Big Night - 1933 - Broadway Articles Page 10

Steve Ross and Karen Oberlin's recent duo effort at 54 Below, Cheek to Cheek, was a show oozing charm, class, charisma, and chemistry, but most of all they conveyed their love for these legendary performers and the classic tunes associated with them.

The 18th Long Island Al Jolson Festival coming up on August 16 is a whole-day affair featuring film presentations, lectures, memorabilia displays and sales, and a performance--'The Heart of Al Jolson'--by singer and Staten Island native Tony Babino (photo below), who can sing Jolson songs like, well, you ain't heard nothin' yet. The other day, like clockwork, I received my yearly invitation to attend from Oceanside, LI resident Jan Hernstat, who for the past 10 years has been the President of the 62-year-old International Al Jolson Society (which was formed in early 1950, a few months before Jolson died), an organization with a worldwide membership hovering around 1,000. I am proud to say that for 30 years, I've been one of them. I'm even prouder to say that I've been an Al Jolson fanatic for much longer. Here's my story about how it happened.

Producing Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside and American Blues Theater, Chicago's second oldest Equity ensemble, are proud to announce the summer engagement of American Blues Theater's Hank Williams: Lost Highway, by Randal Myler and Mark Harelik, directed byDamon Kiely, music director Malcolm Ruhl and starring Matthew Brumlow as "Hank Williams," July 25 - August 31 at the Greenhouse Theater Center's Downstage Mainstage Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.

Producing Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside and American Blues Theater, Chicago's second oldest Equity ensemble, are proud to announce the summer engagement of American Blues Theater's Hank Williams: Lost Highway, by Randal Myler and Mark Harelik, directed by Damon Kiely, music director Malcolm Ruhl and starring Matthew Brumlow as "Hank Williams," July 25 - August 31 at the Greenhouse Theater Center's Downstage Mainstage Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Pink Previews, where tickets sales benefit the Lynn Sage Foundation for breast cancer research, are Friday, July 25 and Saturday, July 26 at 7:30 p.m. Opening night is Friday August 1 at 7 p.m.

Mark Nadler's latest performance, Runnin' Wild, is guaranteed to win him more fans.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) has announced the full lineup of productions, concerts, readings and special events for its 11th annual festival. This year's Festival will begin July 7th and continue through July 27th.

Mesa Arts Center today announced its 2014-2015 Performing Live Season, which begins with Lyle Lovett & His Large Band on July 24, and includes performances with Tony Bennett, MythBusters, Bill Cosby, Joshua Bell, Evil Dead the Musical, Molly Ringwald, and many more. The shows unveiled today are in addition to the six series packages announced on May 1, including Broadway on Center, Classical, Dance, Jazz, National Geographic Live, and Spoken World.

You will find it truly refreshing to attend Gateway Theatre's beautiful incarnation of the Tony winning musical 42nd Street. I know what you're thinking... 42nd Street is done frequently... and you are correct. However, the right cast and a top notch director - Broadway's Randy Skinner who had a hand in the original Broadway production as well as the 2001 Broadway revival - breathes new life into a theatre staple.

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.

In May 1914, four brothers at a poker table sat down as Leonard, Arthur, Julius, and Milton, and stood up as Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Gummo. In May 2014, MARXFEST celebrates the centennial of this momentous event with screenings, talks, parties, performances, and remembrances, all in the city of their birth.

The OBIE, Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Award-winning Peccadillo Theater Company, in association with La Femme Theatre Productions, has announced the full cast for the play's first NY revival as well as the New York City premiere of the published version of William Inge's A Loss of Roses. Performances begin May 8th (not May 7th as previously announced) at Theatre at St. Clement's, 423 West 46th Street, NYC, and continuing through June 7th, 2014. The play opens officially on May 12th at 7 PM.

In May 1914, four brothers at a poker table sat down as Leonard, Arthur, Julius, and Milton, and stood up as Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Gummo. In May 2014, MARXFEST celebrates the centennial of this momentous event with screenings, talks, parties, performances, and remembrances, all in the city of their birth.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Derek Bermel and Music Director George Manahan, American Composers Orchestra's (ACO) 2014-2015 season strengthens the orchestra's commitment to serve as a catalyst for the creation of new orchestral music, providing unprecedented opportunities for American composers to create new work and for audiences to discover it. Now in its 11th year at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, Orchestra Underground continues as ACO's subversive and entrepreneurial redefinition of the orchestra as an elastic ensemble, and this year features the rarely performed orchestral music of pioneering composer and performer Meredith Monk, holder of the 2014-2015 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall (Monk's Sphere, November 21). Orchestra Underground brings cabaret, pop, and jazz traditions into the concert hall in a program featuring Kurt Weill's cabaret cult classic The Seven Deadly Sins sung by Shara Worden (Sin & Songs, February 27). For the first time in several seasons, ACO returns to performing with full symphonic forces outside of Carnegie Hall - the orchestra's April concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center will showcase the New York premiere ofWynton Marsalis' Blues Symphony.

