Judy Kaye News

Boston audiences will be in for a tasty treat this summer when Boston Midsummer Opera (BMO) presents its 2010 production, a unique two-course evening featuring Leonard Bernstein's bittersweet classic Trouble in Tahiti and Lee Hoiby's delicious Bon Appétit!, starring Tony Award nominee Judy Kaye as Julia Child.

Jason Alexander, artistic director of Reprise Theatre Company, will star in 'They're Playing Our Song,' September 28 to October 10 (press opening September 29) at UCLA's Freud Playhouse, to open the company's 2010-2011 season. Single tickets are available for 'They're Playing Our Song' at www.reprise.org or through the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310/825-2101.

Boston audiences will be in for a tasty treat this summer when Boston Midsummer Opera (BMO) presents its 2010 production, a unique two-course evening featuring Leonard Bernstein's bittersweet classic Trouble in Tahiti and Lee Hoiby's delicious Bon Appétit!, starring Tony Award winner Judy Kaye as Julia Child.

This week, we are taking a listen to two wonderful West End-related winners featuring the stars of two witch-related West End musicals - THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK and WICKED - courtesy of SimG Records: Caroline Sheen's RAISE THE CURTAIN and Annalene Beechey's CLOSE YOUR EYES. These two delicious divas-in-training have proven that they have the talent, skill and technique to entertain us for many years to come onstage, but just how well do their first solo album efforts showcase their considerable abilities? Singing everything from Sondheim, William Finn and Stephen Schwartz to Adam Guettel, Jason Robert Brown, David Yazbeck and Stiles & Drewe, as well as some Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman thrown in for good measure, there's surely enough to satisfy all with much more than mere morsels to enjoy. All of this appreciable merriment (and even a small sampling of 'Away In A Manger' courtesy of Mitchell) and formidable entertainment comes with mostly unadorned accompaniment, as well, giving these ladies a true chance to shine their clearest and brightest in a solo spotlight all their own!

FIRE ISLAND - THE ICE PALACE, located within the Grove Hotel in Cherry Grove, is pleased to announce the fifth season of BRANDON & RAY'S BROADWAY AT THE BEACH, an open-mic musical theatre party on Fire Island featuring Broadway's best! On Monday, June 21st, from 9pm till 11pm, join host BRANDON CUTRELL (Bistro, three-time MAC, and Nightlife Award winner) with RAY FELLMAN (Bistro Award winner) at the piano for opening night of this weekly party on Fire Island. There is no cover charge and no minimum.

FIRE ISLAND - THE ICE PALACE, located within the Grove Hotel in Cherry Grove, is pleased to announce the fifth season of BRANDON & RAY'S BROADWAY AT THE BEACH, an open-mic musical theatre party on Fire Island featuring Broadway's best! On Monday, June 21st, from 9pm till 11pm, join host BRANDON CUTRELL (Bistro, three-time MAC, and Nightlife Award winner) with RAY FELLMAN (Bistro Award winner) at the piano for opening night of this weekly party on Fire Island. There is no cover charge and no minimum.

The Laurie Beechman Theatre, located within The West Bank Café (407 West 42nd St.), is pleased to continue our Friday night soiree, THE AFTER PARTY. Now going strong it's third, THE AFTER PARTY is billed as 'a weekly schmoozefest for the theatrically inclined.' Every Friday from 10:30 pm until the wee hours, pros from Broadway and aspiring stars alike belt it out on the stage of The Laurie Beechman Theatre.

Mitzi Gaynor, legendary Hollywood star of such films as South Pacific and There's No Business Like Show Business, stopped by to visit the cast of the new musical Dietrich & Chevalier during their rehearsals. (They begin performances June 5).

Costumes, dreams and ghosts are the order of the day in the concluding part of our interview with the wonderful Ladies of Phantom!

