This fall, The Town Hall, New York City's landmark concert venue (123 West 43rd Street), launches the new season with their celebration of Broadway's best. The Town Hall presents its acclaimed Broadway Cabaret Festival which runs October 16 - 18, 2009. The three-concert series that takes place over one weekend is written and hosted for The Town Hall by Scott Siegel. The festival showcases the talents of award-winning Broadway veterans and new stars in a celebration of the Great White Way.
ABOUT THE CONCERTS
The curtain rises on Friday, October 16th at 8pm with A TRIBUTE TO
David Merrick. With an all-star cast including Tony Award nominees
Emily Skinner (Side Show),
Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll & Hyde),
Stephen Bogardus (Love! Valour! Compassion!),
Lee Roy Reams (42nd Street) and Nightlife Award winner
Jim Caruso (Liza's at the Palace), the evening celebrates the fabled showman whose prolific, six-decade career gave Broadway the original productions of Gypsy, Oliver!, Hello Dolly!, 42nd Street, Mack & Mabel and I Do! I Do!, yielding a songbook of popular standards by
Jule Styne,
Betty Comden,
Adolph Green,
Jerry Herman,
Stephen Sondheim,
Tom Jones,
Harvey Schmidt,
Harold Rome,
John Kander and
Fred Ebb. His shows gave superstars like
Ethel Merman and
Carol Channing the roles that would define their careers and catapulted the likes of
Barbra Streisand and
Woody Allen to stardom.
On Saturday, October 17th at 8pm,
Linda Eder returns to The Town Hall with her new show ALL OF ME. One of the greatest contemporary solo voices of our time, Eder will be backed by a seven-piece orchestra led by
Billy Stein, with Dave Mann on sax and and Dave Finck on upright and electric bass. In addition to new arrangements to her signature songs like "Vienna" and "Someone Like You," Eder's eclectic program will treat audiences to unique covers of popular and country classics, as well as was premieres of original material.
On Sunday, October 18th at 3pm, the Festival concludes with BROADWAY ORIGINALS. For one performance only, nearly twenty Broadway stars including
Alexander Gemignani (Sunday in the Park with George, Les Miserables),
Julia Murney (Wicked, Lennon),
Kerry O'Malley (
Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Into the Woods) and
Sharon McNight (Tony nominee for Starmites) will come together to revisit the songs that they made famous on the Broadway stage. A must-see for any Broadway aficionado, the program features favorites by
Stephen Sondheim,
Stephen Schwartz,
Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg and more of the theater's greatest songwriters.
Scott Siegel has created for The Town Hall, three acclaimed and popular series: Broadway By The Year®, soon to begin its tenth season, the Broadway Cabaret Festival and the Broadway Summer Festival. Mr. Siegel also conceived and produces both Broadway Unplugged and The Nightlife Awards at The Town Hall. Scott and his wife, Barbara, are authors (47 books, including The Encyclopedia of Hollywood) and critics ("The Siegel Column" and "The Two of Clubs" on Talkin' Broadway).
Built in 1921 by a group of suffragettes, The Town Hall began as a lecture hall and public forum for debates. Over the decades,
Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger,
Billie Holiday,
Igor Stravinsky,
Bob Dylan and
Miles Davis have graced the stage. Today the hall flourishes as a popular, affordable venue, boasting the hottest acts in rock, pop, folk, cabaret, world music, comedy and dance, including
Billy Joel, Blondie,
Elvis Costello,
Natalie Merchant,
Graham Nash,
Liza Minnelli,
Cyndi Lauper,
Norah Jones, Andre Watts,
Henry Rollins,
Joe Jackson, Pink Martini, Regina Spector, Brian Adams, Aimee Mann and
Dawn Upshaw. For over a decade, The Town Hall has hosted live broadcasts of
Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. Over the past two-and-a-half decades, The Town Hall has produced a number of new and critically acclaimed musical series, which include The Century of Change, Not Just Jazz, Broadway by the Year® and The Broadway Cabaret Festival. Lawrence Zucker is the Artistic and Executive Director.
The 5th Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival runs October 16 - 18 at The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street. Via subway, take the 1/2/3/A/C/E/N/R/Q/F/B/D/Q trains to 42nd Street. Subscriptions are available now by mail order only. Tickets are $55 and $50 and go on sale July 24th through Ticketmaster.com, 212-307-4100 or The Town Hall Box Office between noon and 6PM (except Sundays), 212-840-2824. For more information, visit
www.the-townhall-nyc.org.
