Noice Different Unusual

So thrilled with the work TT and Alison have done with our library at katoomba!

And here was me thinking they were just painting the shelves!

Hiya Pops!

The NY Pops orchestra celebrated their 30th anniversary at Carnegie Hall last night with a star-studded tribute to Jule Styne, Frank Loesser and Danny Kaye. After a rousing overture from GYPSY (a fraction too slow) the stage was flooded with the Camp Broadway kids. And indeed, a couple of them were.

"Let Me Entertain You!" they beseeched.
Songs from FUNNY GIRL were beautifully sung by Stephanie J. Block, Betsy Wolfe and Laura Osnes. Laura Benanti took us to "Neverland" from PETER PAN.

Leslie Uggams tore up the place with her signature song from HALLELUJAH, BABY!, "My Own Morning". Simply glorious.

After Megan Hilty ("Smash") sang a very popular "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" there was a video tribute to Danny Kaye incorporating his most famous routines and then on came his daughter, the supremely elegant and charming Dena Kaye looking spookily like her mum Sylvia Fine.
She told delightful stories about her father always returning from his travels overseas with a gift until one time little Dena demanded "Where's my present?". Shocked, Danny said that was enough with the gifts and from now on he would teach Dena a folk song from whichever country he had visited. Dena then sang a Japanese tune she has always remembered. She also spoke of Danny's many gigs as an orchestra conductor although he couldn't read music. She brought a gift to NY Pops music director Stephen Reineke of Danny's golden fly swatter, sying that he had once conducted "The Flight of the Bumble Bee"

She didn't have to elaborate. We all roared.

Donna Murphy sang a very charming "Ugly Duckling" from HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON

Then finally it was the guys' turn as Nick Adams, Will Chase and Max von Essen sang "Fugue for Tinhorns"

Their final three part harmony gave me goosebumps.

CHAPLIN star Rob McLure recreated his Encores! starring role from WHERE'S CHARLEY? with a joyously nimble "Once in Love With Amy". After urging us to join in he finished the number by saying, "There! Now you've sung at Carnegie Hall."
Liz Callaway followed with a medley from HOW TO SUCCEED, then came Kelli O'Hara with a really lovely "Somebody Somewhere" from THE MOST HAPPY FELLA.

Apparently Frank Loesser's widow Jo Sullivan had only one request for this concert and that was for Anthony Warlow to sing "Rosabella" from HAPPY FELLA

He was magnificent and I was THAT PROUD!!

Cabaret legend Marilyn Maye, fresh from her 85th birthday celebrations, looked incredible in a sparkling red pantsuit which this photo does not do justice, then proceeded to demolish me with the sexiest bossa nova version of "Joey Joey" from HAPPY FELLA. I was left in a puddle. She closed with "Luck Be a Lady", acknowledging it was written for a man but "at my age I can sing anything I want".
My thanks to Jamie De Roy for letting me be her handbag for the night!

Lost in Inwood

Had an early band rehearsal for the 54 Below gig in midtown then had to fill in four hours until my next commitment. It was such a glorious spring day that I got off the train a few stops before home and decided to explore Inwood Hill Park. I power walked joyously past several little league baseball  games and picknicking families, wondering when I would find myself on familiar turf. The answer was...never.

Instead of the path leading to my front door the path simply stopped at a dead end.

 I had to walk back half a mile until I found another path which led up several hundred steps to the correct route.

 An aerial view of my dead end.

The new and correct path to my home.

The Harlem River

Under the bridge and ...home was in sight!

Through those trees on the left.

 Hoorah!

