Michael Townsend Wright News

ASCAP Award-winning writer/producer Chip Deffaa's new CD, 'Irving Berlin Rediscovered' - being released today - features such Broadway notables as Stephen Bogardus ('Bright Star'), Giuseppe Bausilio ('Hello, Dolly!'), and Jon Peterson ('Cabaret'), plus such nightclub and cabaret stars as Seth Sikes and Natalie Douglas.

A new cast album for ASCAP Award-winning writer/director Chip Deffaa's musical play "Irving Berlin's America" (published and licensed by Steele Spring Stage Rights) is being released today.   Michael Townsend Wright and Matthew Nardozzi co-star on the new album.  An earlier cast album of the show, with Wright and Giuseppe Bausilio--co-stars of the first New York production at the 13th Street Theater--will continue to be available.  Both albums are being distributed in the US by CDBaby, and are available now  from Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Footlight Records, etc.  

Rare--and in many cases, never-before-recorded--Irving Berlin love songs are the focus of Chip Deffaa's latest album, 'Irving Berlin Revisited,' being released today. 

'The Chip Deffaa Songbook'—a double-album featuring nearly 40 theater songs by ASCAP Award-winning playwright/songwriter Chip Deffaa--is out now.  The two-CD set gathers songs that Deffaa wrote or co-wrote for such shows of his as 'George M. Cohan Tonight!,' 'The Seven Little Foys,'  'Mad About the Boy,' 'Presenting Fanny Brice,' 'The Family that Sings Together,' 'Yankee Doodle Dandy,' 'Song-and-Dance Kids,' and 'Theater Boys.' The set, with a suggested  list price of $17.00, is available from Amazon, CDBaby, iTunes, Footlight Records, etc.   It may be ordered here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thechipdeffaasongbook.

'The Chip Deffaa Songbook'--a two-CD set, featuring nearly 40 theater-songs by ASCAP Award-winning playwright/songwriter  Chip Deffaa--will be released November 30th.  The album features songs that Deffaa wrote or co-wrote for such shows of his as 'Theater Boys,' 'The Seven Little Foys,' 'Mad About the Boy,' 'Yankee Doodle Dandy,' 'The Family That Sings Together,' 'The Fanny Brice Story,' 'Song-and-Dance Kids,' and 'George M. Cohan Tonight!'  

Lost, forgotten, and  unknown Irving Berlin songs are the focus of  Chip Deffaa's new album, 'The Irving Berlin Songbook,'  being released today.  

Award-winning playwright/director Chip Deffaa's 'Irving Berlin Songbook' album--part of an ongoing 'Irving Berlin Project' which Deffaa has been developing at the 13th Street Theater in New York City--will be released August 16th.  The album--with two-dozen members of New York's theatrical community singing 29 rare Berlin songs--includes many songs that have never before  been recorded.  Deffaa--one of the world's foremost authorities on Berlin's music and the author of five different shows about him--went through every song in the Berlin archive, some 1500 in all, in preparation for the project.

Some never-before-recorded Irving Berlin songs will get their recording debuts when the original cast album of Chip Deffaa's musical play IRVING BERLIN & CO. is released in the U.S. by CDBaby on Monday, December 21st.

The original cast album for Chip Deffaa's musical play 'Irving Berlin & Co.' (published by Eldridge Plays and Musicals)  will be released December 21st.  The album can be pre-ordered now from CDBaby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/irvingberlinco); as of the 21st, it will be available from Amazon, iTunes, Google Music Store,  SoundExchange, Rhapsody, etc.  This is the 13th cast album of Deffaa's to be released, and the fourth dealing with Berlin.  Cast-members will help celebrate the release with performances of songs at Birdland and on 'The Barry Z Show.'  

