Nellie Strong

BWW Review: ANNIE GET YOUR GUN at Bay Street Theater

Closing out a spectacular Summer season, Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theater offers a new take on musical theatre icon Annie Get Your Gun. Masterfully directed by Sarna Lapine, this thrilling production has extended its run through September 1st at the adorable East End venue. It boasts a brilliant cast and creative team and it is sure to have you singing the popular Irving Berlin score for days.

LOMBARDI, CHRISTMAS OF SWING & More Set for History Theatre 2012-13 Season - Jim Detmar, Vince Lombardi & More to Feature

History Theatre has announced its 35th season, which will kick-off with the Minnesota premiere of the Broadway hit Lombardi by Eric Simonson. The show will feature Jim Detmar as Vince Lombardi and Norah Long as Marie Lombardi, and promises to be a funny and passionate look at an American icon. History Theatre will celebrate the holiday season with the return of Christmas of Swing featuring the talents of Ruthie Baker, Patty Nieman, and Stacy Lindell as Patty, LaVerne, and Maxine - The Andrews Sisters.

LOMBARDI, CHRISTMAS OF SWING & More Set for History Theatre 2012-13 Season - Jim Detmar, Vince Lombardi & More to Feature

History Theatre has announced its 35th season, which will kick-off with the Minnesota premiere of the Broadway hit Lombardi by Eric Simonson. The show will feature Jim Detmar as Vince Lombardi and Norah Long as Marie Lombardi, and promises to be a funny and passionate look at an American icon. History Theatre will celebrate the holiday season with the return of Christmas of Swing featuring the talents of Ruthie Baker, Patty Nieman, and Stacy Lindell as Patty, LaVerne, and Maxine - The Andrews Sisters.

SPOTLIGHT ON NY POPS: Kelli O'Hara

From her creation of the pivotal roles of Susan in Marvin Hamlisch & Craig Carnelia's simply smashing (if underappreciated) SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and Clara in Adam Guettel & Craig Lucas's five-time Tony-winning THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, to her effortless essaying of two of the most beloved female roles in the musical theater canon, opposite two of the biggest leading men on Broadway - THE PAJAMA GAME with Harry Connick, Jr. and SOUTH PACIFIC with Matthew Morrison (and Paulo Szot) - in addition to her work in Frank Wildhorn's JEKYLL & HYDE and DRACULA, Stephen Sondheim's FOLLIES and SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, along with her stunning studio albums - all of these are just some of the reasons why Kelli O'Hara is in a very special class of performers. In this all-encompassing conversation we discuss all of the aforementioned shows, as well as working with all of her fabulous co-stars and collaborators, and we also take a look at her recording studio work with Harry Connick, Jr. and take a look ahead to her sophomore solo album, ALWAYS which will be released on June 3. Plus, we have first news on her new roles in the musical versions of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, written by Jason Robert Brown, and FINDING NEVERLAND by Scott Frankel. We even have dish on working with Liza Minnelli and shooting SEX & THE CITY 2! This is all coming in anticipation of the tribute to Bob Hope at the NY Pops gala on May 2, which will also feature performances by Tom Wopat and Aaron Lazar - both of whom we will continue our SPOTLIGHT ON NY POPS series with later on this weekend. Don't miss them or a special presentation by theatre legend Angela Lansbury! Further information about the NY POPS event - including tickets - is available here.

Modern Music Masters: Nellie McKay

Today we begin a new comprehensive academic music discussion series on BroadwayWorld in which I speak to the most cutting-edge artists in the recording industry, on Broadway and in Hollywood about their influences and experiences in the industry with an emphatic emphasis on the songwriting process itself and what drives and inspires it. While these discussions may be on occasion only tangentially theatre-related, the insights provided by the various participants is a demonstrative way in which to illuminate perhaps the most mysterious of all the arts: music. Peering into the psyche of the composer and lyricist, we may begin to understand what the craft of composition and lyric-writing is all about and why musical theatre tends to attract the most talented and innovative songwriters, both in the twentieth-century and today (as this column proves).

SOUND OFF: 'Ello Elle & Nellie

Today we are taking a listen to the Original London Cast Recording of Jerry Mitchell's sexily studious stunner of a show, LEGALLY BLONDE, and the remarkable score by Laurence O'Keefe (of BAT BOY fame) along with his wife, an accomplished and gifted lyricist in her own right, Neil Benjamin. They are the strongest male/female composing team since Betty Comden and Adolph Green and LEGALLY BLONDE possesses one of the most sharply satirical, witty and effortlessly enjoyable and winning scores in decades, surely as good if not better than any score on Broadway right now. While critics and audiences were less than enraptured with it on Broadway, the MTV telecast and subsequent reality show casting the next Elle Woods - alongside the smash-hit national tours - bodes well for its future in the States. The West End production is ten times the success the show was on Broadway so Elle & Crew have finally arrived - and in style. It's the age of Elle! Plus, A BONUS: A review and link to a new song by another blonde bombshell in her own right, but a bit brainier one than Elle Woods: Nellie McKay! And a link to a download of her new single 'Caribbean Time'! Top hats off and a salutatory Dickensian 'ello' to Elle and Nellie!