Scott Smith News

STEEL PIER is irresistibly infectious. The University of Utah's fearless Theatre Department, the closest the state has to a conservatory actor-training program, entertainingly stages the regional premiere of this neglected John Kander and Fred Ebb musical.

Hot on the heels of their first Top 25 single, 'The Little Things,' Smith & Wesley have released 'Superman For A Day' to Country radio. The powerhouse duo also announced the music video for 'The Little Things' surpassed 1,000,000 views on their Facebook page this morning.

The Juilliard School announced that Chaeyoung Park and Yun-Chin Zhou are winners of the 2017 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition.

Powerhouse duo Smith & Wesley are proving their staying power as they cracked the Top 25 for the first time with their latest single, 'The Little Things.' The corresponding music video premiered on The Heartland Network and has received well over 700,000 views on the Smith & Wesley Facebook page.

The Desert Theatre League announced their Desert Star Award nominations for the 2016-17 Season on August 1. Dezart Performs received 27 nominations in 18 categories including Outstanding Comedy, Outstanding Drama,Outstanding Director, Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Actress & Outstanding Sound Design, to name a few.

Dezart Performs celebrates its tenth anniversary season with aFor its provocative line-up of theatrical productions designed to entertain, engage and stimulate audiences. In announcing the 2017/2018 line-up of productions, Artistic Director Michael Shaw commented, 'It's an incredibly exciting time for Dezart Performs as we announce our new season and look ahead in celebration of our 10th Anniversary. Coming off of an amazingly successful past season, we have challenged ourselves to continue providing bold, provocative, quality productions never-before seen in the Coachella Valley."

Prez is a brilliant biochemist. His experiments show a leading herbicide is carcinogenic. He has an existential fight against entrenched interests on his hands - not helped by the fact that he wears dreadlocks, dresses like David Bowie, and carries a chip on his shoulder as big as the sink estate he grew up on. In his heart he knows he's right, but can he prove it? 

After exploring themes of vanity and corporate culture in Marius Von Mayerburg's The Ugly One, Park90 now turns its attentions towards science and the environment with Chuck Anderson's brand new play The View From Nowhere. With Brexit looming large, the economic and immigration issues have been headline news, but what effect will that have on the scientific community? Or is big business involved too much for it to matter?

Originally directed and choreographed by directing and dancing legend Bob Fosse, Sweet Charity at the Palm Canyon Theatre is focused on bringing that Fosse style to Palm Springs. Choreographer Stephanie Eley, a stage veteran, is sharing her expertise with dancers from various studios across the valley and many College of the Desert students. Eley was in the original Broadway cast of Dreamgirls and My One and Only, and performed in the national and international tours of A Chorus Line from 1977-1980. With dance number after dance number, this is sure to be a show not to be missed as PCT winds down its 20th Anniversary Season.

Gary Naylor sees a brilliantly executed musical spoof of the 70s disaster movie genre that needs to find a home in the West End soon.

DISASTER!, the 2016 Broadway musical comedy spoof of star-studded 1970s jeopardy movies like The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake and Airport, premiered at Charing Cross Theatre with two glittering gala concert charity performances to raise funds for The Make a Difference Trust on Sunday 20 November.

We popped into rehearsals for the UK Premiere of Seth Rudesky's Broadway hit DISASTER: THE MUSICAL! Starring its creator Broadway legend Seth Rudetsky and a cast of top West End performers, DISASTER is packed with unforgettable 70s dance floor hits such as 'I Will Survive', 'Knock On Wood,' 'Hooked On A Feeling,' 'I Am Woman' and 'Hot Stuff'.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's ever popular State Fair received its symphonic premiere on Sunday night at London's beautiful Cadogan Hall. The London Musical Theatre Orchestra, a 32-piece orchestra under the baton of founder and conductor Freddie Tapner, brought the rich music of the 1996 Broadway production about the Frake family and their trip to the Iowa State Fair, to life. In a double first for the LMTO, this was also the first full scale public performance by the company which debuted its inaugural gala, in June of this year, to a packed house at Bishopsgate Institute where they are orchestra in residence.  The concert was directed by award winning director and Evening Standard Awards nominee Thom Southerland featuring a cast of West End stars Wendi Peters, Clive Carter, Richard Fleeshman, Emma Hatton, Oliver Savile and Celine Schoenmaker. The score features favourites including It Might as Well Be Spring, You Never Had It So Good and The Man I Used to Be.

I had the absolute pleasure of seeing two things last night that I had never seen before. A production of Harvey Fierstein's CASA VALENTINA and a sold out, standing room only crowd at The Pearl McManus Theatre. Brava to Dezart Performs on both counts!! CASA VALENTINA is the premiere performance of Dezart's ninth season in Palm Springs and sets a high barre for the season to come. Based on real events, Casa Valentina (or The Chevalier d'Eon) is a resort in The Catskills in the early 1960's whose guests are heterosexual men who dress and act as women. It is the story of gender identity and self acceptance and a close-knit group of men who never feel more "themselves" than when dressed as the women who live somewhere deep inside them. 

Callisto: a queer epic transferred from the Edinburgh Fringe to Arcola Theatre studio 2 last month, as part of it's EH to E8. Callisto: a queer epic by Howard Coase tells a constellation of four stories scattered across time and space, from a London opera house in 1675 all the way to a research lab on the Moon in the year 2223, spanning the historical and the fictional and everything in between.

Graham Norton, Samantha Bond, Michelle Visage and David Bedella alongside a host of performers took to the stage of the Novello Theatre on 25 September for the seventh annual West End Bares, raising money for MAD Trust.

Bit of Sunshine, written and performed by Nicole Zweiback, sold out both of its performances at Theatre503 on the 25th and 26th of September to become the theatre's most successful two night run of the year. Presented by KILTER theatre and Bloody Deeds Productions in a co-production with Theatre503, Bit of Sunshine tells the story of Kira, the perfect teenager. Kira wants to go to Oxford, but her eating disorder shatters everything in her path. This poignant, harrowing story explores what it's like growing up with mental illness and the lifelong struggle of addiction in a world obsessed with the struggle for perfection.

This year's Festival saw a whopping 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows in 294 venues across the city. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has announced that by yesterday afternoon, with hundreds of performances still to take place, an estimated 2,475,143 tickets had been issued for shows - a 7.7% increase on last year.

The team from The Secret Garden were today announced as the winners of the second annual West End Bake Off in aid of Acting for Others. The winners, chosen by judges Christopher Biggins, Dame Barbara Windsor and Michael Ball OBE, were revealed at the event held at St Anne's Church Courtyard.