Liza Minnelli News

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Kevin E. Moore are delighted to announce the cast and creative team for Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. This commanding and moving play, written by Lanie Robertson, directed by Bill Fennelly and featuring Deidrie Henry as Billie Holiday, is set in the intimate atmosphere of the Bingham Theatre.

From the creator of 'My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish, and I'm in Therapy', comes the hilarious stand-up comedy from two of Broadway's best award-winning comedians! Battle of the Broadway Comedians hits the stage Sunday, January 8th at 3pm!

For four nights only, My Fair Ladies is appearing at The Crazy Coqs and promises an evening filled to the brim with the best songs made famous by Broadway's best divas.

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Kevin E. Moore are delighted to announce the cast and creative team for Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. This commanding and moving play, written by Lanie Robertson, directed by Bill Fennelly and featuring Deidrie Henry as Billie Holiday, is set in the intimate atmosphere of the Bingham Theatre.

This New Year's Eve, LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER rings in 2017 with the New York Philharmonic as international opera star Joyce DiDonato and Tony Award winner Paulo Szot join Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert for an Enchanted Evening. Humorist and CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca hosts the broadcast from David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.

Tony Award winner and Metropolitan Opera baritone Paulo Szot will join Music Director Alan Gilbert, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and the New York Philharmonic for the Orchestra's New Year's Eve celebration, Today, December 31, 2016, at 8:00 p.m., an evening of American classics including music by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, and Copland.

All the sold out Christine Pedi Show's audience got for Christmas last night at Feinstein's 54/Below was Barbra Streisand, Patti Lupone, Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Carol Channing and her favorite divas stuffed into one big Christmas stocking and BroadwayWorld was there.

The Carlyle, a Rosewood Hotel, will welcome Chris Gillespie, Champian Fulton and Jim Caruso & Billy Stritch to Bemelmans Bar for Sunday night residencies throughout the winter 2017 season.

Upon learning that part of Segerstrom Center for the Arts' holiday programming this season was to finally bring a national tour production of ELF - THE MUSICAL---the 2010 Broadway stage musical adaptation of the popular Will Ferrell holiday movie---to its stage, I was pretty ecstatic. For the most part, ELF---which performs at SCFTA through January 1, 2017---delivers enjoyable laughs sprinkled here and there throughout its two acts, and even offers up a non-equity cast equipped with lovely singing voices. But while ELF - THE MUSICAL is certainly festive and has lots of smile-inducing moments, overall, I felt the presented production felt surprisingly subdued. While, sure, it had plenty of genuinely funny and heart-warming moments, many aspects of the NETworks Presentations production needed to be much more over-the-top, manic, and downright silly.

I will end my Twelve Days of Christmas clips with this performance by one of our newest Broadway stars, Cynthia Erivo. Thanks to YouTube, I was blown away by her extraordinary gifts long before she made her Broadway debut in Color Purple. Her welcome addition to the local scene has been like a shot of adrenaline - the word "powerhouse" can only scratch the surface when describing Cynthia. We shared a memorable evening together in the audience of a Barbra Streisand concert, where her entrance caused almost as much happy chaos as did Ms. Streisand's! Cynthia Erivo is the real deal, and this clip shows you why. The miracle of her singing voice is only matched by her laser-beam focus, and this simple performance of one of the most reverent songs ever written seems to be a prayer for a world gone slightly mad. I wish you all a happy holiday. Whatever you celebrate, may it be joyous and filled with music, hope and laughter!

