Melissa Manchester News

THE BLACK BOX in downtown Franklin presents critically acclaimed jazz vocalist April Hall on Friday, April 24 at 8 p.m. The concert, rescheduled from February due to a Valentine's Day snowstorm, is featured as part of BLACK BOX Jazz, one of four dynamic music series launched this year at the new theater, music and event venue.

Following last year's sold out benefit, the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (STAGE) has announced the All-Star cast* participating in the 31st annual gala, 'To Broadway, From Hollywood….With Love,' being held on Saturday, May 9th, at 7:30pm at the historic Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA. David Galligan directs and serving as Musical Director for his first time is Brad Ellis.

Following last year's sold out benefit, the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event(STAGE) is delighted to announce the All-Star cast* participating in the 31st annual gala, "To Broadway, From Hollywood….With Love," being held on Saturday, May 9th, at 7:30pm at the historic Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA. David Galligan directs and serving as Musical Director for his first time is Brad Ellis.

In late March (I'm bringing you up to the minute news), TUTS Underground staged the first ever reading of SWEET POTATO QUEENS. The piece put me in the mind of stories and movies like the DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD or SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS. Basically, anything with sister in it. That's no insult. Sandra Bullock in YA-YA is as good as Sandra in GRAVITY. I dare you to say otherwise.

The comics given the job of making the Friars laugh last night were not fooling around and the club rocked with laughter. The stand up comedy of MC Dave Konig, George Vanarthos, Michelle Tod, Nancy Lombardo, Michele Balan, Maria Schultz, Ross Bennett and producer Cory Kahaney were well received by members who have been well trained in the art of laughing by fellow Friars. Ross Bennett, recently a smash on David Letterman was especially effective. The intimate setting of the club's Milton Berle Room has been the scene of many fun filled evenings, and numerous comics have launched their careers in the mahogany walled space.

THE BLACK BOX, downtown Franklin's new theater, music, and event venue, presents a wide-ranging lineup of live music entertainment this April. Events are slated to feature singer-songwriter Ayla Brown, Opera for Kids, and jazz vocalist April Hall. THE BLACK BOX, the home of the Franklin Performing Arts Company (FPAC), is located at 15 West Central Street.

LOVE SONGS PLAYAROUND SHAKESPEARE combines the lyrical and romantic songs from a new contemporary musical, LOVE SONGS-A Musical (Music & Lyrics by Steven Cagan, veteran composer/conductor, DREAMGIRLS Musical Director), with some of Shakespeare's most passionate, poetic love scenes, enhanced by modern visual technology and dance.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

SWEET POTATO QUEENS will be performed at Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center this weekend, March 21 & 22, featuring local actors.

LOVE SONGS PLAYAROUND SHAKESPEARE combines the lyrical and romantic songs from a new contemporary musical, LOVE SONGS-A Musical (Music & Lyrics by Steven Cagan, veteran composer/conductor, DREAMGIRLS Musical Director), with some of Shakespeare's most passionate, poetic love scenes, enhanced by modern visual technology and dance.

Maureen McGovern took the stage at 54 Below for 'Celebrating Women Singer/Songwriters' from March 10-14, where she was visited by a slew of stars, including Tony Bennett and Sam Underwood. Check out photos below!

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: GTG honors Kate Mulgrew and more at its GOLDEN SHAMROCK Gala, stars align for THE BEST OF BROADWAY SINGS at 54 Below and more!

TUTS Underground just announced it will stage its first-ever reading of a new musical!

Acclaimed Jazz harpist-pianist-vocalist Corky Hale will present a 100th Birthday Show honoring Billie Holiday on Monday, April 6 at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. Special guests will include singers Freda Payne, Eloise Laws and Tricia Tahara, with Hale on piano and harp, Lyman Medeiros on bass, John Chiodini on Guitar and Christopher Jones on drums. Holiday, who was born on April 7, 1915 and died in 1959, was one of the most important and influential jazz legends of all time.

Emerging as a pop diva in the 1970s, Maureen McGovern has been somewhere on the scene for decades. She still has a powerful, well-honed instrument, sufficient to perform confident acapella. However, It's difficult to tell from her new 54 Below show, Sing, My Sisters, Sing! Celebrating Women Singer/Songwriters, whether the artist's range has vastly diminished or arrangements and rhythms, often unsympathetic to original tunes, are so similar as to make an otherwise diverse selection of songs homogeneous.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Maureen McGovern in 'Celebrating Women Singer/ Songwriters.' Maureen celebrates women singer/songwriters in her powerful new show and forthcoming CD, Sing, My Sisters, Sing!.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

Broadway's 40 theatres aren't the only places to catch performances from your favorite stars! Well after Broadway orchestra's begin their overtures, ensemble members take their dance breaks, and performers belt out their eleven- o'clock numbers, the party continues at various cabaret venues throughout New York City. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you some cabaret highlights for this week as picked by our theatre editors, including: The Cast of Side Show: Added Attractions; Maureen McGovern: Celebrating Women Singer/Songwriters at 54 Below; Columbia University Songbook featuring David Henry Hwang & More; A Sophisticated Ladies Reunion at 54 Below; and 54 Sings A Man of No Importance.

The former pop star and Broadway headliner brings her tribute to female singer-songwriters to 54 Below.

This special Bainbride Symphony Orchestra program is one of celebration, community, and the American spirit. Through the generous support of the Fletcher Bay Foundation the BSO showcases its brand new set of timpani in American composer Michael Daugherty's thrilling concerto, Raise the Roof! performed by Gunnar Folsom. Kevin Puts won the Pulitzer Prize in 2010, and his work for orchestra, Millennium Canons, has its BSO debut in this winter concert, which also features the Introduction to Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, Down a Country Lane and Variations on a Shaker Melody by Aaron Copland, and Antonin Dvo?ak's American Suite, op. 98b. Closing the performance in grand fashion is Beethoven's Chorale Fantasy featuring the BSO, Mark Salman on piano, and the Amabile Choir with Director Anne Pell. Singing of strength, unity and joy this masterpiece is the perfect end to this unique program.