Smile, Smile, Smile - 1974 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 2

San Francisco’s revered 42nd Street Moon kicks off its 2021 “Moonbeams” season with Jason Graae in Perfect Hermany, a tribute to the late, great Jerry Herman, writer of such classic musicals as Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage Aux Folles. The title Perfect Hermany is an unusually apt one as Graae is the perfect interpreter of Herman’s work, having starred in a much-lauded production Herman’s The Grand Tour in LA and toured for years with Herman in Hello, Jerry!, a revue of Herman’s work. Perfect Hermany is available for streaming on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through May 2, 2021. For additional information and to purchase tickets, visit 42ndStreetMoon.org. Among his many credits, Graae has appeared on Broadway numerous times, toured extensively as The Wizard in Wicked, performed with major symphonies across the country, recorded dozens of musical theater albums and has enjoyed a long association with 42nd Street Moon. He is known for the improbable combination of his antic, go-for-broke comedic style and the impeccable musicianship of his soaring tenor. He is the type of performer who can make you bust a gut one moment, and then melt your heart the next.   BroadwayWorld caught up with Graae last week from his home base in LA soon after he had completed filming Perfect Hermany. We talked about his long association with both Herman and 42nd Street Moon, his favorite Herman songs, a couple of key roles that somehow got away from him and a few he still hopes to have a go at. Graae is always a blast to talk to. It seems the guy just is incapable of not being funny, but he is also thoughtful and kind, and sort of a walking treasure trove of theatrical lore. The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

The Nash will continue its outdoor live concerts for its series, Nash Under the Stars at 'Venue 122', the outdoor garden located at 122 E. Culver St. in downtown Phoenix (Arizona Jewish Historical Society).

Today’s subject Richard W. Kidwell has been living his theatre life in DC theatre professionally since1966. He has been the Theatre Manager at the Opera House at Kennedy Center since it’s very first performance back in 1971 which makes him one of if not the longest running employees working in the DC theatre scene.

Ann Reinking’s kicks, smile, charisma, and passion will have an ever-lasting impact on me and the rest of the Broadway community. May she Rest In Peace.

You can call her The Queen of Country, an Award-Winning Songwriter, Actress, Television Star, Philanthropist, Business Mogul, Icon and American Treasure - but to her millions of fans, she’s known simply as Dolly.

For the first time ever, STYX has released their 14th album, CYCLORAMA, on all download and streaming platforms starting today via BMG.  

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the 101 greatest Motown songs from 1960-1994. See if your favorite songs or artists made the list!

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the 101 greatest scenes in cinema from 1901 to 2020. See if your favorite movie moments made the list!

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the 101 greatest Beatles songs, including some of the fab four's solo works. They're all here: 'Twist and Shout,' 'In My Life,' 'Helter Skelter,' 'Imagine,' 'Something,' 'Maybe I'm Amazed,' 'Let It Be.' See if your favorites made the grade!

Harold Reid, Country Music Hall of Fame member, nine-time CMA Awards winner and bass vocalist in the legendary Country Music group the Statler Brothers, passed away Friday, April 24. He was 80.  

The Beatles! Rihanna! Michael Jackson! Johnny Cash! Kanye West! The Rolling Stones! Aretha Franklin! Bob Dylan! Miles Davis! Nirvana! BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the greatest albums from the rock and rap era (1950-2020); see if your favorites made the grade!

The Broadway community mourns the loss of beloved actress, director, and multiple Tony Award® winner Zoe Caldwell, who passed away on February 16, 2020 at age 86. To commemorate her life and work, the lights of all Broadway theatres in New York will dim for one minute on Friday, February 28th at exactly 7:45pm.

In just three weeks, million selling crooner Max Raabe and the hugely talented Palast Orchester from Berlin will present their debut UK Tour.

From February 27 to March 29, Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre will celebrate both Black History Month and Women's History Month with an Off-Broadway production of 'Two Can Play' by Trevor Rhone, directed by Clinton Turner Davis, at Castillo Theater, 543 West 42nd Street. In this two-act comedy, Gloria and Jim, a lower middle-class couple in Kingston, try their wildest schemes to escape gun crime and establish residence in the United States. They survive because they learn to communicate and rediscover each other. Playwright Trevor Rhone was the artistic giant of Jamaican theater. The play celebrates the pent-up need for self-discovery and personal development in Jamaican women, a theme which is also universal. Director is Clinton Turner Davis, who helmed the comedy's New York premiere in 1985.

