Tommy Tune News

The Cedar Lake Theater in West Chelsea will come to life on Friday, January 23 with a thrilling evening of dance to benefit Dancers Responding To AIDS (DRA), a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BCEFA). Hosted by Tony Award winning choreographer Rob Ashford, this gala event guarantees to be a soul-stirring showcase of the best and brightest from today's varied dance landscape with performances by American Ballet Theatre, Battleworks, Broadway's 'Billy Elliott,' Camille A. Brown, Dresden Ballet, Les Ballet Grandiva, Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. The program will also feature the world premiere of TITLE by choreographer Chase Brock performed by NYCB principal Tiler Peck.

La Jolla Playhouse welcomes back Rick Elice, co-writer of the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, as the playwright of Peter and the Starcatchers. Alex Timbers and Roger Rees are set to direct with choreography by Kelly Devine and music by Wayne Barker. Peter and the Starcatchers will be playing at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre at La Jolla Playhouse February 13 -March 8, 2009. Based on the best-selling novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatchers dares to tell the real story of precisely how a desperate orphan in Victorian England became The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. It's a tale that travels halfway round the world and straight up to the stars. It's a comedy that takes aim at social injustice. It's a romance of young heroes who risk everything for the sake of doing right. It's an expos? of extravagant villains possessed of a single-minded ferocity from which no good shall ever spring. In short, it's an awfully big adventure. La Jolla Playhouse will present Peter and the Starcatchers, a new play, as a part of its Page To Stage program, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions. Adam Green has been cast in the role of Peter. He has appeared in Off-Broadway productions such as Election Day, All This Intimacy and None of the Above. Molly will be played by Celia Keenan-Bolger who most recently appeared on Broadway in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. She also appeared in Saved. Lost boy Prentiss will be played by Carson Elrod, who appeared in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Our Town. Elrod has also appeared on Broadway in Reckless and Noises Off. David Rossmer is cast as the ever - peckish lost boy Teddy. His Broadway credits include Fiddler on the Roof and Titanic. Christian Borle, who will be playing the ravenous Black Stache, received acclaim for his roles in Spamalot. He also received a 2007 Tony Award nomination for his role in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde. Andrew McGinn is set to play Slank. His New York credits include Coast of Utopia and The Invention of Love. Playing Lord Aster is John G. Preston, who recently appeared as Cameron Parker in the Off-Broadway production of Taboos. Greg Hildreth, playing the good hearted Alf, recently appeared in Dance Dance Revolution and Gentlemen of Verona. Teddy Bergman will be playing Fighting Prawn. His New York theater credits include Dance Dance Revolution and Nobody Likes the Mormons.

Award-winning Broadway, concert and recording star KT Sullivan sings the songs of the Great White Way in her upcoming show, Colored Lights, at the Rrazz Room in the Hotel Nikko Monday, Feb 9 and Tues, Feb 10th. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased at www.therrazzroom.com or directly through ticketweb.com or at 866 468 3399. Using her own Broadway and off-Broadway experiences as a departure point, Ms. Sullivan performs a century of musical theater gems including selections from Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Lerner & Lowe, Jerry Herman, Stephen Sondheim and Adam Guetel. The show?TMs New York run at the Algonquin consistently sold out and earned Sullivan rave reviews from the critics. One of the nation's most in-demand interpreters of the American popular songbook, KT has been a regular headliner at the Oak Room of New York?TMs Algonquin Hotel since 1992. She has performed all over the world, from Town Hall in New York, Live on the Park in London, La Nouvelle Eve in Paris, and The Chichester Festival in the U.K Presented a MAC Award for Outstanding Female Vocalist, KT has seven albums in worldwide distribution. Her CD Crazy World was voted #1 in the vocals category of Pulse Magazine and Live From Rainbow and Stars: The Songs of Bart Howard, won Backstage Magazine?TMs Bistro Award. Her latest CD is A Swell Party, RSVP Cole Porter with Mark Nadler and saxophonist Loren Schoenberg. Ms. Sullivan's Broadway shows include George Abbott's Broadway and the lead role in the revival of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She also appeared in the workshop production of Easter Parade with Tommy Tune and off-Broadway in Splendora and A My Name is Still Alice. She received Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominations and a MAC Award for American Rhapsody: George Gershwin to the World, which she co-wrote and starred with Mark Nadler.

