Mary Martin News

The story of PETER PAN has always demanded a great deal of imagination, but it seems the production currently onstage at Fair Park Music Hall could use an extra sprinkle of pixie dust.

The economy is the worse it's been in fifty years and a bunch of Delawareans decide to cheer things up by staging a musical at Longwood Gardens. Sound familiar? This is how The Brandywiners got their start in the Great Depression when Frances Tatnall and W.W. (Chick) Laird staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirate of Penzance way back in 1932. Of course, it didn't hurt that Pierre du Pont, owner of Longwood Gardens at the time, was Lairds's uncle and had just built Longwood's beautiful Open Air Theatre. Now, 80 years later, and in the midst of another economic turndown, The Brandywiners are doing it again with Hello, Dolly! , one of the greatest American musicals of all time. Opening in 1964, Hello, Dolly! set a record for Tony Awards (10) and performances (2,844). The title role of Dolly was originated by the legendary Carol Channing, and has been played by a who's who of female stars including Barbra Streisand, Mary Martin, Ginger Rogers, Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman and even Phyllis Diller. Hello, Dolly! is a lavish Broadway-style musical that is as humorous as it is heart warming. Based on Thorton Wilder's The Matchmaker, it tells the story of Dolly's matchmaking mis-adventures in New York City just before the dawn of the 20th century. In keeping with the times, Director Cal Bracken has given The Brandywiners' production a feminist twist to an otherwise over-the-top sexist plot line. The women in this show do more than "clean out the stables" as they join the budding suffragettes demanding respect and equal rights. In another timely line, two of the characters sing "JP Morgan scrapes and bows to us" as they try it impress their girl friends. In true Brandywiners' fashion, this production brings eye-catching costumes, a professional orchestra and a cast of nearly sixty talented performers singing and dancing their hearts out. The Brandywiners' shows come as close as you can get to touring Broadway show quality and at less than half the price. Hello, Dolly! is playing July 26-28 and August 2-4 at Longwood Gardens Open Air Theater. Tickets are available by calling 800 338 6965 or through www.brandywiners.org.

Bayou City Concert Musicals kicks off its 2012-13 season with a fully-staged concert version of the classic musical, One Touch of Venus, for five performances at the Heinen Theatre, 3517 Austin, September 6-9, 2012. "It seems strange," says BCCM Artistic Director Paul Hope, "to say a show written in the 1940s can be a Houston premiere, but One Touch of Venus has never before been seen on a Houston stage. That's a sad oversight BCCM will correct in September."

Lifetime has green lit the Original Movie Abducted: The Carlina White Story, starring Aunjanue Ellis (The Help), Keke Palmer (True Jackson, VP), and Emmy(R) Award winner Sherri Shepherd (30 Rock, The View) in the remarkable true story of Carlina White (Palmer), who after being abducted as an infant from a New York hospital, solved her own kidnapping and reunited with her biological parents 23 years later. Production will commence in Vancouver this week, with the movie slated to air later this year. The case is reported to be the first known infant abduction from a New York hospital.

John Davidson, the celebrated television, theater and film actor who starred as Matt in the 1964 Hallmark Hall of Fame version of THE FANTASTICKS and recently performed for a limited engagement in the Off-Broadway production as Henry, The Old Actor, will return to the cast on July 30 in that same role.

Jennie Sophia (Nellie Forbush) is a Rodgers & Hammerstein dream with her triple threat talents that bring a multi-layered performance equal to that of Mary Martin.

Harvey Schmidt, the celebrated composer of The Fantasticks, visited the show for the first time in more than twenty years on Saturday, June 16, 2012. After the performance, Schmidt met with the cast including television veteran John Davidson and triple platinum recording artist Aaron Carter. Check out photos of Schmidt with the cast below!

Happy Birthday, Robert Preston! best remembered for his performance as 'Professor' Harold Hill in Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man (1962). He had already won a Tony Award for his performance in the original Broadway production, in 1957. In 1965 he was the male part of a duo-lead musical, I Do! I Do! with Mary Martin, for which he won his second Tony Award. He played the title role in the musical Ben Franklin in Paris and originated the role of Henry II in the original production of The Lion in Winter. In 1974 he starred alongside Bernadette Peters in Jerry Herman's Broadway musical Mack & Mabel as Mack Sennett, the famous silent film director. That same year (1974) the film version of Mame, another famed Jerry Herman musical, was released with Preston starring, alongside Lucille Ball, in the role of Beauregard Burnside.

Cathy Rigby is Peter Pan. Yes, indeed! I have seen Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan as well, but Rigby adds so much more to the character simply because of her physicality. A gymnast can do physical feats and tricks that an ordinary actor cannot. So if Peter Pan can turn sommersaults in mid-air or literally climb the walls of the Darling children's bedroom, if she is played by Cathy Rigby, there is no wonder. Oh, but that is so wrong, for Peter Pan is filled with wonderment, and Rigby, apart from all the physical stuff she adds, is a total joy to behold whether she is flying or not. She and the show are pure magic. Now onstage through June 24 at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, Peter Pan will never grow up, thank heavens!

