Peter James Zielinski News

A memorial service has been announced for Doris Eaton Travis, the last of the Ziegfeld Follies girls, who died May 11 at the age of 106. The service will begin at 6PM on June 27 at the Central Presbyterian Church (64th and Park) in New York City.

Lindsay Mendez, who can currently be seen on Broadway in EVERYDAY RAPTURE backing up Sherie Rene Scott, will go solo on June 28 at Joe's Pub for a one-night only concert.

Vassar & New York Stage and Film is pleased to announce the casts for the free Readings Festival 1 (June 25 - 27), which opens the 26th annual Powerhouse Theater season on the Vassar campus.

Cast members from the Broadway shows PROMISES, PROMISES, LEND ME A TENOR, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET and NEXT FALL are set to appear at the Barnes & Noble in the Lincoln Triangle during June.

Modern dance choreographer Martha Clarke has won the prestigious $50,000 Scripps/ADF award, The New York Times reports. The award, established in 1981, is presented by the American Dance Festival. This year's Festival will present the premiere of Clarke's ANGEL REAPERS, dealing with the life of Shaker founder Ann Lee, on July 5.

Today, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC's new ladies, Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch met the press in anticipation of their July 13th debut in Trevor Nunn's acclaimed production at the Walter Kerr Theatre, which is currently on hiatus. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the photocall.

Theboot.com reports that Laura Bell Bundy may be coming back to Broadway in the very near future - as both a performer and producer. The actress/country music singer recently told KILT Radio: 'I'm working on a project that will be announced soon that's for Broadway...But it's to bring country music to Broadway. I'm trying to merge those worlds together. I think a lot of Broadway musical fans, they don't realize are from the South or from middle America. That's who comes to see Broadway shows in New York. It will be really cool, so I'm excited about it. I'm a producer of it as well.'

Yesterday, June 22, Eddie Clendening, Lance Guest, Tony Award® winner Levi Kreis, Robert Britton Lyons, Tony Award® nominee Hunter Foster, Elizabeth Stanley, Corey Kaiser and Larry Lelli celebrated the release of the MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET cast album at Barnes and Noble in Lincoln Triangle. BroadwayWorld was on hand to capture the event!

Yesterday, June 22, Sean Hayes, Kristin Chenoweth, Tony Goldwyn, Katie Finneran and Dick Latessa hosted a special 'Talk Back' and Q&A sessions as well as a CD signing in celebration of the new Broadway cast recording of Promises, Promises (available now via online and retail outlets. BroadwayWorld was on hand to capture the event.

Celebrated cabaret performer Jamie deRoy presents a special evening of her Multi MAC Award-winning variety show, Jamie deRoy & friends on Wednesday, July 14th (7PM) at the New York hotspot Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street ~between 5th & 6th Avenues).

This past weekend, Elaine Stritch performed her 'Singin' Sondheim' cabaret in West Hartford, CT. As reported by the Hartford Courant, the A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC-bound star was simultaneously in private rehearsals with director Trevor Nunn. According to the report, Stritch and Peters were in New York working on scenes with Nunn, who then rode to Hartford with Stritch to continue discussions over the two-hour car ride. They continued work at the Roberts Theatre, the same space Stritch performed 'Singin' Sondheim' that evening. Jeremy Cohen, associate artistic director of Hartford Stage, is quoted as saying that watching Stritch and Nunn 'was like [being] a kid in a candy shop ... He's definitely an actor's director and listening them talk about Sondheim was incredible. It's as if they had been working together for decades because they spoke in the common vocabulary of Sondheim.'

Actor Hunter Foster's Facebook campaign 'Give the Tonys Back to Broadway' now has over 7700 members, the Los Angeles Times reports. The group was created on June 16.

FAMILY DINNER, a new play by Michele Willens, is being given its world-premiere Off-Broadway this summer in a production directed by Jamibeth Margolis at the Beckett Theatre On Theater Row (410 W. 42 St.) in Manhattan, with official press opening held last night June 21.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents the Geffen Playhouse production of THURGOOD in the Eisenhower Theater June 1 to June 20, 2010. Following the Kennedy Center engagement, THURGOOD will run at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, CA. Written and produced by George Stevens, Jr. and directed by Leonard Foglia, THURGOOD stars Tony Award® winner and Academy Award® nominee Laurence Fishburne.

A memorial service has been announced for Doris Eaton Travis, the last of the Ziegfeld Follies girls, who died May 11 at the age of 106. The service will begin at 6PM on June 27 at the Central Presbyterian Church (64th and Park) in New York City.

American playwright Katori Hall's The Mountaintop was named Best Play at the 2010 Olivier Awards in London. Marking the first time a female African American playwright has received the honor in the Olivier Awards' 34-year history, Ms. Hall's play was nominated alongside such new works as Jerusalem, Enron and Red.

Broadway star Hunter Foster (Million Dollar Quartet) has created a new group on Facebook - 'GIVE THE TONYS BACK TO BROADWAY!!'. The group's mission is 'A group for all actors, directors, writers and fans who want to see the Tony awards given back to who it belongs to: US!! No more movie stars invading Radio City, no more rock bands playing more than one song; we want Broadway stars as presenters and Broadway people performing. And if that means leaving CBS for Bravo or Lifetime or TNT, then so be it! We've had enough!'

Sherie Rene Scott, star and creator of Everyday Rapture, along with her co-creator Dick Scanlan and co-stars Betsy Wolfe, Eamon Foley and Lindsay Mendez celebrated the release of the Everyday Rapture Cast Album (out by Ghostlight Records) with a CD signing for fans at the American Airlines Theatre.

Marian Seldes has explained her reasons for making no speech upon receiving a 2010 Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, Steven Schalchlin reports on his blog.

Last night, on June 14, The Irish Repertory Theatre (Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director; Ciaran O'Reilly, Producing Director) presented a rare concert performance of Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 'Brigadoon' on Broadway for its 2010 Annual Benefit Gala.