You Should Be So Lucky

Tomorrow, April 25th, will mark the 32nd anniversary of the passing of vocal arranger, musical director, pianist, and musical genius James Raitt. He was only 41years old when AIDS took him from us far too soon. While James’ career was cut short, what he left us will always be a reminder of his many talents.

In this second part of our in-depth conversation (read Part 1), Jeffrey and Wendy look back on their over three decade career on Broadway and shares stories about some of their favorite shows. 

Every Broadway show needs general management and Wendy Orshan and Jeffrey M. Wilson are here to provide. The pair heads 101 Productions, Ltd.- a theatrical General Management firm formed in 1994.

From September 2nd-14th, the national tour of Disney’s BEAUTY & THE BEAST will be gracing the stage of the Durham Performing Arts Center. Taking on the role of MRS. POTTS is actress Kathy Voytko. Read our interview with Kathy!

Scottish comedian Connor Burns will be bringing his show, Connor Burns: 1994, to the SoHo Playhouse as a part of their International Fringe Encore Series, which “provides opportunities to emerging artists who show exceptional talent at each season’s Fringe Festivals both artistically and commercially.” Recently, we had the opportunity to chat with Burns about his show, including what his creative process is like and what he hopes audiences will take away from the show!

Acclaimed for her accomplishments as a choreographer, ballet teacher, producer, and director. Danial Cardim brings great depth, perspective, and energy to her new position as Ballet Arizona's Artistic Director, effective July 1st, 2024.

Virginia Arts Festival has cast one of Broadway’s leading lights in the role of a new, key position at the Festival: The Goode Family Artistic Advisor for Musical Theater and American Songbook.

Goodman Theatre has revealed the initial cast for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. See who is starring and learn how to purchase tickets.

The world premiere of Howard Skora’s Freud on Cocaine opens September 8, 2023, at the Whitefire Theatre. Howard also directs this comedy based on Freud’s Cocaine Papers with the cast of Jonathan Slavin, Barry Brisco, Kim Hopkins, Aaron LaPlante, Sara Maraffino, Sigute Miller and Amy Smallman-Winston. Jonathan graciously carved out some time from his rehearsals as the titular character Freud to answer a few of my analyzing queries.

The American Songbook Association has a new award named after its founder, and they will give it to Eric Michael Gillett, who has earned it.

Groundlings alum/Oscar winner Jim Rash will be guesting in The Groundlings’ January 6th edition of COOKIN’ WITH GAS. The actor/comedian/filmmaker took a moment from the set of Bros to answer a few of my Groundlings and Oscar queries.

In the wake of Stephen Sondheim's passing, there has been an outpouring of grief from the Broadway community and beyond. Read them all here.

There’s a pandemic raging across the world, the streets are filled with Nazis, thugs, and the mentally unstable out for blood, and big corporations want to take away your livelihood and cast you out for not being able to pay your bills. No, I’m not talking about the reports from last night’s 11 o’clock news but an all too familiar set of circumstances from a 1994 play, “Marisol” by José Rivera, currently being offered from The Williams Project. And while the circumstances of the play, as well as our own world, seem bleak, this outstanding production from the always amazing Williams Project can give us a little hope.

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 best musical theatre characters from 1940-2020; see if your favorites are on our list of the best characters from Broadway musicals.

AMC announced today that it has greenlit National Anthem, an 8-episode anthology series created by writer/director Scott Z. Burns (The Report, Contagion) and executive produced by Oscar® and Emmy® Award-winner Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Rectify, Rain Man, The Natural, Bugsy).  The musical dramedy is the first series greenlit under Johnson's multi-year overall deal with AMC Studios, through which he will continue to develop new series for the company's Entertainment Group as well as projects for potential sale to other content companies. National Anthem is the tragically funny story of a middle class midwestern family tumbling down the ladder of American society; periodically bursting into song as they struggle to catch themselves.  Award-winning musician T Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart, The Hunger Games) is attached as the series' music producer with words and music by Craig Finn (The Hold Steady).

