Some Baby! - 1915 - Broadway Articles Page 2

OUR SINATRA: A MUSICAL CELEBRATION, the critically acclaimed musical saluting and honoring the music of Frank Sinatra, will mark its 15th Anniversary (2000-2015) and celebrate the Centennial (1915-2015) of one of our greatest American vocalists in a return engagement of the award-winning production.

The Palmer House Hilton is proud to announce dinner, dancing and an all-star performance in celebration of the centennial of Frank Sinatra's birth, Saturday, Nov. 28 in the legendary Empire Room within the Palmer House Hilton, 17 E. Monroe St. The event begins at 6 p.m. with a cocktail hour followed by, a three-course gourmet dinner with choice of entrée, and wine service then a special “Tribute to Frank”  featuring Chicago's top cabaret performers Joan Curto, Shelley MacArthur, Paul Marinaro, Beckie Menzie, Tom Michael, and Johnny Rodgers. The birthday party concludes with dancing to The City Lights Orchestra conducted by Rich Daniels until 11 p.m.  Single tickets are $125, with VIP tickets, which include premium seating and an open bar throughout the night, are $150. Reservations may be made at celebrating100yearsofsinatra.brownpapertickets.com.

Next spring, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, Brandon Victor Dixon, and Joshua Henry will star in SHUFFLE ALONG Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, a striking new production that presents both the 1921 musical itself, and additionally details the events that catalyzed the songwriting team of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, and librettists F.E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles to create this ground-breaking work.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

This year is the centennial of entertainment legends such as vocalists Billie Holliday and Edith Piaf, singer-actors Frank Sinatra and Alice Faye, composers Billy Strayhorn and Bart Howard, and pianist Cy Walter. In its annual tribute concert, The Mabel Mercer Foundation celebrated all these artists in 1915: It Was a Very Good Year at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, presenting a great variety of musical talent, each with a personal take.

Cleveland Play House's 99th season will draw to a close with an equal dose of hilarity and heart with the world premiere production of Fairfield.

Cleveland Play House's 99th season will draw to a close with an equal dose of hilarity and heart with the world premiere production of Fairfield.

National Recording Registry To “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”. Joan Baez, Sly Stone, Steve Martin Recordings Named American Treasures

The Nation's first professional regional theatre, Cleveland Play House (CPH), proudly announces the highly-anticipated lineup of shows in its record-breaking 100th Anniversary Season, under Artistic Director Laura Kepley.

Musical Director and pianist extraordinaire Jon Weber can play every imaginable musical style and for a wide variety of cabaret and concert singers, but this superlative keyboardist is really a jazz man at heart. Weber knows that the intricacies of certain music languages-whether classical or jazz-can be frustratingly elusive, so he's made it his mission to educate the masses, or in this case a few hundred people who after this Tuesday night at 7 pm will have attended one of his four entertaining classroom sessions at the Metropolitan Room, called 'From Joplin to Jarrett: 115 Years of Piano Jazz.' And when some of the students in the audience are among the most accomplished instrumentalists in New York, you realize that your teacher is a virtuoso.

If you are even a semi-regular reader of this column of reviews, you know that about every three or four months, I post a compilation of observations of shows from the previous quarter of the year. This cabaret critiquing mash up happens for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I admittedly see too many cabaret shows for the amount of time I have to promptly review them (and then, of course, the usual writer's procrastination sets in). So I have to prioritize the timeliness of the reviews based on the prestige of the performer, the length of a show run, the strength (or lack thereof) of the performance, etc. The quality of the shows in these compilations—which can range from a half dozen to a dozen reviews in one shot—are usually a mixed bag of outright raves, qualified positives, and constructive pans (I'm not a fan of the word “negative” in the reviewer lexicon). With that in mind here are a collection of cabaret show reviews going back to the start of a very harsh winter.