The Houston Chapter of the American Marketing Association has recognized Theatre Under The Stars as Houston's 2008 Marketer of the Year in the Performing Arts category. The Marketer of the Year award recognizes Houston companies, organizations, and institutions for their outstanding marketing efforts. Best of category winners will be recognized and presented their awards at a reception to be held at 5:30 p.m. on March 2, 2009 in the Alley Theatre's Hubbard Stage. At this event, the company selected by an out of state panel of judges to be Houston's overall 2008 Marketer of the Year will be announced. All best of category winners are in competition for this honor. A group of local business leaders and area marketing professionals helped determine the one hundred and seventy six Houston-area firms that were nominated this year. Voting by AMA-Houston's membership resulted in 33 Best of Category winners being selected. The event will also feature keynote speaker Kevin Bertram - Founder and CEO of Distributive Networks discussing: 'How Mobile Marketing Will Change Everything.' Bertram will explain the role that mobile marketing played in the successful Obama for President campaign and its impact for marketers. One of the nation's most successful mobile technology companies, the company's proprietary mobile content management and delivery system enables innovative, customized mobile messaging solutions for such clients as Obama for America, AOL, AT&T, Avis Budget Group, CBS, D.C. United, and Disney.

Two-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole returns to the legendary Caf? Carlyle for the first time since her critically acclaimed 2002 debut. She opened last night Tuesday, January 20, 2009 and BroadwayWorld was there to mix and mingle with the very starry crowd. The evening includes songs by Rodgers & Hart, Irving Berlin, Billy Joel and Fleetwood Mac - and even a little bit of opera. John Oddo (Musical Director) leads a quintet. Tony Award-winner Scott Wittman directs. The Caf? Carlyle is located in The Carlyle Hotel - 35 East 76th Street at Madison Avenue. The performance schedule is: Tuesday-Saturday at 8:45 PM with additional shows at 10:45 PM on Saturday, January 23rd, Friday, January 30th & Saturday January 31st. There will no performance on Tuesday, January 27th. There is a $50 music charge for the Tuesday-Thursday performances and a $65 music charge for the Friday and Saturday performances. Dinner is served from 6:30PM. For reservations please call 212-744-1600.

Sutton Foster's debut CD ?Wish' will be released February 17th on Ghostlight Records. The album features 15 songs culled from the worlds of jazz, pop, Broadway and cabaret, and highlights Foster's eclectic choices, ranging from Patty Griffin's ?Nobody's Cryin' to Duke Ellington's ?I Like the Sunrise'...from Frank Loesser's ?Warm All Over' to John Denver's ?Sunshine on My Shoulders'. Tony-winner Foster also looks forward to a sold-out, February 19th, NYC appearance, as part of the popular Lincoln Center Songbook Series. On February 27th, Foster will perform and sign CDs at an In-Store appearance at Barnes and Noble Lincoln Center, at 5 pm. Currently starring as Princess Fiona in Broadway's ?Shrek the Musical', Sutton Foster was given high praise by Ben Brantley of The New York Times, who compared her to musical royalty: 'She has emerged as an inspired, take-charge musical comedian in the tradition of Danny Kaye and Carol Burnett...' Foster's unique ability to be irreverent and respectful from moment-to-moment shines through on ?Wish', as her voice wallops through ?Oklahoma' (a bonus track,) only minutes after a delicate, warm delivery of Noel Coward's ?Come The Wild, Wild Weather.' She is a musical chameleon with a voice as appealing as her down-to-earth personality. ?Wish' was Produced by Joel Moss, and Co-Produced by Michael Rafter. Executive Producers are Kurt Deutsch and Sutton Foster. The CD package features original artwork by Sutton Foster.

