Joe Iconis News

?The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, the acclaimed comedy/variety show, will return to Joe's Pub at The Public Theater on Sunday, February 15 at 9:30 PM to continue the Winter/Spring 2015 Season.

The ?Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is the recipient of a generous grant of $125,000 from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) through the foundation's new Theatre Commissioning and Production Initiative. The grant will support the production of playwright Lynn Nottage's Sweat and a future commission by Ms. Nottage. Sweat is commissioned through OSF's American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle and will premiere at OSF on August 2, 2015 and run through October 31.

UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) Drama Department will produce Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical PASSION with guest Director Kent Nicholson, this weekend, January 23 - 25, 2015. The play is an essential part of the Department's second themed season - LOVE, LUST AND GREED.

Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, announces a special World-Premiere Pass for its spring season of all-new work. The $99 pass can be purchased by calling 732.345.1400 or visiting tworivertheater.org. Patrons should use the promo code 'PREMIERE' when booking the World-Premiere Pass.

La Jolla Playhouse is pleased to bring back its acclaimed new play development initiative, the DNA New Work Series, a two-week run of workshops and readings of new works, taking place February 16 - March 1, 2015.

As the days dwindled down to a precious few in 2014, a few cabaret goers and performers in what is affectionately but also self-mockingly called the “cabaret community” would sidle up and ask if I was planning my annual end-of-the year “Best Of” column, similar to the “Top 20 Bests and Favorites” piece over the first half of the year I posted back in early July. I would respond in the negative with very reasonable and believable excuses, but the truth is I didn't want to reveal my “Bests” of the year until the voting for the 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards had ended. There's enough baggage and backstage whispering that comes with administering the BWW Awards, so I wasn't about to publish any opinions that might influence the vote while it was in process. I may be crazy but I'm not masochistic. But now all bets are off. You want lists? I'll give you lists.

In Episode 305, award-winning musical theatre writer Joel B. New sat down with Bill Coyne, an actor, singer, and the creator of MuseMatch, a concert series that pairs artists for a 'blind date' to create, bold new work for the benefit of charities.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

Kathy Evans, Founding Executive Director of Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, announced that applications are open for the fifth summer of retreats for musical theatre writers and are due February 23. Rhinebeck Writers Retreat will host 8 writing teams with 8 individual weeklong residencies in a private home in the countryside near Rhinebeck, New York. The retreats will take place between June 28 and August 30. Applications are due February 23 and the submission fee is $25.

BroadwayWorld has called Ann Hampton Callaway the current “Queen of Cabaret” and apparently much of the cabaret audience agrees. The votes for the 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards are official and Callaway is the “Performer of the Year,” having garnered 2,194 votes (the most of any nominee) out of the 66,179 votes cast by approximately 7,500 voters for 148 nominees in 17 categories. Here are your 2014 BWW New York Cabaret Award Winners.

UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) Drama Department will produce Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical PASSION with guest Director Kent Nicholson, January 23 - 25, 2015. The play is an essential part of the Department's second themed season - LOVE, LUST AND GREED.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, the acclaimed comedy/variety show, will return to JOE'S PUB at The Public Theater on Sunday, January 18 at 9:30 PM to open the Winter/Spring 2015 Season. The Meeting* has been called 'delicious and delightfully droll' by The New York Post and 'hilarious and sardonic' by The Village Voice. A story for Slate.com called the evening 'so deliciously icy that it left me shivering with fear and delight.' The Fall 2014 shows sold out after a New York Times 'Arts & Leisure' piece ran in September. The January show will include a tribute to Broadway legend Ethel Merman, with special guests Klea Blackhurst, Erin Markey, Nora Mae Lyng, Molly Pope and Ben Rimalower. Tracy Stark serves as the show's Music Director.

On January 25th at 9:30pm, Cutting-Edge Composers will present their sixth concert at 54 Below! Cutting-Edge Composers is a platform for new musical theatre writers featuring Broadway's top performers and musicians.

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.

It's your last week to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 26th. Voting closes at the end of the year, in under one week!

With the end of the voting period for the 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards just eight days away (voting will close at Noon on December 31, 2014), BroadwayWorld.com is pleased to announce that the 3rd Annual BWW NY Cabaret Awards Show will take place for the second successive year at Joe's Pub (The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC) at 6:30 pm. Once again, this Award presenting extravaganza will feature performances by the Award winners (whose schedules make them available), and BWW's New York Cabaret Editor Stephen Hanks will once again host the festivities.

Joe Iconis and his merry band of musical theater punks were back by popular demand in this seventh annual insane celebration of all things red and green. Featuring brand new holiday songs, old favorites, tiny elves, enormous reindeer, an inebriated Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and an ungodly number of candy canes, it was the happiest holiday hoedown you've ever seen.

Time is ticking on your last chance to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 19th. Voting closes at the end of the year!

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? This weekend's big news: Kelli O'Hara and Matthew Morrison hit Carnegie Hall, Christmas comes to 54 Below, PRESTO CHANGE-O gets a starry reading and ANNIE hits theaters today!

James Monroe Iglehart, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Suzanne Vega, Amy Spanger, Chip Zien, and more join The 7th Annual Joe Iconis Christmas Spectacular, presented this weekend, December 19-20, at 54 Below.