RICKY RITZEL's BROADWAY Set for Don't Tell Mama, 10/4
By: Tyler Peterson Sep. 29, 2015
Ricky Ritzel's Broadway returns to Don't Tell Mama on Sunday, Oct. 4th at 8PM with music and laughs from "Ben Franklin in Paris," "Damn Yankees" and "Gypsy." The series, running since summer, is fashioned after Sylvia Fine Kaye's "Musical Comedy Tonight" PBS programs from the 1970s. Each installment of Ricky Ritzel's Broadway, lauded as "extraordinary" by Theater Pizzazz, highlights songs and stories from Broadway musicals with a star studded revolving cast. Ritzel, a widely admired performer and denizen of New York piano bars and the Cabaret world, gives wry commentary as well as accompanying the performers on piano.
Ritzel and his casts, which have included Aaron Morishita, Jay Rogers, Christina Aranda and Lennie Watts among others, go for the laughs, high and low, as well as the tender and quirky moments germane to the genre, and they pay little mind to gender roles. Recently, the inimitable Sidney Myer did a star turn as Dolly Levi, bringing the house down. Of an August performance, Myra Chanin wrote in Theater Pizzazz:
"Even a bushy moustache, greying nappy hair and an askew, totally Goyishe blonde wig didn't stop Jay Rogers from being given the opportunity to convince me he was a gorgeous virginal ingénue."
Sylvia Fine Kaye was a Peabody Award winning Journalist for "Musical Comedy Tonight" on PBS, and in her long and varied career she was a songwriter, producer and taught musical comedy at both USC and Yale. She was nominated for two Oscars and two Emmys. She also was the wife of comedian Danny Kaye. "Musical Comedy Tonight" still has a legion of fans, though its heyday was decades ago.
Ricky Ritzel's Broadway
Music and Comedy from Ben Franklin in Paris, Gypsy and Damn Yankees
Based on Sylvia Fine Kaye's "Musical Comedy Tonight"
Sunday, Oct. 4 at 8PM
Don't Tell Mama
343 West 46th Street
Phone: 212.757.0788
$15 cover and 2-drink minimum CASH ONLY
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