In May 1914, four brothers at a poker table sat down as Leonard, Arthur, Julius, and Milton, and stood up as Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Gummo. In May 2014, MARXFEST celebrates the centennial of this momentous event with screenings, talks, parties, performances, and remembrances, all in the city of their birth.

The big question surrounding the fate of Harmony: Is Broadway ready for another musical about the turbulent 30s and Nazi occupation of Germany? With The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof (although set in Russia and at an earlier time, it's still about the plight of the Jews) and Cabaret firmly planted in our minds as three of the greatest musicals ever written about the Nazis, do we need one more? Barry Manilow has been trying desperately for over 10 years to get his Harmony, the true story about the Comedian Harmonists, onstage. Now at the Ahmanson through April 13, Harmony is beautifully produced and mounted, exceedingly well-performed and a thoroughly moving story about 6 singers/performers whose careers and lives were interrupted and controlled by Naziism. The answer to the big question is a shaky maybe.

The 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) today announced the Next Link Project musical selections. The 10 musicals were announced as part of the 11th edition of the Festival, which will take place from July 7 to July 27 at locations around midtown Manhattan in New York City, including The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street).

Following a wildly successful Off Broadway run last Spring, The National Yiddish Theatre - Folksbiene's critically-acclaimed musical production 'The Megile of Itzik Manger' will return to Baruch Performing Arts Center for a two week limited engagement, March 2 - 16.

The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera today announced their 2014/15 season, led by Music Director Kayoko Dan in her fourth season. The regular concert season will begin in September 2014 and go through April 2015. "The 2014-15 season should be one of the most memorable in the CSO's history," stated CSO Executive Director Molly Sasse. "The opportunity to perform with world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma is just the beginning. Our Masterworks concerts offer a great mix of beloved works and lesser-known masterpieces, with more great soloists. Our Pops concerts will have something for everyone, from the film classic, Casablanca to Broadway hits. We're so pleased to continue our concerts at the Volkswagen Conference Center and our chamber orchestra programs at the Silver Ballroom of the Sheraton Read House. There's great variety in the music and the settings across all of our series, and I hope audiences will try something that might be new to them this year."

Three-time Emmy Award-winning actor Brad Garrett, best known for his role as "Robert Barone" on the hit TV series Everybody Loves Raymond, has been tapped by the Writers Guild of America, West to host The 2014 Writers Guild Awards.

Theatre Rhinoceros presents the Bay Area Premiere of the Stephen Sondheim Musical ROAD SHOW, featuring Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and Book by John Weidman, and running today, January 2 - 19, 2014.

Theatre Rhinoceros presents the Bay Area Premiere of the Stephen Sondheim Musical ROAD SHOW, featuring Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and Book by John Weidman, and running January 2 - 19, 2014

I got to sit down for coffee with current Rockettes dancer, Abigail Gatlin, 26, from small-town Cleveland, Tennessee, and learn what life is really like as a Rockette, what goes on behind the scenes, and what it's like transitioning from a small town to New York City and becoming a member of one of the most amazing dance ensembles in the world!

ADDISON, Texas, Nov. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ Bar Louie announces today they will be hosting a blowout bash on December 5 th in celebration of the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, which banned the sale, purchase and consumption of alcohol from 1919 to 1933. This is an especially big year for Repeal Day as it marks the 80 th Anniversary of the reinstated right for Americans to enjoy alcohol as a sacred social custom.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents The Winslow Boy, starring Tony nominee Michael Cumpsty as 'Desmond Curry', Academy & Tony Award nominee Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as 'Grace Winslow', Alessandro Nivola as 'Sir Robert Morton' and Tony Award winner Roger Rees as 'Arthur Winslow'.

Show-stopping choreography. Unforgettable songs. Playhouse audiences are invited to take a seat at the Kit Kat Club as the excitement of big Broadway musicals returns to the Robert S. Marx Theatre stage with CABARET, from Oct. 19 through Nov. 16. English singer Sally Bowles and American novelist Clifford Bradshaw fall into a stormy romance as Nazi influence rises in pre-war Berlin and the political axis shifts.