Judy Garland News

Twelve entries from Pride Films and Plays' Great Gay Screenplay Contest have been named as semi-finalists and move on to the next round of judging in the contest.

This week at Joe's Pub, August 27 through September 2, look out for Sasha Allen, Ryan Raftery, Jared Evan, Veronica Klaus, Tori Scott, Annie and the Beekeepers, The Snow / C. Gibbs, Kate Douglas and the Imaginary Menagerie, Julia Haltigan / Rusty Belle and Saul Williams. More details below!

Daniel Nardicio will present a special show by Justin Sayre, host of The Meeting* at the Ice Palace as part of the Icon Series (also featured this summer have been Liza Minnelli, Sandra Bernhard, Margaret Cho and more) tonight, August 25 at 10:00 PM.

Feinstein's at Loews Regency presents the New York debut duet engagement of two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy-nominated entertainer Michael Feinstein, and acclaimed Grammy-nominated vocalist Marilyn Maye, September 4 - 22.

'Judy and Liza Together Again,' starring internationally acclaimed entertainers Rick Skye and Tommy Femia, named 'BEST DUO' this year by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC), has been extended through the Fall season at Don't Tell Mama's (343 West 46th Street). Teaming up for an evening of 'Just POW!', these MAC and Bistro Award winning performers pull out all the stops, singing classic solos, parodies, duets and just plain whooping and hollering by the greatest mother/daughter team in show biz history in 'a high energy evening with an abundance of laughs!' (Edge).

A day before the musical opened, Repertory Philippines' THE WIZARD OF OZ held a press preview at Greenbelt One's Onstage Theatre with Cara Barredo as Dorothy Gale, along with James Stacey as the Scarecrow, Hans Eckstein as the Tin Man, and Oliver Usison as the Lion.

The highly acclaimed Broadway production of End of the Rainbow, written by Peter Quilter and directed by Tony® Award winner Terry Johnson, played its final performance on Sunday, August 19, and BWW was there to capture the show's farewell curtain call.

The Broadway production of End of the Rainbow, written by Peter Quilter and directed by Tony Award winner Terry Johnson, will play its final performance today, Sunday, August 19, 2012. The production, which began performances on Monday, March 19 of this year and opened on Monday, April 2, will have played a total of 176 performances at Broadway's Belasco Theatre. With this flashback, BroadwayWorld remembers End of the Rainbow's run on the Great White Way.

The last show of the 2012 summer season at Totem Pole Playhouse keeps audiences humming songs everyone knows, even if they didn't know the author until now.

In preparation for the All-Day Long Island Al Jolson Festival (in Oceanside, NY) on Saturday, August 18, BroadwayWorld.com cabaret columnist Stephen Hanks offers his take on what made the 'World's Greatest Entertainer' so great, and muses about the reasons as to why he is such a devotee of the man who once owned Broadway and starred in the first talking picture.

Daniel Nardicio will present a special show by Justin Sayre, host of The Meeting* at the Ice Palace as part of the Icon Series (also featured this summer have been Liza Minnelli, Sandra Bernhard, Margaret Cho and more) on Saturday, August 25 at 10:00 PM.

Today we are talking to one of the most alluring and anomalous recording stars on the rise all about this week's US release of her sophomore album, BOYS DON'T CRY, a tribute to male songwriters of the 1970s - the ethereal Rumer. Discussing many aspects of this new release, as well as her previous studio work - such as her Burt Bacharach Christmas EP - Rumer sheds some light on what makes her such an arresting and intriguing performer to follow for the enthusiasts of intimate, revealing, performance-based artists around the world, as she herself reveals the early influences - Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and Karen Carpenter most of all - that have shaped the unmistakable sound she continues to perfect on this moody, subdued and intoxicating new cover album. Plus, Rumer offers forth candid recollections of participating in recent gala concert presentations - none the least of which would be her superb "A House Is Not A Home" on the PBS Burt Bacharach edition of IN PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE - as well as recounts her own favorite performances, performers and albums and what she plans for the future; another new album is already in the ether! Additionally, Rumer also shares her thoughts on GLEE, provides amusing anecdotes about famous friends like Darryl Hall and Duffy, compares the recording industry now to the era BOYS DON'T CRY pays tribute to, recalls reactions to her dynamic new covers of these rare pop gems - all of that as well as much, much more!

Feinstein's at Loews Regency will continue its Summer 2012 season with the return of internationally acclaimed entertainer, Deana Martin, tonight, August 14-August 18.

The RRazz Room, San Francisco's premier nightclub, presents the return of three time MAC award winning singer and pianist, Mark Nadler, in his critically acclaimed one-man show "Crazy 1961: The Songs and Events of 1961." The show celebrates the extraordinary year that saw the first man orbiting the earth in outer space (not to mention the first monkey!), the first performance of The Beatles, the inauguration of President Kennedy, Barbra Streisand's first TV appearance and Judy Garland's big comeback concert at Carnegie Hall.

So many cabaret shows, so little time . . . to write reviews that is. During his almost two years as a cabaret reviewer, BroadwayWorld.com critic Stephen Hanks managed to do a pretty good job of writing critiques during a show's run or soon after the run ended. But this summer he just couldn't keep up. Finally, here are observations on 10 performances over the past two months.

Peter Quilters furioses Stück END OF THE RAINBOW kreist um die turbulenten letzten Monate im Leben der Judy Garland. Die alte Diva ist getrieben von dem Wunsch, ihr Image der allseits verehrten und geliebten, schillernden Entertainerin mit neuem Leben zu füllen. Judy gastiert für eine Serie von Comeback-Shows im „Talk of the Town“. Flankiert von ihrem Manager und neuen, mittlerweile fünften Verlobten Mickey sowie ihrem Pianisten und engsten Vertrauten Anthony, möchte sie es noch einmal wissen. Doch sowohl ihre Alkohol- und Tablettensucht, als auch ihre Liebe zu dem jüngeren Mickey, der nicht das erhoffte Glück zurück bringt, werden ihr zum Verhängnis…

Once upon a summer of '83, a young aspiring actor named Woody Harrelson became close pals with a Harlem-raised fellow named Frankie Hyman while they both worked a construction job in Houston.  Eventually, they went their separate ways; one becoming famous for doing something other than playwriting and the other pursuing a career in writing, although these many years later he apparently hasn't written anything he would care to mention in a Playbill bio.

SG Productions and the Arts Theatre present DRAG DIVAS, opening tonight, 9th August 2012.

MargOH! Channing is Tipsy returns to the Laurie Beechman Theatre for one night only on September 28, 2012, at 10 p.m. The Laurie Beechman Theatre is located at 407 W. 42nd Street, NYC. Get your tickets HERE.

Two days after the death of its author, I had the pleasure of taking in director Michael Wilson's outstanding revival of The Best Man – one of the best evenings Broadway had to offer last season – for the third time.  Gore Vidal most certainly went out with a landslide victory.