Harold Arlen News

2019 MAC Award (female vocalist) and 2017 Margaret Whiting Award Winner, Josephine Sanges, celebrates the legacy of Fanny Brice by recalling her own experience playing the leading role in the 1995 Diocesan Theater Guild production of FUNNY GIRL. She puts her own personal stamp on songs from both FUNNY GIRL and FUNNY LADY as well reinvigorating a few of Fanny’s original, trademark songs from the Ziegfeld Follies and Hollywood films.

Manhattan Symphonie, conducted by Gregory Singer, joins forces with Cantor Daniel Singer of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue with dozens of cantors from the tristate area in a remarkable concert to benefit Ukraine Crisis Relief.

CLUB44 RECORDS has announced the new album Carol Sloane, Live at Birdland, which will be available on streaming platforms and on CD in stores and online Friday, April 8. This release marks the veteran vocalist’s 60th anniversary as a recording artist, and her first album in over a decade.

BIRDLAND JAZZ CLUB will present Tony Award-winner Debbie Gravitte in a special residency “Debbie Plus One” starting Monday, April 11 at 7:00 PM. Gravitte has been in theater long enough to have made some very special friends, and she welcomes Stephen Schwartz (April 11), Marc Shaiman (May 9), and Harvey Fierstein (September 12).

Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater are open this April with a full slate of nightly performances! 

San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, has announced its 2022 season, welcoming the largest class of artists in company history. Selected from more than 1,300 international applicants, this year's class is made up of 31 artists coming from as far away as China, Costa Rica, South Korea, Taiwan, and Uzbekistan, as well as across the United States and Canada.

Rufus Wainwright has announced the release of Rufus Does Judy at Capitol Studios, an all-new performance of his tribute to Judy Garland, Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, recorded last year at Los Angeles’ famed Capitol Studios. Watch the music video for 'The Man That Got Away' now. Plus, check out upcoming tour dates!

Special to the evening will be the San Francisco debut performance of critically acclaimed opera singer and finalist on NBC television’s hit show The Voice, countertenor John Holiday, in a spectacular musical program spanning opera to pop, including the artist’s heartfelt interpretation of Harold Arlen’s immortal “Over the Rainbow.” Kevin Korth will be Holiday’s musical collaborator.

Nelson Riddle, the legendary arranger/orchestrator/composer is largely responsible for what we think of as the sound of The Great American Songbook. His arrangements and orchestrations for artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney, and Doris Day, created for the Capitol label defined the sound of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. He is responsible for resuscitating Sinatra’s career and turning him into the legend he became. Riddle is the creator of the “Rat Pack” sound, composing scores for Robin and the Seven Hoods and Ocean’s 11 among dozens of other films. He won an Oscar for the score of 1974’s The Great Gatsby in addition to 3 Grammy awards, two of them for his album collaborations with Linda Ronstadt that revived his extraordinary career shortly before his death in 1985. It’s hard to overestimate his importance to American popular music.

For the first time, Broadway star and Tony Award-winner Lillias White takes to the Crazy Coqs stage; Crazy Coqs regular and favourite Lorna Luft returns with a new show celebrating the Great American Songbook, as well as songs made famous by her mother, Judy Garland, and more!

BIRDLAND JAZZ CLUB will present Karen Mason in her show “Kander & Ebb…And All That Jazz” on Monday, March 28 at 7:00 PM. The evening honors John Kander and Fred Ebb, the Tony Award-winning songwriters behind Broadway’s Cabaret, Chicago and more.

Award-winning vocalist and recording artist, Mark William, will play a return engagement at Feinstein's at Hotel Carmichael in Carmel, Indiana, on March 25th and March 26th at 7:30pm.  Following his triumphant debut there this past summer, Mark is back with his new show, “Mark William: Back With A Beat”.

The concert features mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford, soprano Kearstin Piper Brown, and baritone Jorell Williams, together with pianists Nathaniel LaNasa and Steven Blier, in works by Black composers that include H. Leslie Adams, Margaret Bonds, Harry Burleigh, Adolphus C. Hailstork, Robert Owens, Hale Smith, and William Grant Still..

When Marlene Dietrich phoned a young singer out of the blue, the icon stayed on the line for an unforgettable three hours...30 years later West End and Broadway star Ute Lemper reveals all in her 5-star critically acclaimed show 'Ute Lemper: Rendezvous With Marlene'.

BIRDLAND will present drag legend Coco Peru in the new show “Bitter Bothered & Beyond!” for two special performances. The first show at Birdland Jazz Club on Monday, March 21 at 7:00 PM quickly sold out, so an encore performance has been added for Tuesday, March 22 at 8:30 PM downstairs at the Birdland Theater.

Multiple GRAMMY Award-nominated violinist Philippe Quint will make his highly-anticipated debut with the New World Symphony on Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 7:30pm. Conducted by Richard Kaufman, the concert, entitled Music of the Silver Screen, will feature numerous selections from beloved classic Hollywood films.

Award-winning vocalist and recording artist, Mark William, will play a return engagement at Feinstein’s at Hotel Carmichael in Carmel, Indiana, on March 25th and March 26th at 7:30pm.  Following his triumphant debut there this past summer, Mark is back with his new show, “Mark William: Back With A Beat”.

Award-winning Porchlight Music Theatre has announced that its latest mainstage production, the “Best Musical” Tony Award-nominated Blues in the Night, conceived by Sheldon Epps, with the music of Bessie Smith, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Gordon Jenkins, Alberta Hunter and others, is now extended through March 20 at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts.

Davenport’s Piano Bar & Cabaret, Chicago’s premier location for enjoying music in an intimate setting, announces its roster of March performances in its Cabaret and Piano Bar.

Award-winning Porchlight Music Theatre latest mainstage production the “Best Musical” Tony Award-nominated Blues in the Night, conceived by Sheldon Epps, with the music of Bessie Smith, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Gordon Jenkins, Alberta Hunter and others, is now playing through March 13 at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.