Peter Napolitano News

Urban Stages, Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director, has announced the cast of the American Premiere of the award-winning drama Angry Young Man by award-winning playwright Ben Woolf, directed by Stephen Hamilton.

Urban Stages, Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director, will continue its 33rd season with the American Premiere of the award-winning drama Angry Young Man by award- winning playwright Ben Woolf, directed by Stephen Hamilton.

According to singer/actor Adam B. Shapiro, breakups can be one of the most devastatingly painful things in the world . . . but not if you know how to do them right. Four years after Shapiro launched his 2013 MAC Award-Winning show GUIDE TO THE PERFECT BREAKUP, Shapiro will reprise his hilarious and musically compelling show-with songs written by composers as diverse as Cole Porter and Weird Al Yankovic--in the BroadwayWorld Award-Nominated series NEW YORK CABARET'S GREATEST HITS at the Metropolitan Room on March 15 at 7 pm. The series is produced and hosted by Stephen Hanks (with Associate Producer Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD).

In THE WORLD ACCORDING TO KURT WEILL, one of the more than 20 shows put together to form the Winter Rhythms festival benefiting arts education, old met new and timeliness met timelessness. At Urban Stages on December 6, six skilled performers were assembled to interpret several of the most well-known songs of the composer Kurt Weill (who died in the year 1950), through the lens of the world as we see it in 2016. This meant that each song from shows such as ONE TOUCH OF VENUS or THREEPENNY OPERA was introduced with a framing device that was the statement of an accurate and modern headline or situation ("The Refugee Crisis in Syria Worsens," "Donald Trump Wins the Election in Shocking Upset").

Urban Stages has confirmed the line-up for this year's award-winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin tomorrow, Thursday, December 1, and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

BroadwayWorld Cabaret is pleased to announce the nominees in 14 categories for the 2016 BWW New York Cabaret Awards.

Urban Stages and Stephen Hanks' Cabaret Life Productions has announced that on Saturday, December 3 at 7 pm, the 2016 Urban Stages Winter Rhythms Festival (December 1-11 at 259 West 30th Street, NYC) will present highlights from seven of the 16 shows that have been presented at Hanks' highly praised monthly series at the Metropolitan Room--New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD)--and two shows that will be featured in the series in 2017.  

Urban Stages has announced the line-up for this year's Award Winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin Thursday, December 1 and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

New York: As part of Urban Stages' mission to use theater as a means for conversation and education, Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director of Urban Stages is proud to announce a special talkback series for their current production, Communion by OBIE, GLADD and Governor General's award-winning playwright Daniel MacIvor.  This series will include discussions with psychiatrists, therapists and grief counselors to address the issues featured in Communion.  Talkback are included with the price of a ticket to see Communion, they are $40 and may be purchased via OvationTix at www.urbanstages.org or by phone at 1.866.811.4111. The show will run at Urban Stages (259 W 30 Street) through October 30th.

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director) will kick off its 33rd season with the American Premiere of the award-winning drama Communion by celebrated Obie Award- winning, Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor, who will direct the production. This limited engagement will run at Urban Stages (259 West 30th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues) will begin performances tonightand will run through October 30th, 2016 with Opening Night set for Thursday, October 6th.

Urban Stages will kick off its 33rd season with the American Premiere of the award-winning drama Communion by celebrated Obie Award- winning, Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor, who will direct the production.

This Today, October 1, 2016 between 1-2pm, celebrated Obie Award-Winning playwright, Daniel MacIvor, who will be at The Drama Book Shop to meet and greet fans and sign copies of his plays.

Urban Stages kicks off its 33rd season with the American Premiere of the award-winning drama Communion by celebrated Obie Award- winning, Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor, who will direct the production.

This Saturday, October 1, 2016 between 1-2pm, celebrated Obie Award-Winning playwright, Daniel MacIvor, who will be at The Drama Book Shop to meet and greet fans and sign copies of his plays.

'Without Dietrich, there would have been no Madonna...and no Gaga,' Janice Hall announced at the outset of her brilliant revival of GRAND ILLUSIONS: THE MUSIC OF MARLENE DIETRICH, the most recent installment of Stephen Hanks' New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Co-produced by Father Jeffrey R. Hamblin and flawlessly directed by Peter Napolitano, Hall's show---for which the former opera singer won both MAC and Bistro awards in 2011 and 2012, respectively---seamlessly weaves together the music and life of the enigmatic movie star and international cabaret sensation whose greatest creation, in Hall's words, 'was herself.'

Urban Stages will kick off its 33rd season with the American Premiere of the award-winning drama Communion by celebrated Obie Award- winning, Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor, who will direct the production.

No matter the song, style, or setting, Janice Hall, the multi-talented opera singer, cabaret chanteuse, and character actress, is her own master. She broke into the cabaret scene in 2010 in a big way with the 2011 Bistro Award Winner for Best Tribute Show and 2012 MAC Award Winner for Best Female Vocalist. The show that earned her those awards? 'GRAND ILLUSIONS: THE MUSIC OF MARLENE DIETRICH,' which Hall debuted in 2010 and will revive for one night on September 13 at 7:00 pm at the Metropolitan Room. Before Hall takes the stage this upcoming Tuesday night, we sat down for a discussion on career invention, reinvention, and versatility--- both Dietrich's and her own.

Cabaret audiences who fell head over heels for opera singer Janice Hall's 2010-2011 solo debut show—Grand Illusions: The Music of Marlene Dietrich—will get to fall in love all over again (and a new audience can become smitten for the first time) when Hall reprises her Award-winning show at the Metropolitan Room on September 13 at 7 pm, in the 12th installment of Stephen Hanks' monthly New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits Series (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD). Hall's Marlene Dietrich show is directed by Peter Napolitano, with Matthew Martin Ward as Musical Director/Pianist and Ritt Henn on bass and ukulele.

In her A-line black and white polka dot dress with petticoats, a lively (and lithe!) Maureen Taylor delivered an entertaining tribute to lyricist Bob Merrill at the Metropolitan Room (on July 13). Originally directed by Peter Napolitano when the show debuted in 2008-09, Taylor Made is the latest installment of Producer/Promoter Stephen Hanks' outstanding New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits, which almost always lives up to its name.

In 2009 and 2010, opera singer turned cabaret performer Maureen Taylor staged a cabaret show tribute to Bob Merrill's music at the Metropolitan Room in New York and critics raved. Six years later, on July 13 at 7 pm, Maureen Taylor will reprise her highly praised show, Taylor Made: Bob Merrill, at the Metropolitan Room in cabaret's hottest monthly series, New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits, produced by Stephen Hanks (with Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD, Associate Producer). Taylor's Musical Director is Matt Castle on piano, with Joe Brent on guitar, mandolin, and violin. Her special guest performer is two-time MAC Award winner Rev. Yolanda (Roger Anthony Yolanda Mapes).