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A Bronx Tale

A Bronx Tale

Ghostlight Records will release the cast album of the hit musical A Bronx Tale in digital formats today, Friday, March 24 with CDs in stores and online Friday, May 12. CDs will be available at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48thStreet), where the show is currently running, beginning mid-April. A special video of the show’s song “Belmont Avenue” is available HERE.

A Bronx Tale’s Original Broadway Cast Album is Executive produced by Tommy Mottola, and produced by Ron Melroseand Alan Menken; with Rick Kunis serving as Executive in Charge of Production. The recording was recorded and mixed by Lawrence Manchester, with music supervision and arrangements by Ron Melrose, and orchestrations by Doug Besterman. The CD package includes a 40-page, full-color booklet with complete lyrics, production photos, and an essay by the show’s composer Alan Menken, along with notes from Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, Jerry Zaks, Glenn Slater and Sergio Trujillo. To order, please visit sh-k-boom.com/a-bronx-tale.

A Bronx Tale features a book by Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri, music by Oscar, Grammy, and Tony Award winner Alan Menken, and lyrics by Grammy Award winner and Oscar and Tony Award nominee Glenn Slater, and is co-directed by two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Tony nominee Sergio Trujillo.

 Alan Menken is also represented on Ghostlight Records with the cast recordings of NewsiesSister ActThe Hunchback of Notre DameLeap of FaithThe Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and the upcoming God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The label served as executive producer for Aladdin.  

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Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens

The producers of the new musical Anastasia are thrilled to announce the Original Broadway Cast Recording will be released by Broadway Records. The original Broadway cast recording is now available for pre-order at BroadwayRecords.com and will be available for pre-order at Amazon.com on March 21.  The album will be released in June (exact release date to be announced).

Anastasia features a lush, original score from Tony Award winners Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics). The score also includes several of the most beloved songs from the 1997 animated film, adapted for the stage. The 75-minute album will include the Academy Award nominated favorite “Journey to the Past” alongside new numbers from the show such as Christy Altomare’s haunting “In My Dreams,” Ramin Karimloo’s passionate “Still” and Derek Klena’s heart-racing “My Petersburg.”

Anastasia will begin previews on March 23 and open on Broadway on April 24 at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). The company is led by Christy Altomare, Derek Klena, John Bolton, Ramin Karimloo, Caroline O’Connor, and Mary Beth Peil.

Anastasia features a book by celebrated playwright Terrence McNally. Tony Award-winning director Darko Tresnjak directs.

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Tony Award-winning Broadway legend Betty Buckley – co-starring in the recent smash hit M. Night Shayamalan film Split opposite James McAvoy has a new album Story Songs from Palmetto Records, to be released on Friday, April 7. Buckley also will be teaching a five-day performance workshop mid-March in New York.

 For her Story Songs concerts, Buckley will be joined by renowned multi-Grammy nominated jazz pianist Christian Jacob, her longtime Musical Director and arranger. A celebrated interpreter with an eclectic taste for music from all genres, Buckley will share a collection of songs that range from Radiohead to theater greats Stephen Schwartz and Jason Robert Brown. The evening will also include work by the next generation of exciting young theater composers, such as Joe Iconis.

 Split, which has been the #1 Movie in America for the six weeks since its January premiere, co-stars Buckley as McAvoy’s psychologist, Dr. Fletcher. She was hailed as “wonderful” by The New York Times, “stellar” by Rolling Stone, “mesmerizing” by The Los Angeles Times, and “excellent” by London Express, in addition to other raves.

The two-disc live album Story Songs is based on the show of the same name that she debuted at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater this past September. The New York Times praised Story Songs as her “stunning new show, arguably the strongest of her career. Ms. Buckley, her voice in excellent shape, gave everything she sang the shape and depth of a personal confession.” When she took the program to the Bay Area later in the fall, she was called “a vocal wonder” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Kid Victory

Kid Victory

Kid Victory, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, music by John Kander with story by John Kander and Greg Pierce, and directed by Liesl Tommy is getting a CD. Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern announce that original cast members will record the Kid Victory cast recorded on Monday, March 20. Broadway Records is set to release the recording in September, produced by Michael Croiter.

Kid Victory currently features Ann Arvia, Joel Blum, Laura Darrell, Jeffry Denman, Brandon Flynn, Tony Award nominee David Garrison, Dee Roscioli, Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba , and Blake Zolfo. Original cast member Daniel Jenkins is currently in rehearsal for the Broadway production of OSLO.

