Birth Place: Baltimore, MD, USA
WaterTower Theatre today announced casting details for Smokey Joe's Cafe which opens Monday, July 23, 2012. The ensemble cast includes Steve Barcus, Feleceia Benton, Chimberly Carter Byrom, Walter Cunningham, Maurice Johnson, Laura Lites, Calvin Roberts, Courtney Sikora and Akron Watson.
Grammy Award-winning songwriter Mike Stoller will be honored during his upcoming visit to New York City in June 2012. Stoller, who will be accompanied by his wife Corky Hall Stoller, will attend numerous events during his visit to the Big Apple.
Summer is just around the corner, and with its arrival comes a host of exciting entertainment options for the entire family. Here are our picks for the hottest performances that will hit the stage in the northern New Jersey area!
Smokey Joe's Cafe is a show features nine performers, who take audiences back to the 1950s and 1960s with their renditions of many wonderful hits of the rock and roll era. Four of the male singers come together to form a group reminiscent of the two famous quartets Leiber and Stoller wrote for-the Drifters and the Coasters-while other cast members deliver songs made famous by some of the most powerful figures in the world of music, including Elvis Presley, Dion and Big Mama Thornton.
The Stoller-Filer Health Center, the newest Planned Parenthood Los Angeles facility, to be located at 11722 South Wilmington Avenue, Compton, CA 90059, will celebrate its Grand Opening on Tuesday, April 24, 2012, Sue Dunlap, President of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles announced today. "The new health center will be named after the renowned Jazz Pianist, Harpist and Singer, Corky Hale Stoller and her Grammy Award winning husband, Mike Stoller of Leiber & Stoller fame, along with the late Compton Civic Leader, Maxcy Dean Filer, who was affectionately known as 'Mr. Compton,'" Dunlap said.
Four well-known shows and the return of a holiday classic make up the 2012-13 season for Studio Tenn, the professional theatre troupe that calls the historic Franklin Theatre home. Artistic director Matt Logan and managing director Jake Speck made the season announcement during a lively afternoon event, which featured performances from the shows included in the line-up, at the historic theatre in downtown Franklin.
Now onstage at The Larry Keeton Theatre, in a winning production directed by Ginger Newman and choreographed by Kate Adams-Johnson, Smokey Joe's Cafe offers audiences one of the best nights of theater they'll ever have the pleasure of attending. Seriously! In fact, my love of the musical revue-which features 39 songs written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who provided much of the soundtrack for the lives led in the middle of the last century-is almost stupefyingly of the adoring variety. Truthfully, I can't pinpoint exactly what it is about Smokey Joe's Cafe that I love so much, but alas, there it is: I love the show without question (hell, I'd marry it if we could get a marriage license down here in the South) and I am particularly in love with the rendition served up by Newman, Adams-Johnson and company out in Donelson.
Smokey Joe's Cafe is a show features nine performers, who take audiences back to the 1950s and 1960s with their renditions of many wonderful hits of the rock and roll era. Four of the male singers come together to form a group reminiscent of the two famous quartets Leiber and Stoller wrote for-the Drifters and the Coasters-while other cast members deliver songs made famous by some of the most powerful figures in the world of music, including Elvis Presley, Dion and Big Mama Thornton.
"Stand By Me," the song written by Leiber & Stoller and Ben E. King will receive the Towering Song Award at the 2012 Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) Gala Event to be held at the Marriott Marquee Hotel in New York City on Thursday, June 14, 2012, Songwriters Hall of Fame Chairman, Jimmy Webb, announced today. Mike Stoller will accept the award along with Ben E. King, who will also be honored with the Towering Performance Award for his performance on the Leiber & Stoller produced recording of "Stand By Me."
Smokey Joe's Cafe is a show features nine performers, who take audiences back to the 1950s and 1960s with their renditions of many wonderful hits of the rock and roll era. Four of the male singers come together to form a group reminiscent of the two famous quartets Leiber and Stoller wrote for-the Drifters and the Coasters-while other cast members deliver songs made famous by some of the most powerful figures in the world of music, including Elvis Presley, Dion and Big Mama Thornton.
Today in 1995, Smokey Joe's Cafe opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre) where it ran for 2036 performances. Smokey Joe's Cafe is a musical revue showcasing 39 pop standards, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues songs written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The Original Broadway cast recording, Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs Of Leiber And Stoller won a Grammy award in 1996. In revue format with no unifying theme the 39 songs are presented by various members of the cast in various combinations, with no dialogue. There are novelty songs ('Charlie Brown'), romantic ballads ('Spanish Harlem') and infectious melodies ('There Goes My Baby').
