Broadway's 40 theatres aren't the only places to catch performances from your favorite stars! Well after Broadway orchestras begin their overtures, ensemble members take their dance breaks, and performers belt out their eleven o'clock numbers, the party continues at various cabaret venues throughout New York City. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you some cabaret highlights for this week as picked by our theatre editors, including: Steve Washington at the Metropolitan Room; Songbird in Concert by Lauren Pritchard & Michael Kimmel, Love Don't Need a Reason: A Benefit for Callen-Lorde; Ryan Scott Oliver and Lindsay Mendez's Actor Therapy; and 54 Sings 1776.
The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Andrew Levine, Executive Director), and producers Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields, will present the April installment of the new game show for musical theater lovers called Tune in Time, hosted by Emily McNamara, with music direction by Zak Sandler, and Peter Michael Marino as the annoyingly insistent timekeeper, on Monday, April 6, 2015 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peters (Citicorp Building, entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue).
Artistic Director James Morgan, The York Theatre Company, and producers Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields, will be presenting another edition of the quirky and popular musical theater game show Tune in Time, on Monday, April at 7:30 pm with a new cast of contestants and celebrity judges. Joining the composing fray for this round will be composers Lisa deSpain, Mark Sonnenblick, and Rick Bassett, while the lyricists they will team up with could come from a group consisting of Sarah Ziegler, Gordon Leary and cabaret performer, Broadway actress, and musical theater composer/book writer Rosemary Loar. Among the celebrity judges for the next show will be Matt Britten, Executive Producer for Blank! The Musical and marketing director for the New York Musical Theatre Festival; Remy Zaken, from the original Broadway company of Spring Awakening; and Thomas Honeck, the general manager for the Duplex and recent MAC Award winner for his cabaret show, Dancing With Dealth.
NiCori Studios and Productions in association with the Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center announces a new installment of the monthly concert series, Music at the Mansion, on Sunday, March 29, at 3pm. Performers include Gretchen Reinhagen, Christian Fabian and Rosemary Loar. Aleah Colon-Alfonso will be the Young Musician Moment.
'I was at the Police Reunion Concert at Madison Square Garden in 2008 and the energy was through the roof,' says vocalist/actress/writer Rosemary Loar at the start of her new show, STING-chronicity, at the Metropolitan Room. 'We were 18,000 strong, each of us challenging ownership of this man's music.' Loar feels special rapport with the oeuvre of Sting (Gordon Sumner, who was Police's lead singer and principal songwriter from 1977-1986, before he launched an incredibly successful solo career) as represented by her earlier show and CD, the celebratory Sting, Stang, Stung (see video of the 2010 show, below). 'We're onto the same zeitgeist,' Loar recently revealed in an interview. 'We're both Catholics and some of his writing is about obsession, guilt and penance.'
STING*chronicity offers an unexpected combination of monologues with a stunning variety of musical arrangements of the music of brilliant contemporary songwriter, Sting. The show is "set" in Madison Square Garden on the occasion of the final reunion concert of the iconic band, The Police, which was headed by Sting. STING*chronicity surveys the diverse audience, and their very varied interpretations of his music as the words of his songs are filtered by their unique lives and experiences. "A concert always brings people together who couldn't be further apart."
The Colony Theatre will present the third production of its historic 40thAnniversary season, the West Coast Premiere of HANDLE WITH CARE by Jason Odell Williams, directed by Karen Carpenter. HANDLE WITH CARE will preview tonight, November 5; Thursday, November 6; and Friday, November 7 at 8:00pm. It will open on Saturday, November 8 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, December 14, with no performances Thanksgiving week.
The Colony Theatre will present the third production of its historic 40thAnniversary season, the West Coast Premiere of HANDLE WITH CARE by Jason Odell Williams, directed by Karen Carpenter. HANDLE WITH CARE will preview on Wednesday, November 5; Thursday, November 6; andFriday, November 7 at 8:00pm. It will open on Saturday, November 8 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, December 14, with no performances Thanksgiving week.
Karen Carpenter, a producer, director and teacher, a theater-maker for more than 30 years, has been appointed the interim Artistic Director of the William Inge Center for the Arts and the 34th Annual William Inge Theatre Festival. The Inge Festival is the Official Theater Festival of the State of Kansas, hosted on the campus of Independence Community College, which houses the William Inge archives.
Jennie Litt and David Alpher, Brooklyn's own married songwriting duo, celebrate the May release of their debut recording, TWO APPLES, with an appearance at New York's Metropolitan Room tonight, June 5 at 7pm.
