Mercury Theatre, Colchester, Brian Eastman and Christabel Albery present a new musical comedy based on the StudioCanal Peter Sellers/Margaret Rutherford film THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH. The UK tour of THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH began performances 25 September at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, before playing Coventry, High Wycombe, Glasgow, Plymouth, Crewe, Swansea and Malvern. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
Strange, enchanted boy David Vernon swept through the Metropolitan Room last Thursday night, greeting guests on his way to the stage. He cut a dashing, old-world figure in his long, fitted coat and austere, angular posture. The man possesses style. Opening his show LOVE: The Concert with Eden Abhez's 1941 beauty 'Nature Boy,' Vernon wove lines of dialogue into the singing, telling the beginnings of the spare yet vivid tale he would unspool over the course of the evening; the story of his two true loves, both men, which also contained the revelation of his own dual identities--masculine and feminine.
The Broadway at Birdland concert series was proud to present the return of actress/singer Anita Gillette to her musical home on Monday, September 28 with her show, "So, As I Was Saying…"
Quality Hill Playhouse opens its 21st Season on October 2 with TIN PAN ALLEY, an intimate cabaret revue celebrating the first 50 years of American popular music.
'The Barry Z Show,' which has been covering the New York theater scene on cable TV for more than 20 years, will salute ASCAP award-winning playwright/director Chip Deffaa's theatrical productions, on a show being taped for future broadcast 10 pm, October 1st at the midtown club Don't Tell Mama. Host Barry Z, who's often saluted Deffaa's productions over the past 20 years, will be celebrating the release of Deffaa's 12th cast album, 'The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue.' And he will present an array of performers doing numbers from an assortment of Deffaa's shows.
'The holidays are a special time here at Drury Lane, and this year will be no exception with our production of White Christmas, featuring Irving Berlin's classic songs that audiences know and love, combined with spirited choreography by Matthew Crowle,' said Osetek. 'Together with this talented cast and creative team, we hope to transport our audiences with this timeless holiday tale.'
Ninety percent of the way into her ebullient show last night at Birdland, So, As I Was Saying, Anita Gillette quotes a 1977 review of her performance in Neil Simon's Chapter Two that stated the warmth she exudes could melt glaciers. (The artist wasn't bragging, but was referring to her then difficulty in finding any glaciers, i.e., men to melt.) The description applies today.
A packed audience comprised both of devoted civilian fans and theatrical luminaries cheered on the latest iteration of Gillette's dramatized life. Once again directed by Barry Kleinbort with musically directed by Paul Greenwood (who also appealingly sings duets), with Ritt Henn on bass and John Redsecker on drums, the show is as sincere and bubbly as the lady herself.
DAMES AT SEA, now in previews, announces 'Tap Happy Tuesdays,' a chance each Tuesday evening for tap dancers to demonstrate their own original 30-second a cappella tap combination for Assistant Director & Choreographer Emily Morgan and everyone in Times Square.
In a production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, a unique opportunity to see a classic of Yiddish theatre for the first time in the UK - Treasure by David Pinski opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 20 October 2015 (Press Nights: Thursday, 22 October and Friday, 23 October 2015 at 7.30pm).
Portland's Good Theater opened its 2015-2016 season with No Biz Like Show Biz, a stylish tribute to two legends of the Broadway stage, Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, created and directed by the company's artistic director, Brian P. Allen. The one-hundred-minute arrangement of songs associated with these legends from the decades of the 1930s-1960s focuses on the work of iconic composers and lyricists such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Jule Styne, Jerry Herman, and Stephen Sondheim and is performed by three delightfully talented and distinctive singing-actresses.
Stage Door Theatre Company discovers a 'fine way to treat a Steinway,' Words the illustrious and prolific composer Irving Berlin wrote in his song 'I Love a Piano.' Third Avenue Playhouse presents a musical revue concieved by James Valcq based on Berlin's early career using this as the title, and the evening celebrates everything about the piano the composer treasured.
TROIKA Entertainment, LLC has announced that the national tour of the quintessential backstage musical comedy classic 42nd STREET has launched on September 22, 2015 at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City, UT. This sparkling new production is directed by co-author Mark Bramble and choreographed by Randy Skinner, the team who staged the 2001 Tony Award winning Best Revival. Check out a first look at the tour below!
TROIKA Entertainment, LLC has announced that the national tour of the quintessential backstage musical comedy classic 42nd STREET has launched on September 22, 2015 at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City, UT. This sparkling new production is directed by co-author Mark Bramble and choreographed by Randy Skinner, the team who staged the 2001 Tony Award winning Best Revival. Check out a first look at highlights of the tour below!
Mercury Theatre, Colchester, Brian Eastman and Christabel Albery present a new musical comedy based on the StudioCanal Peter Sellers/Margaret Rutherford film The Smallest Show on Earth. The stage show, which has a book by Thom Southerland and Paul Alexander, contains some of Irving Berlin's greatest songs, including Blue Skies, Shakin' the Blues Away, Let Yourself Go, Steppin' Out with my Baby and How Deep is the Ocean, as well as some rediscovered gems.
Actor/vocalist Kristoffer Lowe has recently racked up an impressive array of awards, including the Metropolitan Room's 2014 MetroStar, the 2015 Bistro Award for Special Achievement, and the 2015 Male Debut MAC Award for his 2014 show, Waiting For the Light to Shine. Even after such kudos, however, he's been flying somewhat under the radar. His new show, You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me, which opened at the Metropolitan Room Tuesday night (a four-show run was his reward for winning the MetroStar), spotlighted the songs of composer Harry Warren, who was often called "the invisible man." With his stellar performance, Lowe should by all rights achieve his own well-deserved notoriety. The beautifully put together show displays versatile interpretive gifts, emotional translucence, and well-calibrated vocals.
Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus' MAMMA MIA!, the smash hit musical based on the songs of ABBA, returns to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in November. Performances begin on November 6 and run through November 8 at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri.
DAMES AT SEA sets sail at Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre (240 West 44 Street), beginning performances tonight, September 24, 2015, with an opening night of Thursday, October 22, 2015.
Arizona Theatre Company, in a special collaboration with Stray Cat Theatre, will present Laura Eason's new comedy about the calculations people are making to find love or fame in an age of social media, brightly-lit phone screens and blogging. SEX WITH STRANGERS plays tonight, Sept. 24, through Oct. 11 in Stage West at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe.
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'Oklahoma!' is very ok, as are 'Side Show,' 'Triassic Parq' and 'Next To Normal,' 'The Revel' and 'One Brain More' join Super September, and 'Cupid' keeps his heart on. Porchlight has 'Babes In Arms' and a 'New Faces' series, 'Irving Berlin' and 'Elf'plan to light up the holidays, and 'The Wiz' gets replaced by 'Xanadu!'
The Canadian Opera Company opens its 2015/2016 season with Verdi's enduring masterpiece, La Traviata. This sumptuous new COC production is set in the demi-monde of glittering 1850s Paris, evoking the social realities, rhythms and debauchery of a rapidly changing society.
