Like the rest of you, I've spent this week obsessing over 'Fosse Verdon' on FX and especially Gwen Verdon, played brilliantly on the series by Michelle Williams, in a performance that makes you want to reinvestigate what made Gwen so great. Sweet Charity is the perfect place to start. Gwen became a star and won her first Tony in a featured role in Can Can and she gained worldwide acclaim (and number 2 in a total of four Tonys) as Lola in Damn Yankees on stage and screen and of course there were many other shows and movies and TV appearances, but Sweet Charity was the show Bob Fosse (and Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields and Neil Simon) created just for her. She may have lost the Tony to Angela Lansbury in Mame, but Gwen got that iconic poster and all those songs.
Atlantic Records has announced plans for a musical companion soundtrack tied to Fosse/Verdon, FX's much anticipated new limited series from the producers of Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and The Americans.
Geva Theatre Center's 46th Season concludes with the world premiere of Revival: The Resurrection of Son House, written and directed by Keith Glover, with music by Son House, Billy Thompson and Keith Glover, musical direction by Billy Thompson and choreography by Norwood Pennewell, in the Elaine P. Wilson Stage from May 1 through June 2, 2019.
Following sold-out runs at theatres nationwide and headlining international conferences, award-winning actress and playwright Amy Oestreicher brings her hit one-woman musical to the #HealMeToo Festival, as seen on NBC's Today, CBS, Huffington Post, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, TEDx, and more. Gutless & Grateful is back in New York as part of the #HealMeToo Festival this Saturday, April 13th at 7pm. The performance will be followed by a talkback on healing from sexual assault, cultivating resilience, and sharing stories through theatre. Tickets are discounted if purchased in advance on the festival's website at http://tinyurl.com/hm2grateful.
I recently rang her up to catch up on life and stuff and then thought to ask if we might schedule some time together to talk about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. Donna had first hand experience with both brilliant talents and at two very different times in her career. We also chatted about the upcoming FX Series, which would have friends and colleagues both onscreen and behind the scenes. F
Bistro, BroadwayWorld, MAC and Margaret Whiting Award winner Celia Berk makes her Birdland Theater debut on April 23 at 7pm. COMES LOVE introduces her new collaboration with pianist Sean Gough. Meeting at an intersection between jazz and cabaret, they have created a program of songs about love, including the kinds of hidden gems by great songwriters that have become Celia's trademark. They are joined by Birdland favorite, bassist Steve Doyle. You can find more information here.
FX's 'Fosse/Verdon' premieres April 9! In honor of the anticipated new series, BroadwayWorld is flashing back to some of our archive photos of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. Check them out below!
Fairfield Center Stage, an environmental community theater group, will partner with The Barnum Festival and the Fairfield Museum and History Center to present a free outdoor musical-in-concert in downtown Fairfield this June. Featuring local artists and staff from Fairfield County, FCS's annual summer presentation will be 'Barnum', running one weekend only, June 27-29, 2019 at Fairfield Museum Commons at 370 Beach Rd behind Old Town Hall.
The Donmar Warehouse today announces initial casting for the role Daddy Brubeck in Josie Rourke's production of Sweet Charity. Multiple guest actors will play the role of Daddy Brubeck including Shaq Taylor, Adrian Lester, Le Gateau Chocolat, Beverley Knight and Clive Rowe with further casting to be announced.
Debbie Kurup's extensive musical theatre experience ranges from Chicago, West Side Story and Sister Act to originating roles in Girl from the North Country and The Bodyguard.
She's currently playing taxi dancer Helene in Cy Coleman, Neil Simon and Dorothy Fields' Sweet Charity - the farewell production of Donmar Warehouse Artistic Director Josie Rourke, opening early next month.
Jackie Draper and Repeal the Blues returns to the Laurie Beechman Theatre, on Sunday, March 24th at 1:00 PM and Thursday, April 11th at 7:00 PM. Draper will perform in song and dance, in English and French, to banish the blues. Composers and lyricists presented include Charles Aznavour, Irving Berlin, Cy Coleman, Dietz & Schwartz, the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Michele Legrand, Lieber & Stoller, Johnny Mandel and many more.
Mean Girls star Kate Rockwell just announced her upcoming solo concert, Back To My Roots, based off her solo album of the same name, at The Loft at City Winery on April 22.
Birdland Theater is proud to announce that singer Julie Budd will perform in concert on Wednesday through Saturday, May 1 - 4 at 7pm. Ms. Budd, backed by longtime musical director Herb Bernstein, will perform material by such varied songwriters as Michel Legrand, Duke Ellington. Laura Nyro, Jule Styne, Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields, Marvin Hamlisch, Carole King, Barry Manilow, Anthony Newley, Marc Shaiman, Burt Bacharach & Hal David, Neil Sedaka, Oscar Levant, and more.
Producer Rick Murray will present the 2019 Cabaret at the Crown Series in Provincetown, MA this summer at The Crown & Anchor's Paramount Theatre and Town Hall Auditorium. Tickets are now on sale for the Series, in which an impressive list of award-winning stars will be performing live in full concerts. Following up on last summer's smash hit season, the 2019 Cabaret Series will include the talents of comedians Lisa Lampanelli, Margaret Cho, and Sandra Bernhard, as well as Broadway stars Lucie Arnaz (They're Playing Our Song, Pippin), Lillias White (The Life), Linda Lavin (Broadway Bound, Gypsy), Lorna Luft (Promises, Promises), John Lloyd Young (Jersey Boys), Linda Eder (Jekyll and Hyde), and television favorites Leslie Jordan (The Cool Kids, Will and Grace) and Fran Drescher (The Nanny).
The Harlem Repertory Theatre's chamber version of the musical Sweet Charity unabashedly ventures into Bob Fosse's adult-themed musical drama about women who make their living in the sex trade. HRT's company of seven talented actor/singers/dancers tell the tale of the abusive (emotionally and physically) cycle in which our star, Charity Hope Valentine, finds herself inextricably trapped. She falls in love with the same wrong man over and over again. The current #MeToo movement inspired HRT's AUDELCO award-winning director and choreographer, Keith Lee Grant, to take on the challenge of mounting this production of Sweet Charity. The #MeToo era has thankfully forced the way we perceive the treatment of women as depicted in this musical from the late 1960s. Charity's desperate yet ever hopeful search for love is in stark contrast to the vicious cycles of abuse that are the 'accepted' realities of her workplace.
With just 7 weeks to go until the first SWEET FRIDAY at the Donmar, the company has released the official artwork for SWEET CHARITY. Renowned photographer Nick Knight and SHOWstudio have created this shot of Anne-Marie Duff as Charity Hope Valentine in support of YOUNG+FREE and SWEET FRIDAYS at the Donmar.
Transport Group announces its next musical in concert, Sweet Charity! Sweet Charity in Concert takes place Monday, June 17, 2019 at 8pm at the Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 West 67 Street.
Inspired by Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria, SWEET CHARITY explores the turbulent love life of Charity Hope Valentine, a hopelessly romantic but comically unfortunate dance hall hostess in New York City. With a tuneful, groovy, mid-1960s score by Cy Coleman, sparkling lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and a hilarious book by Neil Simon, SWEET CHARITY captures all the energy, humor, and heartbreak of Life in the Big City.
TheatreZone will present a "Broadway & Happy Hour" cabaret featuring the cast of its current show, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 14 "outside the Zone" at the Moorings Park's auditorium, 120 Moorings Park Drive in Naples.