I was just a little more than a year into my new side career as a cabaret show reviewer when I first saw a Karen Oberlin show. It was Valentine's Day night 2012 and Oberlin—with guitarist Sean Harkness and guest violinist Aaron Weinstein—would be performing her romance-laced set, Stringing Along With Love, at the Metropolitan Room. At the time, all I knew about Oberlin was that she was considered among New York's best female cabaret singers, and I hadn't researched her performing history pre-show. About a third of the way into her set I leaned over to my wife (it was Valentine's Day after all) and whispered, “You know, she has a real Doris Day quality in her voice and in the way she delivers some lyrics.” This immediately ratcheted up my appreciation for Oberlin since there are four passions I inherited from my Dad—baseball, reading the morning papers, sports writing and Doris Day (well, also Sophia Loren, but that's for another column). Since Dad had grown up during the prime of the Big Band Era of the 1940s, I heard the sultry sounds of a young Doris Day singing songs like “Sentimental Journey” on the family stereo more than a few times. Once I saw Day's strikingly adorable blondness on a record cover and her rocking body in one of her films, I knew what Dad was talking about. As popular, famous, and near iconic as Doris Day became, in my book, as a singer and screen beauty she's always been vastly underrated. Little did I know that Karen Oberlin had been doing a Doris Day tribute show so since 2001 at places like Firebird, Iridium, and the late Danny's Skylight Room, and produced a CD, Secret Love: The Music of Doris Day, in 2002. Karen Oberlin had instantly become my secret love.
Jennie Litt and David Alpher, Brooklyn's own married songwriting duo, celebrate the May release of their debut recording, TWO APPLES, with an appearance at New York's Metropolitan Room on Thursday, June 5 at 7pm. TWO APPLES is a collection of eleven original songs covering topics ranging from lingerie to gym addiction to the random miracle of existence. Ms. Litt describes Alpher&Litt as 'eclectic writers inspired by American popular song and most comfortable in an idiom that's equal parts musical theatre, Tin Pan Alley, and Allan Sherman.' Additionally, Litt is an award-winning fiction writer and Alpher a world-renowned composer.
Cabaret Cares/Help Is On The Way Today, a 501c non-profit organization founded by MAC Award winning producer, Joseph Macchia, will hold its annual fundraising gala (cocktails, auction, dinner, show) on May 18th at the Laurie Beechman Theater, featuring a live show with many of New York's favorite performers who donate their time and talent to this wonderful event.
What happens when a composer and a lyricist have to write a song from a new musical (invented on the spot), in a style determined by the spin of the dreaded Genre Wheel . . . in 20 minutes? Brainfrying fun! Brave musical theater composers and lyricists David Ingber, Erin Hill, Jack Lechner, James Harvey, Kristin Bair and Rosemary Loar will step up to the songwriting plate on April 14 at 7pm at Stage 72 (The Triad).
Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC), dedicated to advancing the art and business of live entertainment, has announced the nominees for the 2014 MAC Awards. Winners in twenty-five categories will be voted by the MAC membership by anonymous ballot and announced at the MAC Awards Gala on March 27th at BB King's Blue Club in Times Square at: 237 W. 42 St between 7th and 8th Avenues. Tickets start at $50.00. For additional information on MAC, to become a member, or to order tickets to the event, visit: http://macnyc.com.
NiCori Studios and Productions in association with Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center announces a new installment of the monthly concert series, 'Music at the Mansion', on Sunday, February 23, at 3pm. Performers include Jeff Macauley, The Ted and Lo Show and Rosemary Loar. The featured performer in the 'Young Musician Moment' will be Julia Maskin.
The not-for-profit musical theater development group Manhattan Musical Theatre Lab (formerly Musical Mondays Theatre Lab) has announced that the third presentation of its 2013-2014 season is the new musical, WATER FROM THE MOON, written by MAC Award Winning Cabaret Performer Rosemary Loar and her husband Robert W. Atwood. In fall 2011, MMTL presented the Loar/Atwood musical Spoolie Girl, which was subsequently nominated for 11 'Best of the Fest' awards at the 2012 Midtown International Theatre Festival, including winning the award for 'Outstanding Music and Lyrics' and a nomination for 'Best Production of a Musical.'
The not-for-profit musical theater development group Manhattan Musical Theatre Lab (formerly Musical Mondays Theatre Lab) announces the third presentation of their 2013-2014 season The new musical, Water from the Moon, is written by MAC Award Winning Cabaret Performer Rosemary Loar (photo) and her husband Robert W. Atwood. In 2011, MMTL presented the Loar/Atwood musical Spoolie Girl, which was subsequently nominated for 11 'Best of the Fest' awards at the 2012 Midtown International Theatre Festival, including winning the award for 'Outstanding Music and lyrics" and for 'Best Production of a Musical.'
