Ask Celia Berk what she loves about New York and she'll give you a list. Or, better yet, an album.
Corporate executive by day, cabaret chanteuse by night (and a damn good one), Berk has won a MAC Award (New York Debut – Female), a Bistro Award (Vocalist), a BWW Award (NY Cabaret Debut), and The Margaret Whiting Award from The Mabel Mercer Foundation since her 2014 debut album You Can't Rush Spring.
Her latest, Manhattan Serenade, is an eclectic collection of New York and New York-esque songs steeped in nostalgia and romance, complete with arrangements by Alex Rybeck and a stunning orchestra.
Extended by popular demand, Berk will celebrate its release once more at the Metropolitan Room this Friday, October 14 at 7:00 pm. Before the show, we sat down for a discussion on her love note to New York, carving out a space for yourself in the city, and typical New York resilience.
Following the critically acclaimed opening of the UK premiere of the hit Off Broadway musical Adding Machine: A Musical, composed by Joshua Schmidt, with libretto by Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt, and based on the classic play by Elmer Rice, two further matinee performances have been added to the sell-out run - on 12 and 19 November at 3pm. Josh Seymour directs Joseph Alessi (Mr Zero), Kate Milner-Evans (Mrs Zero), Joanna Kirkland (Daisy Dorothea Devore) and Edd Campbell Bird (Shrdlu), with James Dinsmore (Mr One and as cast), Helen Walsh (Mrs One and as cast), George Rae (Mr Two and as cast), and Sue Appleby (Mrs Two and as cast).
This year's second original show from Musical Theater Heritage will be 'SONGS OF THE GREAT WAR,' October 6 - 16, sponsored by the NATIONAL WORLD WAR l MUSEUM & MEMORIAL and with funding provided WILLIAM T. KEMPER, II CHARITABLE TRUST.
New York City Center today announced additional casting for the concert performances of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, October 24 through 26.
Following a sold out run at the Barbican, Ballet Black opens at Theatre Royal Stratford East in a new partnership. A professional ballet company for international dancers, they aim to bring ballet to a more mixed audience with this critically acclaimed Triple Bill.
This year's Fall for Dance Festival includes twenty different dance companies and groups performing a potpourri of different styles of dance, four groups per performance, each performing on two consecutive nights. On Wednesday, September 28, 2016 I saw the first of two nights of four presentations.
From 1964 to 1967, the extraordinary Nina Simone released seven albums on PhilipsRecords, further establishing her peerless artistic expression and singular voice. During this exceptional purple patch, she recorded some of her best and most important work of her career, much of it fuelled by the Civil Rights Movement and the turmoil of 1960s America. In conjunction with their 60(th) anniversary this year, Verve is celebrating the genius of Simone, the supernaturally gifted singer, pianist and prolific songwriter, and her incredible mid-'60s run with the release of her entire Philips catalog on vinyl.
The Syracuse University Department of Drama packs three musicals, a wild comedy, a classic Shaw, and a never-before-produced contemporary comedy into a season full of surprises and infrequently performed theatrical gems. Beginning with the musical Nine, the 2016/2017 season includes Laura and the Sea, Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins (co-produced with Syracuse Stage), The King Stag, Major Barbara, and From Berlin to Broadway With Kurt Weill: A Musical Voyage.
Created by the team behind the critically acclaimed 2015 production of Heather Smiley for President, the musical has a book and lyrics by Tom Attea, with music composed by Arthur Abrams. The production is directed by Mark Marcante. THE FOLK SINGER will play a limited engagement through October 23rd.
