On Saturday, December 14, at 3pm and 6pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) Holiday POPS! concert celebrates the season with returns of the New Jersey Tap Dance Ensemble and the Princeton High School Choir. The festive program features March of the Toys by Victor Herbert, 'White Christmas' by Irving Berlin, 'Waltz of the Flowers' from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, a polka by Johann Strauss Jr., Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride, and more. Of course, everyone is invited to join in the annual carol sing-along! Conductor Nell Flanders leads both performances, which take place at Richardson Auditorium on the campus of Princeton University.
A frothy holiday confection playing out in Hollywood inspired Technicolor-come-to-life is the best way to describe the Shaw Festival's jubilant production of Irving Berlin's HOLIDAY INN now onstage at their Festival Theatre. Based on the 1942 movie of the same name starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, HOLIDAY INN has been overshadowed a bit by the later Berlin hit WHITE CHRISTMAS. But thanks to some crackerjack casting and a huge budget, The Shaw has breathed new life into the 2014 stage version written by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge.
Everything from Matteo Lane giving us very Mariah Christmas (Dec 17) to Isaac Oliver (writer on GLOW & High Maintenance) as your Valentine (Feb 13) to the debut of a very special project by Gloria Reuben (Mar 31) will hit the stage at Joe's Pub in the coming weeks!
Broadway Palm proudly presents Sounds of Christmas playing now through December 25, 2019. Bring your family and friends as we celebrate the season with festive production numbers, beautiful dancing and dazzling costumes!
While Thanksgiving may be late this year, we are a little over a month away from the Christmas holiday. Des Moines Performing Arts is jumping into the holiday season. Tuesday evening, they opened the return engagement of 'Irving Berlin's White Christmas,' which runs through Sunday, November 24. Watching this production was like opening a Christmas Card, and I found myself smiling from beginning to end. I am excited to share what made this production fun to watch.
Porchlight Music Theatre continue its 25th Anniversary Season with its 'lost' musicals in staged concert series Porchlight Revisits. Porchlight Revisits Call Me Madam, with book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin stars Donica Lynn as the titular socialite presented for three performances Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Thursday, Nov. 21 at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents the internationally-acclaimed The Pianist of Willesden Lane. Starring celebrated pianist Mona Golabek, this triumphant tour de force recounts the inspiring true story of Golabek's mother, Lisa Jura, a young Jewish musician. Created and directed by TheatreWorks favorite Hershey Felder, this musical journey follows Jura's escape from Nazi-occupied Austria via the Kindertransport, and her life at a children's home on Willesden Lane in London, where she later survived the London Blitz. Combining vivid storytelling and masterful performances of classics by Bach, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff, The Pianist of Willesden Lane is a one-woman show that illustrates how music can bring light and hope to even the darkest of times.
Irving Berlin's White Christmas opened Sunday night November 17 to a packed house at Theatre at the Center in Munster. The cast gave a thrilling performance for an audience that was teeming with the holiday spirit. Theatre at the Center Artistic Director Linda Fortunato directed and choreographed the show.
The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Evans Haile, Executive Director), dedicated to the development of new musicals and rediscovery of musical gems from the past, announces the cast and creative team for the Off-Broadway premiere production of the new musical revue Anything Can Happen in the Theater: The Musical World of Maury Yeston with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. Performances begin Tuesday, November 26, 2019 for a limited engagement through Sunday, December 29, 2019 at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue). Opening Night is Thursday, December 5 at 6:45 p.m.
Just in time to kick-off the festive season, Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn begins previews November 16 on The Shaw's Festival Theatre stage. Directed by Associate Artistic Director Kate Hennig, this fresh take on the 1942 award-winning film features some of Irving Berlin's best-loved songs under the music direction of Paul Sportelli and with choreography by Allison Plamondon. Holiday Inn, along with The Shaw's evergreen sell-out A Christmas Carol, are just two of the highlights celebrating the spirit of the season in picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake.
FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Meghan Murphy in Big Red & The Boys on Dec 18th, 2018 at 9:30pm. A non-traditional evening of songs, stories and spirits with Songstress Powerhouse Meghan 'Big Red Murphy and her holiday boys, Patrick Andrews, John Francisco, TJ Chernick and Nick Davio on guitar, keys, drums, cello and percussion. This ain't your mama's holiday show! Big voices. Big laughs. Big Red.
The preview of the magnificent things to come happens when Brian Stokes Mitchell sings the first song of his current show at Feinstein's/54 Below. It's the Irving Berlin classic “There's No Business Like Show Business”. I'm sure if Berlin ever heard the Stokes version he would bow down in tribute to the thrilling performance and unique revisit that the Tony Award Winner and consummate artist has brought to his 1954 tune written for Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun. Stokes navigates the innovative Tedd Firth arrangement and makes you feel excited, awestruck, and comfortable as his rich baritone voice effortlessly glides through the constant time signature and key changes. This current show at 54 is titled Brian Stokes Mitchell Plays With Music-Holiday and Stokes brings his acting, musicianship, and charismatic personality to make every tune on his song list a moving experience. The New York Times has dubbed Brian Stokes Mitchell as Broadway's “Last Leading Man” but Stokes is even much more than that. He's Chairman of the Board of The Actors Fund. He has a unique ability to bring people together and that theme is constant throughout his show. His encore at this performance was “What A Wonderful World” and the SRO audience left feeling that way mainly because Brian Stokes Mitchell is in it.
It's beginning to look a lot like Broadway at the Irving Arts Center as MainStage Irving-Las Colinas returns with their second annual holiday fundraiser, HAVE YOURSELF A BROADWAY LITTLE CHRISTMAS. Get ready to deck the hall with your favorite local performers, because this cheerful winter concert is even bigger and better than before.
If these (Friar) walls could talk you would hear music and conversation from show biz legends of the past. Irving Berlin was a Friar who together with Friar George M. Cohan wrote many musical reviews called Friars Frolics to entertain their fellow Friars. Last night the Friars Club presented “An Evening With Irving Berlin” to celebrate the publication of Irving Berlin: New York Genius by bestselling author and Award Winner James Kaplan.
Molly Atkinson once again directs the Tim Carroll-adapted A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens's beloved tale of redemption and hope. Returning to the Shaw Festival's Royal George Theatre from November 13 to December 22, the holiday classic hits the stage just in time to herald Niagara-on-the-Lake's historic main street's transformation into the ultimate Christmas village.
Back to Birdland by popular demand following two sold-out performances, a?oeA Celebration of Jewish Broadwaya?? honors the songs and stories of Jewish composers and their contributions to the American Musical. Beloved melodies and lyrics by the likes of Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Schwartz, and Carole King will transport the audience back to the streets of the theatre district, your bubbie's Shabbos table, or the places of your dreams.
The festive season is a fantastic time for a London theatre trip to get together with friends and family and celebrate with a show full of seasonal goodwill, or just great drama, music, laughs and spectacle. Looking for theatre inspiration? Here are some of the best seasonal shows!
