Hal David News

Award winning tenor Dennis McNeil was the 1993 National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. As a leading tenor at the New York City Opera he was awarded the Richard F. Gold Career Award for his portrayal as ‘Mark' in their New York Stage Premiere of Michael Tippet's A Midsummer Marriage. He also holds first place awards from the Southern California Opera Guild and the Victor Fuchs Memorial Competition and was a recipient of the Emily Baratelli Memorial Award from the New York Opera Index. He is a Sullivan Grant Recipient as well as a recipient of a Rex Foundation Grant from the Grateful Dead. On Sunday May 22 he will completely switch gears and perform a cabaret act @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's.

Reprise Theatre Company presents Barbara Cook in Concert. It will have one performance only on Monday, May 16 at 8:00 pm, at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Barbara Cook in Concert is the latest in Reprise Theatre Company's tradition of presenting Broadway stars and legendary entertainers in concert, which have included Patti LuPone, Carol Burnett, Sutton Foster, Ben Vereen, Kristin Chenoweth, and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Grammy Award-winning vocalist Steve Tyrell has spent four decades in the music business, has achieved great success as an artist, producer, songwriter and performer and is a two-time Emmy nominee. Tyrell helped to re-invent and re-popularize classic pop standards for a modern-day audience and has worked with legendary artists such as Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach and Stevie Wonder.

Goo Goo Doll's John Rzeznik and Daryl Hall know a little something about what it takes to be a lead singer in a rock band, and they put that experience to good use on a selection from the catalog of both groups on the 42nd edition of Live From Daryl's House. The newest installment of the Webby and MTV O Music award-winning Internet series, which last year made its broadcast debut on WGN America to impressive ratings, will debut at www.lfdh.com this Sunday, May 15th.

Goo Goo Doll's John Rzeznik and Daryl Hall know a little something about what it takes to be a lead singer in a rock band, and they put that experience to good use on a selection from the catalog of both groups on the 42nd edition of Live From Daryl's House. The newest installment of the Webby and MTV O Music award-winning Internet series, which last year made its broadcast debut on WGN America to impressive ratings, will debut at www.lfdh.com this Sunday, May 15th.

Executive Producer Lou Spisto today announced that The Old Globe will produce the World Premieres of four new plays and musicals in its 2011-12 Winter Season. The season will feature the World Premiere musicals Some Lovers by music legend Burt Bacharach and Tony Award winner Steven Sater and Nobody Loves You by Gaby Alter and Itamar Moses, as well as the West Coast Premiere of John Kander and Fred Ebb's The Scottsboro Boys, recently nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical, directed and choreographed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman. The two plays receiving World Premiere productions are Somewhere by Globe Playwright-in-Residence Matthew Lopez and The Recommendation by Jonathan Caren. The new season also includes revivals of Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show and the Eugene O'Neill classic Anna Christie directed by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner David Auburn. Special events include the World Premiere of Odyssey by Todd Almond, a music theater event conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet celebrating the Globe's 75th Anniversary, The Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program production of Twelfth Night and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, which returns for its 14th consecutive year.

Reprise Theatre Company presents Ray Romano Live for one performance only on Tuesday, June 7 at 8:00 pm, at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA. Ticket sales from Ray Romano Live support Reprise's mission to produce musical theatre of the highest artistic quality and to make this art form accessible to new audiences through education and outreach programs.

The new Broadway musical Baby It's You! tells the inspiring story of Florence Greenberg, the woman who changed the recording world forever when she discovered The Shirelles and created Scepter Records, becoming the music industry's first female powerhouse. Starring Tony Award winner Beth Leavel as Greenberg, conceived by Floyd Mutrux, directed by Floyd Mutrux and Sheldon Epps, and written by Tony nominated book writers Mutrux and Colin Escott, the team behind Broadway's Million Dollar Quartet, Baby It's You! began performances at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) Saturday, March 26, 2011, and opens TONIGHT, April 27, 2011, at 6:30pm. Baby It's You! features a cast of 19 that includes Allan Louis, Geno Henderson, Erica Ash, Kelli Barrett, Kyra DaCosta, Crystal Starr Knighton, Barry Pearl, Christina Sajous, Brandon Uranowitz, Alison Cimmet, Erica Dorfler, Berlando Drake, Adam Heller, Jahi A. Kearse, Annette Moore, Zachary Prince, Ken Robinson and Chelsea Morgan Stock.

In BABY IT'S YOU!, Beth Leavel stars as Florence Greenberg, the woman who changed the recording world forever when she discovered The Shirelles and created Scepter Records, becoming the music industry's first female powerhouse. Check out the production photos below!

