The Garden Theatre (160 West Plant Street) is pleased to announce its signature fundraising gala, Garden Encore! presented by Orlando Health, March 4, 2017. The event's Orchestra Sponsor is Dr. Phillips Charities. Garden Encore! features an evening of celebration and entertainment, welcoming Grammy-Award winning conductor Matt Catingub to the stage, with vocalist Michelle Amato and entertainer and comedian Tim Wilkins as host.
The Russian Center of San Francisco presents a 'Winter Music Concert' today, January 27th at 7:30pm (doors open at 7:00pm). The evening program will be presented by amazing artists: IAN MAKSIN, VICTOR AVDIENKO, and JULIA ZHAROVA.
The Russian Center of San Francisco presents a 'Winter Music Concert' on Friday, January 27th at 7:30pm (doors open at 7:00pm). The evening program will be presented by amazing artists: IAN MAKSIN, VICTOR AVDIENKO, and JULIA ZHAROVA.
Deadline reports that Miguel Ferrer, perhaps best known as Owen Granger on CBS's NCIS: Los Angeles, died of cancer on Thursday, January 19th at the age of 61.
Broadway pizazz, hometown nostalgia, pure imagination, and parenting at its funniest - audiences can expect all this and more during The Carnegie's 2017-18 Theatre Season.
International song stylist Iris Williams returns to the Los Angeles cabaret scene in a one night only solo performance at Catalina's located on Hollywood's storied Sunset Boulevard on February 28 at 8:30pm. During Ms. Williams' set, themed "Let the Music Begin," she interprets standards by the likes of Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, Nat King Cole, Carole King, Ashford & Simpson and Edith Piaf. http://www.catalinajazzclub.com
The East Jefferson General Hospital Broadway in New Orleans 2017 - 2018 season was announced today. Presented by the New Orleans Theatre Association, the new season will play at the historic Saenger Theatre in downtown New Orleans beginning fall 2017.
I will end my Twelve Days of Christmas clips with this performance by one of our newest Broadway stars, Cynthia Erivo. Thanks to YouTube, I was blown away by her extraordinary gifts long before she made her Broadway debut in Color Purple. Her welcome addition to the local scene has been like a shot of adrenaline - the word "powerhouse" can only scratch the surface when describing Cynthia. We shared a memorable evening together in the audience of a Barbra Streisand concert, where her entrance caused almost as much happy chaos as did Ms. Streisand's! Cynthia Erivo is the real deal, and this clip shows you why. The miracle of her singing voice is only matched by her laser-beam focus, and this simple performance of one of the most reverent songs ever written seems to be a prayer for a world gone slightly mad. I wish you all a happy holiday. Whatever you celebrate, may it be joyous and filled with music, hope and laughter!
This choice will not surprise one person who has ever met me. Here's the history: I grew up an only child. I unsuccessfully begged my mother for a brother or sister until she was well into her 80's. I discovered the Osmond Brothers during their "One Bad Apple" phase, which led me into a few unfortunate years of bell-sleeved shirts and fringed vests. The Osmonds' obvious joy at singing together, to say nothing of their vast musical talents, would bring tears to my eyes as I watched them perform. I knew that Andy Williams had discovered the brothers, and gave them their debut on his TV show. However, I was unaware that Andy and his brothers were the original clean-cut singing siblings…that is until I saw this production number on an Andy Williams Christmas special! Boy, were my eyes…and ears…opened! This performance of "Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells" features the two bro-acts harmonizing their heads off. The irony is that Kay Thompson discovered the Williams Brothers (crooning background vocals at MGM), and Andy discovered the Osmond Brothers (singing barbershop quartet at Disneyland). Little did I know back then, that I would spend three years of my life performing as one-fourth of the Williams Brothers, along with Liza Minnelli as Kay Thompson, in what would become the Tony-winning "Liza's At The Palace." During that period, I enjoyed a phoner with Andy and cavorted with Dick Williams (whom I played), and am happy to call Donny Osmond a pal. In a funny kind of way, I found my long-awaited brothers.
