Isaac Mizrahi News

Fourteen of the most talented PROJECT RUNWAY designers return to compete in the biggest and most competitive PROJECT RUNWAY All Stars season ever! In this cutthroat season, former standout designers come back to New York to compete for runway gold in the fourth season of Lifetime's PROJECT RUNWAY All Stars (#PRAllStars), premiering tonight, October 30, at 9pm ET/PT.

Fourteen of the most talented Project Runway designers return to compete in the biggest and most competitive Project Runway All Stars season ever! In this cutthroat season, former standout designers come back to New York to compete for runway gold in the fourth season of Lifetime®'s Project Runway All Stars

Now celebrating its 30th anniversary year, Works & Process at the Guggenheim is pleased to announce its fall 2014 season, including three offsite programs presented in collaboration with El Museo del Barrio and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Following the successful launch of Sharknado branded merchandise, Syfy and The Asylum today announced two new brand extensions of the global social media and pop culture sensation.

In 1994, Bette Midler returned to New York after nearly 20 years in Los Angeles, and started the New York Restoration Project, a non-profit organization devoted to bringing abandoned and neglected parks, gardens, and open spaces in all five boroughs back to life. NYRP includes the beautiful New Leaf Cafe in Fort Tryon Park as part of its success, and is committed to helping restore parks and gardens devastated by Hurricane Sandy. The organization just held its 13th Annual Spring Picnic and you can check out full coverage below!

Opera Theatre of St. Louis has opened its thirty-ninth season with a bang. Their production of The Magic Flute is unlike any other you've seen (or ever will see).

The Drama League has announced that the Emmy-nominated star of Modern Family and Broadway veteran Jesse Tyler Ferguson will host the upcoming 80th Annual Drama League Awards. Considered one of the high points of the theater season, the Annual Awards Luncheon includes a nominees cocktail reception, luncheon ceremony, and awards presentation and that will be held today, May 16, 2014 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in the Broadway Ballroom (1535 Broadway) beginning at 11:30 a.m. Financier Patisserie, GenSpring Family Offices, and National Life Group are the 2014 Event Sponsors of the 80th Annual Drama League Awards.

Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director, today announced the 48th season of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, New York's acclaimed annual summer celebration of classical music, which runs from July 25-August 23, 2014. This year's Festival will feature more than 35 events across several venues including concerts, opera, dance, pre-concert recitals and lectures, late-night performances, contemporary music, and premieres of two commissioned works. The Festival kicks off with two free events: the world premiere of a new work by John Luther Adams, performed July 25 and 26 for free on Hearst Plaza, in a joint presentation with Lincoln Center Out of Doors, and continuing an annual tradition, the free preview concert by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall on July 26. Renee and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langree returns for his 12th season to conduct the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, which will perform a wide range of works anchored by the Festival's featured namesake. Mostly Mozart will also present world-renowned artists and returning Festival favorites, such as violinist Joshua Bell, Mark Morris Dance Group, Emerson String Quartet and Artists-in-Residence International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as 14 Festival debuts, including pianists Yuja Wang and Steven Osborne, and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

The Drama League has announced that the Emmy-nominated star of Modern Family and Broadway veteran Jesse Tyler Ferguson will host the upcoming 80th Annual Drama League Awards. Considered one of the high points of the theater season, the Annual Awards Luncheon includes a nominees cocktail reception, luncheon ceremony, and awards presentation and that will be held on Friday, May 16, 2014 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in the Broadway Ballroom (1535 Broadway) beginning at 11:30 a.m. Financier Patisserie, GenSpring Family Offices, and National Life Group are the 2014 Event Sponsors of the 80th Annual Drama League Awards.

Skylight Music Theatre has announced its 2014-2015 season. Following the 2013-2014 season of Revolution, Skylight turns its focus to Fairy Tales and Fantasy, creating a season-long discussion around these stories and diving deeper into why they are present in every culture in the world. The productions and additional programs will investigate why we as humans are drawn to Fairy Tales and Fantasy and what it is about our human nature that compels us to create these stories.

Ever since it premiered on Broadway in 1973, Stephen Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, with a book by Hugh Wheeler, has been a favorite of musical theatre fans. The Michigan Opera Theatre was the first American opera company to present the piece in 1983, and other companies followed suit. It last graced Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) stages in 1999. Now, the musical, with an extraordinary set and gorgeous costumes by Isaac Mizrahi, is thrilling Houston audiences again with HGO's latest production of this American masterpiece.

Houston Grand Opera's highly anticipated production of Stephen Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC opens this week in the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Theater Center. In addition to Stephen Sondheim's celebrated and lush score, this production proudly features sets, costumes, and original direction by popular American fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. I recently spoke with HGO alumna Chad Shelton, who is playing Fredrik Egerman, about the production and his career.

