Jimmy Durante News

CBS continues its tradition as a holiday destination with merry holiday programming that kicks off with THE THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE ON CBS, followed by beloved animated classics and festive specials.

Frosty, that “jolly, happy soul” whose old silk hat full of magic has turned him into a musical Christmas legend, once again demonstrates his unique showmanship in FROSTY THE SNOWMAN, the popular animated musical special narrated by Jimmy Durante, to be rebroadcast Friday, Nov. 25 (8:00-8:32 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

CBS continues its tradition as a holiday destination with merry holiday programming that kicks off with THE THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE ON CBS, followed by beloved animated classics and festive specials.

Masterworks Broadway rounds out its Summer 2016 releases featuring three classic albums from the archives with Alice Through the Looking Glass - 1966 Television Soundtrack Recording, out today, September 9. 

Masterworks Broadway announces its Summer 2016 releases including three classic albums from the archives - Sid and Marty Krofft's Les Poupees de Paris - 1964 World Fair Recording (July 8), I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road - Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording (August 8), and Alice Through the Looking Glass - 1966 Television Soundtrack Recording (September 9). Upon release, each title will be accompanied by new album pages and photos on MasterworksBroadway.com.

One of the Desert's best-known stars, Shirley Claire, brings her one-woman show to the Arthur Newman Theatre in Palm Desert on Sunday, July 3, 2016 at 2 PM. Joining Shirley Claire for "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die" will be Wayne Abravanel on piano and tickets are $11 cash only at the box office that opens at 1 PM as part of Les Michael's Sundays In Summer Cabaret Series. 

Nathan's Famous, the original American hot dog that began on Coney Island in Brooklyn, and now sells hot dogs and other products throughout the nation and around the world, is celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 2016. As part of a series of special events and promotions in Coney Island and across the country, Nathan's will offer hot dogs for just 5 cents, the original 1916 Coney Island price, at the original Nathan's Famous store at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues on Saturday, May 28 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (limit two hot dogs per person).

My association with Scott Dreier dates back to a cabaret for his first album named aptly Scott Dreier.  I was exceedingly impressed with his fine voice, boyish charm and affability.Then followed his show Doris and Me, which I reviewed once in Escondido and later in Los Angeles. The show about Doris Day and his love for her went beyond what I would call an ordinary cabaret presentation. He literally blew me away. It is really two shows in one: a biography of Doris's career told through the songs she made famous and then a semi-biography of Dreier, who grew up from a young age loving Doris Day, her songs, and her movies. It is the second show that makes it all work so beautifully, because, as fans of Doris Day, we see and appreciate the effects that her persona has had on all of us. As an individual Scott Dreier is expressing what we all feel, that intense love and admiration for one of the greatest screen legends of all time.

One of the country's great opulent movie palaces has been restored to its original glory.

With a career that began at age 3 on stage in vaudeville, at age 5 had her own national radio show on NBC and still working (primarily in voice over) today, Miss Marie, now has the longest active career in entertainment

Performers Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch will be premiering their brand new show, "The Sinatra Century," on the Main Stage at Rose Theatre in Brampton, Ontario on Thursday, October 15 at 8pm.

Boston's 115-year-old Colonial Theatre, where so many notable (and not so notable) Broadway-bound productions worked out their kinks and licked their wounds, will be closing in October for at least a year, its future not determined.

From the heights of hilarity, to deeply meaningful ballads, Jessel captivated the audience.

The ABC Summer Block Party is hitting the road with a six-market mobile pilot screening tour giving guests the opportunity to get a first look at some of ABC's highly anticipated new fall shows

The ABC Summer Block Party is hitting the road with a six-market mobile pilot screening tour giving guests the opportunity to get a first look at some of ABC's highly anticipated new fall shows including “Blood & Oil,” and “Quantico” as well as a special preview of “The Muppets.”

This May & June in NYC at the hilarious and heartfelt solo play Imagine Dat! audiences will get the chance to experience the ups and downs of an entertainment icon who had millions of adoring fans, Jimmy Durante, the "Great Schnozzola"; son of immigrants from Salerno, Italy; seventh grade dropout whose career spanned 70 years & five major wars. Imagine Dat! The (After) Life of Jimmy Durante will run at The Triad (158 West 72nd St.) with 7pm performances on Sunday May 31, Thursday June 11, and Sundays June 14, 21 and 28. Starring actor of stage & screen Jon Freda as Durante (known for his performance in Luc Besson's film The Family with Robert De Niro and for On A Darkling Plain Off-Broadway), tickets are $60 for VIP, $45 for Orchestra seats and $35 for Mezzanine seats (plus a two-drink minimum / www.BrownPaperTickets.com). Eren T. Gibson is director of the production.

Get all of Doris Day's best-loved movie musical classics!

New York's treasured radio and TV host Joe Franklin died on Saturday, Jan. 24, from prostate cancer. He was 88.

If you've been a regular reader of this particular reviewer's musings, you know that every year there are long stretches of time where I just haven't been able to critique all the shows I've seen that deserve commentary. So I end up playing what they call in sports, 'Catch-up ball,' and post a mash up of belated reviews from past shows. It's kind of like a critic's version of the song 'Six Months Out of Every Year,' from Damn Yankees. Give or take a month or two, that's usually the time period during which I store unpublished reviews in my fevered brain and then unload them all in one seemingly endless column-like this one is going to be. If my cabaret-show reviewing days will be over (as chronicled here), I might as well go out with a bang-and relieve my procrastination guilt during holiday season. Now I can scratch one New Year's resolution off the list.

In a beautifully designed and rustically appointed set, director Brad Allen has choreographed a sensitively balanced dance of requited and unrequited loves, supported by a marvelous cast, in Ernest Thompson's ON GOLDEN POND. Michael Fleck and Judy Lebeau have crafted an attractive and endearing portrait of a couple in the prime of their lives. Together, they are terrific and, in their distinctly understated but effective ways, offer a masters class in acting.