Robert R. Blume News

Nominations for the 54th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be announced on Monday, April 27, 2009, at 9:30 AM at the New York Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street, in Manhattan. A continental breakfast will be available at 9:00 AM. Multi-award-winning stage actors Faith Prince and Jim Dale will announce the nominations in the various categories.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU), in association with Barry Burns Photography and Paula J. Riley, presents an Actor Resource Night (and 'Speed Dating') on Monday, April 27 at 7pm at Precision Photos, 36th Street Studios, 260 W. 36th Street, 3rd floor, NYC

roadway Musicals of 1931 on Monday, March 31st, and was presented by The Town Hall (Executive and Artistic Director Lawrence Zucker). Now in its ninth season, the critically acclaimed Broadway By The Year series is known for great singing and spectacular Broadway dancing. The series is created, written and hosted by Scott Siegel for The Town Hall.

Multiple Drama Desk and Tony Award winning actor/writer Harvey Fierstein will host the 54th Annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony on Sunday, May 17, 2009, at 9 PM at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, it was announced by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony, and William Wolf, President of the Drama Desk, an organization of theater critics, writers and editors that honors excellence in all areas of New York theatre, including Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and not-for-profit theater. This will be the fourth time in the past six years that Fierstein has hosted the Drama Desk Awards, having emceed the Awards in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Nominations for the 54th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be announced on Monday, April 27, 2009, at 9:30 AM at the New York Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street, in Manhattan. A continental breakfast will be available at 9:00 AM. Multi-award-winning stage actors Faith Prince and Jim Dale will announce the nominations in the various categories.

'LOVE SONGS' continues to seduce New Yorkers every Saturday and on Saturday, March 21st, Barbour was joined by special guest Robert Cuccioli.

On Monday, March 9th, 2009 the Friars Club presented DIVO NIGHT! in the Frank Sinatra Dining Room at the Friars Club.

The 54th Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place on Sunday, May 17, 2009, at 9 PM at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, it was announced by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony and telecast, and William Wolf, President of the Drama Desk, an organization of theater critics, writers and editors that honors excellence in all areas of New York theatre, including Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and not-for-profit theater.

Due to the overwhelming audience and critical response Sardi's management has scheduled even more additional Saturday evening concerts with Broadway favorite leading man, James Barbour. 'LOVE SONGS' will continue to seduce New Yorkers every Saturday in March with an additional Sunday matinee concert on March 15. BroadwayWorld joined James for his February 28th concert for a night of romantic song!

Monday evening February 23rd kicked off the ninth season Broadway By The Year, known for great singing and spectacular Broadway dancing. The series is created, written and hosted by Scott Siegel for The Town Hall.

The Drama Desk, the organization of professional writers, critics and columnists who cover all sectors of New York theater, held its first Panel Discussion/Dinner of the 2008/2009 theater season on Monday, February 2, at Tony's Di Napoli Restaurant, 147 West 43rd Street, in Times Square.

The Drama Desk expresses great sadness at today's passing of legendary theatrical and television producer Roy Somlyo following a long illness.

Angels, the new Broadway-bound musical about an Angel who discovers her place and purpose, presented two staged readings (3:30 & 7PM) on Tuesday, December 16th at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street). Written by the new Australian team of Ken Lai (book, music and lyrics) and Marcus Cheong (book and lyrics), the readings featured Robert Cuccioli, Jessica Grov? and Nicholas Rodriguez in the leading roles. Direction is by Rich Fowler.

On Monday, November 17th at 8 PM, The Town Hall stage thundered with the sound of Broadway's greatest voices in the 5th Annual Broadway Unplugged. After the concert the cast 'unplugged' at the party to celebrate the successful evening.

The critically acclaimed 4th Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival is taking place this weekend October 17th, 18th and 19th when The Town Hall (123 West 43 Street) presents a three-day festival of Broadway stars and song. The festival is created, hosted and written by Scott Siegel for The Town Hall. A concert Tribute to Lerner & Loewe started the festival on Friday, October 17th. After the concert the cast celebrated at Spanky's BBQ and the BroadwayWorld cameras followed along!

Author Ellis Nassour hosted an event to celebrate his book, Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline, updated edition (Chicago Review Press, 2008), and to honor the birthday and life of a country music legend. The event took place on Monday, September 8, 2008 at Barnes & Noble (Lincoln Square, 972 Broadway, New York, NY 10023). Nassour was interviewed about Cline's life and his book Honky Tonk Angel by respected theater critic Peter Filichia.

On Monday, August 4, 2008 the Friars Club presented DIVA NIGHT! in the Frank Sinatra Dining Room at the Friars Club. The evening was Hosted & Produced by Randie Levine-Miller and starred Christine Andreas, Anna Bergman, Beth Fowler, Alice Frazier, Liz McCartney, Rena Strober, Christianne Tisdale, Deborah Tranelli. Paul Chamlin served as Musical Director for the evening. The theater and cabaret stars performed songs from 'The Broadway Songbook'.

The final concert in Town Hall's Summer Broadway Festival, ALL SINGIN'! ALL DANCIN!' took place on July 28th at 8PM. The production of ALL SINGIN'! ALL DANCIN'! featured well known Broadway showtunes sporting brand new choreography exclusively created by Joshua Rhodes and danced by the talented Broadway hoofers of today, including Kendrick Jones, Megan Sikora, Melinda Sullivan, Lisa Gadja and Lorin Latarro.

On July 24th, 2008 Mario Lopez had his very own portrait unveiled at the popular theater district Italian eatery, Tony Di Napoli's. Tony DiNapoli's is located at 147 43rd Street

Winners of DRAMA DESK AWARDS for the 2007/2008 New York theater season will receive their engraved trophies at a cocktail reception in their honor on Tuesday, July 22, 2008, from 4:00 to 6: 30 PM, at Tony's DiNapoli Restaurant, 147 W. 43rd St, it was announced by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the Drama Desk Awards show, and Bruce Dimpflmaier, General Manager, of Tony's Di Napoli Restaurant.