Vernon Duke News

Tony Award Nominee Ann Hampton Callaway salutes songs made famous in films with her newest album release Jazz Goes To The Movies. To celebrate the album, Callaway is on tour across the US. Check out newly announced tour dates below!

Birdland will kick-off their great week of programming with the following acts:

This show, explores the fascinating ways jazz and film have come together to tell stories.The playlist includes "Taking a Chance on Love" from Vernon Duke's Cabin in the Sky, "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from Irving Berlin's Follow the Fleet, "This Time the Dream's on Me," from Harold Arlen's Blues in the Night, and "As Time Goes By," the Herman Hupfeld classic from Casablanca.

On Stage At Kingsborough, a leading performing arts presenter, presents its Spring 2019 season featuring world class artists from around the globe.On Stage At Kingsborough brings top notch performing arts to Southern Brooklyn, with an eclectic roster of artists spanning multiple genres including cabaret, dance, music, and family programming. The full season runs through May 17, 2019.

PS CLASSICS, the label that celebrates the heritage of Broadway and American popular song, has released its groundbreaking new recording Philip Chaffin: Will He Like Me? today, Friday, November 9. The album is featured in The New York Times "2018 Holiday Gift Guide," which raves, "From 'When I Marry Mr. Snow' to 'I Got Lost in His Arms,' Chaffin tells a familiar story that has never sounded so new." 

Back by Popular Demand! Singer Lynn Henderson returns to Don't Tell Mama this fall with A Skitch in Time: My Friendship with Maestro Skitch Henderson, a tribute to her friend, the New York Pops founder who built the Pops from an idea to a beloved international institution.

Broadway award-winning star and concert star Christine Andreas will release her newest album Christine Andreas Piaf-No Regrets on PS Classics   on November 9th , 2018.  Christine is currently touring the U.S. and abroad with her much-acclaimed one-woman show Piaf, No Regrets.  This new CD was recorded in London this past summer with a 36- piece orchestra, conducted and orchestrated by Larry Blank and produced by Martin Silvestri. Singing both in English and in French, Andreas draws from her one-woman show, where she was   lauded by The New York Times...' Andreas's ravishing voice with its rapid vibrato, metallic edge…(and) snapping emotional electricity, has made her a potent interpreter of Piaf.'

Jump For Joy! The Off-Broadway cast recording of the New York premiere production of the new musical Unexpected Joy, with book and lyrics by Bill Russell (Side Show) and music by Janet Hood (Elegies for Angels, Punks, and Raging Queens with Bill Russell), will be recorded and released by JAY Records. Produced by John Yap, the recording will feature the original cast of The York Theatre Company production who will gather at Sear Sound Studios (353 West 48th Street) on Monday, May 14, 2018 to lay down the tracks for the recording.

San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon (Daren A.C. Carollo and Daniel Thomas, Co-Executive Directors), currently celebrating its 25th Anniversary in continuous operation, has announced that the company's 2018 Gala, JUBILATE!, will be headlined by Moon favorite Klea Blackhurst (42nd Street Moon's RED, HOT AND BLUE and CALL ME MADAM) and will feature special guest star Liz Callaway (Broadway's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, BABY and MISS SAIGON).

Singer Lynn Henderson returns to Don't Tell Mama this spring with A Skitch in Time: My Friendship with Maestro Skitch Henderson, a tribute to the New York Pops founder who built the Pops from an idea to a beloved international institution. The two Hendersons, who are not related, met and bonded over music at a benefit dinner in Connecticut, where they both lived at the time. Skitch assisted Lynn, who was Chairnan of Deck The Halls benefits for New Milford Hospital, by bringing his New York Pops All Stars to Connecticut. He mentored Lynn as she created a show about his friend, Cole Porter, for a local club with a cast ranging in age from five to eighty five. Later, Lynn and her musicians brought her cabaret shows to Hunt Hill Farm - the cooking school, store and gallery which were the Connecticut home of Skitch and his smart, dazzling wife, Ruth. A Skitch in Time: My Friendship with Maestro Skitch Henderson is directed by Klea Blackhurst, with Musical Direction by Douglas J. Cohen. Bob Sabin will play bass. 

Birdland will kick-off their great week of programming with an exciting series of acts

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its January 2018 lineup, featuring An Evening with Monty Alexander - From Kingston to Harlem, Vijay Iyer Sextet, John Pizzarelli, Vincent Herring's The Story of Jazz: 100 Years, David Murray Infinity Quartet, La Tanya Hall and The Andy Milne Trio, Fleurine, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more. Scroll down for details!

Producers Robert Driemeyer, Morgan Sills and Jan Warner have announced complete casting for the New York Premiere of Party Face, a new comedy by Isobel Mahon ('Glenroe,' 'Fair City') and directed by Amanda Bearse ('Married...With Children').

The Mabel Mercer Foundation announced this week that Adela and Larry Elow have established a $50,000 endowment fund, created specifically to 'encourage teenagers to learn and perform The Great American Songbook, as composed between the years 1900-1970.'

The Aviva Players and Algonquin Theater Productions in association with Diodati Productions, Original Cast Records and The New York Association present Lady of the Castle, a ghostly post-Holocaust chamber opera based on a true story and an Israeli play by Lea Goldberg with music and lyrics by Mira J. Spektor.

What good is sitting alone in your room this week? If you don't already have plans to see a Broadway show, come out to see your favorite Broadway stars in a cabaret act instead. Highlights this week include:

The Aviva Players and Algonquin Theater Productions in association with Diodati Productions, Original Cast Records and The New York Association present Lady of the Castle, a ghostly post-Holocaust chamber opera based on a true story and an Israeli play by Lea Goldberg with music and lyrics by Mira J. Spektor.

The Aviva Players present Mira J. Spektor's Lady of The Castle, A Ghostly Post-Holocaust Chamber Opera, based on a true story & an Israeli play by Lea Goldberg.

The Schimmel Center presents American Dance Spectacular! on Saturday, October 21 at 7:30 p.m., exploring the history of American popular dance throughout the 20th century, including the Charleston, Lindy hop, jitterbug, twist, voguing, and more. The performance is directed, co-written and created by Daniel C. Levine (Broadway's Les Mis rables, Chicago, and Mamma Mia!) with choreography by Al Blackstone (Fox's So You Think You Can Dance), music direction by Bryan Perri (Broadway's Wicked and Next to Normal), and book by Susan Batten (Lifetime's Showing Roots) together with six Broadway dancers backed by three vocalists and a live band.

The Aviva Players will present Mira J. Spektor's Lady of The Castle, A Ghostly Post-Holocaust Chamber Opera, based on a true story & an Israeli play by Lea Goldberg.