Melody Hollis News

The Coterie executive producers Amber Cassell and Julie Garnye are proud to present musical theatre songwriting team Jordan Beck and Johnathan May (Beck & May) in a pre-album release concert for their upcoming album Cousins.

Check out BroadwayWorld TV's Around the BroadwayWorld for 11/7 featuring Outside the Box - Episode 1, 'You Must Be Joking' Music Video, Fly Fly Away from Catch Me if you Can... Mallory Bechtel , All About Jordan Roth, And one for the kids - Pinkalicious The Musical.

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, November 6, 2011 - Sunday, November 6, 2011.

The first episode of the new web-series Outside The Box is now up and running on YouTube. Episode one stars Beth Leavel, Melody Hollis, Barry Pearl, Sandy Rosenberg, and Brandon Uranowitz. Written and Directed by Bruce Kimmel.

Outside The Box is a new musical comedy web series about a very outré musical theatre group called Outside The Box. Each episode features an entirely new cast, save for one recurring character, the director of the group. Each episode features between one and three musical numbers. The first episode of six (comprising season one) will premiere November 6 on YouTube (the YouTube channel is outsidetheboxseries), with new episodes every two weeks.

Bruce Kimmel is a known record producer and director, but not everyone knows that he's a songwriter -- and a really good one. Aside from the songs he wrote for his musicals FIRST NUDIE MUSICAL and THE BRAIN FROM PLANET X, he's written some wonderful single songs -- some funny, some romantic, some charming.

Kritzerland at the Gardenia will present KIMMELSONGS on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Outside The Box is a new musical comedy web series about a very outré musical theatre group called Outside The Box. Each episode features an entirely new cast, save for one recurring character, the director of the group. Each episode features between one and three musical numbers. The first episode of six (comprising season one) will premiere November 6 on YouTube (the YouTube channel is outsidetheboxseries), with new episodes every two weeks.

Outside The Box is a new musical comedy web series about a very outré musical theatre group called Outside The Box. Each episode features an entirely new cast, save for one recurring character, the director of the group. Each episode features between one and three musical numbers. The first episode of six (comprising season one) will premiere November 6 on YouTube (the YouTube channel is outsidetheboxseries), with new episodes every two weeks.

Outside The Box is a new musical comedy web series about a very outré musical theatre group called Outside The Box. Each episode features an entirely new cast, save for one recurring character, the director of the group. Each episode features between one and three musical numbers. The first episode of six (comprising season one) will premiere November 6 on YouTube (the YouTube channel is outsidetheboxseries), with new episodes every two weeks.

On Wednesday September 7 Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland at the Gardenia celebrated its first anniversary honoring the work of Frank Loesser. Loesser, if you recall, wrote Guys and Dolls, considered by many to be one of the most perfect musicals of all time. He also wrote music and lyrics for 1962's Pulitzer Prize winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying currently receiving a sold out revival on Broadway starring Daniel Radcliffe, or as Kimmel referred to him, Harry Potter. Loesser's The Most Happy Fella, my personal favorite, incurable romantic that I am, has some of the most gorgeous songs of all time like 'My Heart Is So Full of You' and 'Somebody Somewhere'. Participating in the evening were an all female contingent: Laura Wolfe, filling in wonderfully and on short notice for the previously announced Shannon Warne, Kim Huber - such a great singer - Alet Taylor, Ruth Williamson - wonderful character actress and singer - Kelsey Scott, and of course, prolific little Melody Hollis, who has been appearing in Kritzerland shows for several months. And last but hardly least, musical director extraordinaire John Boswell.

On Wednesday August 10 thirteen year-old triple threat performer Melody Hollis debuted her one-woman show Melodyland @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's to a packed house of enthusiastic fans. Produced and directed by Bruce Kimmel, Melodyland is perhaps the only cabaret show for a talented young lady ... that young. However, it's a great idea for such an amazing talent. Hollis can not only sing, dance and patter with the best of them, but she has a certain savoir faire and wisdom that go far beyond her years. And she understands the meaning behind the lyrics of the songs she sings. Not easy, considering she sang Stephen Sondheim's 'Children Will Listen' - has a child ever sung this before? - and an expert rendition of Kander & Ebb's 'A Quiet Thing'. Usually reserved for older people, who have had more experience with love and life, these songs require a rich understanding and interpretation, which, somehow, Hollis was able to supply. Her voice with time will be richer and more beautiful, so I can only imagine how dreamlike these will sound then. It doesn't hurt that your musical director is also your father - the wonderful Steve Hollis, giving the impression that Melody has been superbly trained and nurtured for seven years in the world of musical theatre.

