Richard H. Blake News

In this time of social distancing and remaining responsibly indoors, we are all looking for ways to brighten our days and get moving any way we can!

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Evans Haile, Executive Director), dedicated to the development of new musicals and rediscovery of musical gems from the past, as part of its acclaimed Developmental Reading Series, in association with Executive Producer Jonathan Demar (Hadestown), will present a staged reading of the new musical _Come Find Me: A Christmas Musical_, with book and lyrics by Holly Reed and music by Holly Reed and Kelvin Reed. TWO PERFORMANCES ONLY: Monday, October 28, 2019 at 11:00AM and 2:30PM at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (619 Lexington Avenue, entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue).

This Month, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents a return of I Wish: The Roles That Could Have Been on October 27, 2019, at 9:30pm. Everyone has dreams that we fear will pass us by. For actors those come in the shape and form of rolesa?"whether they're grown up and become too old for that child star turn, to the soprano never being considered for the baritone lead, everyone has a song in their heart that they'll likely never get to see come to fruition with a crowd and in lights.

Hey there, teenage Baltimore! It's officially been seventeen years since Broadway audiences were first welcomed the the 60s with the opening of Hairspray at the Neil Simon Theatre on August 15, 2002. To celebrate the special occasion, we're looking back what the nicest kids in town have been up to since leaving The Corny Collins Show, including Marissa Jaret Winokur, Harvey Fierstein, Matthew Morrison, Kerry Butler, and more! Check it all out!

'A Bronx Tale,' playing this week at Starlight Theatre, is one of those hidden gems of a show that enjoyed a fairly limited Broadway run. And because the Broadway run ended last fall after 700 performances (for now), a good portion of the New York cast has signed up for the touring company and are performing for Kansas City audiences. These folks obviously love this show. It shows in the performance.

If it's possible to be nostalgic for a time and place in which you've never lived, you will experience that feeling in A Bronx Tale.

Performing Arts Fort Worth proudly presents the first national tour of the hit Broadway production, A BRONX TALE, at Bass Performance Hall July 23-28. The show is part of Performing Arts Fort Worth's 2018-2019 Broadway at the Bass series. Tickets start at $44 and are on sale now!

Set on the stoops of the Bronx in the socially turbulent 1960s a young man, Calogero, is caught between the father he loves and the mob boss he would love to be. As he grows into a teenager on the streets of the Bronx, Calogero "C" gets taken under the wing of neighborhood mobster Sonny. Despite the warning from his straight-arrow bus driver father, Lorenzo, Sonny initiates the boy into the ways of gang life after "C" covers up a murder for Sonny. The story gets kicked up a notch when "C" falls for his African-American classmate, Jane, and the repercussions threaten the entire neighborhood. Featuring an original doo-wop score, this is a tale about respect, loyalty, love, and above all else: family.

I had the pleasure of seeing A Bronx Tale with my friend Cassy, who had NEVER seen a musical before! (I know, right?!) I invited Cassy because the 1993 movie, off which the musical is based, is her favorite. Seriously, her cat is named Calogero, after the lead character in both the movie and the play. I was excited to see this show, and especially excited to see it through the eyes of a neophyte theater goer. I was not disappointed!

The national tour of 'A Bronx Tale' is doo-wopping across the U.S. Check out what critics from tour stops like LA, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and more have to say about the production in their reviews below.

Calogero Lorenzo 'Chazz' Palminteri is a Bronx guy through and through. He lives and breathes New York Yankee pinstripes, is addicted to 'sauce,' and 'tawks' Bronxese.

Two iconic stars made a surprise appearance at last night's performance of A Bronx Tale in Boston. The show's creator, Chazz Palminteri, and co-director Robert DeNiro (who also directed, and starred in, the film) took the stage following curtain call to give a speech.

The North American tour of A BRONX TALE doo-wops its way into the Citizens Bank Opera House through April 14th as part of the 2018-2019 Lexus Broadway In Boston Season. It is at once a nostalgic stroll down memory lane with an original rock 'n' roll score, a gritty depiction of urban turf wars, and a well-told story about loyalty, love, and family. Based on Chazz Palminteri's 1989 one-man Off-Broadway play that inspired a 1993 film, the musical reunites the author with his directors, Jerry Zaks and Robert DeNiro, and they are joined by composer Alan Menken, lyricist Glenn Sater, and choreographer Sergio Trujillo. Like other musicals that have come before it (HAIRSPRAY, JERSEY BOYS, WEST SIDE STORY, to mention a few), A BRONX TALE feels familiar as it evokes a time, a place, and a genre that we recognize. It is a good, solid show with great music, performances, and design elements that provides a couple of hours of entertainment and escape.

The first words sung in A Bronx Tale, the tonally uneven and musically disappointing touring show that opened at D.C.'s National Theatre on Tuesday, are literally "this is a Bronx tale." The artistic subtleties don't get much better from there, as the musical (based on a movie based on a one-man show) proceeds to tackle issues from morality to racism with all the delicateness of a mobster smashing someone's head in with a baseball bat. Everything about this production is underwhelming from the performances to the design to the direction and choreography. Ultimately, A Bronx Tale is the perfect example of why we should stop adapting movies into musicals.

It's in the moments of high energy and pure entertainment that A BRONX TALE succeeds the most, and the company finds all the joy in Alan Menken's reliably tuneful score.

A BRONX TALE, the streetwise Broadway musical based on the one-man show and now classic film, will make its Washington, D.C. premiere at the National Theatre for one week only from March 26 through 31, 2019.

OMIGOD YOU GUYS! The songs of Legally Blonde: The Musical just hit the Feinstein's/54 Below stage. On Sunday night, Carrie St. Louis led a cast of Broadway and tour favorites in the music of the 7-time Tony-nominated hit musical.

Starting with promise, this show never fulfilled it as a rushed copy of WEST SIDE STORY never clicked.

No doubt about it, A Bronx Tale - the musical version of Chazz Palminteri's original 1989 one man show (he played some 18 characters in the original work) that ultimately led to a 1993 film directed by Robert DeNiro - is one engaging night of theater, telling an intriguing story of a boy who grows to manhood on the mean streets of The Bronx, in the shadow of local wiseguy/mob kingpin Sonny, played here by Joe Barbara with chilling authenticity and palpable, if oily, charm.