Prolific and popular singer-songwriter-musical director Michele Brourman is in town to collect her Bistro Award tonight and Stephen Mosher talks with her about her life and her work in an industry that loves her.

Theater veteran Gilles Chiasson, who performed in the original New York Theatre Workshop, Off-Broadway, and Broadway productions of 'Rent' now is in charge of the Performing Arts Education Centers at Agoura and Calabasas High Schools. We talked to him about his experiencing performing in New York with legendary producer Jonathan Larson, in anticipation of Agoura High's upcoming performance of the musical.

She talks about the mundane and the explosive; from newspaper wedding features to style/life advice from the one and only Joan Crawford, combining them in her cauldron of comedy, so, one can never go wrong spending the cash to see Julie Halston on stage. Whether she is creating a character in a play or musical or if you are taking in a truly inspired (and inspiring) comedienne (I won't stop using that word) on the nightclub stage you are in for the most laughs; and for all of those laughs, we give JULIE HALSTON - JUDGE JULIE PRESIDING a hearty 5 out of 5 Rainbows.

Jason O'Neill was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He became passionate about Irish dancing, Irish culture and music as a young boy and seeing RIVERDANCE changed his life. It became his goal to become a professional Irish dancer and perform in RIVERDANCE, which he has now done for 10 years. I had the chance to speak with O'Neill prior to his arrival in Montreal where the RIVERDANCE 25th ANNIVERSARY tour will play a limited engagement at Salle Wilfred-Pelletier, Place des Arts, January 10-12, 2020.

Broadway veteran and regional theater actress Farah Alvin returns to her roots with her first solo nightclub act in many years, as The Green Room 42 invites her to their stages to do some of her favorite 70s tunes.

'Naaaaaaaaaaants ingonyama bagithi Baba!' No matter who you are or where you're from, it's a sure bet you're familiar with those iconic introductory lines. Set against the majestic backdrop of the rising Serengeti sun, the universally-recognized African cry, beckoning scores of meerkats, elephants, antelope and giraffes to emerge and greet the newest member of their animal tribe, is the quintessential Disney opening that defined a generation. 

Elizabethan comedy meets modern constructs of gender fluidity in Kokandy's top-notch production of HEAD OVER HEELS.

The 25th annual Lotus World Music & Arts Festival will fill the streets of downtown Bloomington, Indiana with sights and sounds from around the globe (September 27-30, 2018).  Thirty international artists, free large-scale art installations, and events for all ages will fill 14 downtown Bloomington venues with palpable energy and an eclectic blend of global sound and spectacle. Venues range in style from the historic Buskirk-Chumley Theater, to contemplative church settings, to pavement-quaking outdoor dance tents and even a pop-up 360° video-immersion space. Music genres span continents and cultures, including Colombian marimba, Hawaiian hula, Malian desert groove, high-energy Congolese soukous, Swedish folk rock, contemporary American string music, and more.  A complete list of artists is available below or at lotusfest.org.  All-inclusive, weekend, and single-day passes are available for online, phone, and walk-up purchase via the BCT Box Office.  

As a follow-up to 2017's acclaimed Ballet: The Music of Michael Gibbs, Seattle-based trumpeter Cuong Vu joins forces once again with guitar great Bill Frisell, bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Ted Poor on the boundary-pushing quartet outing for RareNoiseRecords, Change in the Air. With all the members of the quartet contributing compositions, this one finds the four participants on equal footing on ten adventurous originals. From Poor's dreamy, noirish opener 'All That's Left of Me Is You' and his lonesome echo-laden waltz 'Alive' to Bergman's dynamic 'Must Concentrate,' Frisell's delicate 'Look, Listen' and his beguiling heartland melody 'Long Ago' and Vu's angular 'Round and Round' and his edgy and electrified 'March of the Owl and the Bat,' these four stellar musicians are truly on one accord and dealing with a rare level of nuance and depth of communication on Change in the Air.