Ella Fitzgerald News

In June and July, a colourful line-up of international and local jazz, cabaret and Broadway stars perform musical standards, sparkling cabaret numbers, soulful jazz songs and touching torch songs from the Golden Age of American song as part of Melbourne Recital Centre's 2014 American Songbook Festival.

Cleveland Play House enthusiastically welcomes dance legend Maurice Hines to Cleveland in the toe-tapping extravaganza, Maurice Hines is Tappin' Thru Life. Co-produced with Alliance Theatre and Arena Stage, CPH audiences will be dazzled by this infectious production, which brings the history of American tap to life. Directed by Tony-nominee Jeff Calhoun (Newsies) and featuring contemporary tap icons The Manzari Brothers and music from the all-female big band The Diva Orchestra, Tappin' Thru Life will dance its way onto PlayhouseSquare's Allen Theatre stage for an extended run from May 30 - June 29. Special gratitude is given to CPH's generous sponsor, Zinner & Co.

The show is a celebration of the life of Maurice Hines, his brother Gregory, and their parents who Maurice fondly remembers throughout the show. Adding to emotional content, moveable screens that divide the orchestra from the performing area were often used to display photographs of the Hines family in their early days. And throughout the show, Hines, now a young 70 years old, expresses sheer joy in entertaining his audience, singing and dancing with a passion from deep within his soul. You can't help but be pulled into the magic!

Called 'legendary' and a 'San Francisco institution,' Feinstein's at the Nikko welcomes jazz and blues vocalist, Kim Nalley, for one performance only - tonight, May 10 (7 p.m.).

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College has announced its 2014-15 music series. This year's lineup includes 60th Anniversary Season opener Bobby McFerrin, a holiday concert by Sweet Honey in the Rock, South Africa's Lady Smith Black Mambazo, a tribute to Woody Guthrie by the Klezmatics, a cappella superstars Take 6, and Eddie Palmieri performing with his Latin Jazz Septet. These musical events reflect the artistic excellence and cultural diversity to which Brooklyn Center is dedicated. The season also features children's concerts by Black Violin and Nick Jr. favorites Hot Peas 'N Butter.

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) announces the complete cast for its production of Neil Simon's THE SUNSHINE BOYS, the second show of its three-show Summer Nutmeg Summer Series onstage June 14-29 in the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theater, Storrs.

In celebration of one year since the release of her debut CD entitled 'Except Sometimes' on Concord Records, Molly Ringwald who launched her CD release at Rockwell last year and has since performed over 150 concerts in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and widely across the United States in major Concert Halls, Performing Arts Centers and Jazz Festivals. Back by popular demand Ringwald will perform live in Hollywood for three Tuesdays to include June 17th; July 1st; and July 15th at Rockwell Table & Stage.

Michael Feinstein will join Nick Ziobro, the 17 year-old pop/jazz vocal sensation, as a special guest for his CD release concert at Birdland Jazz Club (315 West 44th Street in Manhattan) on Thursday, May 22 at 6:00 PM. The CD's all-star band - led by Tedd Firth and featuring music legend Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Jay Leonhart on bass, Ray Marchica on drums, Brian Pareschi on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Marc Phaneuf on saxophone and clarinet - will also join the concert. Nick's debut album A Lot of Livin' to Do is produced by Michael Feinstein, the two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Award-nominated vocalist, pianist and musicologist. Tickets - which include a complimentary CD - are $20 with an additional $10 minimum. Visit BirdlandJazz.com for more information.

