Rita Gardner News

Urban Stages has announced the line-up for this year's Award Winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin Thursday, December 1 and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

 Tony nominee SALLY MAYES ('She Loves Me') and award-winning JEFF HARNAR (Broadway World Cabaret Award) continue their run of DOUBLE TAKE at The Laurie Beechman Theatre.  At Wednesday night's performance the audience included LORETTA SWITT ('Mash'), RITA GARDNER ('The Fantasticks'), JOHN McDANIEL ('The Rosie O'Donnel Show'), MICHAEL ALDEN ('Pippin'), REX REED ('Myra Breckinridge'),and more.  The September performances conclude on Wednesday September 28 at 7pm at The Laurie Beechman Theatre followed by a special Cabaret Convention week matinee on Thursday October 20th at 2pm.  Music Director Alex Rybeck ('Grand Hotel') leads the trio featuring Bob Renino (bass) and Dan Gross (drums).  'A  swell evening of prime, solidly-anchored entertainment.  SALLY MAYES and JEFF HARNAR have created a show full of charm, schtick and creativity, not to mention a fresh song list and well-honed singing chops.  Their distinctive, individual voices work quite well as one.  In addition the show has been cannily crafted to make the most of what each can bring to the act.'  Marilyn Lester THEATRE PIZZAZZ

The latest production of the classic THE FANTASTICKS arrived at The Pasadena Playhouse September 6, 2016, directed by Seema Sueko. With the book and lyrics by Tom Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt, THE FANTASTICKS was awarded the Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre in 1991, in its 33rd year of its 42-year Off-Broadway run (17,162 performances!).

When a show at the Metropolitan Room starts over thirty minutes late because the staff is frantically trying to find chairs and room for the better part of New York's cabaret community, you know you're in store for something truly special. And unless there's a chair thief on the loose in Flatiron who doesn't like Broadway, someone clearly oversold this show and/or lost track of comps; this was extremely vexing with a heat advisory in effect. Still, the mood was festive in anticipation of Jeff Harnar's 1959 Broadway Songbook, the 12th installment in Stephen Hanks' impressive (and increasingly well-known) New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits series. Harnar's show premiered 25 years ago at the Algonquin's Oak Room. Two years later, PBS filmed the collaboration with musical director Alex Rybeck, whose arrangements honor the original compositions but reimagine them in sometimes astonishing ways, making them genuinely creative acts.

Chasing Taste, the comedy for food lovers everywhere, has just been released on iTunes and Verizon FIOS via Seed&Spark.

As BroadwayWorld sadly reported earlier this week, Marni Nixon, perhaps best known for dubbing the singing voices of the leading actresses in films, including THE KING AND I, WEST SIDE STORY and MY FAIR LADY, passed away from breast cancer on July 24th. She was 86.

See 'I Remember Mama' at Two River Theater in Red Bank now through June 26th. This fine piece of classic theater is wonderfully staged and beautifully performed by an ensemble of ten veteran actresses.

Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, announces the full cast and creative team for its production of I Remember Mama, directed by Jack Cummings III.

Broadway's 40 theatres aren't the only places to catch performances from your favorite stars! Well after Broadway orchestras begin their overtures, ensemble members take their dance breaks, and performers belt out their eleven o'clock numbers, the party continues at various cabaret venues throughout New York City. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you some cabaret highlights for this week as picked by our theatre editors, including: The Songs of Tor & Lisa, ft. Brandon Victor Dixon, and more; New Musicals at 54: Fallout by Kyle Jarrow and Nick Blaemire; Kyle Dean Massey at 54 Below; Jasper In Deadland CD Release Concert; and Broadway Couples Sing I Do! I Do! For Valentine's Day.

Next week, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

Feinstein's/54 Below is where it's at, and Broadway knows it. In a brand-new, exclusive series, we're taking you underground for all of the Feinstein's/54 Below scoop, directly from the Director of Programming- our host, Jennifer Ashley Tepper. Watch below as she chats with Nick Blaemire (New Musicals at 54: Fallout - February 9, 7 & 9:30pm), and Rita Gardner & Tom Jones (I Do, Do! - February 14, 7 & 9:30pm).

WGN America's new original scripted drama 'Outsiders,' premiering Tuesday, January 26 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT,explores the epic battle of the Farrell Clan, a tight-knit family of renegades who have lived atop the rugged Shay Mountain for over two hundred years, as they fight to defend their land and their way of life from the town below and anyone who would dare to challenge them.Below, we've got an exclusive clip, in which Asa (Joe Anderson) speaks to the leader, Lady Ray (theater vet Phyllis Somerville) about the outside world from which he's just returned. Check it out below!

Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, has cast the first same sex couple to participate in Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt's classic musical I DO! I DO! on February 14th, 2016.

Celebrate Valentine's Day at Feinstein's/54 Below with BROADWAY COUPLES SING I DO! I DO! on FEBRUARY 14 AT 7PM & 9:30PM. Real life Broadway couples sing from the hit musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt about the ups and downs of marriage. A special $85 prix-fixe menu will be available.

After BroadwayWorld launched its New York Cabaret Awards in 2012, the cabaret section's editors realized that the selected categories and the popular vote nature of the election didn't adequately recognize some great performances and shows for that particular year. So in 2013, BWW added "Editor's Choice Awards" to the mix to not only reward special performances but also to acknowledge people who have helped grow cabaret and foster the spirit of the art form. This year, BWW New York Cabaret Editor Stephen Hanks and his reviewing staff-including Alix Cohen, David Clarke, Billie Roe, Rembert Block, and John Hoglund-selected seven stars of cabaret for this special honor. Now that the Awards for 2015 performances and shows are official, we wanted to tell you a bit about this year's "Editor's Choice Award" winners and offer them a chance to thank the New York cabaret community. Congratulations to all these worthy Award recipients.

?Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents BROADWAY COUPLES SING I DO! I DO! on February 14th, 2016. To celebrate Valentine's Day, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's classic look into a fifty-year marriage will get a one night only, all-star concert, featuring some of Broadway's most legendary couples.

The life and work of Will Holt, known for his immeasurable contributions to folk music and the musical theatre, will be celebrated by the York Theatre Company. 

Award-winning indie film CHASING TASTE will screen at the Anthology Film Archives at 32 Second Avenue in Manhattan as part of New Filmmakers New York tonight, September 16th, 2015 at 7:15pm.

Award-winning indie film CHASING TASTE will screen at the Anthology Film Archives at 32 Second Avenue in Manhattan as part of New Filmmakers New York on Wednesday, September 16th, 2015 at 7:15pm.

When The Fantasticks opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village on May 3rd, 1960, no one, least of all its creators, had any idea this simple yet stylistic musical would become the longest lasting production in theatrical history, running in its original incarnation for 42 years, and 17,162 performances.