Mae West News

L.A. Theatre Works celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2014-15 with a season of ten radio-theater productions, each recorded by a star-studded cast in front of a live audience for future radio broadcast, distribution on CD, digital download and online streaming. All performances take place at the 300-seat, acoustically vibrant James Bridges Theater located on the campus of UCLA in West Los Angeles. In addition, the company heads out on its 10th annual national tour.

The current Stephen Sondheim tribute show, Our Time, starring KT Sullivan and Jeff Harnar at the Laurie Beechman (which I attended on July 9 and 16; there are two more Wednesday performances at 6pm on August 6, 13), is a charming, classy, and entertaining affair. But it also includes enough flaws in execution that prevent it from being truly great. For one thing, it doesn't really feel like a duo show. It's more like two solo performances within one show, where the performers fit in a couple of numbers together to justify the concept. A critique of the Sullivan/Harnar Sondheim set provides an interesting opportunity to analyze the anatomy of a duo show and the choices that can make it work—or not.

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its shows for the next two weeks, today, July 16 - July 27, 2014. Details below!

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its shows for the next two weeks, July 16 - July 27, 2014. Details below!

Signature Theatre is proud to announce the cast of Sunday in the Park with George, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award®-winning musical

Joe's Pub at the Public Theater has announced its shows, running July 9 - 20, 2014. Details below!

Rising Sun Performance Company (Akia, Founding Artistic Director) announced in March that it is presenting a new short play reading series 'UNDER REHEARSED' and have partnered with The West Brooklyn as their venue. This exciting new series continues in its 5th month with a ongoing curation of new plays and fresh talent.

Rising Sun Performance Company (Akia, Founding Artistic Director) announced in March that it is presenting a new short play reading series 'UNDER REHEARSED' and have partnered with The West Brooklyn as their venue. This exciting new series continues in its 5th month with a ongoing curation of new plays and fresh talent.

Rising Sun Performance Company announced last month that it is presenting a new short play reading series 'UNDER REHEARSED' and have partnered with The West Brooklyn as their venue.

On Her Shoulders will present a FREE staged reading of SEX by Mae West, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar on Wednesday, June 18th; doors open at 6:30pm.The Play in Context, which situates the script in its historical time and place, kicks off the evening at 6:45pm with an Introduction by dramaturg Celia Braxton. Running time, including a post-performance Q&A is 2.5 hours. The performance is at The New School, Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th Street. R.S.V.P to OnHerShouldersReservations@gmail.com

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its upcoming shows, today, May 21 through June 1, 2014. Details below!

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its upcoming shows, May 21 through June 1, 2014. Details below!

Profiles in History, the world's largest auctioneer of Hollywood memorabilia, is proud to present the third and final auction of Debbie Reynolds' Hollywood collection. 'Debbie Reynolds-The Auction Finale' will feature treasures from virtually every discipline in movie making, including hundreds of costumes worn by such stars as Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck and Fred Astaire.

Joe's Pub at The Public is known for the most eclectic and diverse programming in New York City. Coming up at the Pub is a slate of extraordinary women performers and artists that span the gambit of genre and style - from the irreverent and explosive alt-cabaret star Bridget Everett to the visionary jazz vocalist and composer Kavita Shah to the prolific and singular singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier. See below for a full list of their leading ladies through June 2014.

May continues to celebrate Lower East Side history with the Bowery Film Festival, the Sacred Sites Open House Weekend, and a number of events on the 'Vanishing City' of the Lower East Side. In honor of the neighborhood's rich cultural history, Lower East Side History Month includes over 60 participating groups and organizations, with more than 100 events throughout the month, including exhibits, tours, talks, performances, discounts, festivals and more.

Joe's Pub has announced their lineup of events for May 14-25. There is sure to be some thing for everyone - check out all the details below!

I was just a little more than a year into my new side career as a cabaret show reviewer when I first saw a Karen Oberlin show. It was Valentine's Day night 2012 and Oberlin—with guitarist Sean Harkness and guest violinist Aaron Weinstein—would be performing her romance-laced set, Stringing Along With Love, at the Metropolitan Room. At the time, all I knew about Oberlin was that she was considered among New York's best female cabaret singers, and I hadn't researched her performing history pre-show. About a third of the way into her set I leaned over to my wife (it was Valentine's Day after all) and whispered, “You know, she has a real Doris Day quality in her voice and in the way she delivers some lyrics.” This immediately ratcheted up my appreciation for Oberlin since there are four passions I inherited from my Dad—baseball, reading the morning papers, sports writing and Doris Day (well, also Sophia Loren, but that's for another column). Since Dad had grown up during the prime of the Big Band Era of the 1940s, I heard the sultry sounds of a young Doris Day singing songs like “Sentimental Journey” on the family stereo more than a few times. Once I saw Day's strikingly adorable blondness on a record cover and her rocking body in one of her films, I knew what Dad was talking about. As popular, famous, and near iconic as Doris Day became, in my book, as a singer and screen beauty she's always been vastly underrated. Little did I know that Karen Oberlin had been doing a Doris Day tribute show so since 2001 at places like Firebird, Iridium, and the late Danny's Skylight Room, and produced a CD, Secret Love: The Music of Doris Day, in 2002. Karen Oberlin had instantly become my secret love.

Joe's Pub has just announced their lineup of cabaret and burlesque shows for May and June 2014. Featuring Erin Markey, Amy G, and more, the acts are sure to please!

May and June sees some new artists and some returns at The Crazy Coqs, including: Harold Sanditen (May 2-3); Simon Green with David Shrubsole (May 6-10); Lauren Fox with Jon Weber (May 13 - 17); Gary Williams (May 20 -24); KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler (May 26-28); Opera Tottie (May 29 - 31); Bryan Batt (June 3 - 7); Judy Carmichael with Colin Oxley (June 10 -14); Elaine Delmar (June 17 - 21) and more. Details below!

When Mark Nadler last performed a solo show at 54 Below, it was a very personal musical exploration of Germany's Weimar Republic of the 1920s, a place and an atmosphere that was dark, dangerous and decadent. I'm a Stranger Here Myself was such a compelling tour de force that it was expanded into a highly praised off-Broadway piece that Nadler staged at the York Theatre last Spring. Nadler's new 54 Below effort, Runnin' Wild: Songs & Scandals of the Roaring Twenties, (which opened last Sunday, ran last night, and will also play on May 7 at 9:30pm and May 14 at 7pm) is like a playful and debauched sequel to Stranger, only in this show—which would be more aptly titled “Reckless Abandon”--Nadler is clearly a gleeful member of the club. To this passionate piano man, America's big cities in the pre-Depression era 1920s were happy, hungry, and hedonistic. There was always a party filled with sex, drugs and booze looking for a place to happen. And goodness knows, Mark Nadler wishes he'd been invited to every one of them. But since he was born too late, all he can do is serve as congenial host in re-creating the speakeasy ambiance and in this show he manages to accomplish that--only without the sex and drugs. Damn!