Johnny Burke News

Irish Repertory Theatre celebrates its award-winning 25th Anniversary Season with SOMETHING WONDERFUL! THE SONGS OF RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN, an evening celebrating classic Rodgers and Hammerstein hits performed by a galaxy of Broadway stars, for one night only, Monday, June 10 at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). Tom Hanks hosts the gala evening, direct by Charlotte Moore, with special guests to include Shirley Jones, best known for her roles in 'Oklahoma!' and 'Carousel,' and Patrick Cassidy (ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, 42nd STREET).

Irish Repertory Theatre celebrates its award-winning 25th Anniversary Season with SOMETHING WONDERFUL! THE SONGS OF Rodgers & Hammerstein, an evening celebrating classic Rodgers and Hammerstein hits performed by a galaxy of Broadway stars, for one night only, Monday, June 10 at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). Shirley Jones, best known for her roles in 'Oklahoma!' and 'Carousel,' returns to Broadway in the gala evening, directed by Charlotte Moore and hosted by Tom Hanks.

It's taken me two weeks to write this review of Ann Hampton Callaway's recent 8-shows-in-four-days run at Dizzy's Jazz Club at Lincoln Center, where she paid musical tribute to the late, great Sarah Vaughan, and I hope you buy the reason for such procrastination. Since late September last year, I've now seen four different Callaway cabaret shows at three different venues and reviewed two of them and, well, writing about how terrific Ann is on a cabaret/nightclub stage is getting a bit difficult as well as boring. I mean, I'm running out of words in my personal thesaurus to describe Callaway's consistent excellence, not to mention how she seems to provide a periodic master class in cabaret performance. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt I needed to prove I was up to this reviewing challenge, and a show as wonderful as From Sassy to Divine: A Celebration of Sarah Vaughan deserved more kudos on what Rachel Maddow calls, 'The Internet Machine.'

Irish Repertory Theatre celebrates its award-winning 25th Anniversary Season with SOMETHING WONDERFUL! THE SONGS OF RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN, an evening celebrating classic Rodgers and Hammerstein hits performed by a galaxy of Broadway stars, for one night only, Monday, June 10 at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). Shirley Jones, best known for her roles in 'Oklahoma!' and 'Carousel,' returns to Broadway in the gala evening, directed by Charlotte Moore and hosted by Tom Hanks.

UnsungMusicalsCo. (UMC) will launch its new Unsung Cabaret Series with Unsung Jimmy Van Heusen, an intimate evening celebrating the centennial of legendary four-time Academy Award-winning and three-time Tony Award-nominated composer Jimmy Van Heusen (Skyscraper, Walking Happy, Thoroughly Modern Millie) on June 17. Hosted by Tony Award nominee Tom Wopat (A Catered Affair, Catch Me If You Can), this concert will be held at 8pm at The Cutting Room.

A human ball of silver glitter hanging from a cord is lowered above what looks like a bungalow-sized muffin top.  (It's supposed to represent a turtle shell.)  Before the glitter ball makes its landing the cover is removed to reveal what looks like a tribe of humanish amphibians bouncing on trampolines and twirling on the muffin/turtle's frame.  Shortly after, a sleazy-looking clown in a tropical shirt tosses a condom to a woman in the front row and says, 'Call me!'  Yes, dear readers, Cirque du Soleil is back in town.

Irish Repertory Theatre announces a four-week extension of DONNYBROOK!-a musical based on the movie 'The Quiet Man,' with music and lyrics by Johnny Burke and book by Robert E. McEnroe-with Off-Broadway performances now set to run through April 28 on the company's Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage Theatre (132 West 22nd Street). Charlotte Moore (2012 Callaway Award finalist for DANCING AT LUGHNASA) directs.

John Ford's Oscar winning, The Quiet Man, is one of the best loved and most popular films of all time. Its musical adaptation, Donnybrook!, begins with the haunting love theme, Richard Farrelly's 'The Isle of Innisfree' and marches jauntily through the misty hills of the west of Ireland with a cast of characters headed by the indomitable Mary Kate Danaher (Jenny Powers), and her counterpart, American prizefighter Sean Enright (James Barbour) who, against his strong wishes, has not yet fought his last battle.

Luna Stage continues the second season of its jazz series, 'Music In The Moonlight: An Intimate Evening of Jazz', tonight, February 10th at 7pm with a one-night only concert by acclaimed pianist and vocalist Daniela Schachter. The Linden, NJ-based pianist, vocalist, composer and arranger will be joined at Luna Stage by tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm, bassist Steve La Spina and drummer George Schuller to present 'Jazz and the American Songbook: The Music of Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen.'

Irish Repertory Theatre, in association with Fallen Angel Theatre Company, Inc., announces a two-week extension of the U.S. premiere of AIRSWIMMING by Charlotte Jones, the award-winning author of HUMBLE BOY, with performances now set to run through February 17, in Irish Repertory Theatre Company's W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre (132 West 22nd Street). John Keating directs.

Irish Repertory Theatre continues its 25th Anniversary Season with DONNYBROOK! -a musical based on the movie 'The Quiet Man,' with music and lyrics by Johnny Burke and book by Robert E. McEnroe-with previews set to begin February 7, prior to its official Off-Broadway opening on Sunday, February 17 on the company's Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage Theatre (132 West 22nd Street). Charlotte Moore (2012 Callaway Award finalist for DANCING AT LUGHNASA) directs.

Luna Stage continues the second season of its jazz series, 'Music In The Moonlight: An Intimate Evening of Jazz', on Sunday February 10th at 7pm with a one-night only concert by acclaimed pianist and vocalist Daniela Schachter. The Linden, NJ-based pianist, vocalist, composer and arranger will be joined at Luna Stage by tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm, bassist Steve La Spina and drummer George Schuller to present 'Jazz and the American Songbook: The Music of Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen.'

The popular revue with music and lyrics by Johnny Burke is described as 'a dazzling, toe-tapping, finger-snapping delight' featuring over 40 American standards.

With only three shows remaining in its 2011-2012 Main Stage Series, West Hartford's Playhouse on Park is offering a special deal! Until June 3rd, 2012, when you purchase tickets to 2 of the theater's 3 remaining productions, you will received a ticket to the remaining show FREE.

Equally at home in the world of jazz and cabaret, singer/pianist Daryl Sherman is internationally acclaimed for a stellar 14-year run at the Waldorf-Astoria where she played Cole Porter's Steinway. Last June, she headlined the annual Cole Porter Festival in his hometown of Peru, IN. Sherman has performed at The Algonquin's Oak Room where the Village Voice touted her as 'someone who fits the room like Derek Jeter fits the Yankees.' She's also worked at Feinstein's, Rose Hall with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Dizzy's Coca Cola and 59E59 Theaters where she was lauded for her band singer role in a centennial tribute to Artie Shaw.

The fact that Jonathan Larson won two posthumous Tony Award for writing and composing Rent is certainly bittersweet, but the fact that for one of those awards he bested the also posthumously nominated Rodgers and Hammerstein is just plain weird. But the last-minute addition of Rent to the 1995-96 Broadway season seemed to be the catalyst for one the oddest Tony nights ever.