Frank Sinatra News

The Laguna Playhouse is thrilled to announce its 2015- 2016 season of shows!

The Desert Rose Playhouse, in Rancho Mirage, California, is presenting yet another fine production - its last show for the 2014-15 season. Douglas Carter Beane's THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED is an edgy comedy which raises serious questions and which contains serious moments, especially in the second act. It is well-acted and superbly staged. I recommend this show for adults with one caveat: It contains brief moments of full frontal male nudity, and is therefore not suitable for everyone.

Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. will co-headline a very special "Centennial Salute To Sinatra and Billie Holiday" Friday night May 1st at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood, NJ, in suburban Philadelphia.

Broadway composer Charles Strouse, who has written scores for over 30 stage musicals, including 14 for Broadway, and is a three-time Tony Award winner, a two-time Emmy Award winner, and whose cast albums have earned him two Grammy Awards will visit the school and lead a 'Talk-Back' with students. The Teaneck Community Charter school will present a production of the recently created 'Bye Bye Birdie Young Performers Edition.' The Talk-Back event will feature the student cast and crew of the show and will lead into the Opening Night performance at 8pm.

The Spire Center for Performing Arts, the entertainment mecca of Plymouth, presents a eclectic season of summer entertainment at The Spire Center for Performing Arts, 25 ½ Court Street, Plymouth. 

Make Music New York, dubbed 'the largest music event ever to grace Gotham' (Metro New York), returns for its ninth year with a wild and wonderful mix of free, outdoor, public concerts all around the city on Sunday, June 21, the first day of summer. Last year, more than 1,300 concerts were given, spanning all five boroughs, and Make Music New York is on track to surpass that number in 2015. Wrote Vivien Schweitzer of The New York Times, 'part of the fun is the unexpected: discovering a string quartet, a rock band or an opera singer in the city's many nooks and crannies.'

The Chicago stage premiere of Academy Award winning director Taylor Hackford's LOUIS & KEELY 'LIVE' AT THE SAHARA has been extended by popular demand through Sunday, May 17 at the Royal George Theatre, 1641 North Halsted Street. Hackford, best known for his films An Officer and a Gentleman, Against All Odds, The Devil's Advocate,.

Music will fill the air as Make Music Day, the world's largest annual music event, returns with a wild and wonderful mix of free, outdoor music-making on June 21, the first day of summer.

?The Emmy Award winning actor Fyvesh Finkel jokes, 'I'm 92, but looking at this audience I realize that's no big deal.'  Fyvesh was the star of Yiddish Night at the Friars Club last night, although his co-stars were his sons Elliot, Ian, and the special menu of traditional Jewish favorites prepared by the staff. 

She's back where she belongs! 'Hello Dolly' starring Andrea McArdle is at The Media Theatre tonight, April 22 to May 24. Andrea McArdle returns to the award-winning professional music theatre venue after winning accolades as 'Mame' two years ago.

Now in its third year, Whidbey Island Center for the Arts presents PianoFest Northwest 2015 with four days of piano concerts from today, April 22 through Sunday, April 26 in Langley.

Oakland, CA, April 21, 2015 – Music Director and Conductor Michael Morgan and the Oakland East Bay Symphony have announced an unusually eclectic season for 2015-2016 including premieres, guest artists and music spanning 300 years from Bach to today in seven concerts at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. Highlights of the 27th season include guest artists Kenneth Renshaw, Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, Tracy Silverman And Amy Likar Plus Toland Vocal Arts Competition And Young Artist Competition Winners. In keeping with its programming philosophy of presenting an insightful and innovative palette of music that represents a variety of traditions—and creating a few—Maestro Morgan and the Symphony will perform music by Mason Bates, John Adams, Martin Rokeach, David Conte, Bendix, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Bernstein, Cherubini, Stravinsky, Ravel and Frank Sinatra. Of special note are thematic programs including Notes From Vietnam, which will introduce audiences to music and guest artists from symphonic traditions other than the mainstream, a new annual “Lost Romantics” series in which Morgan will conduct gorgeous and compelling but somewhat forgotten music by composers who were better known in their time than ours and vocal soloists who have won the Oakland-based James Toland Vocal Competition in their debuts. All concerts will be preceded by a pre-performance talk one hour before curtain, free to all ticket-holders. For complete season information, visit www.oebs.org and follow the Symphony at www.facebook.com/OEBSymphony , Twitter@OakSym and Youtube: oebsym  

If you are a Friar you receive an "Opening Act" email that introduces you to a new member. Sadly, you also get a "Final Curtain" email when a member leaves the stage. In true theater tradition an "After Party" was held for one of the clubs esteemed members in the Frank Sinatra Dining Room last night. It was organized by Actors Fund President and CEO Joseph Benincasa to remember Irv Welzer, a beloved member of the club. With song and story a few of Irv's fellow Friars reminisced. Mayor David Dinkins, Danny Aiello, Bernadette Peters, Dominic Chianese, Mark Simone, Robert Creighton,Carol Skarimbas,Will & Anthony Nunziata, and Stewie Stone all participated in this party, which celebrated a much loved member of the theatre community.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO brings the Russian revolution to Broadway tonight, and this year's Drama League nominees will be announced today!

The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), presented by AT&T, recently announced 'Sinatra at 100: Film & Music in collaboration with The Lincoln Motor Company,' a centennial celebration to honor Frank Sinatra's legendary film career at the Festival's 14th edition.

Ol' Blue Eyes is celebrating a big birthday!

The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts (DECFA), headed by renowned dancer/choreographer Mercedes Ellington, the Duke's granddaughter, will celebrate Ellington's 116th birthday this year on Saturday, April 25, with a musical tribute to five other legendary jazz performers from 1 to 3 PM in front of the towering Duke Ellington Statue in the Plaza at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 110th Street.

The CAPA Summer Movie Series, the longest-running classic film series in America, celebrates its 45th anniversary in 2015 with an impressive assembly of classics, cult favorites, and beloved films. The 2015 series will run June 5-August 9 at the historic Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) and will feature 29 films over nine weeks (no films scheduled for the week of the Fourth of July).

Surprise! This brand new, non-equity national tour of GUYS AND DOLLS---currently onstage at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a limited week-long run through April 19---is a winning, nicely-nicely done charmer. Of course, it helps a lot that this traveling production comes equipped with Broadway-caliber sets and costumes and, most satisfying of all, a really talented, engaging ensemble cast.

It's a double bill of Bronx power-houses! Legendary actor and critically acclaimed singer Danny Aiello comes to the State Theatre with special guests The Bronx Wanderers returning with him. The Bronx takes over Easton tonight, April 18th.