George Gershwin News

Continuing a 125-year tradition of bringing the best American music to audiences in New England and across the country, the legendary Boston Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart present a spring season brimming with a rich variety of American popular music and favorite light classics, May 11 - June 26, at Symphony Hall in Boston, MA. A kaleidoscope of American musical styles, including jazz, bluegrass, Dixieland, country, gospel, pop, rhythm & blues, and the show-stopping songs of Broadway and Hollywood, will be featured during the 2011 Boston Pops Season, as the orchestra performs many of the most celebrated styles of our national musical legacy. The season showcases the phenomenal talents of musical theater greats Linda Eder, Julia Murney, and New York Pops conductor Steven Reineke; Boston Pops Gospel Night conductor Charles Floyd; film music master and Boston Pops Laureate Conductor John Williams; jazz trumpeter and vocalist Byron Stripling; bluegrass king Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder; Ray Charles protégé Ellis Hall; pop music all-star Kenny Loggins; New Orleans jazz ambassadors Dukes of Dixieland; and the great interpreter of the American Songbook, Michael Feinstein.

Performances end March 6, 2011 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

Taking traditional ballet to the edge of expression and back again, Indiana Univeristy Ballet Theater offers three major choreographies by three leading 20th-century New York choreographers in its upcoming spring ballet program New York, New York!.

The Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director and Stephen Eich, Executive Director) announced that a 10th anniversary presentation of GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE, created by and starring Hershey Felder, will play a limited engagement at The Pasadena Playhouse

The Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director and Stephen Eich, Executive Director) announced that a 10th anniversary presentation of GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE, created by and starring Hershey Felder, will play a limited engagement at The Pasadena Playhouse. Performances will begin April 12, 2011, with the official press opening on Sunday, April 17, 2011. A global live radio broadcast of the production on the WFMT Radio Network will take place on May 2nd. The Playhouse will also present the popular Hershey Felder's Great American Songbook Sing-Along, which is scheduled for April 25 and May 9, 2011.

Chicago's Court Theatre has announced casting for Porgy and Bess which is set to run May 12 - June 19. The cast will include: Todd M. Kryger (Porgy), Alexis Rogers (Bess), Karla Beard (Serena), Bear Bellinger (Peter), Sean Blake (Sportin' Life), James Earl Jones II (Crown), Brian-Alwyn Newland (Robbins), Harriet Nzinga Plumpp (Clara), Kelvin Roston, Jr. (Jim), Bethany Thomas (Maria), Travis Turner (Mingo), Adrienne Walker (Annie), and Byron Glenn Willis (Jake).

Josh Kornbluth, whose monologue style was shaped by his mentor and monologue pioneer Spalding Gray, will perform his first commissioned piece, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews? from March 4-20 on Stage West at the Herberger Theatre.

Court Theatre Artistic Director Charles Newell and Executive Director Stephen J. Albert present the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, directed by Artistic Director Charles Newell, with Artistic Consultant Ron OJ Parson and Musical Direction by Doug Peck.

Goodspeed Musicals, the first theatre in the nation to receive two Tony Awards, is happy to announce the cast of My One And Only. This tap-tastic musical from the director who brought you Goodspeed's Singin' in the Rain and 42nd Street will run from April 15 - June 25 at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn. This production will be sponsored by Bank of America and Amica.

Park Square's 36th season will open with a perceptible crackle when the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY comes to its stage in September.

SAMUEL JOSEPH PRESENTS MARK NADLER- New York Cabaret Star singer/pianist in 'His Lovely Wife, Ira - Ira Gershwin With and Without George'- A brand new show direct from Manhattan

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Various happenings at Broadway In Chicago, new musicals at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 'Follies,' 'Into The Woods,' 'Porgy And Bess,' more....

The second opera in The Atlanta Opera's 2010-2011 season is George Gershwin's American classic Porgy and Bess. Set in Charleston, Porgy and Bess depicts the people of Catfish Row who are yearning for a better life and great love, and features some of the most popular tunes in opera including the lullaby, "Summertime."

Last week I had the exceptional privilege of interviewing newly minted SAG and Golden Globe-winner for Best Actor In A Drama Series for his work on HBO'S BOARDWALK EMPIRE, Steve Buscemi, along with his wife, artist/choreographer Jo Andres, about their participation in the experimental music/theater space in Brooklyn, ISSUE Project Room. For those that are not aware, ISSUE Project Room is a community performance space for up-and-coming musicians, artists, performers and choreographers at 110 Livingston Street with the goal of creating a centralized space for all the arts - avant garde and otherwise. In addition to discussing their shared beginnings in the fringe theatre scene in the East Village in the eighties and the artists who inspired them, Buscemi and Andres also talk about the ultimate goals of the venue, both new and old, and the reason that now is the perfect time for a space such as this to flourish, as new artists get the opportunity to see their work produced. Further information about the venue - and how you can become a member - can be found here.

On Friday, February 25th, join Harlem Opera Theater in saluting black history month with excerpts from George Gershwin's jazz opera, Blue Monday, and Lost in the Stars by composer Kurt Weill at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

American Stage Theatre Company's Susan R. Hough Cabaret, "After Hours" series and Hot Off the Press play reading series in the Raymond James Theatre continue with eight productions in March, STILL HOT FOR PEGGY LEE; ME, MYSELF AND I…MUSICAL MEMOIRS; 321; I AM A CUBAN SANDWICH; PRIVATE PROCEEDING; PATRICK MCINNIS COMEDY HYPNOSIS EXPERIENCE; ARETHA FRANKLIN BIRTHDAY BASH and THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES.

Goodspeed Musicals, the first regional theatre in the nation to receive two Tony Awards, is offering the best seats at the greatest values for each of the three thrilling 2011 Goodspeed Opera House shows, starting next week!

Michael Tilson Thomas guides The Philadelphia Orchestra and its audiences on a journey to the world of his grandparents, Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky, young immigrants from Eastern Europe who became theater superstars, in The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater (February 15 and 16).

Michael Tilson Thomas guides The Philadelphia Orchestra and its audiences on a journey to the world of his grandparents, Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky, young immigrants from Eastern Europe who became theater superstars, in The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater (February 15 and 16).

It's not unusual for music lovers to ponder what the Great American Opera is. A good portion will argue persuasively in favor of Stephen Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD. Others will present strong reasons for George Gershwin's PORGY AND BESS. It's quite possible that THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES by John Corigliano has its coterie of supporters, too.