of Cole Porter's classic tongue twister, 'The Physician' (first sung by Gertrude Lawrence in Nymph Errant in 1933). Then she returned to the score of The Sound of Music to sing 'Edelweiss', accompanied by the Dunvant Male Choir, before completing her short programme with a virtuoso rendition of Charles Strouse and Richard Maltby's 'Everybody Wants To Do A Musical' - a song from the musical Nick and Nora she had performed on the same stage the night she became the Welsh Young Musical Theatre Singer of the year two years ago.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts delves into its renowned collections for Writing to Character: Songwriters & the Tony Awards, the first exhibition to explore the over 70 Broadway shows that have won Tonys for either Best Musical or Best Score.

Enter now to win a copy of Life After Tomorrow, the highly acclaimed documentary film by Julie Stevens and Gil Cates, Jr., which reunites more than 40 women who played orphans in the Broadway show Annie and reveals the highs and lows of their experiences as child actresses in a cultural phenomenon.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts delves into its renowned collections for Writing to Character: Songwriters & the Tony Awards, the first exhibition to explore the over 70 Broadway shows that have won Tonys for either Best Musical or Best Score.

In The Heights begins previews tonight, February 14, at the Richard Rodgers Theater on Broadway, and opens on Sunday, March 9. Williamson Music is proud to announce its immediate music publishing representation of the score of the new Broadway musical In The Heights and Lin-Manuel Miranda, as the composer, lyricist, and star.

New York City Center Encores! celebrated the closing night of its 2008 season opener, the 1970 Tony Award-winning hit, Applause, directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall with Music Direction by Rob Berman. Applause played five performances, from February 7-10 at New York City Center

New York City Center Encores! celebrated the closing night of its 2008 season opener, the 1970 Tony Award-winning hit, Applause, directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall with Music Direction by Rob Berman. Applause played five performances, from February 7-10 at New York City Center.

New York City Center Encores! begins its 2008 season tonight with the 1970 Tony Award-winning hit, Applause, starring Christine Ebersole, Kate Burton, Mario Cantone, Tom Hewitt, Michael Park, Megan Sikora, Chip Zien and Erin Davie. Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall with Music Direction by Rob Berman, Applause will play five performances, from February 7-10 at New York City Center