The Royal Ballet's 19/20 season is opened in confident style with Kenneth MacMillan's 1974 production of Manon. It features a cast who perform it with renewed vigour and attack, easing through the testing emotional and physical demands of the story with style and flair. 

It wouldn't be summer in The Great Auditorium at The OCEAN GROVE CAMP MEETING ASSOCIATION (OGCMA) without the harmonies, choreography, costumes and mellow R&B of the '50s - a hot'n'rollin' DOO WOP EXTRAVAGANZA - and this 150th anniversary year is no different.

RICKIE LEE JONES is that rare musician who has transcended the singer/songwriter mantle by incorporating different radio genres from the get-go and she continues that tradition on the forthcoming album KICKS, her newest collection of songs from the great American songbook. Due out June 7, the album spans two decades (50s-70s) of pop, rock and jazz, presenting her unique and sophisticated interpretations of these songs.

On Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 7:30pm, the curtain will rise on Rita (Two Men and a Woman) and Susanna's Secret, two one-act operas that are sure to bring a smile to the audience. The light evening of comic story lines and beautiful music is perfect for the first-time goer, while the rarity of the pairing and authenticity of the production will satisfy even the most sophisticated opera lover. A playful look at marital discord is at the heart of both Donizetti's Rita and Wolf-Ferrari's Susanna's Secret, but the conflicts resolve themselves in very different ways, both musically and dramatically. The darkly comic Rita (originally titled Two Men and a Woman) is about a mercurial and domineering woman who has re-married after mistakenly thinking her first husband has died. When he reappears unexpectedly, a showdown arises between her two husbands to decide the outcome-who has to remain married to Rita, and who gets to leave the exasperating situation. In Susanna's Secret, a jealous husband smells tobacco on his wife's clothes and is convinced that she is having an affair. He searches and searches but can't seem to catch her in the act. What could her secret be?

92nd Street Y is a world-class, nonprofit cultural and community center that fosters the mental, physical and spiritual health of people throughout their lives, offering: wide-ranging conversations with the world's best minds; an outstanding range of programming in the performing, visual and literary arts; fitness and sports programs; and activities for children and families. 92Y is reimagining what it means to be a community center in the digital age with initiatives like the award-winning #GivingTuesday, launched by 92Y in 2012 and now recognized across the US and in a growing number of regions worldwide as a day to celebrate and promote giving. These kinds of initiatives are transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action both locally and around the world. More than 300,000 people visit 92Y annually; millions more participate in 92Y's digital and online initiatives. A proudly Jewish organization since its founding in 1874, 92Y embraces its heritage and welcomes people of all backgrounds and perspectives. For more information, visit www.92Y.org.

 Roy Clark, the legendary 'superpicker', GRAMMY, CMA and ACMaward winner, Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry member and co-host of the famed 'Hee Haw' television series, died today at the age of 85 due to complications from pneumonia at home in Tulsa, Okla.

Though it's 2018 in Houston, Texas, at the height of the 2018 primary election, but thankfully, there's an escape from the tumultuous political climate where blue and red are the subject. The color of today is green.

'It's alive!' Halloween comes early to The Performing Arts San Antonio (PASA) as they take on their most ambitious show yet with YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Adapted to the stage from Mel Brook's 1974 movie of the same name, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN has plenty of quirky pizzazz to keep you laughing. The infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein is dead but his scientific discoveries live on through his grandson, Frederick Frankenstein. Having inherited his grandfather's castle in Transylvania, Frederick is eager to put his brilliant mind to use and create a monster of his own. Featuring a cast of zany but loveable characters, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN at PASA is monstrously entertaining.

The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation proudly presents the 8th SATCHMO Award to: jazz vocalist and songwriter Ms. Sheila Jordan. LAEF is returning to the historic Alhambra Ball Room in Harlem, where swing dancers, big bands and jazz vocalists once reigned supreme – Friday October 12th 8:00 – 10:00pm. 

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO) - in association with Chocolate Factory Productions (David Babani, Artistic Director) and Sonia Friedman Productions -present the first Broadway revival of Tom Stoppard's Tony Award-winning play Travesties.

In an unparalleled entertainment career spanning seven decades, Frank Sinatra became a timeless, indelible cultural icon for the world. His live performances are legendary, imbued with an innate warmth and ease unmatched by any other performer, then or now. A stellar new collection, Frank Sinatra - Standing Room Only, presents three captivating rare and previously unreleased Sinatra concerts from the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Available now for preorder in deluxe 3CD and digital formats, Standing Room Only will be released worldwide on May 4 by Capitol/UMe and Frank Sinatra Enterprises.