Craig Carnelia News

The Alliance Theatre today announced updates to its 2020/21 season, including a new “Under The Tent” series to provide more socially-distanced performance options.  The “Under the Tent” series will include a concert staging of the Broadway hit WORKING: A MUSICAL, as well as concert-style performances of BEAUTIFUL BLACKBIRD LIVE and more.

Award-winning American tenor John Riesen, whose career boasts a variety of roles in opera, musical theater, studio recording, and concert, enters 2021 with a new co-star: his son, Roman.

The Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF) and the American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University are seeking the nation's most talented young songwriters and writing teams for the 16th annual Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project. The free weeklong songwriting workshop will take place virtually from June 20-26, 2021.

Tickets for each of the online events are available at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org. Links are available for viewing 72 hours after purchase.  Porchlight also announces the return of the popular series celebrating the 90th birthday of Stephen Sondheim, Sondheim@90 Roundtable with Michael Weber. The series returns Saturday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. CST with a discussion on Road Show with guests Deanna Dunagan, Chris Jones and Michael Mahler.

For the 110th Kritzerland show and the sixth online show, Kritzerland is doing Premieres and Encores - songs that have never been performed in any of the ten years of shows and a few encores of songs done in the live shows.

Deadline extended! BroadwayWorld announced that by popular demand, the deadline to BROADWAY'S NEXT ON STAGE SEASON 2 has been extended to September 28 at midnight. Join our online musical theatre singing competition for student performers sponsored by Broadway Records today!

Porchlight Music Theatre has announced its schedule for fall 2020, offering a variety of free and pay-to-view options for virtual experiences.

Entries now open! BroadwayWorld announced today the launch of BROADWAY'S NEXT ON STAGE - a new, online musical theatre singing competition for student performers sponsored by Broadway Records! Inspired by your favorite network TV singing contests, the site is inviting high school and college aged students to submit videos of themselves performing a song from the musical theatre canon to enter the competition.

Elizabeth Stanley, Lesli Margherita, Kerry Butler, Beth Malone and more join Scott Siegel's GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK SERIES: Volume 4.

Despite the cancellation of in-person gatherings because of COVID-19 concerns, The Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF) and the American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University will proceed with plans for the 15th annual Songwriters Project. The week-long program, master classes and workshops will take place online from June 21 to 27.

Joining Erik Liberman's Bridge to Broadway online training platform are Tony winners Lea Salonga, Michael Cerveris, Jason Robert Brown, and Ann Reinking, Emmy winner Ron Cephas Jones, casting director Bernard Telsey, showrunner Joshua Safran (Gossip Girl, Smash), and Wicked star Alexandra Billings.

Newly announced prizes for the first place winners include: A virtual voice lesson with Matt Farnsworth prior to recording your single, a session with Telsey+ Company's Rachel Hoffman to hone in your audition skill, a free subscription to BroadwayWorld Edu - online classes in singing, acting, and dancing worth over $1200!

Who knew that WORKING could be so much fun?

Based on Studs Terkel's best-selling book of interviews with American workers, the musical Working paints a vivid portrait of the men and women that the world so often takes for granted: the schoolteacher, the phone operator, the waitress, the mill-worker, the mason and the housewife, just to name a few. Nominated for six Tony Awards, this classic has been updated for a modern age.

The Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF) and the American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University are seeking the nation's most talented young songwriters and writing teams for the 15th annual Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project. The free, weeklong songwriting workshop will take place June 21 to 27 on Northwestern's Evanston campus.

Acting and singing dazzle in an otherwise stale and dated WORKING.

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre's second musical of the 2019-20 season will be WORKING, based on Stud Terkel's landmark book in which he interviewed Chicagoans about their feelings toward their jobs.

A musical love letter to Paris and NYC, Forbidden Drive, the debut music album from vocal powerhouse Jen Fellman with songs from the worlds of jazz, standards, Broadway, and French chanson, is released today 9/27 by Broadway Records.

Last night six time MAC Award Winner Eric Michael Gillett ((Broadway's Sweet Smell of Success, Kiss Me Kate, The Frogs and Television's Quantico, Mysteries of Laura, Daredevil, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) returned to the stage at the Laurie Beechman Theatre with Stop This Train, his first new solo show in five years. Seen most recently as Paul Manafort on Showtime's The Loudest Voice, Gillett's Stop This Train is a wry and witty collections of songs and observations about navigating the aging process while trying to keep both your dignity and your mind intact. Featuring contemporary songwriters Dar Williams, David Yazbeck, Paul Gordon, Craig Carnelia, Peter Mills, Demi Lovato, and John Mayer, along with classic cabaret and musical theater composers Stephen Sondheim, Marvin Hamlisch, along with original songs by musical director Mike Pettry (Television's Documentary Now! Presents Original Cast Album: Co-Op)

You are an aspiring actor in NYC pounding the pavement, getting up at the crack of dawn and waiting in line to hopefully get seen. Congratulations! You are doing everything right! But what else can you do to book the gig? Take as many classes (acting lessons/acting techniques/audition prep) as you can. I mean that.