Executive Producer Lou Spisto has announced that due to unforeseen conflicts with Roger Rees' schedule, The Old Globe's upcoming production of What You Will has been replaced with Golda's Balcony starring four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh. Written by William Gibson and supervised by Scott Schwartz, Golda's Balcony earned Feldshuh a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress, and is the longest running one-woman show in Broadway history. Golda's Balcony will runin the Old Globe Theatre April 28 - May 30. Previews run April 28 - May 1. Opening night is Saturday, May 1 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are currently available to subscribers only. Single tickets go on sale March 28 at 12:00 noon and can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office.

The Boston Midsummer Opera has just announced that it will present TROUBLE AND CHOCOLATE, pairing Leonard Bernstein's one-act opera TROUBLE IN TAHITI with Lee Hoiby's BON APPETIT!, a musical transcription of one of Julia Child's shows starring Tony Award®-winning Broadway veteran Judy Kaye. The productions will be presented on July 28 and 30 and August 1, 2010.

Boston audiences will be in for a tasty treat this summer when Boston Midsummer Opera (BMO) presents its 2010 production, a unique two-course evening featuring Leonard Bernstein's bittersweet classic Trouble in Tahiti and Lee Hoiby's delicious Bon Appétit!, starring Tony Award nominee Judy Kaye as Julia Child.

Paradise Found runs 19th May - 26th June 2010. The Book is by Richard Nelson, Lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh, Music by Johann Strauss II. The show is adapted & Arranged by Jonathan Tunick

Marcia Milgrom Dodge, whose critically acclaimed production of 'Ragtime' transferred from the Kennedy Center to Broadway last fall and is nominated for six Helen Hayes Awards, will direct and choreograph the Reprise Theatre Company production of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize winner 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.' The production will end its run May 23rd.

Theatre legends Hal Prince and Susan Stroman, in an interview with The Times Online, discuss their opinions and frustrations on the state of the musical and theatre, their pasts and their directorial collaboration on Paradise Found, set to begin previews this week at London's Menier Chocolate Factory.

The Hartt School's Director of New Play Development and Professor of Theatre Henry Fonte has been appointed Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts and Producing Artistic Director of The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre at the University of Miami (FL), effective August 1. Fonte, who departs Hartt on May 17, after twelve years as part of the Theatre Division's faculty, will direct the Dramatic Writing Workshop at New Noises Studio at the Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp (CO), and the musical Into the Woods at Intermezzo Festival in Portland, ME, prior to assuming his new role at Miami.

Kaufman Center and New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), acclaimed by New York Magazine as 'The best classical music programming in New York,' will present an all-new program on May 4 and 6 at 8 PM of American composers, including the premiere of Beautiful Ohio, a song cycle by 2009 Pulitzer Prize- finalist Harold Meltzer, with texts of poet James Arlington Wright and composed specifically for the young American tenor Paul Appleby.

Kaufman Center and New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), acclaimed by New York Magazine as 'The best classical music programming in New York,' will present an all-new program on May 4 and 6 at 8 PM of American composers, including the premiere of Beautiful Ohio, a song cycle by 2009 Pulitzer Prize- finalist Harold Meltzer, with texts of poet James Arlington Wright and composed specifically for the young American tenor Paul Appleby.

The WFMT Radio Network in Chicago, producer of radio programs for the New York Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wigmore Hall and other major national and international organizations, will produce a new 13-hour series, 'No Song Is Safe From Us,' highlighting the unique and renowned musical programs of New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org).

Executive Producer Lou Spisto has announced that due to unforeseen conflicts with Roger Rees' schedule, The Old Globe's upcoming production of What You Will has been replaced with Golda's Balcony starring four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh. Written by William Gibson and supervised by Scott Schwartz, Golda's Balcony earned Feldshuh a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress, and is the longest running one-woman show in Broadway history. Golda's Balcony will runin the Old Globe Theatre April 28 - May 30. Previews run April 28 - May 1. Opening night is Saturday, May 1 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are currently available to subscribers only. Single tickets go on sale March 28 at 12:00 noon and can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office.