Cyd Charisse News

Diablo Ballet and The Lafayette Library & Learning Center bring back the popular, summer Dance on Film series beginning tonight, June 6th 6:30 PM, with the 1954 musical movie classic Brigadoon.

The Laguna Playhouse is thrilled to present film great Leslie Caron (An American In Paris, Gigi, Fanny) in a comic and heartfelt valentine to the human condition, SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS, written by Richard Alfieri and directed by Michael Arabian (Waiting for Godot). Additional exciting casting news to be announced shortly! SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS will begin previews on Tuesday, November 26 and will open on Saturday, December 7 at 7:30pm and run through Sunday, December 29, 2013 at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

Extending this season's hot streak of productions that make bold artistic statements, Asolo Repertory Theatre will present Noah Racey's Pulse. A song and dance celebration that harkens back to the golden age of hoofing, Pulse is written, conceived, and choreographed by Broadway song and dance man Noah Racey in collaboration with Broadway director and two-time Tony Award nominee Jeff Calhoun. Pulse opens tonight, May 23 with an 8 p.m. curtain. The show runs through June 16, 2013 in Asolo Rep's Mertz Theatre located in The FSU Center for the Performing Arts.

Now through June 2, 2013, at the Theatre at the Center in Munster, Indiana (and not as far away as you might think) is a new play that gives us an interesting look into the making of one of the most enduring work of art produced by Hollywood in its Golden Age of Movie Musicals, the 1952 classic MGM film, "Singin' in the Rain."

Diablo Ballet and The Lafayette Library & Learning Center bring back the popular, summer Dance on Film series beginning Thursday, June 6th 6:30 PM, with the 1954 musical movie classic Brigadoon.

Extending this season's hot streak of productions that make bold artistic statements, Asolo Repertory Theatre will present Noah Racey's Pulse. A song and dance celebration that harkens back to the golden age of hoofing, Pulse is written, conceived, and choreographed by Broadway song and dance man Noah Racey in collaboration with Broadway director and two-time Tony Award nominee Jeff Calhoun. Pulse opens on Thursday, May 23 with an 8 p.m. curtain. Opening night will be preceded by two preview performances on Tuesday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m. and May 22 at 8 p.m. The show runs through June 16, 2013 in Asolo Rep's Mertz Theatre located in The FSU Center for the Performing Arts.

Let the Little Boy Dance, an affirmative 'work-in-progress with music' about a gay child's identification with show business and how that sensibility can inform a life, will be read and performed by Ray Allen Durand as part of the Sixth Annual LEFT OUT FESTIVAL of LGBT plays now through April 30 (2013) at Stage Left Studio, 214 West 30th Street in New York City.

Let the Little Boy Dance, an affirmative 'work-in-progress with music' about a gay child's identification with show business and how that sensibility can inform a life, will be read and performed by Ray Allen Durand as part of the Sixth Annual LEFT OUT FESTIVAL of LGBT plays April 20-30 (2013) at Stage Left Studio, 214 West 30th Street in New York City.

Today in 1957, Brigadoon opened at the Adelphi Theatre, where it ran for 47 performances. Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Songs from the musical, such as 'Almost Like Being in Love' have become standards. The story involves two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years. Tommy, one of the tourists, falls in love with Fiona, a young woman from Brigadoon. The original production opened on Broadway in 1947 and ran for 581 performances. A 1954 film version starred Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse. A 1966 television version starred Robert Goulet and Peter Falk.

Stephen Sondheim, Liza Minnelli, Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole and other great stars of American music and musical theatre share the spotlight with the country's most passionate music preservationist as Michael Feinstein'S AMERICAN SONGBOOK returns to PBS for a new star-studded, three-part season tonight, April 5, 2013, 9:00 p.m. ET.

Director Vince Legaretta and choreographer Kerry Lambert create a music and dance spectacle you may see once in a hundred years

The Las Vegas pool party scene is back with a splash for the 2013 summer season. Taking world-class nightlife outdoors, the world's entertainment capital is known as the epicenter for famed headlining DJs and electronic dance music (EDM) mecca, which is the heart of Vegas dayclubs.

Hotel deLuxe is teaming up with The Portland Ballet to make dancing dreams come true with the "Be A Ballerina" hotel package. Guests are invited for a luxurious night stay on the hotel's third floor, where aspiring ballerinas will be surrounded by images of cinematic dance and music masters like Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astair, and two of film's most iconic ballerinas-turned-actresses, Debra Kerr and Cyd Charisse.

Today in 1947, Brigadoon opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre, where it ran for 581 performances. Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. It tells the story of a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years, though to the villagers, the passing of each century seems no longer than one night. Brigadoon then received a West End production opening in 1949 that ran for 685 performances, and many revivals followed. A 1954 film version starred Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse. A 1966 television version starred Robert Goulet and Peter Falk.

Happy Birthday, Cyd Charisse! Charisse began starring in films in the 1940s. Her roles usually focused on her abilities as a dancer, and she was paired with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; her films include Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953), Brigadoon (1954) and Silk Stockings (1957). She stopped dancing in films in the late 1950s, but continued acting in film and television, and in 1992 made her Broadway debut.

Stephen Sondheim, Liza Minnelli, Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole and other great stars of American music and musical theatre share the spotlight with the country's most passionate music preservationist as MICHAEL FEINSTEIN'S AMERICAN SONGBOOK returns to PBS for a new star-studded, three-part season Friday, April 5, 2013, 9:00 p.m. ET.

Today we are shifting our focus from the stages of Broadway and beyond to the stages of the previous 84 Academy Awards telecasts that have transpired to date, in anticipation of Sunday night's big, big, big show. After all, this year's Academy Awards is of particular interest and excitement to theatre fans around the globe, especially because super-producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are behind it - the men responsible for the hit stage-to-screen adaptations of CHICAGO and HAIRSPRAY, as well as the small-screen successes GYPSY, LIFE WITH JUDY GARLAND: ME & MY SHADOWS, ANNIE, and, most recently, NBC's musical series SMASH, to name a few of their many marvelous musical-friendly credits. They told me themselves earlier this week that this year's telecast would be the most music-packed Academy Awards show to date, and, just judging from the announced tributes, performers and presenters thus far it is clear to see that they were not kidding - reunions of the casts of the film versions of CHICAGO and LES MISERABLES live onstage, singing their film's most famous songs to Jennifer Hudson leading a DREAMGIRLS tribute all the way to a James Bond 50th anniversary celebration featuring Adele and Shirley Bassey on some famous Bond themes, as well as Barbra Streisand herself singing 'The Way We Were' in memory of friend and collaborator, three-time Oscar-winner Marvin Hamlisch.

Today in 1955, Silk Stockings opened at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 478 performances. Silk Stockings is a musical with a book by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, and Abe Burrows and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The musical is loosely based on the Melchior Lengyel story Ninotchka and the 1939 film adaptation it inspired. It ran on Broadway in 1955. This was the last musical that Porter wrote for the stage.

Ballroom dance champion and Broadway actress Victoria Regan, who has been cast in the leading role of the famous aging Russian ballerina Grushinkskaya in Grand Hotel at TheatreZone next month, still dances on her tiptoes.

In 1928 Berlin, the world is between wars and the stock market is booming. The center of the action is the illustrious Grand Hotel, through whose revolving doors pass a cavalcade of desperate, ambitious characters, all yearning for one last, glorious chance at a better future.