Steve Allen News

Nearly 400 people hooped, hollered and packed the auditorium at the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) on Monday, March 23, 2015 for the third annual St. Louis Theater Circle Awards ceremony. The event honors outstanding achievement in local professional theater by performers and behind-the-scenes artists. Awards were given in 31 different categories covering comedy, drama and musicals, along with two special awards bestowed on Donna Northcott, founder and artistic director of St. Louis Shakespeare, and Agnes Wilcox, founder and artistic director of Prison Performing Arts. Both women have retired this year and turned their companies over to new artistic directors, Suki Peters for St. Louis Shakespeare and Christopher Limber at Prison Performing Arts.

Hotel Nikko San Francisco and Michael Feinstein will welcome award-winning, Grammy-nominated cabaret legend Marilyn Maye to Feinstein's at the Nikko for two performances only - Friday, May 15 (8 p.m.) and Saturday, May 16 (7 p.m.). Maye will present an evening of American Songbook standards. Tickets for Marilyn Maye range in price from $35-$50 and are available now by calling 866.663.1063 or visiting www.ticketweb.com.

The oil boom that has been drawing thousands of workers to the Bakken shale region of North Dakota and Montana is the subject of a new Smithsonian Channel docu-series.

Fashion Designer to the Stars, Octavio Carlin in conjunction with a Multiple Award Winning Team brings you this world premiere comedy.

TV late night show host and stand-up comedian JAY LENO comes to the Morris Performing Arts Center for one night only on Thursday, April 16, at 7:30 p.m. Leno comes to the Morris for an evening of his best stand-up from a career that has spanned decades and garnered him international recognition as an icon in the comedy world.

59E59 Theaters will welcome the final production of the inaugural 5A Season, the NYC premiere of LONESOME TRAVELER, written and directed by James O'Neil. Produced by Off-Broadway Across America in association with the Rubicon Theatre Company (Ventura, California), LONESOME TRAVELER begins performances on Saturday, March 7 for a limited engagement through Sunday, April 19.

Magick Balay, star of the SyFy Channel's close-up magic show Close Up Kings will be performing in Catskill and Windham, New York on Sunday, February 15th. Magick has been entertaining audiences across America for over two decades, appearing in top venues such as the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, and he has performed for Michael Jackson, Wayne Gretzky, Britney Spears, Derek Jeter, Neil Patrick Harris, and Spike Lee, to name a few. At these upcoming sleight-of-hand magic shows, Magick will be joined by two other New York City-based magicians, Dave Murillo and Steve Allen Dane. The line-up will also include local magician Sean Doolan of Windham.

New Line Theatre's production of BONNIE & CLYDE tied with Stages St. Louis' rendition of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING with nine nominations apiece for the St. Louis Theater Circle Awards to lead nominations for all shows produced by local professional theater companies in 2014.

Fashion Designer to the Stars, Octavio Carlin in conjunction with a Multiple Award Winning Team brings you this world premiere comedy.

If you've been a regular reader of this particular reviewer's musings, you know that every year there are long stretches of time where I just haven't been able to critique all the shows I've seen that deserve commentary. So I end up playing what they call in sports, 'Catch-up ball,' and post a mash up of belated reviews from past shows. It's kind of like a critic's version of the song 'Six Months Out of Every Year,' from Damn Yankees. Give or take a month or two, that's usually the time period during which I store unpublished reviews in my fevered brain and then unload them all in one seemingly endless column-like this one is going to be. If my cabaret-show reviewing days will be over (as chronicled here), I might as well go out with a bang-and relieve my procrastination guilt during holiday season. Now I can scratch one New Year's resolution off the list.

On Monday December 22 the terribly amusing song stylist Cortes Alexander presented his annual Swell Noel to an uber packed house at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. Alexander has such frenetic energy and charm that, and I've said this before, you just want to wrap him up. What a joyous Christmas present...and with his two glorious backup singers, the Swell Girls Melissa Bailey and Julie Gar

It seems like Christmas albums are truly a dime a dozen. Everyone has one, and most of them get relegated to the $4.99 bins at Target, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart the season after they come out. Fortunately for consumers, John Schneider and Tom Wopat have released HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, a Christmas album that is sure to become a staple in the holiday collection of any discerning music lover. With snazzy, jazzy arrangements, the electric duo is bringing back 'The Rat Pack' aura for our Holiday enjoyment.

John Schneider and Tom Wopat -- the original stars of 'The Dukes of Hazzard' -- have hit the Billboard Top 10 with their new album Home for Christmas. For the week of December 20, the recording debuts at #10 on the 'Traditional Jazz' chart.

Fake Radio, Los Angeles's own purveyor of classic radio shows from The Golden Age, will present the classic script of It's a Wonderful Life as a radio play for one performance only tonight, December 18 at 8pm at the Steve Allen Theater, it was announced today by artistic director David Koff. Emmy Award-winner Ray Romano is set to make a special guest appearance as Clarence the Angel.

Fake Radio, Los Angeles's own purveyor of classic radio shows from The Golden Age, will present the classic script of It's a Wonderful Life as a radio play for one performance only on Thursday, December 18 at 8pm at the Steve Allen Theater, it was announced today by artistic director David Koff. Emmy Award-winner Ray Romano is set to make a special guest appearance as Clarence the Angel.

The Louis Armstrong House Museum presents CoolYule! today, December 6, 2014 to welcome the holiday season. CoolYule! is the museum's first tree lighting ceremony featuring live jazz with Ben Flocks Trio and holiday treats. CoolYule! is free and open to the public. Downbeat for Ben Flocks Trio begins at 4:00 pm. The tree will be lit at 4:30pm in the Armstrong's Japanese inspired garden.

Urban Stages, in association with producer/director/lyricist and Director of Musical Programming Peter Napolitano, is proud to announce that cabaret legend Marilyn Maye will kick off the Holiday Season for WINTER RHYTHMS 2014 on Thursday, December 4 at 7PM only with a special appearance in Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas: The Songs of Hugh Martin, a centennial celebration of the Hollywood and Broadway songwriter best known for Meet Me in St. Louis and Best Foot Forward. Marilyn Maye joins Eric Comstock, Barbara Fasano, Minda Larsen, Marissa Mulder, Sigali, Melissa Ritz, Molly Ryan, Dan Levinson, Deborah Silver, Gabrielle Stravelli and the vocal group Duchess in an evening conceived and hosted by Wall Street Journal columnist Will Friedwald. Musical Director for the evening will be Tedd Firth.

John Schneider and Tom Wopat -- the original stars of 'The Dukes of Hazzard' -- will appear at Barnes & Noble for a special in-store performance and CD signing to celebrate their new album Home for Christmas tonight, December 3 at 7 PM. The special holiday recording, which is currently available from D13 Entertainment in stores and online, commemorates the 35th Anniversary of the iconic TV show.

John Schneider and Tom Wopat -- the original stars of 'The Dukes of Hazzard' -- will appear at Barnes & Noble for a special in-store performance and CD signing to celebrate their new album Home for Christmas on Wednesday, December 3 at 7 PM. The special holiday recording, which is currently available from D13 Entertainment in stores and online, commemorates the 35th Anniversary of the iconic TV show.