Desperate times call for drastic measures. Theatricum Botanicum's 2011 Summer Repertory Season treats us to the most notorious characters everyone loves to hate.

The Friends of the Sheldon present Steve Tyrell, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the perfect acoustics of the Sheldon Concert Hall. Grammy Award-winning vocalist Steve Tyrell has spent four decades in the music business, has achieved great success as an artist, producer, songwriter and performer and is a two-time Emmy nominee. Tyrell helped to re-invent and re-popularize classic pop standards for a modern-day audience and has worked with legendary artists such as Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach and Stevie Wonder.

On this very day in 1943, Michael DiFiglia was born in Buffalo, New York, and the world of Broadway would simply never be the same. Cutting his teeth with the accomplished choreography for A JOYFUL NOISE, PROMISES, PROMISES, SEESAW and COCO was merely the beginning of a career that would virtually rewrite and revolutionize the ways and means by which a director could yield ultimate control over a project. With COMPANY and FOLLIES, the later co-directing with Hal Prince, Bennett solidified himself as one of the most talented and brilliant choreographers of his generation and, shortly thereafter, proved with A CHORUS LINE that he was a master theatrical engineer with few, if any, peers. Worldwide success, Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize were just the gravy. Who else but Michael Bennett would then, or ever, receive - or should I say, earn - the credit "Entire Production Conceived, Produced and Directed by," besides him? While BALLROOM failed to live up to A CHORUS LINE in mostly every way, he soon after reinvented the wheel yet again with DREAMGIRLS in 1981. We never got to see his productions of CHESS and SCANDAL, both of which he was in the latter stages of developing at the time of his death in 1988. Broadway has never been the same since he's been gone. So, today, on the day following a glittering new production of COMPANY at Lincoln Center - with the complete dance sequence "Tick Tock" fully restored, now with five dancers - we take a tip of the top hat to the tops in taps, temerity and truthfulness onstage - the one and only Michael Bennett.

Josh Strickland, currently starring in PEEPSHOW and 'Holly's World' on E!, debuted the video for his first ever solo artist single, 'Report to the Floor.' The world premier of the video took place after last night's finale of the hit reality show. 'Report to the Floor' was co-produced by Grammy Award winning producer Damon Elliott and by Norwegian pop/dance producer Axident. The single has now taken the world by storm and is currently #3 on the iTunes Dance Charts.

Josh Strickland, currently starring in PEEPSHOW and 'Holly's World' on E!, debuted a music viedo for his first ever solo artist single on iTunes. The song, titled 'Report to the Floor' was co-produced by Grammy Award winning producer Damon Elliott and by Norwegian pop/dance producer Axident.

Sara Chase joins Michel Weiner, and Darren Le Gallo returns this week, on Then we got HELP! Creator Julie Ann Emery (Hitch, 'Damages', 'Dexter') pulls a ‘Roseanne' by putting Chase in the role of Ashley, last season played by Broadway's Brandi Burkhardt, who was unavailable this season.

Sisters Liz and Ann Hampton Callaway, are set to bring their cabaret BOOM! back to New York City this May. Performances will take place at Birdland May 3-7 at 8:30PM and 11PM. For additional information, visit: www.Birdlandjazz.com.

The new Broadway musical Baby It's You! tells the inspiring story of Florence Greenberg, the woman who changed the recording world forever when she discovered The Shirelles and created Scepter Records, becoming the music industry's first female powerhouse.

In BABY IT'S YOU!, Beth Leavel stars as Florence Greenberg, the woman who changed the recording world forever when she discovered The Shirelles and created Scepter Records, becoming the music industry's first female powerhouse. Check out a sneek peak from the show below!

Reprise Theatre Company presents Barry Manilow in Concert for one performance only on Tuesday, March 22 at 8:00 pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall. This special event is presented by Reprise Theatre Company as its Annual Gala Performance. Ticket sales from Barry Manilow in Concert support Reprise's mission to produce musical theatre of the highest artistic quality and to make this art form accessible to new audiences through education and outreach programs.

St. Louis has experienced a veritable confluence of exceptional songwriting talent with concerts by Randy Newman (The Sheldon), Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard (The Fox), along with the recent three day stand at the Kranzberg by Jimmy Webb. While I certainly regret missing the show at the Fox, I did catch Newman's evening at the Sheldon, and I also managed to attend the opening night performance of Jimmy Webb (March 17, 2011), who promoting his latest release, Just Across the River, as well. I'm happy to report that I enjoyed the show, and was particularly entertained by his reminiscences on a golden era of songwriting.