McCarter Theatre Center has announced that the 2012 Sallie B. Goodman Artists' Retreat will take place from June 7through June 16.

Lorinda Lisitza may be one of the best-kept secrets in the New York musical theater community, but with her standout cabaret show, Triumphant Baby (running for six shows this month at the Metropolitan Room), this terrific actor, singer, comedian--and inveterate poker--player may finally be dealt a winning hand.

The world premiere of two-time Oscar nominated show business legend Arnold Schulman's humorous and romantic SLEEPING UGLY - an adult fairytale about love and lust, longing and belonging, sex and sensibility, parents and pediatrics, and the passion and pain of living with a werewolf officially opens tonight, May 5, and plays weekends at Santa Monica Playhouse through June 17, 2012.

On Thursday, May 3, 2012 Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's romantic musical comedy The Fantasticks will celebrate its 52nd anniversary. The Fantasticks currently stars triple platinum recording artist Aaron Carter as Matt. Television and stage star John Davidson will join the cast as Henry on June 1.

"DANNY and SYLVIA: THE Danny Kaye MUSICAL", the long-running musical at St. Luke's Theatre, 308 West 46th Street, which opened May 13, 2008, will close tonight, April 27th after a special added performance at 1 PM. The musical would have celebrated its 3rd anniversary this May.

Oscar and Tony Award winning actor and arts advocate Kevin Spacey will receive the Helen Hayes Tribute at the 28th Helen Hayes Awards ceremony tonight, April 23, 2012.

Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. ('Jerry Maguire,' 'Radio') stars in a new Hallmark Hall of Fame film, FIRELIGHT premiering tonight, Sunday, April 22 (9:00-11:00, ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Academy Award-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. ('Jerry Maguire,' 'Red Tails') stars in a new Hallmark Hall of Fame film, FIRELIGHT which will premiere on ABC Sunday, April 22, 2012, 9-11 p.m. ET/PT.

Today we are saluting one of the most beloved Broadway scores of all time, created by the formidable show business songwriting dynasty of Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein - THE SOUND OF MUSIC. While the original 1959 Broadway production was well-received and won Mary Martin a Tony Award for her winsome Maria, the property has gone on to win over generations the world over thanks in no small part to the 1965 Robert Wise feature film version starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. On Monday, Carnegie Hall will be presenting a special concert version of the family- friendly show starring Laura Osnes, Tony Goldwyn and Brooke Shields. Be sure to check out my comprehensive conversation with Brooke Shields, who will be playing the Baroness, available here, and, also, stay tuned to BroadwayWorld for my upcoming InDepth InterView with the Maria of the concert presentation, rising Broadway superstar Laura Osnes. So, what exactly is it about THE SOUND OF MUSIC that has won over audiences of all ages for more than fifty years and set hearts aflutter and souls stirred? Is it the dramatic story of a family torn apart by death and war only to be brought back together again when least expected by a kindly maternal nun? Is it the slice of life depiction of the family dynamic and how we can all relate to one or many facets of it therein? Is it the ensuing romance between Maria and Captain Von Trapp and their delicately portrayed courtship (particularly when considering the ravishing duet added for the film, "Something Good")? Or, is it that classic Rodgers & Hammerstein score - containing a dizzying assortment of standards that have gone on to become ingrained in our ears, minds and hearts, as well as made a fixture of pop culture itself - "Do-Re-Mi", "My Favorite Things", "Edelweiss", "The Lonely Goatherd", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", the title song and beyond. AMC's hit series MAD MEN even featured one of the most beloved SOUND OF MUSIC duets on a recent broadcast as an ironic episode capper all too befitting of the moment (and, given the 60s setting of the series, era) - Betty Draper mischievously sneaking an extra bowl of ice cream set to the strains of "I Am Sixteen Going On Seventeen". Between the MAD MEN song reference, the ongoing SOUND OF MUSIC film singalongs occurring every week (with many patrons coming in costume and with props, ala ROCKY HORROR) around the world and the countless professional and amateur productions that crop up every year, as well as the glitzy Carnegie Hall concert on Monday, THE SOUND OF MUSIC has never gone out of style - it shall forever remain sixteen, even when the show itself is not too far away from hitting sixty.

Academy Award-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. ('Jerry Maguire,' 'Red Tails') stars in a new Hallmark Hall of Fame film, FIRELIGHT which will premiere on ABC Sunday, April 22, 2012, 9-11 p.m. ET/PT.

The world premiere of two-time Oscar nominated show business legend Arnold Schulman's humorous and romantic SLEEPING UGLY - an adult fairytale about love and lust, longing and belonging, sex and sensibility, parents and pediatrics, and the passion and pain of living with a werewolf opens Sunday, April 15 and plays weekends at Santa Monica Playhouse through June 17, 2012.