Aussie news website LiveNews had a brief chat with NINE film star Penelope Cruz, and the sulty star admitted that performing the classic 'A Call From the Vatican' number from the show and sure to be a highlight in the film version, left her blistered and bruised-but she loved doing it!The song required the actress to perform a rope routine and the stunt left her worried she would lose her grip and fall. Cruz explained to the site 'When something like that happens, you just have to keep going and forget about any physical pain. I was dancing in the dark with one spotlight on me, so I had to be extremely alert and focused. 'There were other things to think about, so I was not in pain while dancing - I was just praying not to fall!'

The Cedar Lake Theater in West Chelsea will come to life on Friday, January 24 with a thrilling evening of dance to benefit Dancers Responding To AIDS (DRA), a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BCEFA). Hosted by Tony Award winning choreographer Rob Ashford, this gala event guarantees to be a soul-stirring showcase of the best and brightest from today's varied dance landscape with performances by American Ballet Theatre, Battleworks, Broadway's 'Billy Elliott,' Camille A. Brown, Dresden Ballet, Les Ballet Grandiva, Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. The program will also feature the world premiere of TITLE by choreographer Chase Brock performed by NYCB principal Tiler Peck.

This past year's most outstanding performances in cabaret, comedy, and jazz have been chosen by more than two-dozen critics and experts who concluded their voting over the holidays (see below).

GLIMPSES OF THE MOON is pleased to announce the following special guest stars have confirmed to appear Monday nights at 8pm in the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel.

Mauckingbird Theatre Company will present Hedda Gabler as a compelling lesbian drama with the professional premiere of playwright Caroline Kava's explosive new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic. After the success of their critically acclaimed and sold-out inaugural season with all-male versions of The Misanthrope and Shakespeare's R & J, Mauckingbird's Hedda Gabler, explores lesbian relationships and the search for personal and sexual identity while exposing class divides, sexism, and the influence of money and status in aristocratic and bourgeois worlds.

Film and stage superstar Nicole Kidman was featured on 'The View' this morning, Friday, December 26th, at 11am on the ABC television network. Kidman discussed a number of topics, including the upcoming Rob Marshall directed big screen transfer of the stage hit NINE.

Tommy Tune brings his show STEPS IN TIME for the benefit of the Summer Theatre of New Canaan to Stamford's Rich Forum on Febuary 7th 2009. Tommy Tune and the Manhattan Rhythm Kings present great Broadway show tunes performed and staged as only Broadway's most awarded Director, Choreographer, Dancer and Musical Actor can create descibes press notes.

Upright Cabaret producers/hosts Chris Isaacson and Shane Scheel proudly present Broadway star and Los Angeles native Eden Espinosa in her first solo effort entitled EDEN ESPINOSA - ME to be directed by Broadway & recording star Billy Porter with Ben Toth taking over Music Direction. During the last month of Wicked's run at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, where she is currently starring as Elphaba, Espinosa will take off the green to perform four solo concerts which will feature a different special guest each night. Special guests T.B.A.

Designed to provide theatergoers with an exclusive, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of CHICAGO, 'Talkback Tuesdays' Continued its series on Tuesday, December 9, 2008. The event featured a post-show conversation with five-time Tony Award-winning producer Barry Weissler.

Career Transition For Dancers and the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, a division of Boys & Girls Harbor, Inc., present WINTER HEAT Latin Dance Party on Monday, March 9, at 7:00 pm at the beautiful Rainbow Room 30 Rockefeller Plaza 65th Floor NYC.

The Broadway company of CHICAGO is pleased to announce details for the December 'Talkback Tuesdays,' a new monthly series offering a post-show discussion and audience Q&A session with members of the Broadway company of the record-breaking hit musical.

Theatre Under The Stars announced today that LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL begins performances at The Hobby Center for Performing Arts in downtown Houston, February 10 - 22, 2009!

VANITIES, A New Musical by Jack Heifner, with music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, directed by two-time Tony? Award-winner Judith Ivey and musical staging by Dan Knechtges, has postponed a planned Broadway run.

Liza's at the Palace...! opened on Broadway last night, December 3rd and BroadwayWorld.com was invited to the star-studded Opening Night party so we could share the celebration with you!