Ethel Merman News

Stage Door Records is pleased to announce the release of the Alfred Drake retrospective double album 'Lucky To Be Me - A Life In Music' on April 26th 2019,

As I'm going through all my Gypsy CDs (yes, to ensure I have them all either on my hard drive or accessible in the cloud, before throwing them out), I'm finding myself weirdly most drawn to Tyne Daly's recording, from her Tony-winning performance in the 1989 revival. The thing is I know Tyne Daly, I mean I know her work. She's been a familiar and distinctive presence on stage and screen for as long as I can remember and I even have a few musical theater recordings featuring her singing, but hers is not a singing voice I live with on a LITERALLY daily basis like, say, Ethel Merman's, Angela Lansbury's, Bette Midler's, Bernadette Peters's or Patti LuPone's. So to me, Tyne Daly's Rose is a unique sound that I can only identify with Tyne Daly's Rose and, therefore, a character. For today, that's the Gypsy I most feel like listening to.

What good is sitting alone in your room this week? If you don't already have plans to see a Broadway show, come out to see your favorite Broadway stars in a cabaret act instead. After Broadway orchestras begin their overtures, ensemble members take their dance breaks, and performers belt out their eleven o'clock numbers, the party continues at various cabaret venues throughout New York City. Highlights this week include Laura Osnes, 54 Sings Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Broadway Sings Unplugged: Beyonce.

Well, the next step in my decluttering/digitizing journey is throwing out my Chess CDs, not that they take up much space. I only have the Original Concept Recording and the Broadway cast. I'm going to download the freaking 2008 Royal Albert Hall concert version (with Idina Menzel, Josh Groban and Adam Pascal) to try to keep this column hip. But let's all just remember two things: 1.) I am not hip; and, 2.) I'm just downloading the concert for this column, so it doesn't really count as part of my digitizing.

A special performance Celebrating Cole Porter - YOU'VE GOT THAT THING will be presented at The Triad Theatre (158 West 72nd Street - off Broadway between Broadway & Columbus Ave) on Saturday, March 30th at 9:30 pm. The production celebrates the life of musical prodigy, Cole Porter, with those who knew him best: his muse Ethel Merman (Analisa Bell), his wife Linda (Alexandra Foley) and Edward, a young writer who embodies the essence of all his male lovers (Quinn Martin). Featuring classics like Anything Goes, Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love, Night and Day, and, of course, You've Got that Thing!. This delightful show has humor, pathos, and of course those glorious songs. Tickets are $20 and there is a two drink minimun and a small facility fee. Premium packages are also available.

Celebrate the life of musical prodigy, Cole Porter, with those who knew him best: his muse Ethel Merman (Analisa Bell), his wife Linda (Alexandra Foley) and Edward, a young writer who embodies the essence of all his male lovers (Quinn Martin). A show where anything goes, You've Got That Thing! A Celebration of Cole Porter is happening at The Triad Theater on Saturday, March 30 at 9:30pm.

Next week, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

Porchlight Music Theatre is proud to announce its 25th Anniversary season that includes the 2019 - 2020 Mainstage, Porchlight Revisits and New Faces Sing Broadway productions.. Porchlight's Mainstage and Porchlight Revisits return to the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street.  

Ree Drummond, known to millions as TV's “The Pioneer Woman,” is just a mom feeding her family, she tells Alina Cho in an interview for CBS SUNDAY MORNING to be broadcastSunday, March 10 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

When I saw the Baltimore Symphony SuperPops would be featuring vocalist Christina Bianco I had no idea what she would be like. Then I started to hear from people who actually have seen her in concert and raved about her. It became quite clear it would be necessary for me to see this musician for myself.

