Tag: Broadway

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The 7th Annual Broadway Beauty Pageant

Via press release:

Four-time Tony Award nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning actress Tovah Feldshuh will return to host the seventh annual The Broadway Beauty Pageant.

Celebrity judges have also been announced. Andrea Martin (Pippin), Billy Porter (Kinky Boots), and Michael Urie (Buyer and Cellar) have been tapped to judge the event.

Lisa Lambert, the Tony Award-winning lyricist of The Drowsy Chaperone, will write the opening number.

The popular event is the annual benefit of New York’s Ali Forney Center. 

The Broadway Beauty Pageant will feature male cast members representing their respective Broadway shows, competing for the title crown through talent, interview and swimsuit competitions. The contestants will go head to head in front of a panel of celebrity judges, but ultimately, the final vote is in the hands of the audience members.

Monday, May 20th – 8pm
NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts

Click here for tickets

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Ad: Broadway’s “The Trip To Bountiful”

Ending a 30 year absence, celebrated actress Cecily Tyson, three-time Emmy® Award winner for “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and “Oldest Confederate Widow Tells All” and Academy Award® nominee for Sounder, makes her triumphant return to Broadway in this eagerly anticipated new production, directed by Michael Wilson (Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Dividing the Estate).

THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL follows Carrie Watts (Tyson), an active, highly motivated widow living in a cramped apartment in Houston in the Spring of 1953 with her son (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and daughter-in-law (Vanessa Williams) . Carrie escapes her relatives’ watchful eyes to realize her dearest dream: to return to her beloved hometown, Bountiful. What starts as an ordinary trip soon becomes an inspiring and life-changing journey of discovery.

With powerful themes regarding memory, mortality and the undeniable, universal yearning for home, you won’t want to miss this powerful show The Cleveland Plain Dealer calls, “A gorgeous, great play. American theater at its most engaging.”

For tickets click here.

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Sneak peek at Broadway Bares 23

From the YouTube description: Broadway Bares, the unrivaled evening of sexy striptease that benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will return for its 23rd edition on Sunday, June 23, 2013.

This year’s theme will be announced on Thursday, March 28 at broadwaybares.com and broadwaycares.org.

This always sold-out annual event combines the naughtiness of burlesque and the razzle-dazzle of Broadway. More than 200 of the hottest male and female dancers in New York City take to the stage for two sensational shows at 9:30 pm and midnight.

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2013 Broadway Backwards highlights

Broadway Backwards features show tune standards performed by the opposite gender for whom they were written. From the producers:

Broadway Backwards, the once-a-year celebration of the LGBT community, brought down the house March 18, 2013, while raising a record-setting $347,060 to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.

The sold-out show left the audience cheering after unforgettable performances by an array of Broadway’s best, including Brian Stokes Mitchell, Karen Ziemba, Josh Young, Stephanie J. Block, Anthony Warlow and Tituss Burgess, who delivered a stirring recreation from Dreamgirls.

Look for this year and previous year’s events on DVD at this link. EAch of the DVDs feature fab and fun performances through the years from different events. (I participated in the 2010 Gypsy of the Year edition).

All funds go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

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New Music: Megan Hilty – “It Happens All The Time”

Megan Hilty, star of NBC’s musical drama “Smash” as the seasoned triple-threat Ivy Lynn, has released her debut CD recording, “It Happens All The Time.”

Hilty was recently signed to Sony Music in a partnership between Sony Masterworks and Columbia Records. Her new album, It Happens All The Time, was released March 12, 2013.

Megan was most recently seen on Broadway as Lorelei Lee, the diamond-loving blonde made famous by Carol Channing, in the Encores! production of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” to which she earned raved reviews.

Megan’s new CD is available at Amazon and iTunes.

A native of Seattle, Hilty moved to New York City after graduating from the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, and quickly made her Broadway debut as Glinda in “Wicked.” She went on to perform the role in both the national tour and in Los Angeles.

Follow Megan at her official site: www.MeganHilty.com

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Idina Menzel heading back to Broadway

Ok, musical theater fans, Idina Menzel is heading back to Broadway.

Next Spring, Idina will star in a new musical by the “Next to Normal” team of composer Tom Kitt and the lyricist and book writer Brian Yorkey.  Just to remind you they won 3 Tony Awards including Best Score plus a Pulitzer Prize for drama.  So they know a little something about the craft.

The show, called “If/Then,” is about a woman about to turn 40 who moves to NYC looking for a fresh start.

From the New York Times:

“Like “Next to Normal,” which centered on a mother struggling with mental illness, “If/Then” is a contemporary-sounding musical about a strongly drawn female protagonist, Elizabeth, who Ms. Menzel described in a statement as “complex, flawed, and surprising.” Beyond Elizabeth’s goals – a new home and friends, and hopes for a resurgent career – little else was revealed about the character in the announcement Thursday, although the titles of two of Elizabeth’s songs – “Here I Go” and “You Learn to Live Without” – offer some flavor. Ms. Menzel is expected to perform those songs on Friday at an American Songbook series concert featuring the work of Mr. Kitt and Mr. Yorkey.”

Hopes are to see the fab new show starting previews March 4, 2014 with a tentative opening on March 27, 2014.

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Opening number from 2004 Tony Awards with Hugh Jackman

Now, you know, THIS is how to open an awards show.

Over the top silliness and fab talent singing a great song from a Broadway musical.

I love Hugh kissing the puppet from AVENUE Q at the 3:09 mark. And coming downstage with the Rockettes is a great visual.

From the YouTube description:

Hugh Jackman performs “One Night Only”, the opening number from The 58th Annual Tony Awards with the “Dynamites” from Hairspray, the “Radio” from Caroline, or Change, and the “Urchins” from Little Shop of Horrors, along with members of the casts of Avenue Q, The Boy from Oz, Fiddler on the Roof, Wonderful Town, and Wicked, and the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.

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San Diego: CHICAGO The Musical

In addition to juggling The Randy Report each day, I’m currently working with my dear friend Ron Kellum staging the music CHICAGO in San Diego, CA.

We open this Friday, February 15th, at the Birch North Park Theater in San Diego.

I’m having a great time with the cast and production team revisiting a show “near and dear to my heart.”

The theater posted this video highlighting much of the cast, along with Ron and I. If you are in the San Diego area, I’d love for you to come see the show over the next few weeks. Great cast, and of course, great material.

Ron and I spent years performing in the national, international and Broadway productions of the hit revival of CHICAGO, and have distilled that experience down for these actors into what we think is a fun, funny and fab evening in the theater.

Go to www.sdmt.org for more info.

And all that jazz…