Catch Me If You Can - 2007 - New York Articles Page 19

Kerri Butler visits High Tech High School Musical Theatre's production of XANADU as guest teacher.

Two Time Tony Award winner NORBERT LEO BUTZ (Catch Me If You Can) and Emmy and Independent Spirit Award nominee ELIZABETH REASER (Twilight, Grey's Anatomy) will co-star in Second Stage Theatre's upcoming production of Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE. Directed by Kate Whoriskey, the production begins previews on Tuesday, January 24 and officially opens on Monday, February 13 at 7:00pm at Second Stage's Tony Kiser Theatre (305 West 43rd Street). For tickets or more information, please visit www.2ST.com.

This holiday season, America's #1 Christmas movie comes to life on stage as a hilarious holiday musical. A Christmas Story, The Musical! features a bright holiday score by composer/lyricist team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Joseph Robinette based on the writings of radio humorist Jean Shepherd and the 1983 holiday film favorite. Acclaimed director/choreographer Warren Carlyle (Broadway's Finian's Rainbow, Follies at The Kennedy Center, An Evening With Hugh Jackman) will helm the production. Peter Billingsley, who starred as Ralphie in the original 1983 film, serves as a producer for the holiday tour.

JOE'S PUB at The Public Theater, reopened October 4th, 2011 from a top to bottom renovation, debuted in October 1998 and quickly became one of New York City's most celebrated and in-demand showcase venues for live music and performance. With its genre-blind booking and vast diversity of interests, the stage at Joe's Pub gives voice to a world of varied and stellar artists. Check out the full November schedule below!

With one of the most refreshingly unique career trajectories in recent show business history, the quirky late-80s/early-90s film star known for her outlandish John Waters comedies - HAIRSPRAY, CRY-BABY and SERIAL MOM included - parlayed her big screen success to a decade-long running eponymous talk-show in the 90s and early 00s that is still talked about to this day - look no further than Nicki Minaj's verse on the remix of Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me" for proof - and, now, with news of the 2012 syndicated return of a new iteration of her show, a new memoir, as well as her current compelling casting on the new season of DANCING WITH THE STARS, Ricki Lake has clearly reached a new career high. Imparting her contagious energy and enthusiasm and amply displaying why she is the foremost queen of gab, Lake generously shares her thoughts on a range of topics - Broadway, Hollywood, GLEE, Sondheim, BOOK OF MORMON and much more included - and reveals details about her many upcoming projects and passion, as well as her ongoing star turn on TV's hottest reality competition, DANCING WITH THE STARS. While in rehearsal on Friday night, talking to me from the backstage costume fitting for DANCING/STARS - tutu included - and on the road back to her LA home - before attending Chaz Bono's party later that evening - Lake and I cover it all and she shows why she has been a TV fixture in millions of homes for twenty years and most likely will continue to be so for the next twenty or more - if we are lucky, that is. Plus, she also happens to be a big BroadwayWorld fan, to boot! Who could ask for anything more?

The producers of A Christmas Story, The Musical! congratulate their composer/lyricist team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul on receiving the 2011 Songwriter's Fellowship Award.

Anne Brummel and Tiffany Haas, the two actresses playing Elphaba and Glinda in the national tour of Wicked - which will be calling Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall home October 19-November 6 - might be advised to keep an eye cast over their talented shoulders on lookout for Delaney Amatrudo and Katelyn Fiorini, two Nashville actresses and Wicked superfans, each of whom has her sights on claiming one of the two iconic roles sometime, somewhere in the future.

PRINCE OF BROADWAY, a new musical celebrating legendary Broadway director and producer Harold 'Hal' Prince, is in development now, aiming for a Toronto production in the summer of 2012, prior to opening on Broadway that fall. According to the Toronto Star, the production will feature a wide variety of material, including music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim..

According to Zap2it.com, Broadway favorite Aaron Tveit will soon return to the CW's 'Gossip Girl' as Trip van der Bilt. Tveit, who last appeared on the series in season 3, has signed on for a multi-episode arc.

The Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, announced today that Grammy- and Academy-Award-winning songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David will join the ranks of Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney as recipients of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Bacharach and David each will receive the Library's Gershwin Medal next spring at an all-star tribute in Washington D.C. This will be the fourth time the honor has been awarded and the first time to a songwriting team.

n August 26 and 27, Nikki Blonsky--the Golden Globe-nominated star of the 2007 hit movie musical HAIRSPRAY--will join Tony nominee Lainie Kazan in the Atlantic City premiere of the hit off-Broadway smash MY BIG GAY ITALIAN WEDDING at the Hilton Hotel Casino Resort. Before the show premieres, NNikki once again sat down for an exclusive chat with BroadwayWorld's Michael Lawrence Quintos about her latest project and why she's having 'one heckuva gay summer.'

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of The Wood, a new play written by award-winning filmmaker Dan Klores.

The New York International Fringe Festival will present HUSH The Musical at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street) on Saturday August 13, Tuesday August 16, Tuesday August 23, Wednesday August 24 and Thursday August 25.

The RiverPark Center event will feature a retrospective on Peter Falk, who played Columbo on television and died June 23. William Link, co-creator of the television series 'Columbo,' has written several Columbo short stories. Four will be selected and presented as Live Broadcast Theatre productions (formerly called Live Radio Theatre and presented in the style of old-fashioned radio shows).

Trisha Brown's pioneering dance style is a celebrated cornerstone of modern dance.

Hush the Musical, a production from Charles Mandracchia in association with the Frizzi & Lazzi Musical Theatre Company, has emerged as the Winner of the Mid-Winter Madness Theatre Festival after playing sold out shows at the Roy Arias Theatre in Times Square, NYC and returned for a sold out encore run at the world famous Triad Theatre NYC.

Trisha Brown's pioneering dance style is a celebrated cornerstone of modern dance.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of The Wood, a new play written by award-winning filmmaker Dan Klores.

Executive Producer Lou Spisto today announced The Old Globe's presentation of a developmental workshop of Allegiance - A New American Musical.

Hush the Musical, a production from Charles Mandracchia in association with the Frizzi & Lazzi Musical Theatre Company, has emerged as the Winner of the Mid-Winter Madness Theatre Festival after playing sold out shows at the Roy Arias Theatre in Times Square, NYC and returned for a sold out encore run at the world famous Triad Theatre NYC.

Music icon Amy Winehouse passed away today at the age of 27. Looking back at her two solo albums - FRANK, and the multi-Grammy-winning BACK TO BLACK, produced by Mark Ronson - as well as her live concert DVD - I TOLD YOU I WAS TROUBLE - it seems difficult to believe an artist with this much cultural impact wrote and produced so little in her impossibly short life - yet, both albums are simply superb and the latter is on the level of the very best American pop/rock records of all time. Evoking Bilie Holliday, Janis Joplin and Courtney Love in almost equal measure - with a healthy dollop of The Shirelles and some Mary J. Blige on top - Amy Winehouse was a complete and total anomaly whose shtick was anything-but: when Amy put on, wore and sold that worn-down, worn-out beehive doo on her head while she sang one of her dirges you damn well bought it, honey - every note, lyric and follicle! From the sugary pop frivolity of 'Rehab' to the jaunty, haunting hip-hop beats of 'Back To Black'; from the searing heartache of 'I Wake Up Alone' to the clear-eyed plaintiveness of 'To Known Him is To Love Him'; all the way to the witty, jokey, grungy fun of 'Me & Mr. Jones' and 'F*ck Me Pumps' - Amy could certainly do it all. And, she did - maybe doing too much of some things in some areas of her life. This special SATURDAY SPECIAL is a generous look back at what and who she was and what she did in her short time on this planet and why she deserves a place at the top.

Hush the Musical, a production from Charles Mandracchia in association with the Frizzi & Lazzi Musical Theatre Company, has emerged as the Winner of the Mid-Winter Madness Theatre Festival after playing sold out shows at the Roy Arias Theatre in Times Square, NYC and returned for a sold out encore run at the world famous Triad Theatre NYC.

Arranger, composer, and conductor makes Filene Center debut following his work as orchestrator of 2011 Tony Nominated Broadway production of Catch Me if You Can.

StudentsLive- The Premiere Broadway Education Company offers international and domestic students of all ages the opportunity to experience, first hand, the best live, Broadway interactive theater education programs, taught by the best, highly trained Broadway specialists, our country has to offer. It allows these young students to experience the intensive training of a professional, successful and highly disciplined Broadway Artist and the myriad skills required in collaboration, interrelation, communication and human exploration. The goals are to expand and deepen students understanding and familiarity with Broadway. Through challenging music, dance, acting and 'behind the scenes' studies physically, verbally and intuitively, we prepare them to be highly competitive in whatever career they choose to pursue.

Susan Anton is announced to join the cast of HAIRSPRAY at the Hollywood Bowl as Velma Von Tussle. The production reunites the original Broadway stars Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur; and includes Corbin Bleu, Drew Carey, Diana DeGarmo, Mo Gaffney, Nick Jonas, Darlene Love, Tara Macri, Michael McDonald and John Stamos. Anton co-starred as Velma Von Tussle in the Las Vegas production of the Broadway musical, Hairspray, opposite Harvey Fierstein. HAIRSPRAY is at the Hollywood Bowl for three performances only, August 5, 6, and 7.