Actress/singer/vocal coach Susan Edwards Martin, Lady Blues in Torch Song Trilogy on Broadway and star of many other musical shows, recently premiered her solo cabaret show at Upstairs at Vitello's. I reviewed the show and she was sensational.* She is taking the show to Feinstein's 54/Below in New York on March 23. Edwards Martin also has created an original show about the optimistic way she lives her life called, 'Unlimited! You'll Have the Time of Her Life!", that had a spectacular one night presentation and is currently waiting in the wings for a full production. Busy, busy, busy, Edwards also recently performed with Musical Theatre Guild as the lead in Minnie's Boys to rave reviews. Ms. Edwards Martin sat down and discussed her career thus far, and about the story behind Unlimited! You'll Have the Time of Her Life! and her latest cabaret show. Before we start to look back I always ask a few less relevant questions about musical theatre.

The famous mezzo soprano Fredericka von Stade is in San Diego this week rehearsing Three Decembers, one of several works written with her in mind by her close friend Jake Heggie. The chamber opera for three singers and 11 musicians will be performed three times next weekend at the 500-seat Patrick Henry PHAME Theatre. Von Stade recognized Heggie's talent long before he wrote his first opera and has been an influential champion ever since. Their friendship and collaboration have benefitted both. In my interview with her in a San Diego Opera rehearsal room she said, 'He's given me a second career with parts in Dead Man Walking and Great Scott, and a lot of song cycles. He's my guy.'

TheatreZone, a professional Equity theatre in Naples, Florida, that specializes in Broadway musicals, announces its 2019-2020 season shows. They are: Home for the Holidays (Dec. 13-15, 2019); Wonderful Town (Jan. 9-19, 2020); Tonya & Nancy: A Rock Opera (Feb. 6-16, 2020); Gypsy (March 5-15, 2020); and I Love My Wife (April 16-26, 2020).

Actress/singer/vocal coach Susan Edwards Martin, Lady Blues in Torch Song Trilogy on Broadway and star of many other musical shows, recently premiered her solo cabaret show at Upstairs at Vitello's. I reviewed the show and she was sensational.* She is taking the show to Feinstein's 54/Below in New York on March 23. Edwards Martin also has created an original show about the optimistic way she lives her life called, 'Unlimited! You'll Have the Time of Her Life!", that had a spectacular one night presentation and is currently waiting in the wings for a full production. Busy, busy, busy, Edwards also recently performed with Musical Theatre Guild as the lead in Minnie's Boys to rave reviews. Ms. Edwards Martin sat down and discussed her career thus far, and about the story behind Unlimited! You'll Have the Time of Her Life! and her latest cabaret show. Before we start to look back I always ask a few less relevant questions about musical theatre.

The Delray Beach Playhouse announces an exciting, special engagement for one night only on March 2nd, LAURA HODOS & SHELLEY KEELOR SING THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK COLLECTION with Music Director, Caryl Fantel.

Gerard Alessandrini, the Tony Award winning creator of Forbidden Broadway, will debut FORBIDDEN BROADWAY SALUTES CAROL CHANNING, at Feinstein's/54 Below on Saturday, March 23rd, 2019, at 7:00pm in a concert produced by Mr. Alessandrini and Robert W. Schneider.

As the house lights went down and the familiar strains of 'Before the Parade Passes By' wafted through San Francisco's Golden Gate theatre, a buzz of excitement and a ripple of clapping could be heard from the front of the house on up to the balcony seats. The sound of times gone by, captured by the tuneful Jerry Herman score, ushered the audience into the opulent gift of gilded age perfection, the revival of Michael Stewart's 1964 musical, Hello, Dolly.

Steele Spring Stage Rights, the licensing company that represents The Marvelous Wonderettes, has just acquired the licensing and theatrical performance rights to the hit Off-Broadway parody musical mash-up about a pair of Mormon missionaries and their attempt to convert their unsuspecting target, musical theatre legend Ethel Merman!

Sarasota Says, Carol Burnett - We're So Glad We Had This Time Together

Ethel Merman was a Broadway institution known as the 'undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage.' After being discovered by Vinton Freedley as a singer at Brooklyn's Paramount movie theatre, she was signed to star in the Gershwin's new Broadway hit GIRL CRAZY where she stopped the show nightly with her performance of 'I Got Rhythm'.