I was just a little more than a year into my new side career as a cabaret show reviewer when I first saw a Karen Oberlin show. It was Valentine's Day night 2012 and Oberlin—with guitarist Sean Harkness and guest violinist Aaron Weinstein—would be performing her romance-laced set, Stringing Along With Love, at the Metropolitan Room. At the time, all I knew about Oberlin was that she was considered among New York's best female cabaret singers, and I hadn't researched her performing history pre-show. About a third of the way into her set I leaned over to my wife (it was Valentine's Day after all) and whispered, “You know, she has a real Doris Day quality in her voice and in the way she delivers some lyrics.” This immediately ratcheted up my appreciation for Oberlin since there are four passions I inherited from my Dad—baseball, reading the morning papers, sports writing and Doris Day (well, also Sophia Loren, but that's for another column). Since Dad had grown up during the prime of the Big Band Era of the 1940s, I heard the sultry sounds of a young Doris Day singing songs like “Sentimental Journey” on the family stereo more than a few times. Once I saw Day's strikingly adorable blondness on a record cover and her rocking body in one of her films, I knew what Dad was talking about. As popular, famous, and near iconic as Doris Day became, in my book, as a singer and screen beauty she's always been vastly underrated. Little did I know that Karen Oberlin had been doing a Doris Day tribute show so since 2001 at places like Firebird, Iridium, and the late Danny's Skylight Room, and produced a CD, Secret Love: The Music of Doris Day, in 2002. Karen Oberlin had instantly become my secret love.

Will Friedwald's 'Clip Joint: A Video Music Mixtape' will premiere on Tuesday, April 29 at 7 PM at Stage 72 / The Triad (Green Room.

RAIN PRYOR stars in this effervescent solo show, which recounts her upbringing in a biracial household (her mother was Jewish) in Beverly Hills, Calif. Ms. Pryor, who sings & portrays a range of characters (including, poignantly, her father Richard in a spot-on impression), will appear in FRIED CHICKEN & LATKES.

Trinity Rep announced today that Jeffrey Osborne will be honored with the 2014 New England Pell Award for Artistic Excellence, acknowledging his artistic achievements and philanthropic work throughout Rhode Island.

LOUIS-AND-ELLA!, a new jazzical by Trent Armand Kendall reunites The Architect of Jazz and The First Lady of Song for one magical night and will receive a developmental table reading today, April 24th in a donated studio from The Actors Fund.

LOUIS-AND-ELLA!, a new jazzical by Trent Armand Kendall reunites The Architect of Jazz and The First Lady of Song for one magical night and will receive a developmental table reading Thursday, April 24th in a donated studio from The Actors Fund.

The 2013-2014 season at Cleveland Play House (CPH) continues with the compelling world premiere production of Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent. Co-produced with Geva Theatre Center, this incredibly thought-provoking production is inspired by the real life court case between the Havasupai Indian tribe and Arizona State University, and sparks an intriguing debate on both ethicality and morality. Directed by Sean Daniels and Sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth, Informed Consent will serve as the centerpiece to CPH's 2014 New Ground Theatre Festival and will run from today, April 23 - May 18 in the Second Stage.

The Country Music Association announced today that Hank Cochran, Ronnie Milsap, and Mac Wiseman will become the newest members of the revered Country Music Hall of Fame.

Artistic Director Vincent J. Cardinal has announced that Leslie Uggams, the Tony and Emmy Award winning actress will be starring as Rose in Connecticut Repertory Theatre's (CRT) production of GYPSY: A Musical Fable onstage July 10-20. GYPSY, is the third show in the 2014 Summer Nutmeg Series, which includes A CHORUS LINE (June 5-14) and THE SUNSHINE BOYS (June 19-29) starring Jerry Adler and Richard Kline.

Virginia's Tony-Award winning Signature Theatre announces the cast for The Threepenny Opera, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's cutting and enduring critique of capitalism and corruption. Directed by Signature Theatre's Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner (Tender Napalm, Dreamgirls, Really Really), the production stars Mitchell Jarvis (Broadway's Rock of Ages) as the charismatic Macheath, known to popular culture as Mack the Knife.

On Tuesday, April 22nd @ 7pm Stage72/The Triad Theatre, 158 West 72nd Street, hosts On Kentucky Avenue: The Club Harlem Revue - an homage to Atlantic City's now defunct historical "Club Harlem," a performance venue, which hosted all "the greats" such as Nancy Wilson, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and many others. On Kentucky Avenue stars Broadway and recording artist Ty Stephens (Sophisticated Ladies), Cheryl Freeman (The Who's Tommy), recording artist Andricka Hall and features the shows creator, Jeree Wade as 'Damita Jo' and Lee Summers (Original Dreamgirls) as comedian 'Slappy Black.'

Called "legendary" and a "San Francisco institution," Feinstein's at the Nikko welcomes jazz and blues vocalist, Kim Nalley, for one performance only - Saturday, May 10 (7 p.m.).