Lea Blackhurst News

San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon announces WHAT WE DID FOR LOVE, a gala fundraising evening with special guest, star of NBC's Smash, and Sean Saves the World, Megan Hilty, 6pm, Thursday, February 27 at Bimbo's 365 Club, 1025 Columbus Ave, San Francisco. In addition to the 'smashing' talents of Broadway and television star Megan Hilty, the evening will include cocktails, dinner, a brief live auction, and a 'MoonGlow Cabaret' with clarion-voiced chanteuse Klea Blackhurst and other Moon performers. Guests are invited to dress in cocktail attire with a dash of red. For tickets ($375 - $7500) the public may contact 42nd Street Moon at (415) 255-8207 or for more information visit 42ndstmoon.org.

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'A Swinging Birdland Christmas' opened with a bang on December 21! For the fourth year in a row, Jim Caruso, Billy Stritch, Klea Blackhurst, and the band (Steve Doyle on bass and Carmen Intorre on drums) kick of Christmas week with their swinging holiday standards, and a few pieces of special material that are impossible to define! Opening night saw Broadway folk like Christine Ebersole, Colleen Zenk, Daniel Rowan and Andrea Prestonario leading the applause. Check out a look back below!

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The Ninth Annual Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals, produced by Goodspeed Musicals' Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre, kicks off its much-anticipated three day festival of brand new works on Friday, January 17, at the Goodspeed Opera House with a staged reading of the timely musical Adam Lives. On Saturday, January 18, the musical fantasy A Proper Place debuts. On the final day of the festival, the unconventional Theory of Relativity by the team who wrote the Goodspeed and Broadway tuner The Story of My Life will be presented. Several special events will round out this exciting weekend. Tickets are available at the Goodspeed Box Office or by calling 860.873.8668 or online at www.goodspeed.org. Tickets are $15 each for one show, $10 each for students. This year's festival is sponsored in part by lead corporate sponsor RisCassi & Davis, P.C. with additional support by The Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation, Inc. and The Noel Coward Foundation.

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Birdland Jazz Club has announced its schedule for December 23-29. Check out the listings below!

The State Theatre opens up the 2014 schedule in a big way as Broadway Comes to the State with a Tribute to George Gershwin on Saturday, January 11th.

A VIP screening of the new American Masters documentary, Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love is set for The Paley Center for Media on Monday, December 9th at 6:15 PM. The new documentary is the American Masters series' Season 27 finale, premiering nationally Friday, December 27, 2013, 9-10:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) and available on DVD January 14, 2014 via PBS Distribution.

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BIRDLAND RECORDS has announced the release of "A Swinging Birdland Christmas" CD. The CD was recorded live in winter 2012 during a performance of this annual holiday show at historic Birdland Jazz Club in Midtown Manhattan. "A Swinging Birdland Christmas," stars Birdland regulars Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch with special guest jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein. In the tradition of beloved seasonal specials, Blackhurst, Caruso and Stritch perform swinging arrangements by Billy Stritch of Kay Thompson's classics "It's The Holiday Season," "Sleigh Ride," and "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm," among other favorites. The record also features Billy Stritch on piano, John Hart on guitar, Paul Gill on bass, Carmen Intorre on drums. The album is executive produced by Birdland's Gianni Valenti.

BIRDLAND RECORDS has just announced the release of 'A Swinging Birdland Christmas' CD. The CD was recorded live in winter 2012 during a performance of this annual holiday show at historic Birdland Jazz Club in Midtown Manhattan. 'A Swinging Birdland Christmas,' stars Birdland regulars Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch with special guest jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein. In the tradition of beloved seasonal specials, Blackhurst, Caruso and Stritch perform swinging arrangements by Billy Stritch of Kay Thompson's classics 'It's The Holiday Season,' 'Sleigh Ride,' and 'I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,' among other favorites. The record also features Billy Stritch on piano, John Hart on guitar, Paul Gill on bass, Carmen Intorre on drums. The album is executive produced by Birdland's Gianni Valenti.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, the performance venue located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond:

Voting is now underway for Connecticut! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, the performance venue located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond:

Voting is now underway for Connecticut! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced their zesty line-up of impressive talent for the month of December 2013. Featuring: Michael Feinstein, Stacey Kent, Jazz Stories with Eddie Gomez, Kenny Barron, Al Foster, Wallace Roney, Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Cabaret, Cheyenne Jackson, Donna McKechnie, Frank Wildhorn & Friends with Jeremy Jordan, Laura Osnes, Jane Monheit and more, A Swinging Birdland Christmas, Native Soul, Victoria Shaw, Natalie Toro, Shoshana Bush, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more!

54 Below celebrates some favorite musicals with the new series, 54 Sings. Re-live the hit songs from these groundbreaking shows, performed by some of the best in the biz and, occasionally, by the very voices for whom they were written. Kicking off the series will be 54 Sings Mame (December 8 at 9:30pm), starring: Leslie Uggams, Beth Leavel, Klea Blackhurst, Donna Lynne Champlin, Eric Michael Gillett, Annie Golden, Hunter Ryan Herdlicka, Dee Hoty, Pamela Myers, and Lee Roy Reams.

On December 9, 2013 92Y celebrates songwriting legend Mike Stoller on the occasion of his 80th year with An 80th Birthday Celebration, a one-night-only Lyrics & Lyricists Special Event hosted by Paul Shaffer and directed and written by Randy Johnson (director/writer of A Night with Janis Joplin). Confirmed artists performing expected and unexpected interpretations from Stoller's genre-spanning career in blues, R&B, rock 'n' roll and jazz include legendary vocal group The Coasters, along with artists Karen Akers, Mary Bridget Davies, Corky Hale, Maria Elena Infantino, Sally Kellerman, Bettye LaVette, Melissa Manchester, Billy Stritch, Tommy Tune and Steve Tyrell. Backed by Tyrell's band, the artists perform some of the greatest songs written by Stoller with his longtime lyricist partner Jerry Leiber and others. Leiber will be the subject of a special tribute during the evening. Stoller is planning to be in attendance for the celebration.