MCC THEATER as announced the preliminary lineup of performers for the annual Miscast 2014 gala, which will feature one-night-only performances from stars of stage and screen including Zosia Mamet, Christian Borle, Anika Noni Rose, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Steven Pasquale, Jesse L. Martin, Sasha Allen, Keala Settle, and Nicole Parker. Phil Reno will serve as Musical Director. Additional performers will be announced at a later date. Miscast 2014 will be held Monday, March 31, 2014 at The Hammerstein Ballroom (311 West 34th Street). The evening will begin with a cocktail hour and gala dinner followed by the Miscast performances. Show-only tickets are now on sale at www.mcctheater.org.

The opening months of 2014 bring into focus the strengths of Houston Grand Opera (HGO), which launches the new year with an extraordinary line-up. This comprises the world premieres of three important new commissions -Ricky Ian Gordon's A Coffin in Egypt, named one of the twelve "must-see opera events of the season" (Opera News), and two works exploring Houston's Vietnamese and Indian communities, courtesy of HGO's award-winning Song of Houston project; the hotly anticipated American premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's long-suppressed Holocaust opera, The Passenger, in the production that took Europe by storm; the first American presentation of a visionary and groundbreaking treatment of Das Rheingold by Catalan's La Fura dels Baus; a new HGO production of Carmen from Broadway sensation Rob Ashford; a revival of Rigoletto; and a restaged production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, which boasts designs by fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi. As the Houston Press recently noted, "Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers is thinking bigger than ever."

Michael Urie, the star of the long-running hit off-Broadway comedy Buyer & Cellar, will be a guest judge on this week's episode of 'Project Runway All Stars', airing tomorrow, Thursday, November 14.

Nashville Symphony Fashion Show co-chairs Vicki Horne and Dara Russell have announced that Christian Siriano will be the featured designer for the 2014 fashion show, to be held Tuesday, April 29, 2014, at Schermerhorn Symphony Center. The Symphony Fashion Show will highlight Siriano's Fall 2014 collection. The show is presented by Lexus and sponsored by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra League with proceeds from the event to support the Nashville Symphony's education programs, which annually serve 100,000 schoolchildren across Middle Tennessee.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) opens its 2013-14 season tonight with a revival of its classic production of Verdi's Aida. The production, which runs through November 9, is conducted by Italian maestro Antonino Fogliani and stars the National Opera of Ukraine's Liudmyla Monastyrska as Aida, the role that garnered her critical acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera last year. The New York Times described Monastyrska in her U.S. debut in the title role as "gifted with a luscious round soprano that maintains its glow even in the softest notes." Mezzo Dolora Zajick returns to one of her signature roles, Amneris; Italian tenor Riccardo Massi sings Radames; and Texas baritone and HGO Studio alumnus Scott Hendricks sings Aida's father, Amonasro. The production is designed by British designer Zandra Rhodes, directed by Jose Maria Condemi, and choreographed by Dominic Walsh in the inaugural collaboration between HGO and Walsh's Houston-based Dominic Walsh Dance Theater.

The Handel and Haydn Society (H&H), led by Artistic Director Harry Christophers, opens the 2013-2014 season on September 27 and 29 with performances of J.S. Bach's choral masterpiece, Mass in B Minor. The 2013-2014 Season is marked by historically significant works that the Handel and Haydn Society introduced to American audiences in the 19th century, presented in anticipation of the H&H's Bicentennial celebration in 2015. Repertoire on the season is also intended to reveal the outstanding range of H&H's musical forces, from the youngest performers to the renowned professional chorus and period-instrument orchestra. A collection of prominent conductors and guest artists joins Handel and Haydn throughout the season.

Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 2013-14 season includes the launch of the company's first Ring cycle, in a visionary and captivating production by the Catalan company La Fura dels Baus; the hotly anticipated American premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Holocaust opera The Passenger; the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's A Coffin in Egypt, based on the play of the same name by renowned Texas writer Horton Foote and starring iconic mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade; a new HGO production of Carmenfrom Broadway sensation Rob Ashford; revivals of Aida, Rigoletto, and Die Fledermaus; and, in tribute to the nation's homegrown musical theater tradition, Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music designed by fashion star Isaac Mizrahi. Through its HGOco Song of Houston project-winner of the National MultiCultural Institute's Leading Lights Diversity Award-the company continues to celebrate Houston's cultural diversity with the world premieres of two new commissions exploring the city's Vietnamese and Indian communities as part of the East + West series.

Yesterday, at an event hosted at The Ailey Studios, Dance/NYC launched a new visibility campaign, New Yorkers for Dance. By moving the dance community and those who care about the future of the art form to offer personal video messages ('I am a New Yorker for Dance because...'), the campaign strengthens the collective voice for dance, draws attention and resources to dance artists and companies (1,200+), and lifts the field as whole.