'The Barry Z Show,' which has been covering the New York theater scene on cable TV for more than 20 years, will salute ASCAP award-winning playwright/director Chip Deffaa's theatrical productions, on a show being taped for future broadcast 10 pm, October 1st at the midtown club Don't Tell Mama. Host Barry Z, who's often saluted Deffaa's productions over the past 20 years, will be celebrating the release of Deffaa's 12th cast album, 'The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue.' And he will present an array of performers doing numbers from an assortment of Deffaa's shows.

NahNotOutsideMyHouse! Productions Inc. presents a reading of Charles Messina's new play 'An Honest Woman.' Joining the stellar cast in this one night only reading is former Sopranos star Jason Cerbone, who played the role of Jackie Aprile Jr. on the hit HBO Series.

Steele Spring Stage Rights officially publishes ASCAP Award-winner Chip Deffaa's musical play 'Irving Berlin's America'--which successfully premiered in 2014 at the 13th Street Repertory Theater in New York City--on Monday, April 20th. The 13th Street Rep will celebrate the publication on 5 pm this Sunday, April 19th. Coinciding with publication of the script, filmmaker Max Galassi is releasing a brand new video to promote 'Irving Berlin's America' -- check it out below!

Steele Spring Stage Rights officially publishes ASCAP Award-winner Chip Deffaa's musical play 'Irving Berlin's America'--which successfully premiered in 2014 at the 13th Street Repertory Theater in New York City--on Monday, April 20th. The 13th Street Rep will celebrate the publication on 5 pm Sunday, April 19th.

The Abingdon Theatre Company will present a reading of Charles Messina's play A ROOM OF MY OWN, starring Mario Cantone on April 21, 2015. The comedy is based on Messina's life growing up in Greenwich Village in the late 1970s.

All My Children's Alfredo Diaz will join the cast of The Sunday Series at Abingdon's presentation of 3 From The Neighborhood. It is a one night only workshop performance on March 22nd of three new one act plays by New York-based playwright Charles Messina. Diaz played the unscrupulous villan Vlad Koslov on the daytime soap.

The Sunday Series at Abingdon will present 3 From The Neighborhood, a one night only workshop performance on March 22nd of three new one act plays by New York-based playwright Charles Messina.

Most Off-Broadway shows don't get a cast album, but ASCAP Award-winning writer/director Chip Deffaa's show "Irving Berlin's America" is about to get its second cast album. And this one will be released on February 2nd as a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

The 13th Street Rep's 'George M. Cohan Song-and-Dance Award'-honoring a triple-threat singer/dancer/actor--has this year been presented to two people: Rayna Hirt and Michael Czyz. Cohan himself-the quintessential song-and-dance man-may have long since gone to his reward. But his great-granddaughter, singer/actress Jennifer Cohan Ross, was on hand to present the awards. The 13th Street Rep's 97-year-old founder/artistic director, Edith O'Hara-a longtime believer in the importance of encouraging fresh talent--was there, too, to congratulate the winners. Playwright Chip Deffaa, whose work has often been presented by the theater, emceed the event.

Monday, November 24th will be "Eddie Cantor Day" at "One Night with Fanny Brice," the long-running musical play at the 13th Street Repertory Theater (50 W. 13th Street, NYC).

The 13th Street Repertory Theater will present an 'Irving Berlin Teach-In,' immediately following the Sunday (November 23rd) matinee performance of Chip Deffaa's 'The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue.' The 'Ragtime Revue,' which has been selling out at the theater, will begin at 3 pm. The teach-in is expected to begin at 4:30 pm. Michael Townsend Wright, who previously co-starred at the theater with Giuseppe Bausilio in 'Irving Berlin's America' (as seen in the photo) will be one of the special guests at the teach-in, singing a rare Berlin ballad as well as sharing recollections and insights. (Wright may also be heard on the cast album for 'Irving Berlin's America,' which includes some never-before-recorded material.) Surprise guests with ties to Berlin and his world will be joining Wright, the cast of 'The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue,' pianist Richard Danley, and playwright Chip Deffaa in the teach-in.