The entire entertainment world is reeling. We have lost one of our most iconic pop, R&B and soundtrack performers this evening - as well as a formidable movie star in her own right - Whitney Houston was just reported dead at the age of 48. Having had one of the most successful and most multimedia of careers of any multi-hyphenate star in recent memory, Houston scored multiple Grammys and racked up countless nominations over the course of her multi-decade recording career, yet her most notable contributions to the world of music reside in her outstanding soundtrack work - most of all, the songs for the film in which she made the transition into feature film leading lady, 1992's THE BODYGUARD. The biggest hit from THE BODYGUARD's blockbuster soundtrack was undoubtedly Houston's rendition of a Dolly Parton song originally recorded in 1974 and later made famous by Parton in the feature film version of the Broadway hit THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS, "I Will Always Love You". In addition to Houston's sensational work on that mega-selling soundtrack - one of the Top 5 best-selling soundtracks of all time - she also provided her dramatic and vocal skills to the multi-platinum soundtracks to THE PREACHER'S WIFE and WAITING TO EXHALE, both films which she also starred in to much box office success. An Oscar-winning duet with Mariah Carey, "When You Believe" by WICKED's Stephen Schwartz from THE PRINCE OF EGYPT is yet another diadem in Houston's triple crown of accomplishments in the realms of music, film and television - having dominated all. Theatre fans may know Houston best for her incomparable portrayal of the Fairy Godmother in the incredibly successful 1997 ABC TV adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein's CINDERELLA starring Brandy and produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. In addition to Houston's contributions to THE BODYGUARD, THE PREACHER'S WIFE, WAITING TO EXHALE, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT and CINDERELLA, Houston also rose to fame early in her career for her rendition of "Home" from THE WIZ on THE Merv Griffin SHOW, as well as made a mark with a Cissy Houston duet on the CHESS international smash, "I Know Him So Well" on her second hit album. The last project Houston was working on prior to her death on Saturday night was the feature film musical SPARKLE, co-starring AMERICAN IDOL winner and Broadway standout Jordin Sparks. SPARKLE reportedly completed production of principal photography and soundtrack sessions, though it is not clear when the musical remake will now be released in light of Houston's unexpected death. No matter the circumstances of her life and death, Whitney Houston most surely left a legacy that will never be forgotten by those that adored her for her vast multitude of talents and many notable accomplishments in all areas of entertainment.
The songbook of Jerry Leiber (1933-2011) and Mike Stoller (1933- ) is a natural for jukebox musical treatment, because it encompasses such variety that it requires little by way of setting to stay interesting. You don't need a plot, you don't need performers to talk or act, all you need is a band, some choreography and costumes, and some great singer/dancers, and you're there.
WaterTower Theatre has announced the following upcoming events. All performances are held at The Addison Conference & Theatre Centre.
GRAMMY Sunday reigns as Music's Biggest Night, but a very close second is 'The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!!' - an event that blends one-of-a-kind, GRAMMY-worthy performances with the official announcement of the songs, albums and artists that are in the running for music's greatest golden honor. For the fourth consecutive year, the nominations special was broadcast live on CBS, but a houseful of lucky attendees got to witness the unique spectacle in person on Nov. 30 at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles.
Valerie Simpson (of the hit songwriting/performing duo Ashford and Simpson) and Mike Stoller (of the GRAMMY-winning songwriting team Leiber & Stoller) - both of whom lost their longtime songwriting partners (Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber) this past year - will join previously announced seven-time GRAMMY winner Usher in a moving tribute to songwriters on 'The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!! - Countdown To Music's Biggest Night'(www.grammy.com).
Valerie Simpson (of the hit songwriting/performing duo Ashford & Simpson) and Mike Stoller (of the GRAMMY®-winning songwriting team Leiber & Stoller) - both of whom lost their longtime songwriting partners this past year (Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber) - will join previously announced seven-time GRAMMY winner Usher in a moving tribute to songwriters on THE GRAMMY NOMINATIONS CONCERT LIVE! - COUNTDOWN TO MUSIC'S BIGGEST NIGHT®.
WaterTower Theatre Producing Artistic Director Terry Martin today announced the Company's 2011-2012 Main Stage season at a special VIP Sneak Preview held at the Addison Theatre Centre. The season opens with the Tony Award-winning musical Spring Awakening (September 30 - October 30, 2011) followed by the return of the popular holiday show Rockin' Christmas Party (November 26 - December 18, 2011, underwritten by Frost Bank). The season continues in early January with The Diary of Anne Frank (January 6 - February 5, 2012), the Tony Award-winning play August: Osage County (March 30 - April 29, 2012), Boeing-Boeing (May 25 - June24, 2012) and Smokey Joe's Café (July 20 - August 19, 2012). The annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival will be held March 1 - 11, 2012. All productions will be staged at the Addison Theatre Centre at 15650 Addison Road, Addison, Texas 75001.
Valerie Simpson (of the hit songwriting/performing duo Ashford and Simpson) and Mike Stoller (of the GRAMMY-winning songwriting team Leiber & Stoller) - both of whom lost their longtime songwriting partners (Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber) this past year - will join previously announced seven-time GRAMMY winner Usher in a moving tribute to songwriters on 'The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!! - Countdown To Music's Biggest Night'(www.grammy.com).
Valerie Simpson (of the hit songwriting/performing duo Ashford & Simpson) and Mike Stoller (of the GRAMMY®-winning songwriting team Leiber & Stoller) - both of whom lost their longtime songwriting partners this past year (Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber) - will join previously announced seven-time GRAMMY winner Usher in a moving tribute to songwriters on THE GRAMMY NOMINATIONS CONCERT LIVE! - COUNTDOWN TO MUSIC'S BIGGEST NIGHT®.
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