Josephine Baker News

Back by popular demand, THE BOOK OF MORMON, which played a record breaking two week run in 2013, returns for a limited engagement at the Detroit Opera House, July 1 through July 13, 2014.

Why don't we ever hear songs about moms not actually liking their kids? This romp through motherhood on Manhattan's Upper East Side spans 17 years: 'Music For Gifted and Talented Babies' to bra straps and Bellinis. Sling on your stilettos!

Back by popular demand, THE BOOK OF MORMON, which played a record breaking two week run in 2013, returns for a limited engagement at the Detroit Opera House, July 1 through July 13, 2014.

Carmen de Lavallade's career as a dancer, choreographer, and stage and film actress spans more than six decades working with luminaries such as Lena Horne, Josephine Baker, Harry Belafonte, Alvin Ailey, and many others. She already holds the distinction of the longest Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival performing career on record, having made her Pillow debut with Lester Horton Dance Theatre in 1953 and performing at the Festival as recently as 2004 (with Paradigm), and she now extends that record by another decade. In the world premiere of her new solo show, As I Remember It, de Lavallade combines powerful movement and poignant storytelling to weave a theatrical memoir about her venerable life on stage. This exclusive engagement opens the 2014 Festival in the Doris Duke Theatre with a limited three-show run, this weekend, June 20-22.

It was the great Marcus Garvey who said 'Be as proud of your race today as our fathers were in days of yore. We have beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world.'

Dixon Place (Ellie Covan, Artistic Director) presents the 23rd Annual HOT!, the NYC Celebration of Queer Culture. The world's longest-running LGBTQ Performance Festival, HOT! offers theater, music, dance, puppetry, performance art and homoeroticism for the whole family! HOT! is the pioneering festival of queer performance and culture - and the oldest annual festival of its kind in the world. Dixon Place is proud the HOT! serves as the model for other queer festivals across the globe and has become a performance destination for emerging talent in the LGBTQ community. This year's HOT!, featuring hundreds of participating artists presenting their newest creations, will run July 5th through August 2nd at Dixon Place, located at 161A Chrystie Street in New York City.

Carmen de Lavallade's career as a dancer, choreographer, and stage and film actress spans more than six decades working with luminaries such as Lena Horne, Josephine Baker, Harry Belafonte, Alvin Ailey, and many others. She already holds the distinction of the longest Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival performing career on record, having made her Pillow debut with Lester Horton Dance Theatre in 1953 and performing at the Festival as recently as 2004 (with Paradigm), and she now extends that record by another decade. In the world premiere of her new solo show, As I Remember It, de Lavallade combines powerful movement and poignant storytelling to weave a theatrical memoir about her venerable life on stage. This exclusive engagement opens the 2014 Festival in the Doris Duke Theatre with a limited three-show run, June 20-22.

Following the record-breaking attendance of Festival 2013, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival announces the full 2014 Festival free and ticketed event schedule. Jacob's Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, home to America's longest-running dance festival, and a recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Noted dance writer Jennifer Dunning has called the Pillow "the dance center of the nation, possibly the world."

For hundreds of years, storytelling has been an essential part of African-American culture. Through both song and dance, they have passed down their struggles, their hopes, their history. When actress, dancer and singer Francesca Harper decided to pay homage to her mother the late dance pioneer Denise Jefferson (Alvin Ailey School Director) it only seemed appropriate she would do so by using her art.

This weekend past weekend, the Philadelphia Museum of Art opened an important retrospective featuring the life and works of fashion designer Patrick Kelly. Almost 25 years after Kelly's untimely death of AIDS in 1990, we continue to experience his profound impact on fashion. Yet, 'Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love' is the first of its kind to comprehensively display the breadth and diversity of this designer's influential work.

Syfy, Reunion Pictures and Great Point Media today announced a new mythological drama series Olympus, which will take viewers into the action-packed world of humans, Gods and monsters.

The off-Broadway hit LA SOIREE was featured this morning on WAMC Radio's Roundtable (Northeast Public Radio); the show's MOOKY CORNISH and MARAWA spoke with Sarah LaDuke. LISTEN HERE.

'Versailles' by Richard Ploetz is a dark and winding tale of a 28-year old single mother and 'party girl' fighting against desperate circumstances and dead-end relationships in a seedy North Florida community. Estranged from her family, her youth and beauty fading, she works as a pole dancer and tests her sexual powers on her boyfriend, her boss and her neighbors until a mysterious figure, Mr. Mason, appears, who may bring her deliverance or further entrap her. Her jagged story will be told February 20 to March 9 at Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., presented by Nedworks Inc. Ian Streicher directs.

The year is 1927. During the Harlem Renaissance, a rich black vaudeville family, 'The Martins', finds itself torn between the sacred and the profane. A story of love, envy, wealth, fame, betrayal and redemption, 'The Exchange' will return in a theatre and film adaptation via Josiah Theatre Works.

LA SOIREE rings in the New York year with several new acts at the Union Square Theatre. The off-Broadway hit welcomes the delectable Marawa, the gorgeous Bret Pfister, the breath taking Cabaret Decadanse, the inexplicable Scotty Blue Bunny, and the astounding Marcus Monroe. The lineup is completed by long time favorites The English Gents, Mooky Cornish, and Bath Boy.

Stars from Mike Tyson, Phylicia Rashad and Alicia Keys to Spike Lee, Danny Glover and Ruby Dee show their love for New York City's acclaimed New Federal Theatre by voicing personalized Valentine's Day messages for fans in this fun, fund-raiser. The "Love for New Federal Theatre" personalized celebrity messages are a $249 donation to the New Federal Theatre and can be purchased from January 12- February 5, 2014 through the website at www.lovefornewfederaltheatre.com.

Goodspeed Musicals' Board of Trustees announced today that a change in leadership will occur at the theatre after the 2014 season. Michael Price, who has led the organization for 45 years, has decided to retire from the position of Executive Director at the end of 2014 but will remain active with Goodspeed in advisory and fundraising roles through 2016.

Following the record-breaking attendance of Festival 2013, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival announces the 2014 Festival schedule. Jacob's Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, home to America's longest-running dance festival, and a recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Noted dance writer Jennifer Dunning has called the Pillow "the dance center of the nation, possibly the world."

The year is 1927. During the Harlem Renaissance, a rich black vaudeville family, 'The Martins', finds itself torn between the sacred and the profane. A story of love, envy, wealth, fame, betrayal and redemption, 'The Exchange' will return in a theatre and film adaptation via Josiah Theatre Works.

Cabrillo Stage, the professional musical theatre company in residence at Cabrillo College, concludes their 32nd repertory season with the premiere of a re-imagined work, Lunch, playing today, January 3 through 19 at the Cabrillo Crocker Theater.