Kwame Alexander's 2010 picture book for the age 5-8 set, Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band, secretly serves as Jazz 101 for children the way Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Britten's Young People's Guide to the Orchestra introduce them to musical instruments. Alexander's book, with characters such as Mules Davis and Duck Ellington, not only brims with puns, it explicates jazz and packs its own gem of a glossary. His 2011 title, Indigo Blume and the Garden City, introduces his spunky 9 year old heroine who teaches an urban neighborhood to go green and make our garden grow. In 2020, Alexander blended some of the characters from both books to help children realize that the show must go on even when you're a little scared of getting up in front of groups and also that your parents love you. No. Matter. What The books are joys, but Alexander's and Mary Rand Hess' 2021 mashup of them into this 70 minute musical production, in the Family Theater of the Kennedy Center through November 28, has flaws. Let's get them over with so that the good news can follow.
When Eden Espinosa stepped onstage at Holmdel Theatre Company's Duncan Smith Theater, the audience knew they were in the presence of a Broadway legend. The sold-out concert titled “An Evening With Eden Espinosa” was part of another installment of the theatre’s “Broadway at the Barn” series.
Palm Springs Art Museum has announced that the popular performance series Cabaret 88 will be returning to the Annenberg Theater starting in January 2022. Four Broadway headliners-including three Tony Award winners-will perform three nights each between January and April.
Linda Purl was packing them in at Birdland Theater last Sunday and if she had had a few more nights at the club, she would have continued to, for the entire run.
Jim Caruso's Cast Party (with Billy Stritch at the piano) will make a triumphant return to Nashville on Tuesday, November 16 at 8pm. The 'extreme open mic' will take place at The Franklin Theatre (419 Main Street, Franklin, TN).
With a sophisticated and amusing production, Barnum has been standing out as the great theatrical success in the city of Sao Paulo, in the post-pandemic. It was between one and another well-attended session that Barchilon kindly granted us this exclusive interview talking about influences, beginning of his career, Barnum and future projects.
American Dance Machine for the 21st Century will release its latest joyous virtual video, “Our Favorite Son” from the Broadway musical The Will Rogers Follies, performed by Cady Huffman in the role of Will Rogers, and 10 original Broadway cast members, along with 10 of ADM21's featured dancers.
FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW, Broadway’s Supper Club, will present Ilene Graff in THE ILENE GRAFF HOLIDAY SHOW on Friday, December 17th at 9:45 PM. Ilene and her very special guests will perform a host of holiday favorites inspired by the iconic Holiday specials of the ’60’s and ’70’s that were always a highlight of the season.
Barnum, finally gets a Brazilian staging. With Portuguese version by Claudio Botelho, direction by Gustavo Barchilon, choreography by Alonso Barros and musical direction by Thiago Gimenes, we have in the cast the talents of Murilo Rosa for the title role and Kiara Sasso playing the powerful Charity. Other highlights are the actresses Giulia Nadruz bringing to life the antagonist Jenny Lind, , Diva Menner in the role of the mythical Joice Heth and actor Matheus Paiva as Tom Thumb.
The York Theatre Company has announced show-only tickets are now available for the 29th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala, honoring musical theater legends Richard Maltby, Jr. & David Shire on Monday evening, November 1, 2021 at The Edison Ballroom.
What is Bemelmans Bar without Caruso and Stritch? It's not the same, that's for sure, which is why the gentlemen return to The Caryle for Sundays in October and November.
Playing at the arthouse venue Le Lucernaire just off of Luxembourg Gardens until October 31st, you won't want to miss this wild, action packed, musical tribute to blaxploitation, soul, and funk.
The York Theatre Company has announced the roster of performers for a concert celebration at the 29th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala, which will honor musical theater legends Richard Maltby, Jr. & David Shire, and Elisa Loti Stein.
Broadway dreams die hard. In her new show THIS BROAD’S WAY, which opened last evening at Pangea, she gets to sing all the Broadway tunes she ever wanted to sing, perform all the roles she would never be cast in, and do it all her own way. The songs are completely out of context and applied to her own experiences. She infuses each tune with her own wry wit and her lovely and warm jazz stylings. She is one part chanteuse, one part monologuist, one part den mother, and one part suggestive vixen. And she is 100 percent fun. Her show is a treasure trove of swinging tunes and she has gathered a smoking trio of musicians in drummer, David Silliman, bassists Skip Ward and her longtime partner in art, musical director Gregory Toroian.
The joy and terror of doing cabaret entertainment is that it is amazingly confessional. There are no characters to hide behind. Only music, a performer, and his experiences. The vulnerability is exponentially compounded when the show you set out to do tells the story of your life. It is an extremely courageous thing to do. That is the task that Mark Corpron sets for himself in his show MOVING ON: SONGS OF JOURNEY, which opened last night at Don’t Tell Mama. The show sets out to explore not the destinations we arrive at in life, but rather the journeys that happen in between those destinations. It focuses on a soul with a permanent case of wanderlust and the loneliness that often accompanies such globe-trotting adventures.
The York Theatre Company will honor musical theater legends Richard Maltby, Jr. & David Shire (Baby, Big, Starting Here, Starting Now, Closer Than Ever) with the 2021 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theater and Elisa Loti Stein with The York Theatre Company Founders’ Award at the 29th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala.
Birdland, the world-famous jazz club, features two of these latter-day vaudeville offshoots. Jim Caruso's Cast Party has been a staple of Birdland for years, serving as Broadway's open mic experience. But every Tuesday evening, Susie Mosher presides over a somewhat more curated and far more ribald variety show in Birdland's downstairs theatre. THE LINEUP is not an open mic. Mosher puts together its guests each week. They are from every echelon of show business, from Tony winners to new up-and-coming artists. They often have nothing in common except for a wild amount of talent. Susie Mosher serves as the host of the evening. She is a combination of den mother, improv artist, and Tasmanian devil. Her wit is faster than lightning and she can turn on a dime into a fantastic chanteuse. I was lucky enough to catch the latest edition of THE LINEUP this evening.
She's back! That ultimate spinster and notorious terrorizer of neighborhood children and their pets gets a post 'Wizard of Oz' lease on life with her own autobiographical lounge act! “Miss Gulch Returns!”, in all the glory Hollywood denied her, to tell her side of the story in this hilarious and unexpectedly touching one-man musical revue by Fred Barton.
