Stephen Sorokoff - Page 30

Bernie Fusrhpan, managing partner of the Metropolitan Room moved his club into the Friars Club last night and BroadwayWorld was there for the entertainment super special. 

'The Birds' by Irish playwright Conor McPherson and directed by Barrington Stage Companies founder and artistic director Julianne Boyd landed on BSC's Second Stage yesterday and BroadwayWorld was nestled in with the rest of the opening night Pittsfield audience. 

The piano at at Berkshire Theatre Group's  Unicorn Theatre will never be the same after Jerry Lee Lewis (Gabriel Aronson) of MIllion Dollar Quartet finished playing and gyrating on it last night at the opening of this Tony Award-Winning Musical, and Broadwayworld was there.

Feinstein's/54 Below is a a chameleon of a performance space because of the eclectic mix of entertainment that perform on it's stage. Broadway is the main theme but sometimes it becomes one of the great nightclubs of the 50's & 60's like Basin Street East, The Embers, The Persian Room etc. 

It's one thing to be able to act and sing like Brian Stokes Mitchell, but in addition, there is a whole other level of musicianship Brian possesses that enabled him to conceive and create his opening number, 'There's No Business Like Show Business'.  As 'Stokes' pointed out, his musical mind is in sync with his brilliant music director, Tedd Firth.  The two of them have produced an arrangement of this Irving Berlin standard that takes you on a roller coaster ride of meter and key changes.  A little bit of math proficiency was also probably needed because the Stokes/Firth arrangement starts off as a ballad and then weaves it's way through a variety of tempos which include 7/8 & 5/4. It certainly was indicative of the title of his cabaret show, 'Playing With Music.'  

Inside Broadway presented it's Beacon Awards last night at it's 35th anniversary season Gala  and BroadwayWorld was inside the JW Marriot Essex House for the festivities.

Game of Love: The Songs of Charles Aznavour, a new musical revue slated to appear off-Broadway in the fall of 2017, received an industry invitation-only reading presentation in New York City and BroadwayWorld and lots of lovers were in attendance for the performance at Nola Studios.

Tin Pan Alley on 28th street in Manhattan was where many songs were composed in the early 20th century.  Young composers like George Gershwin wrote many of the tunes we are still singing today.  Now, a lot of the creative music and lyrics are coming out of William Finn's Master Class at The NYU Tisch Graduate Program in Musical Theatre Writing.  Instead of these young songwriters displaying there work on the cheap upright pianos that gave Tin Pan Alley it's name, Mr. Finn who is also the Artistic Head of the Musical Theatre Lab at Barrington Stage Company  puts on a show on Barrington's Main Stage in PIttsfield Massachusetts.

There are not too many places in the world where you can see and hear music performances like the concert/shows produced in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Appel Room.  Before the music starts you get to see one of the most exciting views NYC has to offer of Central Park & Columbus Circle.  Then just as you're silently singing 'can't take my eyes off of you'  the off-stage announcement is made 'and now ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Michael Feinstein.'

Everybody Loved Somebody at The Friars Club last night as Dean Martin was celebrated in song and toasted by his fellow Friars. 

The celebrities turned out for Haley Swindal's last show at Feinstein's/54 Below last night and BroadwayWorld was there.

Paulo Szot breathtakingly answered the question last night.  Can one of opera and Broadway world's most magnificent and powerful voices be harnessed to create an intimate cabaret experience? If you have a preconceived notion of a barrel chested, non swinging, duck out of water performer, you are a 100 percent wrong. 

The 92Y Lyrics & Lyricists presented From Camelot to California The Worlds of Lerner & Loewe this weekend and BroadwayWorld was there.

Photographs of America's most treasured composers are on the walls of the Friars Club. By some oversight David Friedman's is not.  After an evening of David and friends performing his music he will take his rightful  place among the music greats who have had their music echo through the hallowed rooms of the club.

You don't have to go to the Cannes Film Festival in France to see to see the best new creations from film makers and mingle with glamorous and creative people. It's happening in the Berkshires at the Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF). Kelley Vickery who founded the festival 12 years ago has brought the best of independent film from around the world to Great Barrington and Pittsfield Mass. movie theaters. It's a four day event of great movies, Q&A, discussions, special events, and parties.  This year's festival paid tribute to Academy Award winning actor, Christopher Plummer, who when accepting BIFF's Lifetime Achievement Award told the audience ' you probably can't realize how much this award means to me'.

If songwriters had to choose the definitive performances of their masterpieces to be placed in a musical time capsule I'm sure last night's cabaret concert by Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley would be selected.  A celebrity filled audience at Feinstein's/54 Below was at times spell bound by the musicianship and sound of their magnificent voices.   Jason and Marin shared songs they introduced on Broadway from shows including Ragtime, Passion, The Full Monty, Curtains, and The Visit.  There were also gems from roles they originated in Broadway revivals like Kiss Me, Kate, and American Songbook Standards from their many TV, cabaret, and concert hall appearances.   Their often used designation of "Broadway's Golden Couple" are a Gold Standard, and who ever opens that time capsule in the future is gonna flip.

If you know Haley Swindal's pedigree you will understand why I will refrain from commenting that her show 'knocked it out of the park'. I will also not say she swung and sung for the fences and hit a home run.  I will resist the temptation to say that 'Team Haley' went to it's talented bench to put together the winning combination of Tedd Firth musical director and Will Nunziata, concert director (who conceived the show).  However I will say that her grandfather George Steinbrenner, who in addition to being 'The Boss' of the New York Yankees, loved music and had a passion for Broadway.  He would have been giving a standing ovation (with the rest of the crowd) to Haley Swindal at the conclusion of her ground breaking new show titled Golden Girl at Feinstein's/54 Below last night. 

The flyers on the seats at Barrington Stage Company's St Germain Stage were from a 1995 college appearance by William Kunstler, They said in bold letters 'BOYCOTT - Kunstler is a sellout and a hypocrite His defense of Traiters; Terrorists; and Rapists is an insult to the causes for what which he once stood.' Well, these flyers were correct about Jeff McCarthy in Kunstler being a 'sell out' (audience-wise) at Barrington Stage with his brilliant portrayal of the famed defense lawyer.

'You were good Antonia' were the first words Tony Bennett said to his daughter after her Cafe Carlyle debut last night.. and father surely knows best in this case. 

The Friars Club's entertainment bench possesses an unbelievable amount of talent and they are called upon to perform at the club's unique in-house weekly dinner/shows.  Luckily, performers who were not famous when they first joined the club are generous with sharing their talents at these events after they become super stars.