Ian Grant News

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, announces the details for the New Opera Showcase, taking place on Friday, January 13 at 8:00 p.m. at historic Town Hall in the heart of New York City's Times Square.

Thriller Live has smashed yet another West End record to become London's 16th Longest Running Musical of all time.

CAT Theatre will present I'll Be Back Before Midnight October 14 through October 29, 2016. CAT Theatre and I'll Be Back Before Midnight director Stephen Ryan are pleased to announce the cast for this upcoming suspense thriller.

Resuming its usual time slot on Sunday, October 9 at 4 pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presents Viennese Reflections Edward T. Cone Concert spotlighting one of the most important violinists of our time-Leila Josefowicz. Ms. Josefowicz performsAlban Berg's Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel" with the orchestra under the direction of Rossen Milanov. Bookending the concerto is the world premiere of Julian Grant's PSO-commissioned work Is it enough? Perhaps it is… and Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944 "Great." The concert takes place at Richardson Auditorium on Princeton University campus.

Record-breaking Thriller Live announces a new West End booking period to October 2017; a new Thriller Live tour hopes to have audiences dancing in the aisles across the UK and Europe from January 2017 - and the show opens tonight in the People's Republic of China, chosen as the opening production in a major new resort.

Resuming its usual time slot on Sunday, October 9 at 4 pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presents Viennese Reflections Edward T. Cone Concert spotlighting one of the most important violinists of our time-Leila Josefowicz. Ms. Josefowicz performsAlban Berg's Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel" with the orchestra under the direction of Rossen Milanov.

Resuming its usual time slot on Sunday, October 9 at 4 pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presents Viennese Reflections Edward T. Cone Concert spotlighting one of the most important violinists of our time-Leila Josefowicz. Ms. Josefowicz performsAlban Berg's Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel" with the orchestra under the direction of Rossen Milanov. Bookending the concerto is the world premiere of Julian Grant's PSO-commissioned work Is it enough? Perhaps it is… and Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944 "Great." The concert takes place at Richardson Auditorium on Princeton University campus.

CAT Theatre will present I'll Be Back Before Midnight October 14 through October 29, 2016. CAT Theatre and I'll Be Back Before Midnight director Stephen Ryan are pleased to announce the cast for this upcoming suspense thriller.

On Thursday, September 15 at 8 pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presents The Seasons -- Antonio Vivaldi's popular The Four Seasons interwoven with Astor Piazzolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, arranged by Leonid Desyatnikov. The concert at Richardson Auditorium features Daniel Rowland as violinist and conductor, leading the PSO through Vivaldi's vividly depicted scenery and Piazzolla's soulful homage infused with passionate melodies and tango rhythms.

The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is offering a sixth concert addition to its Classical Series at Richardson Auditorium with a special prelude-The Seasons on Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 8 pm.

Every time I attend something in jazz pianist Ronny Whyte's estimable weekly series at the welcoming, modern Saint Peter's Church (619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street), I'm glad I came. The place is airy, peaceful, and sunny with spacious pew and tiered seating. Acoustics are splendid. The audience is respectful. And they have Billy Strayhorn's piano. Yesterday's easy-going hour featured Alex Leonard on piano and vocals (one forgets how fine a vocalist he is), David Kingsnorth on bass, and veteran Al Gafa on guitar.

Some years ago when Tony Award-winning actress (for For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (Ntozake Shange) and playwright Trezanna Beverley's voice coach suggested she listen to Mabel Mercer, the artist had not heard of the nightclub and cabaret singing icon. A trip to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Harlem) began a protracted period of research into Mercer's life and work. Beverley found she not only respected and admired her subject, but felt a kinship both in spirit and color. Inspired, she decided to write her own theatrical script about Mercer's life and art with the goal of playing her in a one-woman show. Her dream has been realized with Mabel Madness, a play with music that opened this week at Urban Stages and runs until March 20.

Last Sunday, New York's Birdland Jazz Club welcomed the third and fourth shows in Ann Hampton Callaway's This is Cabaret series that is subsequently aired on National Public Radio (check local listings for dates and times). As increased exposure is vital to the health of the art form, one can only applaud its emergence. Callaway's special guests (one in each hour segment) were jazz performer Kurt Elling and cabaret Goddess Marilyn Maye.

There was champagne and a massive cake on stage last night as the cast, producers and backstage crew celebrated Thriller Live entering the record books as the 20th longest running musical in West End history.

Kieran Alleyne last night became the first of Thriller Live's young West End MJs to return to the show the sing as the adult Michael Jackson.

The West End's first MJ, Kieran Alleyne, returns to the show for one night only as Thriller- Live enters its record-breaking 6th year at the Lyric Theatre Photos attached of Kieran in Thriller - Live in 2009 and today as a rising star recording artist Kieran Alleyne was a shy 13-year-old Leicester schoolboy with no formal acting training when he was chosen in an open audition from thousands of young hopefuls for a starring role in the West End, singing the songs of the young Michael Jackson in Thriller - Live.

THRILLER LIVE, the spectacular concert show that celebrates the music of the world's greatest entertainer and undisputed King of Pop, Michael and the Jackson 5, last night celebrated 2,000 record-breaking performances in the West End in a night packed with surprises. Scroll down for photos from the festivities!

Macbeth, produced by Infinite Space Theatre, directed by Nick Hastings, will premiere at the Cockpit Theatre, London NW8, for a three-week season from Today 10 - Saturday 26 October, 2013.

Thriller - Live, the spectacular concert show that celebrates the music of the world's greatest entertainer and undisputed King of Pop, Michael and the Jackson 5, is extending its West End booking period to Sunday 28 September, 2014