Harold Arlen News

New York Festival of Song will mark its seventh annual co-presentation with Juilliard and its ongoing collaboration with Juilliard choreographer/dance instructor Jeanne Slater with a program titled INVITATION TO THE DANCE to be performed on Wednesday, January 18 at 8:00PM in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard.

Lincoln Center's American Songbook Week Two runs January 18-21, 2012 at The Allen Room, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, located at Broadway at 60th Street.

LML Music is announcing the February 14, 2012 release of "Ain't We Got Fun!", the debut CD of actor/singer/dancer/writer/composer, Robert Creighton.

Part of the Arts and Ideas series of performances, lectures and conversations, The Friend Center for the Arts at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (JCCSF) presents a wide array of Performing Arts programming from January through June of 2012. Highlights include performances by the Martha Graham Dance Company, the West Coast premiere of Up From the Stacks and the musical, The Man that Got Away.

The Coterie is proud to present Alistair Tober in an intimate holiday concert performance. Modern Day Crooner and Universal Fontana Recording Artist, Alistair Tober will perform classic Jazz standards, original songs inspired by The Great American Songbook and Holiday favorites backed by his 5 piece band. Special guests to be announced shortly. Alistair Tober: Hollywood Crooner Concert, playing December 12th, is a holiday music event that is not to be missed!

Today we have a super-special triple-focus Flash Friday dedicated not only to two of the top-tier talents in the entertainment history ever - Judy Garland and Michael Crawford - but, also, to the ever-lasting entity through which they are now, forever, inextricably linked - THE WIZARD OF OZ. Of course, Judy Garland famously starred in the original 1939 film adaptation of the L. Frank Baum children's classic, but, just this past year, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice and Jeremy Sams adapted the classic film for the stage to much success and added a number of significant new songs to the Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg score. Be sure to catch my exclusive InDepth InterView with Michael Crawford that went live earlier this evening to read all about the new stage spectacular, as well as his affection for Judy Garland in the original film and some of his own favorite Christmas and holiday songs. Additionally, next Tuesday GLEE will be paying tribute to Judy Garland in the form of a mid-1960s-style TV Christmas special homage, so now is certainly as good a time as any to look back at the unparalleled performance of Garland in THE WIZARD OF OZ - for which she won a juvenile Academy Award - as well as her 1963 Christmas special which featured guest performances by Mel Torme, Liza Minnelli and more! So, make this a truly Mikey & Judy holiday season - as opposed to Mickey & Judy one - with this spotlight on Michael Crawford and Judy Garland and both their OZ-ian and Christmas connections - and a GLEE-ful surprise or two, too. After all, 'tis the season!

The ASCAP Foundation honored composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz for his lifetime contributions to the Musical Theater with The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award.

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns to the elegant Allen Room in January for its fourteenth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic songwriting. Week One of the 2012 season will start off with a relatively new composer on the scene, multiple Tony-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) who will be bringing his new rap composition about American historical figure Alexander Hamilton called The Hamilton Mixtape. Next up is the just-nominated-for-a-Grammy Award duo Chris Thile and Michael Daves, who play a dazzling, modern form of bluegrass that nonetheless references legendary bluegrass artists from the past. From the rock canon will be J.D. Souther, performing songs he wrote for Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles as well as newer compositions. To close out Week One, composer William Finn (Falsettos, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), along with guest vocalists, will be performing a song cycle inspired by the poetry of William Blake.

Faith Prince has won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for her role as Ms. Adelaide in the critically-acclaimed revival of 'Guys and Dolls.' Today, Prince will present 'Total Faith,' a one-night only concert at Northwestern University.

"The Wizard of Oz," the musical fantasy about a young girl who travels to a magical land, begins a three-weekend run on the Playhouse Merced mainstage Friday, December 2 at 7:30 pm.

The Coterie is proud to present Alistair Tober in an intimate holiday concert performance. Modern Day Crooner and Universal Fontana Recording Artist, Alistair Tober will perform classic Jazz standards, original songs inspired by The Great American Songbook and Holiday favorites backed by his 5 piece band. Special guests to be announced shortly. Alistair Tober: Hollywood Crooner Concert, playing December 12th, is a holiday music event that is not to be missed!

Tribute artist Peter Mac, nominated for 4 BWW Awards 2011, left his dresses in the closet November 25 and 26 to present an intimate evening of song at the Gardenia in honor of his favorite composers.Potpourri was almost the title of the show, Mac explained, because the composers as diverse as Harold Arlen and Bobby Darin, who composed the opener and title song 'As Long As I'm Singing', created tunes with a mix of styles. Very few impressionists can strip away the makeup and perform as themselves. Jim Bailey did it on occasion, and Peter Mac is following gloriously in his footsteps. Mac has a terrific vocal range, and much, much more... he's sexy and has an aura, a charismatic spirit that never lets down. Anecdote follows anecdote, and he keeps his audience on their toes as they are asked to take commemorative journeys with him. Such TV programs as Dark Shadows and everyone's fav vampire Barnabas Collins played into a couple of his songs. Remember? Those who did not live through the 60s had either collected those delightful Shadows videos like Mac himself or had found themselves entertained by the gothic soap's actors, such as David Selby or Lara Parker, at yearly conventions/festivals. If none of the preceding, you can look forward to the new film starring Johnny Depp as Collins. Mac essayed 'If I Can't Love Her' from Beauty and the Beast and really delved into this in depth love that he compared to that of Barnabas and his beloved Josette Dupres.

Peter Mac is headlining two nights at the Gardenia in West Hollywood! The man who has been critically acclaimed as tribute artist of all things Judy Garland will be showing off his masculine side.

The greatest family musical of all time, THE WIZARD OF OZ, is touching down in Philadelphia as part of theBroadway Season for a limited engagement at the Merriam Theater on December 27 & 28.

"The Wizard of Oz," the musical fantasy about a young girl who travels to a magical land, begins a three-weekend run on the Playhouse Merced mainstage Friday, December 2 at 7:30 pm.

Carla Cook, Brandon Victor Dixon, Jared Grimes and Adriane Lenox have been cast in Duke Ellington's Cotton Club Parade, opening November 18 at New York City Center.