Fred Astaire News

SWEETEE (www.SweeteeTheMusical.com) a new American musical with book, music and lyrics by Gail Kriegel (Home Front, Seven) and directed and choreographed by five-time Tony  nominee and two-time Emmy Award winner Patricia Birch (Broadway: Grease, Candide, Parade) will play at the Ford Foundation Studio Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues) for a limited engagement from May 21st - June 18th.

As previously announced, the inaugural Chita Rivera Awards will be produced by American Dance Machine for the 21st Century (ADM21) and its Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Nikki Feirt Atkins.

As previously announced, on Monday, May 1, 2017, The New York Pops will celebrate its 34th birthday with a grand gala evening honoring Karen van Bergen, the CEO of Omnicom Public Relations Group, and Tony Award winners Kelli O'Hara and Bartlett Sher, whose collaborations over the last decade have won universal acclaim and whose individual careers represent pinnacles of achievement in the world of theatre.

The company of Cagney, the hit musical about Hollywood's tough guy in tap shoes, celebrated one year of performances at The Westside Theatre with a champagne toast onstage, last night, April 4. Scroll down for photos from the festivities!

Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Almog Pail in 'Me, Myself and Rita' on April 20th, 2107. Join actor, writer and singer Almog Pail in an unconventional musical storytelling by 1940's Hollywood's pin-up Rita Hayworth, inspired by true events.

The company of Cagney, the hit musical about Hollywood's tough guy in tap shoes, will celebrate one year of performances at The Westside Theatre on Tuesday, April 4.

American Dance Machine for the 21st Century (ADM21) announced that it has established the The Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography (formerly The Fred & Adele Astaire Awards) to honor the best of theatrical dance and choreography, both on Broadway and off, as well as film and television.

On Monday, May 1, 2017, The New York Pops will celebrate its 34th birthday with a grand gala evening honoring Karen van Bergen, the CEO of Omnicom Public Relations Group, and Tony Award winners Kelli O'Hara and Bartlett Sher, whose collaborations over the last decade have won universal acclaim and whose individual careers represent pinnacles of achievement in the world of theatre. The concert will celebrate the multiyear partnership between the actress and stage director and will bring together artists from the stage and screen.

Chris Isaacson Presents has announced that legendary Tony Award-winning Broadway star Donna McKechnie will bring her show Same Place, Another Time to Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood on Sunday, May 28 at 7:30pm and Martinis Above Fourth in San Diego on Thursday, June 1 at 8pm.

Though all of Harvey Granat's midday events are illuminating and entertaining, his most recent SONGS AND STORIES on March 16 at 92Y could've easily continued at least another half hour buoyed by audience enthusiasm. The event's special guests, author/producer/journalist Will Friedwald (who has his own 92Y series), and President of Jimmy Van Heusen's catalog, his great nephew, Brook Babcock, were both knowledgeable, engaging raconteurs. It was also a great pleasure to watch the two men join infectiously enjoying the afternoon.

Outside there is snow, but on with the show! Now is the time to grab your tickets to see hit musical Cagney. $25 rush tickets are available for tonight's performance, Tuesday, March 14, at 7PM.

Cagney, the hit musical about Hollywood's tough guy in tap shoes,will conclude its celebrated run atThe Westside Theatre on Sunday, May 28, 2017. Cagney began performances at The Westside Theatre March 16, 2016, prior to an official opening on April 3, 2016. When Cagney takes its final curtain call at The Westside Theatre, the production will have played a total of 502 performances (including 21 previews).  

The Ivoryton Playhouse opens its 2017 season with a treasure-trove of hits by the Chairman of the Board himself - Frank Sinatra. The musical equivalent of a soothing hot toddy on a cold winter night, this trip down memory lane includes such Sinatra signatures as "I've Got the World on a String," "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" and "Fly Me to the Moon'

Porchlight Music Theatre and Artistic Director Michael Weber are proud to announce the continuation of the fourth season of Chicago's hit "lost" musicals in staged concert series, Porchlight Revisits Little Me, music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and book by Neil Simon based on the novel by Patrick Dennis, with direction by Porchlight Artistic Director Michael Weber, musical direction by Linda Madonia, choreography by Craig Miller with special guest choreography by veteran Bob Fosse dancer Jane Lanier and starring Jeff Award-winner Matt Crowle. Porchlight Revisits Little Me is presented for three-nights-only Tuesday, Feb. 28 through Thursday, March 2 at 7:15 p.m. and is performed on the set of Porchlight's The Scottsboro Boys (previews begin Friday, Feb. 3) at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets for Little Me are $35. All tickets include access to the popular pre-performance event, Behind the Show Backstory, a multimedia presentation, created and hosted by Weber that discusses that evening's production including the show's creative history, backstage gossip and the state of the art on Broadway that season. Single tickets to Little Me are available at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org or by calling the Stage 773 box office, 773.327.5252. 

Pittsburgh Public Theater is thrilled to present the Pittsburgh premiere of Paul Gordon and John Caird's delightful musical, Daddy Long Legs. Directed byTed Pappas, The Public's Producing Artistic Director, Daddy Long Legs runs March 9 - April 9, 2017 at the O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater's home in the heart of Downtown's Cultural District. For tickets call 412.316.1600 or visit ppt.org. Nadine E. Bognar is the Production Sponsor.

