Mark Blowers News

Barbra Streisand plays an intimate club in New Hope......in the guise of world renowned impressionist Steven Brinberg as SIMPLY BARBRA'S BROADWAY this Saturday, July 8th at 7:30 pm at the Rrazz Room, 6426 Lower York Road (Clarion Hotel), New Hope, PA 18938.

This July, Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

Michael Lavine (Broadway vocal coach, performer and sheet music guru) is bringing his show Michael Lavine & Friends to the East Coast for a special show on Thursday, July 13 at 7:30 pm at Feinstein's/54 Below, (Broadway's Supper Club) 254 West 54th Street (bet. Broadway & 8th Ave.), NYC. 

Write Act Repertory's Producing Artistic Director John Lant is pleased to present the off-Broadway East Coast premiere of LILI MARLENE, a new musical about a family's escape from the rising tide of Nazism, with book, music and lyrics by Michael Antin and directed and choreographed by Mark Blowers.

Lili Marlene is the name of the famous German love song that was popular during World War II. The title of the play is in homage to the song, featuring one of the most famous versions sung in 1944 by Marlena Deitrich whose portrait hangs in the show's cabaret. We are told early in the musical that the fictional main character, Rosie Penn, was 'rescued by Marlena Deitrich' who acted as a mentor of sorts and made the young Rosie promise to sing Lili Marlene in her act. That request will ultimately prove to be the very thing that may save Rosie from the camps.

LILI MARLENE - This original musical love story of Rosie Penn, the famous cabaret singer, and Count Hans Wilhelm van Kleister Graff, is set in the last year of the Weimar German Republic and into the 3rd Reich period. As the dark clouds of Fascist takeover become clearer, the Count, as the head of the passport bureau of the State Department, works to get the VIP German cultural and scientific elite out of German. The Count realizes that he must leave and get his surviving family out before the shadowy inhumanity of anti-Semitism descends upon them as National Healthcare and Immigration Reform, Industrial Unity and National Pride become the motto of the new Nazi Party.

Relive the time-honored legend of King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table.

Relive the time-honored legend of King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table.

After Lesli Margherita's sold-out “Broad” concert at Birdland last week, there was a wild, celebrity-filled, super-charged Cast Party! As usual, the weekly event, hosted by Jim Caruso (with Billy Stritch at the piano, Daniel Glass on drums and Steve Doyle on bass) took the words “open mic” to a new level. The entire cast of the Lincoln Center's Merchant of Venice showed up to cheer their stars Jonathan Pryce, Giles Terera and Stefan Adigbola in impromptu performances before heading to their run at Kennedy Center. Multi-million record-selling Victoria Shaw, her mother Carol Shaw, and daughter Ruby Locknar all performed. Soul Train Award winner Nicole Henry sang her heart out. World-class trumpet player Dominick Farinaccci dazzled the crowd. Folk-singing superstar Christine Lavin had the audience out of their seats and dancing. Hamilton Award-winning singer Avery Raquel showed off her jazz chops. And theater writer Phillip Boroff sang, then proposed marriage to his girlfriend. (She said yes!) Is it any wonder Cast Party is known as the “come what mayhem” of Manhattan showbiz events?

'The Barry Z Show,' which has been covering the New York theater scene on cable TV for more than 20 years, will salute ASCAP award-winning playwright/director Chip Deffaa's theatrical productions, on a show being taped for future broadcast 10 pm, October 1st at the midtown club Don't Tell Mama. Host Barry Z, who's often saluted Deffaa's productions over the past 20 years, will be celebrating the release of Deffaa's 12th cast album, 'The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue.' And he will present an array of performers doing numbers from an assortment of Deffaa's shows.

Our Mutual Friend, A New Musical based on Charles Dickens' final novel with music and lyrics by Larry Gelb and book adapted by Elizabeth and Larry Gelb will be performed in Staged Reading format featuring the composer at the piano, with bass (Myles Sloniker) and drums (Daniel Rabinow) at Actors' Temple Theater on Monday October 19th at 2PM and 7PM.Mark Harborth directs. The cast includes Matthew Amira* (The Most Happy Fella at Goodspeed), Mark Blowers, Kathryn Boswell* (Gigi on Broadway), Kyle Bradford, Jamie Buxton*(Me and My Girl at Reagle Theatre), Joseph Cassese*,James Patterson* (Beauty and the Beast on Broadway), Erika Person* (Iolanthe at City Center), Matthew Wages* (The Pirates of Penzance at City Center), Nicholas Wuehrmann*, Elizabeth Urbanczyk and Jacob Voight. (*Member of Actors' Equity)

The 13th Street Repertory Theater will present a teach-in on the history of gay musical theater, and gay songs in pop music, following the performances next Sunday (April 26th) at 2 pm and 7 pm of its current hit musical 'Mad About the Boy.' The presentation will be moderated by ASCAP Award-winning writer/director Chip Deffaa (creator of 'Mad About the Boy'), and will feature members of the cast, joined by a special surprise guest.

The 13th Street Repertory Theater will honor the woman widely considered to be the world's greatest blues singer by making Sunday, April 19th, 'Bessie Smith Day.' The theater will be offering free admission to its new hit show, 'Mad About the Boy' (which includes a tribute to Smith) to anyone who can sing a chorus of a song recorded by Smith. ASCAP award-winning playwright/director Chip Deffaa, who's created and produced 'Mad About the Boy,' will also award prizes to those who do the best job of singing Smith's songs. Deffaa--who profiled Smith in the book 'Harlem Speaks: A Living History of the Harlem Renaissance' (Sourcebooks, Inc.) and has lectured on her (most recently at the University of Idaho)--will be the judge, assisted by members of his theater company.

ASCAP award-winning playwright/director Chip Deffaa will host talkback sessions--in which audience members can ask any questions they wish of the cast or creative team--after the following performances of his new musical comedy 'Mad About the Boy' at the 13th Street Repertory Theater (50 W. 13th Street, NYC).

THE LOVE NOTE, a spirited new musical with 'the exuberance of HAIRSPRAY and the sweet innocence of BYE BYE BIRDIE' (Boston Theater Mirror), is set to officially open today, November 11th at Actors Temple Theatre.

THE LOVE NOTE, a spirited new musical with "the exuberance of HAIRSPRAY and the sweet innocence of BYE BYE BIRDIE" (Boston Theater Mirror), is set to officially open this Tuesday, November 11th at Actors Temple Theatre.

THE LOVE NOTE, a spirited new musical with 'the exuberance of Hairspray and the sweet innocence of Bye Bye Birdie'(Boston Theater Mirror), is set to officially open Off-Broadway Tuesday, November 11th. Performances are underway now at Actors Temple Theatre.

THE LOVE NOTE, a spirited new musical with "the exuberance of Hairspray and the sweet innocence of Bye Bye Birdie" (Boston Theater Mirror), is set to officially open Off-Broadway Tuesday, November 11th. Performances are underway now at Actors Temple Theatre.

G.P. Productions presents the New York premiere of The Love Note, a new pre-teen musical, beginning previews tonight, September 10th and opening Sunday, September 14, at Actors Temple Theatre, 339 West 47th St, NYC. Performances are Wednesdays and Sundays at 10 AM through December 21.

G.P. Productions presents the New York premiere of The Love Note, a new pre-teen musical, beginning previews on Wednesday, September 10th and opening Sunday, September 14, at Actors Temple Theatre, 339 West 47th St, NYC. Performances are Wednesdays and Sundays at 10 AM through December 21.