Also opening this weekend are three new one act plays by Lorinne Vozoff and Eduardo Machado Directed by Eduardo Machado Starring Sharon Ullrick, Lorinne Vozoff and Eduardo Machado Lighting Design: Alexander Bartenieff Costume Design: Michael Bevins Stage Manager: Fran Acuna-Almiron From two old friends who seem to have fallen for the same man.... again, to a chance meeting on a park bench, to a showdown between two theatrical giants, LIFE MASKS is a collection of one acts celebrating that even though you might now be of a certain age, you still can fight for what you believe
This October, A Gothic Folktale opens the 2016-2017 Wonderbound season with a fantastical circus straight from the mind of Artistic Director Garrett Ammon. Set to the hauntingly beautiful music of Jesse Manley and His Band and featuring the interactive illusions of Professor Phelyx, this original production will pull audiences into the curious world under the big-top.
'Life Masks,' an evening of new works by Lorinne Vozoff and Eduardo Machado, celebrates that even though you might now be of 'a certain age,' you still can fight for what you believe. Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., presents the evening tonight, September 29, through October 15.
As part of its unique annual Hands-on-Opera education and youth performance program, Opera Parallele (OP) will present the world premiere of Xochitl and the Flowers, by OP composer-in-residence Christopher Pratorius. Based on the children's book of the same name by Jorge Argueta and with a libretto by Opera Parallele's Roma Olvera, three free performances will be presented November 17 and 19 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. The fully staged and costumed production will be developed during an innovative eight-week residency with third grade students of the Alvarado Elementary School Spanish Immersion Program in San Francisco, assisted by the Opera Parallele creative team and professional singers. Performances will be given Thursday, November 17, at 6 pm and Saturday, November 19, at 11 am and 1 pm at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission Street in San Francisco. Admission is free, but past Hands-on-Opera performances have filled up quickly, so audience members are encouraged to arrive early. For more information, visitwww.operaparallele.org .
When singer Billie Roe returned to performing in 2012 after a nearly 30-year hiatus, she set the New York cabaret scene on fire, winning the annual MetroStar Talent Challenge at the Metropolitan Room and capturing a 2012 Bistro Award for "Outstanding Theme Show" for her compelling Dangerous Women: Life In Film Noir. Roe quickly followed that up with her critically acclaimed Tom Waits Tribute Show 1978 NYC Underground, which earned her another Bistro Award and also a 2014 MAC Award for "Best Female Vocalist." Now Billie is back again, this time with a uniquely provocative musical show, MONOPOLY: SINGING THE LIVES FROM BALTIC AVENUE TO BOARDWALK, that combines biting political commentary, humanity, and humor with songs by composers as diverse as Kurt Weill, Alan Jay Lerner, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones, Pink Floyd, and Bono from U2. Roe continues her three-show run on October 15 and November 20, both shows at 7 pm.
National Theatre Live previously announced international broadcasts of the Rufus Norris' National Theatre production of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, in collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann, in a new adaptation by Simon Stephens tonight, September 22, 2016; and, Carrie Cracknell's acclaimed National Theatre production of Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea on Thursday, October 6, 2016.
Queens Theatre will present the award winning play In the Car with Blossom and Len written by Joni Fritz and directed by Tony Award nominee Lynne Taylor-Corbett (Broadway's SWING!) at the Queens Theatre's Shulman Theatre located at 14 United Nations Avenue South in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Actor Richard Thomas will host Westport Country Playhouse's 2016 Gala "The Night They Invented Champagne: Celebrating Lerner & Loewe" on Monday evening, September 19. Performing the music of the legendary Broadway composing team will be artists Britney Coleman, Kristen Hahn, Robert Sean Leonard, Stephen Mark Lukas, Howard McGillin, Ciara Renee, Mary Testa, Richard Troxell, Max von Essen, Nicholas Ward, and members of the New York Theatre Ballet. Gala Director is Chase Brock, with musical direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.
OkayBetterBest, a new musical written by Rhonda Kess and Michael Weems and directed by Tony-nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge, will be presented at Feinstein's/54 Below (254 W 54th St, New York) as a special concert tonight, September 20 at 9:30pm.
What do Anita Gillette (multiple award-winning Broadway actress and beloved star of theatre, film and television), and Harold Sanditen (international cabaret favourite and charismatic emcee in London's West End) have in common?