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Amelie, A New Musical

Producers are thrilled to announce the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the much anticipated Amelie, A New Musical, by a new imprint of the Warner Music Group. The original Broadway cast recording will be available for pre-order at w.lnk.to/amelie  and will be released on Friday, May 19, 2017 (online) and Friday, June 9, 2017 (in stores). Michael Croiter will serve as album executive producer; Daniel Messé and Gary Maurer will serve as producers; and Nathan Tysen will serve as associate producer. For more information and to sign-up for updates on the record’s release, visit AmelieBroadway.com.

 Amelie, A New Musical officially open Monday, April 3, 2017.

 The cast of Amélie, A New Musical features Phillipa Soo, Adam Chanler-Berat, David Andino, Randy Blair, Heath Calvert, Alison Cimmet, Savvy Crawford, Manoel Felciano, Harriett D. Foy, Alyse Alan Louis, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Paul Whitty and Tony Sheldon.

 With a book by Tony Award nominee Craig Lucas, music by Daniel Messé and lyrics by Nathan Tysen & Messé, AMÉLIE, A NEW MUSICAL is directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon, musical staging and choreography by Sam Pinkleton, music direction by Kimberly Grigsby, scenic and costume design by Tony Award winner David Zinn, co-lighting design by Tony Award nominee Jane Cox and Mark Barton, sound design by Tony Award nominee Kai Harada, projection design by Peter Nigrini, puppet design by Amanda Villalobos, hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe, vocal arrangements by Kimberly Grigsby and Daniel Messé, and orchestrations by Tony Award winner Bruce Coughlin.

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Suzanna, co-owns and publishes the newspaper Times Square Chronicles or T2C. At one point a working actress, she has performed in numerous productions in film, TV, cabaret, opera and theatre. She has performed at The New Orleans Jazz festival, The United Nations and Carnegie Hall. She has a screenplay and a TV show in the works, which she developed with her mentor and friend the late Arthur Herzog. She is a proud member of the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle and was a nominator. Email: suzanna@t2conline.com

Broadway

Parade: A Musical That Asks Us Do We Have The Eyes And Ears To See.

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Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt Photo by Joan Marcus

I have always loved Jason Robert Brown’s score for Parade. “You Don’t Know This Man,” “This Is Not Over Yet” and the wonderfully romantic “All the Wasted Time” are just the tip of the iceberg for music that stirs your soul and tells a tale of heartbreak. There is a reason this score won the Tony Award in 1999.

Ben Platt Photo By Joan Marcus

The musical now playing on Broadway dramatizes the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank (Ben Platt), who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan (Erin Rose Doyle). The trial was sensationalized by the media, newspaper reporter Britt Craig (Jay Armstrong Johnson) and Tom Watson (Manoel Feliciano), an extremist right-wing newspaper aroused antisemitic tensions in Atlanta and the U.S. state of Georgia. When Frank’s death sentence is commuted to life in prison thanks to his wife Lucille (Micaela Diamond), Leo was transferred to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where a lynching party seized and kidnapped him. Frank was taken to Phagan’s hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and he was hanged from an oak tree. 

Erin Rose Doyle, Photo by Joan Marcus

The telling of this horrid true tale begins with the lush ode to the South in “The Old Red Hills of Home.” Leo has just moved from Brooklyn to in Marietta, where his wife is from and he has been given the job as as a manager at the National Pencil Co. He feels out of place as he sings “I thought that Jews were Jews, but I was wrong!” On Confederate Memorial Day as Lucille plans a picnic, Leo goes to work. In the meantime Mary goes to collect her pay from the pencil factory. The next day Leo is arrested on suspicion of killing Mary, whose body is found in the building. The police also suspect Newt Lee (Eddie Cooper), the African-American night watchman who discovered the body, but he inadvertently directs Starnes’ suspicion to Leo.

Across town, reporter Britt Craig see this story as (“Big News”). Mary’s suitor Frankie Epps (Jake Pederson), swears revenge on Mary’s killer, as does the reporter Watson. Governor John Slaton (Sean Allan Krill) pressures the local prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (the terrific smarmy Paul Alexander Nolan) to get to the bottom of the whole affair. Dorsey, an ambitious politician sees Leo as he ticket to being the Governor and though there are other suspects, he willfully ignores them and goes after Leo.

Sophia Manicone, Emily Rose DeMartino, Ashlyn Maddox Photo By Joan Marcus

The trial of Leo Frank is presided over by Judge Roan (Howard McMillan). A series of witnesses, give trumped up evidence which was clearly is fed to them by Dorsey. Frankie testifies, falsely, that Mary said Leo “looks at her funny.” Her three teenage co-workers, Lola, Essie and Monteen (Sophia Manicone, Emily Rose DeMartino, Ashlyn Maddox), collaborate hauntingly as they harmonize their testimony  (“The Factory Girls”). In a fantasy sequence, Leo becomes the lecherous seducer (“Come Up to My Office”). Testimony is heard from Mary’s mother (Kelli Barrett ) (“My Child Will Forgive Me”) and Minnie McKnight (Danielle Lee Greaves)before the prosecution’s star witness, Jim Conley (Alex Joseph Grayson ), takes the stand. He claims that he witnessed the murder and helped Leo conceal the crime (“That’s What He Said”). Leo is given the opportunity to deliver a statement (“It’s Hard to Speak My Heart”), but it is not enough. He is found guilty and sentenced to hang. The crowd breaks out into a jubilant circus.

