Clare Cooper News

Tickets for the second annual  Florida Festival of New Musicals go on sale Saturday May 19, 2018. The popular festival produced by The Winter Park Playhouse is set for August 23 - 26, 2018. 

The Winter Park Playhouse announces its second annual Florida Festival of New Musicals August 23-26, 2018 of this year, and has just confirmed the winning selections for 2018.

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) has announced the 2017 MAC Award nominees.

They're baaaaaaaaack! The York Theatre Company welcomes the return engagement of the game show for musical theater lovers, Tune in Time, presented by Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields.

The York Theatre Company welcomes the May installment of the game show for musical theater lovers,  Tune in Time, presented by Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields, hosted by Emily McNamara, with Musical Director Nate Buccieri and annoyingly insistent timekeeper Sheila Head, celebrates warmer weather and skimpier clothing with celebrity judges Nick Cearley and Lauren Molina (from the popular performance group The Skivvies) and Tony Award winnerDaisy Eagan (The Secret Garden), on Monday evening, May 9, 2016 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's(Citicorp Building, entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue). 

Question: Would you buy an orchestra ticket (or any ticket for that matter) to an experimental Broadway musical called The Sweaty Smorgasbord where the 11 o'clock number is "Supper Sings Tonight?" How about checking out a derivative Jason Robert Brown musical titled The Gassy Breakthrough, where the song "Too Soon" is about whether the protagonist should fart on the first date? Here's one that potential musical theater show investors would love: A new Disney style musical called The Sticky Snake. Of course these aren't real or even prospective Broadway musicals. They are ideas that have emerged from the creative minds of some young composers and lyricists who might very well have their musicals gracing Broadway theaters some day. But in the meantime they have been conjuring up these wild concepts in Tune In Time, a musical theater game show staged semi-regularly at The York Theatre Company on East 54th Street (the next installment will be on Monday, November 9 at 7:30 pm) that could have been created by some hybrid of Chuck Barris (of The Gong Show fame) and Mel Brooks. As the show's creators and producers Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields are fond of promoting about Tune In Time, "Anything goes . . . and usually does."

The York Theatre Company hosted the return engagement of the game show for musical theater lovers called TUNE IN TIME, presented by Amy Engelhardtand Heather Shield, with host by Emily McNamara, Musical Director Nate Buccieri and annoyingly insistent timekeeper Sheila Head on Monday, August 31, 2015 at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's. Scroll down for photos!

The York Theatre Company will host the return engagement of the game show for musical theater lovers called Tune in Time, presented by Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields,  hosted by Emily McNamara, with  Musical Director Nate Buccieri and annoyingly insistent timekeeper Sheila Head.  The August/September installment will be presented on Monday, August 31, 2015 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (Citicorp Building, entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue). 

'Lady and the Vamp' celebrates female musical theatre songwriters. This concert showcases today's female composers and lyricists, with the goal of visibility and gender equality in musical theatre. These ladies are 'breaking the glissando ceiling' in an evening of wine, women, and song.

Urban Momfare has been selected to extend its run at the FringeNYC Encore Series after a critically acclaimed run at the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival in August. Book by Pamela Weiler Grayson and Alice Jankell, music and lyrics by Pamela Weiler Grayson, directed by Alice Jankell and musical direction by Clare Cooper. Urban Momfare is being produced by Emerging Artists Theatre Company (EAT). A workshop performance of the musical was previously presented at EAT's New Work Series in March of 2013.

Why don't we ever hear songs about moms not actually liking their kids? This romp through motherhood on Manhattan's Upper East Side spans 17 years: 'Music For Gifted and Talented Babies' to bra straps and Bellinis. Sling on your stilettos!

As hospital and assisted living facility interiors continue to evolve from white, clinical settings of decades ago to more colorful, patient-centered environments, there has been a similar revolution in the outdoor spaces that these facilities provide. A significant body of research confirms what many people have known intuitively: that connection with nature is beneficial, even vital, for health. Restorative and healing gardens are specifically designed outdoor spaces that meet the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of patients and residents using the garden as well as their caregivers, family members and friends. John Wiley & Sons, a leader in architecture and landscape design publishing, is releasing Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces (Wiley; $85; November 2013) to serve landscape architecture professionals and the architecture community as the single most comprehensive and authoritative guide to designing healing gardens and restorative outdoor spaces.

By the last August, I had fallen so far behind on writing reviews of cabaret shows from the spring and early summer (I guess it's a positive when there are more performers and shows in New York than days in the week) that I decided to play catch up by combining a bunch of critiques into one big column. I hadn't planned on doing that again, but this fall there were so many shows that once again I couldn't keep up. but at least I've beaten my self-imposed deadline New Year's Eve deadline of posting these reviews of 12 shows, all staged between September-December by lovely, attractive women (okay, so one is a gender-bender) of varying talents and levels on the cabaret depth chart, from established stars to MAC and Bistro Award-winners to comeback 'kids' to interesting beginners and occasional performers who are in the game to follow their bliss. Whether their performances were rave-worthy, earning of qualified praise, or not quite up to snuff, they all deserve kudos for taking the plunge.

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the theatre, a shark swims right into your heart. JAWS: the Musical extends August 3rd & 25th September 15th & 21st at The Broadway Comedy Club, featuring book, music & lyrics by Wayne Henry, with musical direction by Clare Cooper and direction by Steven McElroy.

Jaws: the Musical is an over the top love story where a Manhattanite falls in love with a shark, people get eaten and marine biologists break into songs. Get hooked on the campiest, funniest, new musical to hit our shores! Featuring the songs "Fishing the Great White Way," "At Night He Swims Home to Me," and "When A Shark Attacked My Heart."

Jaws: the Musical is an over the top love story where a Manhattanite falls in love with a shark, people get eaten and marine biologists break into songs. Get hooked on the campiest, funniest, new musical to hit our shores! Featuring the songs "Fishing the Great White Way," "At Night He Swims Home to Me," and "When A Shark Attacked My Heart."

Sunday Series at Abingdon presents HOW TO MARRY A DIVORCED MAN tonight, April 29 at 7:00pm at the Abingdon Theatre Complex, June Havoc Theatre (312 West 36th Street, 1st Floor, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

Sunday Series at Abingdon presents HOW TO MARRY A DIVORCED MAN on April 29 at 7:00pm at the Abingdon Theatre Complex, June Havoc Theatre (312 West 36th Street, 1st Floor, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

Bick Goss and Frank Evans, Producing Artistic Directors of Musical Mondays Theater Lab, Inc, and Stephen Hanks, MMTL Board President, have announced that the first new musical preview of their 2011-2012 season (the organization's 13th year of presenting new musicals) will be 'How to Marry a Divorced Man,' by Bryan D. Leys and Clare Cooper, based on best-selling novel How to Marry a Divorced Man by Leslie Fram.