First Lady Michelle News

This holiday season, three-time Grammy-nominated musician, Brady Rymer, will return home to Northern New Jersey to perform shows for kids, families, and "grown-ups" alike. On Saturday, December 22 at 11 a.m., Rymer and his Little Band That Could will perform a holiday show at The Growing Stage, The Children's Theatre of New Jersey.

On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., three vibrant New York City-based artists will perform in Zankel Hall as part of My City, My Song, an interactive Family Concert celebrating music from around the world. The performance features Greek folk from Magda Giannikou, Malian traditional music from Yacouba Sissoko, and Indian classical music from Falu Shah. Free pre-concert activities are offered one hour prior to each performance, preparing parents and children to sing and dance along with the artists.

 Chicago Shakespeare Theater brings together 300 high school students and their teacher coaches from 40 public, private, and parochial schools across the region for this year's Chicago Shakespeare Slam. A series of Saturday workshops and regional preliminary bouts throughout the fall culminate in a spirited, fun-filled Final Bout on Monday, December 10 at 6:00 p.m. on the stage of The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare. Emcees warm up the crowd and an onstage DJ drops beats as nine teams perform, cheered on by a full house of fellow participants, classmates, and friends.

For the week ending Nov. 30 (week #10 of the 2018-2019 broadcast season), THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT (3.83m) beat its closest competitor by +1.22 million viewers and had its largest live plus 3-day delivery in viewers since the week ending April 20. THE LATE SHOW also delivered more than 3.5 million viewers every first-run week this season.

Amy Jordan, dancer, choreographer and motivational speaker, lays out a simple plan to guide readers through life's inevitable challenges and transform trauma into triumph in her new book, Dance Because You Can: 5 Steps to Transform Trauma into Triumph (Outskirts Press).

During the week of Nov. 12, 2018, ABC's “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was up over the prior week by 16% in Total Viewers (2.262 million vs. 1.955 million) to draw its largest audience so far this season and its biggest since the first week of June – since the week of 6/4/18. In addition, “Kimmel” grew for the 3rd consecutive week among Adults 18-49 (+9% - 540,000 vs. 496,000) to its 2nd-best performance this season, behind only the show's Back to Brooklyn week (w/o 10/15/18).

The Metropolitan Opera and WQXR, New York's all classical music station, announce ARIA CODE, a new 10-episode podcast series that pulls the curtain back on some of opera's most legendary arias.

Park City Institute opens its 21st season on the Main Stage at the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Center, with GRAMMY Award-nominated female A Cappella vocal ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Harboring Hearts founder Michelle Javian, co-founder Yuki Kotani and Executive Director Missy Rahman welcomed 200 guests to a sold-out benefit evening to support heart patients and their families during their most critical times of need at The Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center on November 7th.  The special night began with a cocktail reception and silent auction, followed by dinner, an awards ceremony and live musical performances from Alex Getlin, Demi Grace and Broadway Star Antoine L. Smith.

Variety says Judd Apatow, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lilly Singh and Olga Kay (among other stars) will participate in a get-out-the-vote streaming comedy special dubbed 'Telethon for America.' The stream will go out on the evening of November 5th, one day before the Midterm elections.

Known for her vulnerable and empowering music, New York City singer-songwriter Keren Abreu makes her theatrical debut this year in the 2018 New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC)!

Known for her vulnerable and empowering music, New York City singer-songwriter Keren Abreu makes her theatrical debut this year in the 2018 New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC)!

After a decade working in the New York City entertainment industry, veteran publicist Emily McGill founded Press Play, a boutique public relations firm serving the entertainment community. Prior to her most recent position with Disney Theatrical Productions where she handled the Broadway productions of The Lion King and Aladdin, Emily worked with boutique theatrical PR agencies The Hartman Group and Philip Rinaldi Publicity, as well as the 2015 New York Observer's number one public relations agency, DKC Public Relations.

Known for her vulnerable and empowering music, New York City singer-songwriter Keren Abreu makes her theatrical debut this year in the 2018 New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC)!

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will open its 2018-2019 season with a concert honoring Phenomenal Women presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 7:30pm. The performance, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan, will feature the world premiere of Valerie Coleman's Phenomenal Women performed by the Imani Winds with ACO; as well as the world premiere of Alex Temple's Three Principles of Noir with singer Meaghan Burke, director Amber Treadway, and costumes by Storm Garner. Grammy and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Joan Tower's Chamber Dance from 2006, which treats the orchestra as a chamber ensemble, completes the program.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama will join NBC News' TODAY Thursday, October 11, for an exclusive hour-long television event celebrating International Day of the Girl. Mrs. Obama will sit down for a conversation with Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb in front of a live audience of girls to make a special announcement related to global adolescent girls' education.

In celebration of the fall returns of hit music dramas EMPIRE and STAR, Fox Broadcasting Company and parent company 21st Century Fox have teamed up with Turnaround Arts, a national program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, for a new social campaign. As one of the marquee national education initiatives of the Kennedy Center, Turnaround Arts empowers struggling schools with innovative arts programs and arts-based learning across subject areas as a strategy to help address broader school challenges and close the opportunity gap.

Villanova Theatre presents Karen Zacarias's raucous romp, The Book Club Play, hailed as 'smart, light and pants-peeingly funny' (chicagocritic.com). Directed by Whiting and Barrymore Award winner James Ijames, this smart hit comedy about books and the people who love them runs September 18-30, 2018.

CBS News to Present 'Sunday's Best: Celebrating 40 Years of CBS Sunday Morning,' A One-Hour Primetime Special 9/14