This choice will not surprise one person who has ever met me. Here's the history: I grew up an only child. I unsuccessfully begged my mother for a brother or sister until she was well into her 80's. I discovered the Osmond Brothers during their "One Bad Apple" phase, which led me into a few unfortunate years of bell-sleeved shirts and fringed vests. The Osmonds' obvious joy at singing together, to say nothing of their vast musical talents, would bring tears to my eyes as I watched them perform. I knew that Andy Williams had discovered the brothers, and gave them their debut on his TV show. However, I was unaware that Andy and his brothers were the original clean-cut singing siblings…that is until I saw this production number on an Andy Williams Christmas special! Boy, were my eyes…and ears…opened! This performance of "Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells" features the two bro-acts harmonizing their heads off. The irony is that Kay Thompson discovered the Williams Brothers (crooning background vocals at MGM), and Andy discovered the Osmond Brothers (singing barbershop quartet at Disneyland). Little did I know back then, that I would spend three years of my life performing as one-fourth of the Williams Brothers, along with Liza Minnelli as Kay Thompson, in what would become the Tony-winning "Liza's At The Palace." During that period, I enjoyed a phoner with Andy and cavorted with Dick Williams (whom I played), and am happy to call Donny Osmond a pal. In a funny kind of way, I found my long-awaited brothers.

This January, Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. Scroll down for more details!

After an impressive career, jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi was hired to score "A Charlie Brown Christmas," followed by seventeen other Peanuts television specials, until his untimely death in 1976. Can you even imagine those animated features with any other soundtrack? Guaraldi and his trio gave sophisticated heart and depth to what could have been just another forgettable cartoon score. At least one night every Christmas season, I walk the cold sidewalks of New York City, headphones on, and Guaraldi playing. I can be the star of my own movie…enjoying my own slightly melancholy, wistful scene while I reminisce about another year spent in the city I adore.

CLOSE TO LIZA sera un recital inspirado en la figura de Liza Minneli de la mano de Xavi Casan, Dani Campos y Virginia Martinez. Estara disponible en el Malda del 2 de enero al 27 de febrero de 2017, los lunes a las 21:00 horas.

I'm pretty sure there's nothing Leslie Odom, Jr. can't do. This recording of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" perfectly shows off his good taste, style and that exemplary voice. The song is, of course, an American classic, with lyrics by Kim Gannon and a melody by Walter Kent. Gannon wrote it from the point of a World War II soldier stationed overseas, telling his family that he'll be home for the holidays, and to prepare the Christmas fun. Of course, the last lyric is one of the most melancholy ever written - "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams." When the song was first pitched to folks in the music business, it was roundly refused, since it all seemed incredibly sad. But Bing Crosby smartly threw caution to the wind and recorded the tune, with immense success. Interestingly, after the lyricist's death, he left the royalty rights to the American Heart Association, which has benefitted greatly ever since.

In 1975, A Chorus Line took Broadway by storm and ran a then astonishing fifteen years, at that time the longest running musical in history.  Featured in that original brilliant company was a diminutive powerhouse named Kay Cole as Maggie.  In the song “At The Ballet,” composer Marvin Hamlisch wrote her one of the greatest money notes in history and when Kay hit it it was like the heavens opened – it was a great Broadway voice of incredible purity and power, but also subtlety and nuance.  

Fran Drescher - the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actress and noted Barbra Streisand fan - will serve as celebrity host when Maestro Luke Frazier and The American Pops Orchestra present Don't Rain on My Parade: 75 Years of Barbra Streisand on Friday, January 13, 2017 at 8:00 PM.

This New Year's Eve, LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER rings in 2017 with the New York Philharmonic as international opera star Joyce DiDonato and Tony Award winner Paulo Szot join Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert for an Enchanted Evening. Humorist and CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca hosts the broadcast from David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.

Love it or hate it, this souped-up arrangement of 'Jingle Bells?' has become an iconic recording by the one and only Barbra Streisand. Of course, it's from her first Christmas album, which came out in 1967, but I was introduced to it in 1970 when it was released on a special promo album for Maxwell House coffee, along with cuts by Doris Day and (yes) Jim Nabors. I thought it was funny then, and I think it's funny now. I especially love the Brooklyn-ese reading of the word 'upsot.' It was all very sophisticated and slightly oddball to the young Jimmy Caruso, and takes me right back to Wexford, Pennsylvania, where I'd listen over and over on my little record player. (Google that word, kids.)

In what has become an annual ritual, a total of 32 established and emerging composers, lyricists, and librettists will converge on the Goodspeed campus from mid-January through mid-February 2017 to participate in the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals. The writing teams, representing 18 new musicals, will populate the campus, creating a truly exciting environment for discovery and inspiration.