Alex Joseph Grayson Photo by Joan Marcus

Act 1, is not as strong as it should have been. I have attended three different incarnations, the last being with Jeremy Jordan as Leo and Joshua Henry as Jim in 2015. Part of the problem is Michael Arden’s direction. Instead of allowing his performers to act, he has them pantomime, as the solo goes forth. “Come Up to My Office” was not as haunting as in past productions. The same can be said of “That’s What He Said”. Who’s stands out in the first act is Jake Pederson as Frankie and Charlie Webb as the Young Soldier who sings “The Old Red Hills of Home.”

Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt Photo by Joan Marcus

In Act 2, Lucille finds Governor Slaton at a party (the hypnotic “Pretty Music” sung wonderfully by Krill) and advocates for Leo. Watson approaches Dorsey and tells him he will support his bid for governor, as Judge Roan also offers his support. The governor agrees to re-open the case, as Leo and Lucille find hope. Slaton realizes what we all knew that the witnesses were coerced and lied and that Dorsey is at the helm. He agrees to commute Leo’s sentence to life in prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, which ends his political career. The citizens of Marietta, led by Dorsey and Watson, are enraged and riot. Leo is transferred to a prison work-farm. Lucille visits, and he realizes his deep love for his wife and how much he has underestimated her (“All the Wasted Time”). With hope in full blaze Lucille leaves as a party masked men kidnap Leo and take him to Marietta. They demand he confess and hang him from an oak tree.

Paul Alexander Nolan, Howard McMillan Photo By Joan Marcus

In Act Two Parade comes together with heart and soul. Diamond, who shines brightly through out the piece is radiant, and her duets with Platt are romantic and devastating. Platt comes into his own and his huge following is thrilled to be seeing him live. Alex Joseph Grayson’s also nails his Second Act songs.

Dane Laffrey’s set works well with the lighting by Heather Gilbert.


Frank’s case was reopened in 2019 and is still ongoing.

Parade has multiple messages and the question is will audiences absorb it. I am so glad this show is on Broadway, making us think and see. This is a must see.

Parade: Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 242 W 45th Street.

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Art

Ken Fallin’s Broadway: Celebrating Hadestown’s 1000th Performance

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On Sunday, March 19, 2023, Hadestown celebrated the first day of spring and the show’s recently-achieved milestone of 1,000 performances at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre.

The handsome artist with Anais Mitchell

On hand were songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin, Tony Award winner Lillias White, original Broadway cast member Jewelle Blackman as Persephone, Grammy Award winner Reeve Carney as Orpheus, Tony Award nominee Tom Hewitt as Hades, and two-time Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada as Eurydice. were joined by Amelia Cormack, Shea Renne, and Soara-Joye Ross as the Fates. The chorus of Workers is played by Emily Afton, Malcolm Armwood, Alex Puette, Trent Saunders, and Grace Yoo.

The winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards including Best New Musical and the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, Hadestown is the most honored show of the 2018-2019 Broadway season. In addition to the Tony and Grammy Awards, it has been honored with four Drama Desk Awards, six Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Musical, and the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical.

Following two intertwining love stories — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone — Hadestown invites audiences on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back. Mitchell’s beguiling melodies and Chavkin’s poetic imagination pit industry against nature, doubt against faith and fear against love. Performed by a vibrant ensemble of actors, dancers, and singers, Hadestown delivers a deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience.

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Broadway

Broadway Up Close (R) Gives Dance Workshops In Times Square

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A fun way to get active, learn and have fun: InterContinental New York Times Square has partnered with Broadway Up Close to provide monthly dance workshops. The new series offers the opportunity to learn choreography with current Broadway professionals, and to join them in conversation about their Broadway careers.

On Saturday, April 15, 2023 join Broadway Performer Sarah Meahl (Bad Cinderella, Hello, Dolly!, Kiss Me, Kate) and on Sunday, May 13, 2023 – Broadway Performer Thayne Jasperson (Hamilton, Newsies, Matilda).

All classes are scheduled from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm and include 60 minutes of dance class and 30 minutes to learn and connect.

Following the class, an à la carte lunch menu is provided at The Stinger Cocktail Bar & Kitchen for an additional cost; perfect timing for a matinee performance.

Tickets are $36.25 and you can tickets here.

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