Mercedes Ellington News

The York Theatre Company has announced the roster of performers for a concert celebration at the 30th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala, which will take place on Monday evening, November 14, 2022 at The Edison Rooftop.

The World Premiere of SUGAR HILL The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker, the reimagining of The Nutcracker based on the collaboration of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, will debut at Pittsburgh’s Benedum Center for the Performing Arts from October 19-30, 2022. The production will follow with a run at New York City Center from November 15-27, 2022.

In the new documentary, Maurice and friends—Chita Rivera, Mercedes Ellington and Debbie Allen—tell tales from his lengthy career, including Broadway shows, a co-starring role in Francis Ford Coppola’s THE COTTON CLUB and his loving yet complex relationship with his superstar brother, the late Gregory Hines.

In celebration of Black History Month, MAURICE HINES: BRING THEM BACK will make its U.S. broadcast and streaming premiere on STARZ and the STARZ App in February 2022 and run on the network through 2023.

Dancers Over 40 returned to 'live' events this Fall with the 13th Annual Legacy Awards and Holiday Dinner on Monday, December 6, 2021.

Dancers Over 40 will return to 'live' events this Fall with the 13th Annual Legacy Awards and Holiday Dinner Monday, December 6, 2021. This celebration honoring their very own members Mercedes Ellington, Mary McCatty, Sue Samuels, Susan Sigrist and Tony Waag will be held at LIPS Restaurant, 227 East 56th Street 6 - 9pm.

The Playwrights Realm, in partnership with law firm Dyer Harris LLP, announces playwright and performer Nkenna Akunna; costume designer Dina El-Aziz; actor and writer Isra Elsalihie; playwright, director, and scenographer Abhishek Majumdar; and composer Tidtaya Sinutoke (ฑิตยา สินุธก) as the recipients of the 2021 International Theatermakers Award (ITA).

Tony Waag, executive director of The American Tap Dance Foundation, and Mercedes Ellington, CEO/Artistic Director of The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts, announce the return of their FREE, annual outdoor event to commemorate Duke Ellington's birthday.

Tony Waag, executive director of The American Tap Dance Foundation, and Mercedes Ellington, CEO/Artistic Director of The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts, announced today the return of their free, annual outdoor event to commemorate Duke Ellington's birthday.

Today (March 4) in live streaming: Eva Noblezada visits Backstage Live, a Sophisticated Ladies Reunion on Stars in the House, and more!

Stars in the House continues tonight (8pm ET) with a Sophisticated Ladies Reunion!  Duke Ellington: The Music That Defined A Century with Mercedes Ellington, Judith Jamison, Teri Klausner, Ty Stephens and guest hosts Erich McMillian-McCall and Kenneth Hanson.

Today's top stories: NY arts and entertainment venues can reopen at 33% beginning April 2, select Broadway theatres to reopen as part of NY PopsUp, and more!

The Harlem Cultural Collaborative closes out the 2020 Harlem Renaissance community centennial celebration with Strike Up The Band: HBCUs Marching Into The Harlem Renaissance. on Saturday, December 12th at 4pm.

The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts is thrilled to present The Great Reunion: a virtual concert celebrating Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

The 2020 American Black Film Festival announced its winners during a virtual ceremony on Sunday, August 30 from Miami Beach, Fla. Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker hosted the awards show, which featured Spike Lee, Lee Daniels, Laz Alonso, Bevy Smith, Logan Browning, Sinqua Walls and La La Anthony as presenters with BeBe Winans closing the ceremony with a performance of his original song “Black Lives Matter.”

Jazz great Duke Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder, a twelve-part jazz suite based on the work of William Shakespeare, will be explored in the next edition of the Duke Ellington Performance Series on Sunday, April 19 at Birdland Jazz Club, 315 West 44th Street, 5:30-7pm.

Below is the upcoming schedule at Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater February 3 through February 16: 

Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater are pleased to present the schedule for the month of February! At Birdland Jazz Club, catch the iconic Lionel Hampton Big Band Featuring Jason Marsalis, current GRAMMY nominee Catherine Russell, the Birdland debut of AGUAS Trio with Omar Sosa, Yilian Cañizares and Gustavo Ovalles, and iconic vocalist Jane Monheit. Internationally recognized trumpeter Rachel Therrien, the Seth Weaver Big Band, and The Voice contestant Melinda Rose Rodriguez will also be performing upstairs. 

Twenty years after her sharp, seminal first book Sex and the City reshaped the landscape of pop culture and dating with its fly on the wall look at the mating rituals of the Manhattan elite, the trailblazing Candace Bushnell delivers a new book on the wilds and lows of sex and dating after fifty. 

The York Theatre Company, dedicated to the development of new musicals and preserving musical gems from the past, recently honored Tony Award winner André De Shields (Hadestown) with the 2019 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre and producer Riki Kane Larimer (Cagney) with The York Theatre Company Founders' Award on Monday evening, November 11, 2019 at The Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street).