My Day Job

Exclusive: Jeremy Jordan, Sierra Boggess, Jan Maxwell and Ashley Spencer Star in Developmental Lab of EVER AFTER Monday, April 29, 2013; 06:04 PM - by BWW News Desk

BroadwayWorld.com has exclusively learned the cast of the April 25 - May 15th developmental lab of the Broadway-bound musical EVER AFTER, based on the 1998 20th Century Fox Film of the same name. Naturally, the cast for a developmental reading is not necessarily indicative of the cast for future productions, but, we're still excited! The cast features Sierra Boggess (as Danielle de Barbarac), Kate Burton, F. Michael Haynie, Gwen Hollander, Byron Jennings, Jeremy Jordan (as Prince Henry), Jose Llana, Terrence Mann, Jan Maxwell, Tony Sheldon, and Ashley Spencer (as Marguerite de Ghent). The ensemble features Jill Abramovitz, Wendi Bergamini, Ashley Blanchet, Bradley Dean, Christian Delacroix, Sean Michael Hingston, Raquel Leifer, Darius Nichols, Katerina Papacostas, Sadie Sink, Eric Sciotto, Elizabeth Teeter, Kay Walbye, Jim Walton, and Lauren Worsham. The production (and lab) will be directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. EVER AFTER features music by Zina Goldrich and book & lyrics by Marcy Heisler, who recently won the 2012 Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre for most promising musical theatre lyricist. The music director is Mary-Mitchell Campbell. Stay tuned for future information on the production, which was previously announced as aiming for the 2013-14 season.

Read more about Exclusive: Jeremy Jordan, Sierra Boggess, Jan Maxwell and Ashley Spencer Star in Developmental Lab of EVER AFTER by broadwayworld.com

Tonight's Gig

Josh Young, Krysta Rodriguez, Lindsay Mendez, Robin de Jesus, Randy Graff Are Part of Tim and Charlie's Farewell Tour April 28

By Andrew Gans
28 Apr 2013

Josh Young

Tim and Charlie's Farewell Tour, an evening celebrating the composer and lyricist team Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne, is presented April 28 at 54 Below.
The 9:30 PM concert features Rosser and Sohne as well as Krysta Rodriguez, Lindsay Mendez, Jason Gotay, Tony winner Randy Graff, Noah Galvin, Sally Wilfert, Robin de Jesus, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Derek Klena, Tony Sheldon, Taylor Trensch, Danny Quadrino and Josh Young.
The evening, which marks the composer and lyricist's cabaret debut, is directed by Matthew DiCarlo with musical direction by Rosser. Composer-lyricist Ryan Scott Oliver and Very Intense Productions produce.
54 Below describes the evening as such: "How many evenings can be spent in the company of a family of evangelical creationists (The Profit of Creation), dancing boys in Afghanistan (The Boy Who Danced On Air), opinionated if slightly confused teenagers (Political Speeches By Young People), and robotic tin soldiers (Third Time’s A Charm)? The work of songwriters Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne is far-ranging, but united by a unique blend of sincerity, sensitivity, thoughtfulness, and humor. Come hear Broadway’s finest perform a set that will make you laugh, cry, order a martini, and then chase it with bourbon."

54 Below is located at 254 West 54th Street. Tickets and information are available at 54Below.com.

Struttin'

I was NOT dancing, it only looks that way. Co-hosting at the Dancers Over 40 fundraiser at the Ailey Studios.

The lovely Carol Lawrence

The limber Lilliane Montevecchi

Singing "Baby, Dream Your Dream" with Eric Sciotto

Curtain Call!

 

With DO40 President John Sefakis, Karine Plantadit and Ramon Flowers

With Broadway veteran Ronald Young (DOLLY, MAME, THE BOYFRIEND, GEORGE M, A CHORUS LINE), author of a jolly autobiography "The Boy Who Danced"

Maw Shaw faw Sheldy

Mrs. WARREN's PROFESSION
Monday 20 May
7pm
at The Players
16 Gramercy Park South
$30
212-355-7823
 
TICKETS AVAILABLE MAY 1st

MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION
Written by George Bernard Shaw during 1893 and 1894

Monday, May 20, 2013

When Shaw completed MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION in 1893, it was censored for eight years. When it was finally produced on the London stage in 1902, the public was outraged by its controversial content. Reviewers overwhelmingly condemned the play as immoral, citing its focus on prostitution and incest. Today, however, the play is applauded for its astute view of the corruption at the heart of Victorian society. The play centers on Mrs. Warren, who, forced by the economic realities of nineteenth century London, becomes a prostitute and later runs several unsuccessful brothels. Through her characterization, Shaw exposes the corruption and hypocrisy of the "genteel" class. He also explores the personal consequences of such a profession as Mrs. Warren struggles to gain the respect and love of her daughter after she discovers the truth about her mother. Modern audiences admire the play's artistry as well as its subject since, as Shaw notes in his "Apology," "Mrs. Warren's defence of herself and indictment of society is the thing that most needs saying."