On April 1, 2017, R. Scott Williams will release 'An Odd Book: How the First Modern Pop Culture Reporter Conquered New York,' a biography of the life of Oscar Odd McIntyre, the first modern pop culture and entertainment reporter. It will be available on Amazon.com and through IngramSpark. As the highest-paid and most-read columnist of his era, Odd McIntyre achieved great fame and fortune in the early twentieth century. Raised in Gallipolis, Ohio, eventually he moved to New York and became close friends with many of the leading personalities of the day, including writers Edna Ferber, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald; entertainers Fred Astaire, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Billie Burke, and Will Rogers; composers George Gershwin and Meredith Willson; actors Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin and many others. In his daily column, 'New York Day by Day,' and in national magazines like Cosmopolitan and Life, Odd captured a time and place undergoing great transition and innovation in communication, politics, art and entertainment. As the country shifted from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era and through the Great Depression, new technologies and methods of communication were being quickly adopted around the world, as were new ideas regarding journalism and the role of media in American politics and society. Odd, living and writing in New York, was at the epicenter of this new modern age. 'Odd documented the stories of what was happening backstage and behind the scenes with popular culture around the world,' said Williams, who is the chief operating officer of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. 'Odd was there as the telegraph changed the news business, and then as radio changed everything. He covered live entertainment as it shifted from vaudeville to something new and exciting on Broadway, and he had a literal front-row seat as moving pictures evolved first to nickelodeons, then to silent films, and finally to talkies.' As a young journalist and editor in Ohio, Odd was one of the very first reporters to interview the Wright brothers in Dayton, and he worked side by side with early muckrakers to fight government corruption in Cincinnati. After moving to New York and working briefly as an assistant editor for Hampton's Magazine, he got a job as a Park Row newspaper reporter. One of his first assignments was interviewing Titanic survivors as they stepped onto the pier in New York. Later, McIntyre began working for music publisher Leo Feist on Tin Pan Alley, promoting songwriters, vaudeville and Broadway performers, musicians, and 'song pluggers.' His success there led to many years as the press agent for Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., where he got to know many of the most popular performers of the day. In Paris, he became friends with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and others who came to be known as the 'Lost Generation,' while back in New York, he had a long-time feud with members of the group known as the 'Algonquin Round Table.' His experience and connections in New York allowed him and his biggest champion, his wife Maybelle McIntyre, to start a daily column that they mailed from their small New York apartment to newspapers around the country. Eventually, Odd's column grew to reach more than seven million readers each day, making him a media superstar. In his 1938 obituary, a reporter for The New York Times wrote, 'His greatest stock-in-trade was his incarnate rapture at the glories of a New York recognizable to none but himself. To him the towers of Manhattan were studded with minarets and the neon lights of Broadway flickered like jewels.' Only Odd's wife and closest friends knew his biggest secret. Throughout adulthood, he struggled with social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and severe depression that were likely brought on by undiagnosed pernicious anemia. Despite the extroverted 'man-about-town' image he projected to the world, his disorder eventually drove him to a reclusive lifestyle. He left his home only at night, and observed New York's nightlife from the window of his chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce. A special launch event will take place on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in Odd's hometown of Gallipolis, Ohio where The Ohio Valley Symphony will perform Meredith Willson's 'O.O. McIntyre Suite.' In anticipation of the book, Williams has also launched several social media initiatives to help the public learn more about Odd McIntyre and his work. Photos of the people, places and pop culture icons that Odd covered in his daily column will be featured at Instagram.com/ anoddbook, and short excerpts from Odd's articles will be shared on Twitter.com/anoddbook. Williams noted, 'Because Odd's writing style frequently included short, cleverly written sentences, they still resonate remarkably well today in the 140-character Twitter format.' Additional content about Odd McIntyre and 'An Odd Book' will be shared on YouTube and at Facebook.com/anoddbook. Links to these social network accounts, along with much more information about Odd McIntyre and the book launch, can be found at AnOddBook.com. About R. Scott Williams R. Scott Williams is the author of 'An Odd Book: How the First Modern Pop Culture Reporter Conquered New York,' available April 1 on Amazon.com and through IngramSpark. Williams is the chief operating officer and senior vice president of sales and marketing at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Williams earned his degree in journalism from the University of Memphis. He then held positions at several advertising agencies and organizations, including Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. He currently serves on the board of the D.C. chapter of the American Advertising Federation and on the board of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. He lives with his wife and daughters in historic Arlington, Va. Passionate about discovering and sharing forgotten stories from the past, in his spare time he explores the history of the American South, especially around his home in West Tennessee. His first book was 'The Forgotten Adventures of Richard Halliburton: From Tennessee to Timbuktu.' High-resolution photos available on the book's press page at AnOddBook.com/press.

Porchlight Music Theatre and Artistic Director Michael Weber are proud to announce the continuation of the fourth season of Chicago's hit "lost" musicals in staged concert series, Porchlight Revisits Little Me, music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and book by Neil Simon based on the novel by Patrick Dennis, with direction by Porchlight Artistic Director Michael Weber, musical direction by Linda Madonia, choreography by Craig Miller with special guest choreography by veteran Bob Fosse dancer Jane Lanier and starring Jeff Award-winner Matt Crowle. 

The U.S. National Tour of ANNIE, now in its third smash year, will return to the State Theatre in Easton today, February 24.   Directed by original lyricist and director Martin Charnin for the 19th time, this production of ANNIE is a brand new incarnation of the iconic Tony Award-winning original.

???????On Monday, May 1, 2017, The New York Pops will celebrate its 34th birthday with a grand gala evening honoring Tony Award winners Kelli O'Hara and Bartlett Sher, whose collaborations over the last decade have won universal acclaim and whose individual careers represent pinnacles of achievement in the world of theatre.

Today's forecast... flurries with a chance of Cagney! The show must go on folks, and now is the time to grab your tickets to see hit musical Cagney. $25 rush tickets are available for the 2PM matinee today, Thursday, February 9.