Tony Award-Winners Adriane Lenox (After Midnight, Doubt), Karen Ziemba (Bullets Over Broadway, Curtains, Contact), Randy Graff (Les Miserables, City of Angels) and Andy Blankenbuehler (In The Heights, Bring it On), Tony Award-nomineesLiz Callaway (Miss Saigon, Baby, Cats), Sally Mayes (She Loves Me), Christiane Noll (Ragtime, Chaplin, Jekyll & Hyde),Stephen Bogardus (Irving Berlin's White Christmas), Bob Stillman (Dirty Blonde) and Annie Golden (Hair), and Elizabeth Stanley (Million Dollar Quartet, Company), Ann Harada (Cinderella, Avenue Q), Eddie Korbich (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder), Kerry O'Malley (Irving Berlin's White Christmas), Sally Wilfert (Assassins) and Nightlife Award Winners Scott Coulter, Julie Reyburn and Steve Ross will be among the 25 stars set to appear in Town Hall's Broadway by the Year Series on Monday, May 12 at 8pm, THE BROADWAY MUSICALS OF 1965-1989. More stars to be announced soon!

The Film Society of Lincoln Center previously announced For Your Consideration: Oscar Hopefuls, celebrating films from around the world and for possible consideration in the Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Language Film categories for the 2014 Academy Awards®. The series-an opportunity to catch up on some of the best films of the year-will span two weeks with For Your Consideration: Documentary Oscar Hopefuls from December 20-26 and For Your Consideration: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls from today, December 27-January 2, 2014.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center today announced For Your Consideration: Oscar Hopefuls, celebrating films from around the world and for possible consideration in the Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Language Film categories for the 2014 Academy Awards

Now in its fifth consecutive year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre - the coalface of British Theatre - presents Vibrant 2013 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, its annual explosion of new writing, running between today, 6-25 October 2013

Now in its fifth consecutive year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre - the coalface of British Theatre - presents Vibrant 2013 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, its annual explosion of new writing, running between 6-25 October 2013

Bay Street Theatre presents the final production of the 2013 Mainstage Season with A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, beginning August 6 and running through September 1. The show stars Peter Scolari with Conrad John Schuck and Jackie Hoffman. The book is by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart with lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim; music direction by Ethyl Will; and directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

Bay Street Theatre presents the final production of the 2013 Mainstage Season with A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, beginning tonight, August 6 and running through September 1. The show stars Peter Scolari with Conrad John Schuck and Jackie Hoffman. The book is by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart with lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim; music direction by Ethyl Will; and directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

Bay Street Theatre presents the final production of the 2013 Mainstage Season with A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, beginning August 6 and running through September 1. The show stars Peter Scolari with Conrad John Schuck and Jackie Hoffman. The book is by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart with lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim; music direction by Ethyl Will; and directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

The Crawley family's fate hangs in the balance when MASTERPIECE CLASSIC "Downton Abbey, Season 3" returns in January.

North Coast Repertory Theatre presents a San Diego premiere of The Underpants, adapted by Steve Martin and written by Carl Sternheim. The show begins previews tonight, September 5th through 7th and continues September 8 through 30, 2012.

North Coast Repertory Theatre presents a San Diego premiere of The Underpants, adapted by Steve Martin and written by Carl Sternheim. The show begins previews September 5-7 and continues September 8 through October 7, 2012.

Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the world premiere of EASTLAND: A NEW MUSICAL, written by Artistic Director Andrew White with music by Ben Sussman and Artistic Associate Andre Pluess and directed by Amanda Dehnert. The production runs June 6 - July 29, 2012 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The Press Opening is tonight, June 16, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

In case you missed it in the "Showtune Mosh Pit" column last week, here is my full listing of musical theater shows (plus three special concert events) happening in Chicago this summer. Click on the name of each show for a link to more information. And enjoy!

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. The non-Equity Jeff Awards are Monday night, and we've compiled our first ever Summer Musical Theatre Guide! Here are 35 listings for your viewing pleasure....