MRS. WARREN's PROFESSION
A Play in Four Acts
Written during 1893 and 1894 by George Bernard Shaw

ACT I: The Garden of Vivie Warren’s Holiday Cottage at Haslemere.
ACT II: Inside the Cottage.
Interval
ACT III: The Vicarage Garden.
ACT IV: Honoria Fraser’s Chambers in Chancery Lane

 

Cast:
Praed – Mr. Tony Sheldon
Vivie Warren – Ms. Amelia Pedlow
Mrs. Warren – Ms. Harriet Harris
Sir George Crofts – Mr. Richard Easton
Rev. Samuel Gardner – Mr. Lenny Wolpe
Frank Gardner – Mr. Matt Doyle
Narrator – Ms. Roma Torre

Produced and directed by Mr. David Staller

Quite Contrary

My, oh my, and I thought the staging of PIPPIN was busy! I saw a wonderful one-person show today called THE TESTAMENT OF MARY starring Fiona Shaw and the staging was very...European.

Before the play began Ms Shaw and her stage management crew ambled onstage and Ms Shaw donned the above garb and entered a glass cube where she sat surrounded by candles. Suddenly, like lemmings, the Wednesday matinee audience jammed the aisles as if by some command unheard only by me and clambered unsteadily onto the stage where they examined the vast array of scattered props, one of which was a very large black bird, apparently a vulture.

 After several minutes of that the audience shuffled back to their seats, the glass cube was raised never to be seen again, the stage managers removed its contents and Ms Shaw communed with the bird for a bit before everyone finally left the stage and the show began.

 TT and I once saw a production of VIRGINIA WOOLF in Venice (I know, I never thought I would type that sentence) where the set consisted of a double bed, a bank of nine television sets tied together with rope, a Chevrolet, a theatrical dressing table, an "APPLAUSE" sign spelled out in lightbulbs...you get the picture. It was gobsmacking, and illuminated a thrilling new interpretation of the text.

I appreciated Deborah Warner's operatic staging of Colm Toibin's monologue in which we meet Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the years after her son's crucifixion. Still locked into an all consuming grief, she cannot bring herself to say her son's name as she recounts her version of the events that "changed the world".

It's a fascinating script brilliantly acted, particularly Mary's growing unease with her son's followers.."a bunch of misfits"..and her horror at seeing Lazarus raised from the grave only to wander like an uncommunicative zombie before beginning to die again days later, and her disgust when Jesus...dressed way too elaborately for her liking...rather pompously turns water into wine (or so she's informed) at a family wedding.  When she tries to warn her son that his actions are putting him in grave danger she is crushed when he treats her like a total stranger.

This is all fabulously gripping stuff, and Mary's account of the crucifixion and its aftermath is truly harrowing. But the production is incredibly busy and seems not to trust the text or our attention span. The Misses Warner and Shaw may well be right but I was most distracted by the endless and seemingly random putting on and taking off of garments, dragging of props from stage left to stage right, cigarettes brandished and remaining unlit, the hefting of huge clay jugs, ladders and coils of barbed wire, trees rising and falling, curtains and backdrops opening and closing. She even takes off all her clothes and goes for a little swim. You'd never see Miriam Margolyes doing all that in DICKENS' WOMEN.

But having said all that, I would recommend it wholeheartedly if it's coming to a theatre near you!

Les Fleurs

Very pleased my street is putting on a good show for Spring as TT will be back in NYC in THREE WEEKS!!!!