Eric Alexander News

North Carolina Theatre, the region's premiere nonprofit professional regional theatre, has announced the full cast for Dreamgirls with book and lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Henry Krieger, directed by Christopher D. Betts and Co-Choregraphed by Christopher D. Betts and Amy Hall Garner. Additional Choreography by Mya King.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 19th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Raleigh Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 12th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Raleigh Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 5th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Raleigh Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

 SMOKE's year-end Coltrane Festival “Countdown 2023” begins with the first of 16 nights led by a longtime friend of the club: living legend and renowned performer George Coleman. He joins forces with a most illustrious protégé, the great Eric Alexander for an intergenerational tenor saxophone summit meeting for the ages. Coleman and Alexander will be joined by dazzling pianist Emmet Cohen, rock-solid bassist John Webber and rousing drummer Joe Farnsworth. 

Mark your calendar for Saturday, November 19 at 8PM! That's when Giants of Jazz, an annual Jazz festival featuring nearly 30 performers, returns to the South Orange Performing Arts Center for the first time since 2019.

Jazz vocalist Judy Niemack presents a collection of rhapsodic romantic songs on her album release, What's Love, out now on Sunnyside Records. Following Niemack's lauded 2018 release New York Stories with pianist Jim McNeely and Danish Radio Big Band, What's Love represents a vulnerable side of the lifelong vocalist's artistry.

North Carolina Theatre has announce the full cast for its first production of the 2022-23 season, Steel Magnolias, by Robert Harling. Directed by Lauren Kennedy, performances run from November 4-November 13 at A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater at Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh.

One of New York City's premier live music venues, Smoke Jazz Club, presents a stellar line-up of both legendary jazz performers and emerging voices during the month of October. Acclaimed for its essential music programming and inspired setting, Smoke Jazz Club recently reopened to much fanfare after being closed to indoor performances and dining for over two years.

North Carolina Theatre, the region's premiere nonprofit professional regional theatre, has announced the full cast and creative team for Sister Act, directed and choreographed by Robert Hartwell. Performances will run from October 11- October 16 at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium at Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh. “NCT is delighted to be producing this joyful romp of a musical. 

 One of New York City's premier live music venues, Smoke Jazz Club, presents a stellar line-up of both legendary jazz performers and emerging voices for the fall season.

What did our critic think? Yellow Face follows Asian-American playwright DHH. Fresh off his Tony Award win for M. Butterfly, he leads a protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as 'yellowface.' His position soon comes back to haunt him when he mistakes a Caucasian actor, Marcus G. Dahlman, for mixed-race, and casts him as the lead Asian role of his own Broadway-bound comedy, Face Value. When DHH discovers the truth of Marcus' ethnicity, he tries to conceal his blunder to protect his reputation as an Asian-American role model by passing the actor off as a 'Siberian Jew.'

Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater are open this July with a full slate of nightly performances! At Birdland Jazz Club, catch Jay Leonhardt and John Weber Duo, Remy LeBeouf Assembly of Shadows Orchestra and more. Birdland Theater will present Tony DeSare, Maurizio Spista Organ Trio and more.

Music fans can experience the debut of all ten songs from SLASH and the band’s new Gibson Records LP 4, in Soundscape VR’s musical metaverse, a dynamic virtual concert world that captures the band’s unforgettable melodies, soaring vocals, and guitar riffs that will blow your mind. 

After two years spent reorienting to the pandemic with modified operations including livestreams, sidewalk concerts, and outdoor dining, Smoke Jazz Club makes a momentous return as a world-renowned destination for the best in classic and modern jazz. Acclaimed

Yellow Face, directed by Telly Leung for Theatre Raleigh, blurs the lines between truth and fiction blur with hilarious and moving resulting in David Henry Hwang's unreliable memoir. Yellow Face plays June 22-July 3rd at the TR Studio Theatre, with tickets starting at $30.

Smoke Jazz Club today announced its long-awaited reopening. After two years spent reorienting to the pandemic with modified operations including livestreams, sidewalk concerts, and outdoor dining, Smoke Jazz Club makes a momentous return as a world-renowned destination for the best in classic and modern jazz.

THE DJANGO will bring another month of stellar jazz by some of the field’s heroes alongside young, emerging artists.

North Carolina Theatre has announced the full cast for Ring of Fire with music and lyrics by Johnny Cash directed by Randy Redd, who was a part of the Original Broadway cast of Ring of Fire.  Performances will run from April 29 – May 8 at A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh.

Chris' Jazz Cafe will host one of the most incredible ensembles to have ever played together on the same stage in Philadelphia. On Friday, April 1 a quartet consisting of saxophonist Eric Alexander, pianist Joe Block, bassist Alex Claffy, and drummer Willie Jones, III will hit the stage with special guest guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel.