Hear! Hear! - 1955 - Broadway Articles Page 13

The Actors Fund presents a very special Musical Monday, an evening with five grand ladies of musical theatre in LADIES OF AN INDETERMINATE AGE on December 10, 2012. Anne Jeffreys, Jane Kean, Pat Marshall, Patricia Morison and Charlotte Rae - join together on the same stage to sing songs from their careers, talk about their co-stars, directors and composers and stray into their wicked (or not-so-wicked) adventures in the great tradition of "No Business Like Show Business."

On Saturday, December 8 at 7:30pm, the Bang on a Can All-Stars will return to the Japan Society (333 East 47th Street) to perform Rimpa Reimagined, a multimedia program unveiling world premieres by red-hot New York-based composer/jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and celebrated Japanese post-minimalist composer Mamoru Fujieda.

And what 'A Grand Night for Singing' it turned out to be! Not opening on the usual note, Bruce Kimmel presented a video of his YouTube web series Outside the Box, Season 2, episode 1 guest starring Hal Linden, who was present in the audience. Hilarity is at the core here as Linden gets a phone call asking him to appear as Father Marren in The Exorcist the Musical, a true horror - no, not horrible - horror musical. The second scene is the actual shooting of his scene with Regan spewing green vomit to the music of one ridiculously funny original tune. Fun stuff which may be viewed on YouTube!

Anne Frank's remarkable diary has become an essential tool for understanding one of the darkest periods of our history - and one of the most beautiful, haunting stories in our shared experience. The play is dramatized from the book by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Making her Rep directorial debut, KJ Sanchez will direct the play. The cast features Associate Artists Jonathan Gillard Daly, Laura Gordon, Lee E. Ernst, James Pickering and Deborah Staples and guest actors J. Alexander Coe, Kelley Faulkner, Larry Neumann, Jr., and rising Chicago actress Lauren Hirte in the title role. Rep Artistic Intern Ensemble Members Jonathan Altman, Emily Berman, Jess Prichard and J.R. Yancher are also in this production. The Diary of Anne Frank runs in The Rep's Quadracci Powerhouse from October 23 - December 2 and opens Today, October 26.

Anne Frank's remarkable diary has become an essential tool for understanding one of the darkest periods of our history - and one of the most beautiful, haunting stories in our shared experience. The play is dramatized from the book by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Making her Rep directorial debut, KJ Sanchez will direct the play. The cast features Associate Artists Jonathan Gillard Daly, Laura Gordon, Lee E. Ernst, James Pickering and Deborah Staples and guest actors J. Alexander Coe, Kelley Faulkner, Larry Neumann, Jr., and rising Chicago actress Lauren Hirte in the title role. Rep Artistic Intern Ensemble Members Jonathan Altman, Emily Berman, Jess Prichard and J.R. Yancher are also in this production. The Diary of Anne Frank runs in The Rep's Quadracci Powerhouse from October 23 - December 2 and opens on Friday, October 26.

Currently playing at the Metropolitan Room on Friday nights through September (at 9:30 pm), Two for the Road starring singer Shaynee Rainbolt and musical director/pianist Donn Trenner is a transcendent cabaret show infused with romantic nostalgia. While the pairing of Rainbolt, a critically-acclaimed jazz singer (and multiple MAC and Bistro-Award winner), with Trenner, an Emmy-nominated musical director, conductor, and arranger (who has played piano for a Hollywood Walk of Fame full of stars including Ann-Margret, Shirley MacLaine and Bob Hope) seems as close to a cabaret show slam dunk as you get, there is an intense connection between these two performers that is palpable from the moment Rainbolt wraps her luscious voice around Trenner's jazzy piano riffing for the show's opening number.

The Kennedy Center hosts its 11th annual Page-to-Stage new play festival from today, September 1, 2012 to Monday, September 3, 2012, featuring more than 40 theaters from the D.C. metropolitan area, all with a mission to produce and support new work. The three-day, Center-wide event offers a series of free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals being developed by local, regional, and national playwrights, librettists, and composers.

The Kennedy Center hosts its 11th annual Page-to-Stage new play festival from Saturday, September 1, 2012 to Monday, September 3, 2012, featuring more than 40 theaters from the D.C. metropolitan area, all with a mission to produce and support new work. The three-day, Center-wide event offers a series of free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals being developed by local, regional, and national playwrights, librettists, and composers.

Now, nearly a year after the diagnosis, followed by surgery and chemo, Cheryl Bentyne-for 30+ years the reigning soprano with 10-time Grammy winning vocal group, The Manhattan Transfer-celebrates her new cancer-free status with the release of Let's Misbehave on Summit Records, due out today, August 14. And she's celebrating the weekend before with a CD release party and All Star Jazz Benefit for the City of Hope Cancer Center at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood.

Birdland (315 West 44th Street - between 8th & 9th Aves.) has announced its line-up of entertainment for the month of August, 2012.

Now, nearly a year after the diagnosis, followed by surgery and chemo, Cheryl Bentyne-for 30+ years the reigning soprano with 10-time Grammy winning vocal group, The Manhattan Transfer-celebrates her new cancer-free status with the release of Let's Misbehave on Summit Records, due out August 14. And she's celebrating the weekend before with a CD release party and All Star Jazz Benefit for the City of Hope Cancer Center at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood.

On Thursday, three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Richard Adler passed away at the ripe old age of 90. Responsible for two of the biggest Broadway smash hits of the 1950s, THE PAJAMA GAME and GAMN YANKEES, Adler never quite managed to equal his career-high double-hitter of that era, yet his earlier work with Tony Bennett ('Rags To Riches'), Doris Day ('Everybody Loves A Lover') and Marilyn Monroe (the iconic 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President') surely shall solidify his place in the firmament of entertainment history along with his two classic musicals from the Golden Age. Winning both Best Score and Best Musical for both THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES, Adler's partnership with lyricist Jerry Ross - which began on Broadway in 1953 with JOHN MURRAY ANDERSON'S ALMANAC - was tragically cut short just months after the DAMN YANKEES premiere when Ross was diagnosed with lung disease and passed away soon thereafter. Yet, thanks to the beloved film versions of THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES and continued interest in the entities as expressed in the revivals and reappraisals of both onstage from Broadway to Biloxi to Bombay year after year, the snappy, snazzy tunes of Adler and Ross live on eight times a week all around the world - even now, more than fifty years after they premiered. Unfortunately, Adler's subsequent shows with other collaborators post-1955 failed to capture the early magic of his previous projects with Ross and his earlier musical and theatrical endeavors in the pop arena, with the racially charged KWAMINA flopping on Broadway in 1961 (though he took home a Best Composer Tony Award for his efforts anyway) and the awkwardly titled MUSIC IS failing to recreate the magic of its source material, Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, in 1976. A MOTER'S KISSES, starring Bea Arthur and a young Bernadette Peters, died on the road, as well. In the intervening years, Adler attempted musical adaptations taken from a number of intriguing sources - OF HUMAN BONDAGE and others among them - though only his ballet scores seemed to reach an audience; particularly his last, commissioned for a new production of Lorca's THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA in 1998. Of course, THE PAJAMA GAME has had two Broadway revivals - most recently the rapturously received Kathleen Marshall-directed production starring Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara; and DAMN YANKEES famously returned to the Great White Way with much ado in 1994 starring Victor Garber. Now seems particularly ripe for remounting YANKEES, as we approach twenty years in its absence - especially given the musical's seriously smashing showing at Encores! in 2007. Who knows, perhaps some risky producer will even take a chance on a new production of KWAMINA, MUSIC IS, A MOTHER'S KISSES or one of the bottom drawer shows someday soon to see if they possess any of the limitless potential shown by Adler's earlier work. Or maybe a stage treatment of his TV musical GIFT OF THE MAGI (originally composed for then-wife Sally Ann Howes)? Or, better yet, how about a revue? What a stupendous songstack Adler created over the course of his career - 'Whatever Lola Wants' to 'Hey There' to 'Hernando's Hideaway' to 'You Gotta Have Heart' to 'Steam Heat' to the aforementioned Bennett, Day and Monroe standards and so many more chestnuts.

Cabaret chronicles author Jenna Esposito interviews rising star William Blake about his upcoming tribute to Etta James, his performance in the new Air Supply musical and more in a cabaret chronicles exclusive article!

It's officially summer come June and this summer season promises to be an active one at the Frist Center. Next month kicks off with the opening of Metamorphoses: Drawings by Erin Anfinson, Kristi Hargrove, Mark Hosford, and Chris Scarborough in the Conte Community Arts Gallery, and is shortly followed by the opening of Constable: Oil Sketches from the Victoria and Albert Museum on June 22. The Frist has collaborated with Watkins College on an quilting workshop with edgy quilter Ben Venom and the second installment of Frist Fridays on June 29th features Sam Bush with special guest Lera Lynn.

East West Players (EWP), the nation's largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work and the longest-running professional theatre of color in the country, concludes its 46th Anniversary season, themed Languages of Love, with Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, directed by Tim Dang and choreographed by Reggie Lee.

Roland Auctions of New York City will be selling the estate of legendary playwright, director, and screenwriter, Arthur Laurents on Saturday, June 2, 2012. Mr. Laurents, whose credits include West Side Story, Gypsy, La Cage Aux Folles, Hallelujah, Baby and The Way We Were, amongst many others, had a long and distinguished career, both on Broadway and in Hollywood. See photos below for sample pieces available as well as as list of items slated to be auctioned.

East West Players (EWP), the nation's largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work and the longest-running professional theatre of color in the country, concludes its 46th Anniversary season, themed Languages of Love, with Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, directed by Tim Dang and choreographed by Reggie Lee.

CBS News legend Mike Wallace, the 60 MINUTES' pit-bull reporter whose probing, brazen style made his name synonymous with the tough interview - a style he practically invented for television more than half a century ago - died last night. He was 93 and passed peacefully surrounded by family members at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn., where he spent the past few years.

CBS News legend Mike Wallace, the 60 MINUTES' pit-bull reporter whose probing, brazen style made his name synonymous with the tough interview - a style he practically invented for television more than half a century ago - died last night. He was 93 and passed peacefully surrounded by family members at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn., where he spent the past few years.

The Muny will present THE KING AND I as a part of its line-up for the 94th season in Forest Park. Single tickets will go on sale Saturday, June 2, 2012. For more ticket information, call (314) 361-1900 or visit www.muny.org.

The Muny will present THE KING AND I as a part of its line-up for the 94th season in Forest Park. Single tickets will go on sale Saturday, June 2, 2012. For more ticket information, call (314) 361-1900 or visit www.muny.org. In the video below, Muny Executive Producer Mike Isaacson and Rob Ruggerio, Director of the Muny's 2012 production of The King and I, discuss the process of bringing The King and I back to The Muny Stage. Click below to hear what they had to say!

East West Players (EWP), the nation's largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work and the longest-running professional theatre of color in the country, concludes its 46th Anniversary season, themed Languages of Love, with Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, directed by Tim Dang and choreographed by Reggie Lee.

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, March 18, 2012 - Sunday, March 18, 2012.

Today in 1965, Do I hear a Waltz? opened at the 46th St. Thetare (Now the Richard Rodgers Theatre), where it ran for 220 performances. Do I Hear a Waltz? is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Richard Rodgers, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It was adapted from Laurents' 1952 play The Time of the Cuckoo, which was the basis for the 1955 film Summertime starring Katharine Hepburn. The Broadway cast included Elizabeth Allen, Sergio Franchi, Carol Bruce, Madeleine Sherwood, Julienne Marie, Stuart Damon, Fleury D'Antonakis, and Jack Manning. It was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Scenic Design, but lost in all three categories.

Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, the first New York City Center Encores! production of the season, opens tonight, February 8 at New York City Center, and features Colin Donnell, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Elizabeth Stanley, Betsy Wolfe and Adam Grupper. Merrily We Roll Along, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth, is directed by James Lapine with music direction by Rob Berman and musical staging by Dan Knechtges. Merrily just opened, and will play a two-week run through February 19, 2012.