Jacques Brel News

"Mad About the Boy?!" The rabble-rousing thespian with get down dance moves, and elastic, back-trilled voice is going to sing Noel Coward? At 54 Below? Mea Culpa. Britain's Barb Jungr performs one of the most truthful renditions of the song perhaps any Coward purist has heard. Sure, it's prefaced by a sharp comic turn on aging, but the moment Jungr begins to confess, she's proud, eager, and though gimlet-eyed, ready to risk it all. " . . . Misery and joy, misery and joy, misery and joy," she repeats weighing probabilities in one hand, then the other. A muted, wah-wah scat sustains focus in tandem with Tracy Stark's age inappropriate, sashaying piano.

When Barb Jungr takes the stage tonight for her debut at 54 Below (she also be at the club tomorrow night and Sunday night; all shows at 7pm), the acclaimed British chanteuse will have conquered another major New York nightclub venue, having in past years performed critically acclaimed shows at the Café Carlyle, Joe's Pub, the Metropolitan Room. She even knocked them dead at the 59E59 theater twice in less than a year, with her show Dancing the Dark (read my review here) in December 2013 and Hard Rain (review here) this past November. While Jungr is still performing the latter--amazing interpretations of some of the most intensely political Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen songs—throughout Europe and has earned enormous praise for the CD of the same name, her 54 Below show, Mad About the Boy and No Regrets, will be an amalgam of Jungr's greatest hits from past shows and CD, plus some songs she'll be doing for the first time.

THE WAY WE WERE is conjured from the life and music of Barbra Streisand: a rags-to-riches story of Streisand's life in the Bronx, brought to life by Cat Simoni.

This January and February 54 BELOW presents an exciting lineup of the brightest talent from Broadway and beyond. Located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54thStreet. For a detailed schedule of upcoming performances at 54 Below and to purchase tickets, visit www.54Below.com.

The Muny announced today the directors, choreographers and music directors for the Muny's 2015 Season, which opens on June 15 with My Fair Lady. 'This is a thrilling roster of artists,' said Muny Artistic Director and Executive Producer Mike Isaacson. 'We look forward to bringing their vision and talent to our grand stage.'

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Mitchell Jarvis in Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living Everywhere. Jarvis's solo concert debut is a journey through the mind of the legendary songwriter and poet that gives his bold and starkly beautiful songs a modern twist. Backed by a four-piece band, Jarvis weaves the evening together with dialogue composed entirely of Brel quotes and writings. Now more than ever, these songs of love, death and hope from the '50s and '60s resonate with a new generation.

The Broadway Theater Workshops-Lower Hudson Valley Youth Chorus will present NO ONE IS ALONE, it's 2nd Annual Holiday Benefit to help families in need, featuring songs from Broadway as well as holiday favorites, on Sunday, December 21st in Montvale, New Jersey.

The holiday season is upon us. Many local theatres are geared to make your days merry and bright. Curtains have or will shortly go up on the likes of 'A Christmas Carol,' 'A Christmas Story,' and 'Santaland Diaries.' Even The Key Bank Broadway series is ringing in the season with a holiday musical, 'Irving Berlin's White Christmas.'

Randy Redd (currently featured in Allegro at Classic Stage Company) has been cast as the male lead opposite Marie Zamora in Manhattan Parisienne, a new play by Alain Boublil, the Tony Award-winning co-creator of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, which will have its world premiere for a limited engagement from Thursday, December 18 through Sunday, January 4 at 59E59 Theaters. Also joining the cast of Manhattan Parisienne are Jeremy Cohen and Stephen Zinnato. Manhattan Parisienne will be directed by multi-Tony Award-nominated director/choreographer Graciela Daniele.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) celebrates the holiday season with THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED]. Ray Jivoff directs this literary romp featuring Chris Klopatek, Rick Pendzich, Chase Stoeger and Marcus Truschinski. The cast of MCT favorites are also all alumni of the UW-Whitewater theatre program. Performances are tonight, November 19 - December 14, 2014 at the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.

MR JOHNSON PRESENTS is the latest solo show from award-winning musician, composer, cabaret star, director and actor, Godfrey Johnson. Following its recent run at the Kalk Bay Theatre in Cape Town, KBT Productions brings this musical sitdown comedy cabaret to the Hexagon Dive.

Cinnabar Theater in Sonoma County rings in 2015 with the world premiere of a new cabaret celebrating a legendary chanteuse. Edith Piaf: Beneath Paris Skies opens at a special gala on New Year's Eve and continues through January 17.

?It's Saturday, and that means it's time for BroadwayWorld's 'Saturday Intermission Pics' roundup!

Shelly will bring Incurably Romantic to the Metropolitan Room for three nights, Today, October 30, Friday, October 31 and Today, Dec 4, accompanied by the superb David Shenton Trio.

59E59 Theaters has announced that renowned British cabaret star Barb Jungr returns to 59E59 with BARB JUNGR: HARD RAIN, accompanied on piano by Tracy Stark and on percussion by Mike Lunoe. BARB JUNGR: HARD RAIN begins performances tonight, October 28 for a limited engagement through Sunday, November 9.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) celebrates the holiday season with THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED]. Ray Jivoff directs this literary romp featuring Chris Klopatek, Rick Pendzich, Chase Stoeger and Marcus Truschinski. The cast of MCT favorites are also all alumni of the UW-Whitewater theatre program. Performances are November 19 - December 14, 2014 at the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.

While reviewing What Makes a Man (WMAM), now playing at the Berkley Street Theatre, it's tempting to comment on what's not there, what could and should be there, rather than what is there. What is on display is a marvelous musical stage portrait of Charles Aznavour, the world renowned French singer/songwriter, actor and political activist/diplomat. A man of the world, he is capable of singing in five languages. One of the last surviving 'showmen,' he still is capable of filling the world's most prestigious concert halls. For example, a year ago he performed for the first time in 25 years at London's Royal Albert Hall. Demand was so great, a second concert was booked there for this past June.

Sonnet Repertory Theatre presents their Twelfth Annual Benefit and Cabaret on Sunday, November 23, at Joe's Pub to honor award-winning actress, CELIA WESTON.

New York cabaret audiences have for years been blessed with extremely entertaining performing marrieds like John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molasky, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, and Michael Garin and Mardie Millett. But after experiencing the thoroughly enchanting October 8 performance from Amanda McBroom and her husband George Ball at 54 Below (there was a second performance on October 14), it's difficult to imagine a cabaret couple more compelling. In short, the Balls were having a ball and, ultimately, so did their audience.

West End stars Gina Beck, Daniel Boys, David Burt and Eve Polycarpou are starring in a major new production of the hit revue Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at Charing Cross Theatre for a strictly limited season from Thursday 16 October - Saturday 22 November.