'So what are you seeing next?' is a question I'm frequently asked and every year around this time when I answer, 'Broadway's Rising Stars. It's a concert at Town Hall with recent college and theatre school graduates singing showtunes,' I often get that look of pity that presumes that sitting through stuff like this is the price I pay for getting comps to see Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch in A Little Night Music.
There's something very endearing about watching a couple of old pros like Bernie Kopell and Lou Cutell exercise their finely tuned comedic chops as a pair of elderly widowers looking for a night of excitement; especially when that excitement comes in the form of Teresa Ganzel, who displays ample comic skills herself as the shapely blonde goodtime girl with a heart of gold. Add another actor and this trio could deliver a very enjoyable production of The Sunshine Boys. But alas, the vehicle they ride into the Little Shubert, Viagara Falls, is an anaemic sex comedy that wastes their talents and the audience's patience.
New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), called by The New York Times 'A national treasure when it comes to the art of song,' will present musical stars Tyne Daly, Amanda Green, Walter Bobbie, Darius de Haas, Jason Danieley and surprise guests in its 21st-Season Gala, titled CARRIED AWAY (with the Lyrics of Comden & Green), a celebration of legendary musical comedy writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, on Tuesday, April 14 at 7 PM at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.