After an impressive career, jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi was hired to score "A Charlie Brown Christmas," followed by seventeen other Peanuts television specials, until his untimely death in 1976. Can you even imagine those animated features with any other soundtrack? Guaraldi and his trio gave sophisticated heart and depth to what could have been just another forgettable cartoon score. At least one night every Christmas season, I walk the cold sidewalks of New York City, headphones on, and Guaraldi playing. I can be the star of my own movie…enjoying my own slightly melancholy, wistful scene while I reminisce about another year spent in the city I adore.
I'm pretty sure there's nothing Leslie Odom, Jr. can't do. This recording of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" perfectly shows off his good taste, style and that exemplary voice. The song is, of course, an American classic, with lyrics by Kim Gannon and a melody by Walter Kent. Gannon wrote it from the point of a World War II soldier stationed overseas, telling his family that he'll be home for the holidays, and to prepare the Christmas fun. Of course, the last lyric is one of the most melancholy ever written - "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams." When the song was first pitched to folks in the music business, it was roundly refused, since it all seemed incredibly sad. But Bing Crosby smartly threw caution to the wind and recorded the tune, with immense success. Interestingly, after the lyricist's death, he left the royalty rights to the American Heart Association, which has benefitted greatly ever since.
Love it or hate it, this souped-up arrangement of 'Jingle Bells?' has become an iconic recording by the one and only Barbra Streisand. Of course, it's from her first Christmas album, which came out in 1967, but I was introduced to it in 1970 when it was released on a special promo album for Maxwell House coffee, along with cuts by Doris Day and (yes) Jim Nabors. I thought it was funny then, and I think it's funny now. I especially love the Brooklyn-ese reading of the word 'upsot.' It was all very sophisticated and slightly oddball to the young Jimmy Caruso, and takes me right back to Wexford, Pennsylvania, where I'd listen over and over on my little record player. (Google that word, kids.)
I don't care how old you are, I'm pretty sure this recording sounds like home. Nat King Cole, with his velvety croon, sings one of the more perfect songs ever written with simplicity and good taste. It's been recorded thousands of times, in every conceivable style - with riffs and shrieks and all kinds of dazzlement. But this arrangement and performance is the only one I want to hear.
If you have spent more than twelve minutes with me, you know that I am in love with a fake person named Miranda Sings. I first saw her on YouTube when she gave a 'free voice lesson' to the interwebs. I thought she was a neo-Florence Foster Jenkins, as did most everyone. I wrote to 'her,' inviting her to Cast Party, my weekly open mic night at Birdland. I heard back from her creator, Colleen Ballinger, a wildly intelligent and brilliantly funny actress. That was the beginning of a wonderful friendship and subsequent business relationship. 'Miranda' became a regular on my Broadway at Birdland concert series, until our walls couldn't hold her fan base. Now, she's playing the biggest theaters in the world (Kennedy Center!), just signed for the second season of her Netflix sit-com 'Haters Back Off,' had a #1 book on the New York Times Bestseller List, has guested on the Tonight Show, and hangs with Jerry Seinfeld. Colleen's online following rivals the Catholic Church (almost a billion hits), yet she's still as funny and normal and adorable as ever. This insane video clip makes me hysterical, as do most of her awkward shenanigans.
This ravishing song has an interesting history. The lyric was written in 1946 by a nineteen-year old Frank Pooler, as a gift to a girlfriend he was missing. Twenty years later, a nineteen-year old Richard Carpenter set it to music. In four years, this recording by The Carpenters went to #1, which it did for three consecutive holiday seasons. It sounds as fresh today as it did in 1970, partly because of Richard's lush arrangement and backup vocals, and that famous tenor sax solo. But honestly, it's all about Karen. For my money, Karen Carpenter had one of the warmest and truest voices in the history of popular music. Sometimes the universe makes a terrible mistake and we lose someone way too soon…long before they've finished. That's how I feel about Karen Carpenter.
Each holiday season, many folks find their thoughts wandering back to home. And whether home is a small, familiar house just around the corner, a small town somewhere across the country, or on the other side of an ocean, the season invariably invokes images of a more idyllic reality than the one we know; replete with a loving family nestled around the Christmas tree, or gathered around a warm hearth, taking refuge from the wintry conditions outside with some hot cocoa, and enjoying each other's company.
