December 12 marks the centennial of Frank Sinatra's birth, which makes the arrival of Sandy Hackett's Rat Pack Christmas, which plays for one performance this Saturday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, all the more special. Since 2009, Hackett, son of the late comedian Buddy Hackett, and his wife, Lisa Miller, have been presenting their stage shows that celebrate the hip, swingin', ring-a-ding-ding aura of the original Las Vegas Rat Pack. During the late '50s and early '60s, the Rat Pack ruled the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, a freewheeling act that incorporated Great American Songbook tunes with a raucous, let's-throw-caution-to-the-wind attitude that became the definition of 'cool' in show business.
Ever since I was dazzled by Creating Arts Studios production 'Thenardiers Inn' which well-deservedly went on to win the 2015 Hollywood Fringe award for best cabaret and variety show, I wait with anticipation for their next totally immersive theater experience, knowing it will be like no other. It was true for their 'The Experiment Cabaret' and I was not disappointed when I walked into the world famous Sayers Club in Hollywood, transformed into the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas during the reign of the Rat Pack in their current celebratory piece entitled 'A NIGHT AT THE SANDS' - A Vegas Musical Cocktail With an L.A. Twist.
Desperate Measures, a freewheeling new musical based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, is set in London in the 'swinging sixties' against a backdrop of starchy middle class morality and hypocrisy in a country on the verge of Beatlemania and the sexual and social permissiveness that we know today.
Anita Darian, a soprano whose four-octave voice earned her the nickname “The Armenian Yma Sumac” and spawned an eclectic 50-year career that ranged from performances with the New York City Opera, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic to big-band jazz concerts, co-starring roles with Barbara Cook, and hit pop recordings that included “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is dead at 87. A longtime resident of East Atlantic Beach, L.I., she died Sunday, Feb. 1 at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside of complications from surgery.
Your last name doesn't have to end in a vowel to know that there has ever been a cooler group of people to walk the earth than the Rat Pack. In The Winter Park Playhouse's latest show, THE RAT PACK LOUNGE, Frank, Dean, and Sammy (do they even need last names?) get a second chance to bring their unique brand of cool back to their home away from home, the Vegas Strip. The show runs through February 14th, and while every performance is completely sold out, WPP does occasionally have cancellations, so check with the theatre's box office for available performances.
Today we turn our attention to a Golden Age master who was celebrated earlier this week via PETER PAN LIVE! and rightly so given this is now his centennial year, Adolph Green.
Renowned author/biographer James Spada, who has penned best-selling books on Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis and Peter Lawford, to name a few, has a new coffee table book which will hit the book stands mid October, entitled Streisand in the Camera Eye. I have seen an advanced copy, and it is simply beautiful...'Hello, gorgeous!' Barbra would say as Fanny Brice. Fans of Barbra will adore this one and even if you are merely fond of her work, like me, you will be blown away by the beauty of these rarely seen photographs accompanied by short descriptions of the time and place by Spada. It's a real page turner, and each photograph is more eye-catching, more vivid than the last.
Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world's premier faith-and-family channel, will feature a special presentation of the groundbreaking, Academy Award-winning movie Exodus on Sunday, August 24th, at 7 p.m. Pacific Time (9 p.m. Central, 10 p.m. Eastern).
The New-York Historical Society ha just announced events for November 2013. For more information, contact the Communications Office at (212) 485-9263. All programs are presented at the New-York Historical Society unless otherwise noted. Sign up for our RSS feeds at http://www.nyhistory.org/rss-feeds.
Family dynamics are examined in June's selections on Reel 13. Relationships between sisters are strained with disastrous results in Dead Ringer on June 22 and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? on June 29.
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop were the fab four of The Rat Pack. They were style with substance, swing with swagger and a non-stop party that everyone wanted access to. Bristol Riverside Theatre recreates the 1960's era with Sandy Hackett's The Rat Pack Show tonight, May 3 through May 5.
I am a huge fan of Louisa May Alcott's story of the March sisters and both films of Little Women, the one from the early 30s starring Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett and then the 1949 revival starring June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh and Margaret O'Brien. I'm partial to the latter film, only because I love everyone in that cast, and it was in glorious technicolor. It also boasted Mary Astor as Marmee and Peter Lawford as Laurie.
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop were the fab four of The Rat Pack. They were style with substance, swing with swagger and a non-stop party that everyone wanted access to. Bristol Riverside Theatre recreates the 1960's era with Sandy Hackett's The Rat Pack Show on May 3-5.
Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world's largest religious network and America's most-watched faith channel, is privileged to present the Academy Award-winning motion picture "Exodus," airing Sunday, January 20, at 7 p.m. (Pacific Time).
God sends Frankie, Sammy and Dino back to Earth to do a final good deed -- and to sing their way through it -- in this Rat Pack jukebox comedy directed by Victor Legaretta
Today, The Royalty Exchange launches the auction for FULL OWNERSHIP to the US RIGHTS of THE JUDY GARLAND SHOW at $1.5M. This astounding offering contains ALL 26 CLASSIC EPISODES of the 1963-964 CBS variety show. For the first time, the general public will be able to own the rights to a piece of Judy Garland's historic entertainment career.
Laura Van Wormer, my first editor at Doubleday, who published by second Streisand book "The Woman and the Legend," started an eBook publishing company and approached me about turning my backlist biographies into eBooks. "Streisand Her Life" was the best choice because it's a full, text-only biography rather than photo-driven books like the first two. (Although "Her Life" does have two lengthy picture inserts.)
Darren Julien, Founder and CEO of Julien's Auctions and Martin Nolan, Exeuctive Director, will bring some of the world's most iconic costumes to New York this week for one day only on Thursday, 10-25-2012. The world's premiere celebrity and memorabilia auction house will celebrate Hollywood Icons & Idols, an unprecedented Hollywood collection of over 800 items of screen worn wardrobe, props, original photographs, and celebrity owned items which will go on the auction block on November 9-10, 2012.
.jpg?format=auto&width=365)