Broadway and TV performer, and newly turned teenager Melody Hollis will make her cabaret debut as she becomes one of the youngest, if not the youngest person ever to perform a solo one- (not quite a) woman show at Vitello's nightclub in Studio City.

Another wonderful evening of song from Kritzerland, Bruce Kimmel's production label, at the Gardenia on Wednesday August 3, this time saluting the music of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, and congrats are in as this show marks Kritzerland's 12th consecutive show in its series at the Gardenia! Schmidt and Jones penned The Fantasticks, I Do! I Do!, among the most famous, and less so: 110 In the Shade, Collette Collage, Celebration and even a musical entitled The Bone Room. On hand to perform were musical director John Boswell and special guest Rex Smith, Lauren Rubin, Michaelia Leigh, Will Collyer, Camille Saviola, Michael Hawkins, 13 year-old Melody Hollis and even Guy Haines - I mean, Bruce Kimmel himself - singing. And I'm here to tell you, he didn't sound half bad! Kimmel as always introduced the evening with interesting composer trivia and anecdotes. The music showcased included well known tunes and lesser known or unfamiliar ones. Schmidt and Jones may not have had the popularity of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, or Kander and Ebb, but one thing is certain they sure did pen some eclectically beautiful songs!

Broadway and TV performer, and newly turned teenager Melody Hollis will make her cabaret debut as she becomes one of the youngest, if not the youngest person ever to perform a solo one- (not quite a) woman show at Vitello's nightclub in Studio City.

On Wednesday July 6 Kritzerland at the Gardenia presented a salute to the lesser known music of Kander and Ebb - The Kander and Ebb Album - two of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. Think Chicago or Cabaret, and you need go no further. These two wildly popular shows still receive international mountings and provide us with some of the greatest Broadway pop tunes ever. Ahead of their time, Kander and Ebb produced shows with a substantially dark and biting edge not found in other composers' music and lyrics. Bruce Kimmel, whose Kritzerland recording company continues to enjoy enormous success worldwide, again served as narrator of the evening telling short, funny anecdotes about his encounters with John Kander and also detailing Kander and Ebb's failures as well as successes. Liza Minnelli's Broadway career soared because of K & E - it started with Flora the Red Menace in the 60s and continued through the next couple of decades with hits and flops such as The Rink and 1977's The Act, which began in LA as Shine It On. K & E certainly didn't fare too badly either with Liza's name on their bill. Think of what she did for the movie Cabaret with her Academy Award winning turn as Sally. However, such was not the case with their film New York, New York which received some pretty scathing reviews in the late 70s; the pair were none too pleased that a small musical The First Nudie Musical (Bruce Kimmel)fared far better than their multi-billion dollar disaster. It's always such fun for theatre lovers to hear about the down side of the business, and particularly via Kimmel's straight-forward, droll take on it.

There's this old showbiz cliche that says one should never work with kids and/or animals. Well, either species probably never really scared producers from creating ANNIE, the much-beloved musical classic now in production for Musical Theatre West in Long Beach, California through November 14. Here, the kids steal every scene, and the dog... well, how can you not love a musical with a lovable (trained) dog? With famous populist origins and quite a hummable, familiar score, this long-standing musical's saccharine sweet portrayal of pre-Depression era New York City amps up the long-lost American idea of optimism. And, in a bit of inspired stunt casting, Andrea McArdle--who made her Tony-nominated debut in the original 1977 Broadway production as the title role--steps into the role of the wicked Ms. Hannigan for this production.

The phenomenally successful 1977 Broadway musical Annie took America by storm and has been filmed twice. After 33 years, and especially now during our country's long bout of economic recession, its Depression era optimism holds up better than ever, and in MTW's current glowing production everything is in place to savor.