Irving Berlin News

Julian Ovenden is not who you think he is. Sure, you'll have seen him a lot on television including Foyle's War and as the scheming Charles Blake in Downton Abbey, but his new album, Be My Love (released April 22nd on East West Records), is the culmination of 33 years of musical training.

All aboard! Goodspeed Musicals kicks off its 2016 season at The Goodspeed with the Broadway hit ANYTHING GOES, and the company just announced a star-packed cast.

The producers of the RENT 20th Anniversary Tour announced today that single tickets will go on sale on Sunday, February 28, 2016 at the Citi Center box office, through www.citicenter.org  or by calling (866) 348-9738. The tour will play a two week engagement at the Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre April 11 - 23, 2017.

After their sold-out show at The Duplex in December, Disney Miscast!, Gay and Girl Studios return to The Duplex. The Many Roads to Oz is a cabaret involving all three of everyone's favorite journeys to the Emerald City. This show features songs from The Wiz, Wicked & The Wizard of Oz. All three in a combination to make for a wonderful night. The Many Roads to Oz is produced, written, and directed by Jason Hillard and Alexa Bishop of Gay and Girl Studios.

This year's original show from Musical Theater Heritage will be "AN EVENING WITH COLE PORTER" March 3-13, written by MTH Executive Director & Founder, George Harter. The program will feature an all local cast including the internationally famous tenor, Ben Gulley and Kansas City favorite Lauren Braton.

Broadway by the Year, now in its 16th season at The Town Hall, once again re-invents itself to bring a fresh and exciting new perspective to The Great White Way's classic show tunes. This season, series creator / writer / director / host Scott Siegel will use each of the four BBTY concerts to explore the ever-popular music that was born on Broadway over four formative decades.

Trip of Love, New York's high-voltage 1960's Pop Music Spectacular, proudly announces three casting updates:  Brandon Leffler steps into the role of George.  Leffler's Broadway and national tour credits including On the Town,Cinderella, Wicked, A Chorus Line, Cats, and Fanny and Anyone Can Whistle atEncores! Great American Musicals In Concert®.  Television audiences have seen Leffler on TV's 'SNL,' '30 Rock,' and 'Gossip Girl.'

On March 4, EgoPo presents the opening of Clare Boothe Luce's comic masterpiece, The Women with an all-female cast of 19.

Broadway stars Lisa Howard (It Shoulda Been You) and John Bolton (A Christmas Story: The Musical) are joining the cast of AMERICAN SHOWSTOPPERS featuring Fred Barton & His Orchestra in 'An Evening with Cole Porter' next month.

Following critical acclaim at the Savoy Theatre, the Chichester Festival Theatre revival of Guys and Dolls will be extending its run at the Phoenix Theatre from 19 March 2016. Casting for the West End extension includes multiple Olivier Award-winning actress Samantha Spiro (Hello Dolly) as Miss Adelaide, Richard Kind (Disney/Pixar's BAFTA award-wining Inside Out) as Nathan Detroit and Oliver Tompsett (Wicked) as Sky Masterson. Continuing in their roles from the Savoy to the Phoenix Theatre are Siubhan Harrison as Sarah Brown, and Gavin Spokes as Nicely Nicely Johnson.

Tonight, Artistic Director Mark Clements and Managing Director Chad Bauman announced Milwaukee Repertory Theater's 2016/17 Season to a group of The Rep's subscribers, donors, community leaders, and members of the press.

FINDING NEVERLAND has welcomed its new leading man! Tony Award nominee Tony Yazbeck (On The Town) recently took over the role of Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie in the smash hit, record-breaking Broadway musical. BroadwayWorld recently stopped by the the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre to check in with Yazbeck about the role and while we were there, he gave us a tour of his new dressing room!

San Diego audience favorite Hershey Felder ("George Gershwin Alone," "Monsieur Chopin," "Beethoven," "Liszt," "An American Story," "Irving Berlin") returns to San Diego Repertory Theatre in a pre-New York engagement of "Hershey Felder as Leonard Bernstein in MAESTRO." Fresh from a sold out run of "Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin" at the La Jolla Playhouse, Felder will now perform this signature work about America's finest conductor and composer, Leonard Bernstein, which had its premiere in 2011 at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. Directed by Joel Zwick, "MAESTRO" plays a limited engagement from Wednesday, July 6 to Sunday, July 17, 2016. Details for the New York presentation will be announced in April.

While she's living the dream in NYC, Maria Briggs is back in the Twin Cities this month to play Val in A CHORUS LINE at the Ordway in Saint Paul.

Today in 1946, Annie Get Your Gun opened at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 1147 performances. Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860-1926), who was a sharpshooter from Ohio, and her husband, Frank Butler. Songs that became hits include 'There's No Business Like Show Business', 'Doin' What Comes Natur'lly', 'You Can't Get a Man with a Gun', 'They Say It's Wonderful', and 'Anything You Can Do.'

Theatre enthusiasts packed the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts tonight to hear Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley and Managing Director Phil Santora of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley unveil the line-up for the company's 47th season.

There's a great Scottish word that came to mind while I was watching Emmanuel Chabrier's one-act French operetta, UNE EDUCATION MANQUEE (AN INCOMPLETE EDUCATION), this past weekend by Washington, DC's Opera Lafayette at the French Institute-Alliance Francaise in New York. It's “twee,” which roughly translates as “affectedly dainty” or “quaint.” The French don't seem to have an equivalent; the closest I could come up with is “mignon,” which means “cute” and doesn't quite fit the bill for this slight-yet-charming piece of Gallic fluff.

Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus' MAMMA MIA!, the smash hit musical based on the songs of ABBA, returns to Playhouse Square, March 8-13, 2016. Performances begin on Tuesday, March 8, and run through Sunday, March 13, at the Connor Palace - Tickets on sale now!

Having conquered Broadway with a string of acclaimed roles -- from GYPSY to WHITE CHRISTMAS to ON THE TOWN and now FINDING NEVERLAND -- triple-threat Tony Yazbeck sets his sights on reinventing the solo album with his new studio recording, THE FLOOR ABOVE ME, adapted and expanded from his one-man show. The album is available in stores and online via PS Classics today, February 5, 2016.

Now onstage by the Aerospace Players through February 6, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN tells the story of sharpshooter Annie Oakley (Julie Hinton, a natural comedienne who perfectly inhabits the role) and her romance with Frank Butler (Stephen Cathers). Unfortunately, Cathers has no chemistry whatsoever with Hinton, and try as she might to entice him, their romance seems implausible and totally unbelievable. Without two solid leads who really appear to be in love, or at least attracted to each other physically, the musical lacks the spark needed to fuel the plot.