While Barbra Streisand was at the top of the list of celebrity artists asked to appear at the Obama Inaugration Celebration, her art is sadly keeping her away from the starry and historic event. Liz Smith reports in today's New York Post that thought she was requested, her recording sessions for her upcoming new album will notallow her to attend, but, reveals Smith, she and Diana Krall will watch the ceremonies from a recording studio in LA, where they're working 'feverishly' on the new project. Streisand says she is happy that she was able to perform her LA fund-raiser for the president-to-be, and while she won't be in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, 'he knows her heart is there along with 300 million other Americans'.
Variety is reporting that the inaugural team for Barack Obama has announced a huge and starry lineup of talent that will perform at an opening celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, in a kickoff heavy in its mix of history and leading performance artists.
Astoria Performing Arts Center is pleased to announce the production of RAGTIME, a musical directed by APAC's very own Artistic Director, Tom Wojtunik. Ragtime will play a 3-week limited engagement at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church (30-44 Crescent St, Astoria, NY 11102). Performances begin Thursday, February 5th and continue through Sunday, February 22nd.
The New York Public Library honored playwright Edward Albee, children's author and illustrator Ashley Bryan, screenwriter and essayist Nora Ephron, and novelist Salman Rushdie at its annual Library Lions black-tie benefit on Monday, November 3, 2008, at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.
Polydor Records celebrates the 60th birthday of Andrew Lloyd Webber, indisputably the most successful composer of our time, with the release of '60'. This amazing 3 CD, 60 track set spans the whole of Andrew's illustrious career and includes hits from all of his most famous musicals - Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Starlight Express, Evita, Sunset Boulevard and of course The Phantom Of The Opera.
National CineMedia (NCM) LLC, operator of the largest digital in-theatre network in North America for cinema advertising and alternative entertainment and events, and the Metropolitan Opera are proudly partnering to bring a third season of the critically-acclaimed The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD series transmitted live, in high-definition, to more than 440 movie theatres and performing arts centers in the United States.
Guthrie director Joe Dowling will be featured on National Public Radio's 'Performance Today' on Friday, May 23, airing in Minnesota on KSJN classical 99.5 at noon.
Emmy-winning actress and singer Megan Mullally, who is currently playing Elizabeth in Mel Brooks' musical version of Young Frankenstein on Broadway, will be hosting the 2008 Actors Fund Gala in New York on May 5th. The event, which is being held at Cipriani 42nd Street, will honor Alec Baldwin, Renee Fleming, Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley.
The Metropolitan Opera's 'Live in High Definition' series of live satellite transmissions into movie theaters achieved record-breaking attendance in its first weekend of the new 2007-08 season. The first transmission on Saturday, December 15-Romeo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, conducted by Placido Domingo-drew a worldwide audience of 97,000.
Renee Fleming, an American leading opera and jazz soprano, and Glen Keane, the original animator of 'Ariel,' visited the new Broadway production of Disney's The Little Mermaid at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Pulitzer Prize-winner Gian Carlo Menotti, whose works included a string of operas that played Broadway in the '40s and '50s, has died at the age of 95. He passed away of in a hospital in Monaco on Thursday, February 1st.
A sense of flippant musical comedy silliness, combined with a legit soprano of crystalline clarity, provided a keen balance of artistry and entertainment in Kristin Chenoweth's Metropolitan Opera concert debut
Soprano Barbara Cook, who began 2006 by being the first female pop singer to be presented by the Metropolitan Opera when she made her solo concert debut at the MET in January, will end the year by being the first pop performer to be named Vocalist of the Year when Musical America, the international directory of the performing arts, presents its annual awards at Lincoln Center's Kaplan Penthouse on Wednesday, December 20
Michael Cumpsty, Julianne Moore, David Hare, Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave and Martin Short, among others, will join New York Times writers to discuss their careers and crafts as part of the annual New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend, which will take place from January 5th through 7th, 2007
PS Classics, the nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of American musical theatre, will release the world premiere recording of Ricky Ian Gordon and Tina Landau's Dream True on May 23
Operas by composers such as Michael John LaChiusa and Adam Guettel, as well as opera productions helmed by high-profile directors like Mary Zimmerman, are slated to debut at the Met at the end of this decade and the beginning of next
