The evening of cocktails, dinner, and cabaret show headlined by Billy Stritch celebrates the inaugural season of newly appointed Artistic Director Alan Paul and Managing Director Lynsey Shade.

Proceeds from the Gala will benefit the Julianne Boyd New Works Fund.

Mary Ann and Bruno Quinson are presenting the event which is sponsored in part by Rhoda Levitt.  Eda Sorokoff is Chair with Violet Eagan & Rosita Sarnoff Co-Chairs

Since its inception in 1995, Barrington Stage (BSC) has produced 41 new works, 21 of which have moved on to New York and major regional theatres around the country.

BSC believes that new work is the heart and soul of theatre. If theatre is to thrive and create meaningful and new experiences for audiences, then it is vital to support playwrights and their visions of the world we live in.

BSC’s New Works Fund takes a two-pronged approach – PlayWorks supports the creation of new plays while our acclaimed Musical Theatre Lab develops new musicals. In both of these programs, BSC seeks artists whose unique voices speak to our audiences with relevant new plays and musicals. BSC hopes our new work will ask questions of the world we live in – questions that may not have answers but will begin a dialogue between the artists and our audiences.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

JULIANNE BOYD & BILLY STRITCH

ALAN PAUL & RHODA LEVITT

MARY ANN QUINSON

ALAN PAUL & WILLIAM FINN

MARY ANN QUINSON & JULIANNE BOYD

BILLY STRITCH

EDA SORKOFF & BILLY STRITCH

BILLY STRTICH & STEPHEN SOROKOFF

MARY ANN QUINSON, JULIANNE BOYD, MARITA GLODT, EDA SOROKOFF

Harmony, has been in rehearsals for 3 weeks and yesterday morning, they meet the press.

Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow, wrote the original music.

Bruce Sussman

Bruce Sussman, who wrote the book and lyrics

Warren Carlyle

Warren Carlyle

director/choreographer Warren Carlyle

Ken Davenport

and producer Ken Davenport started the show off to a harmonious roll. Harmony begins previews Wednesday, October 18, ahead of a Monday, November 13 official opening night.

Many of the cast are making their Broadway debuts with Harmony, including 5 of the 6 actors playing the Harmonists.

The Harmonists, along with Chip Zien finished out the morning with a performance of the song “Stars in the Night.”

Chip Zien

The production also stars performers Sierra Boggess and Julie Benko.

Sierra Boggess

Julie Benko

Tomorrow meet the men of Harmony

John Catsimatidis went from rags to riches to become the CEO of the Red Apple Group where he began his meteoric rise to billionaire status as the founder of the Gristedes supermarket chain in New York City.   As a child immigrant from very modest beginnings, he struggled to learn English.  He worked at a Sloan’s Supermarket without a pay check where he had to hustle for tips.  He went on to own one small grocery store and turned it into a sprawling empire. He has gone on to be wildly successful in other industries including real estate, energy, sports and media as the owner of WABC Radio in NYC. His book is How Far Do You Want To Go: Lessons from a Common-Sense Billionaire. If you ever dreamed of hitting the Lotto, dream on…or learn the blueprint from this book on how to get to the top…the very top.

Here are excerpts from the riveting, exclusive interview:

Eli Marcus: Tell us what life like was like growing up in West Harlem, John?

John Catsimatidis: Well, it was a mixed community. I was in West Harlem by City College.  I went to PS 192.  We had Irish.  We had Hispanics. Dominicans.  Blacks.  Italians.  Greeks.  We had almost everybody.  We all played together.  We all had a good time together.  There was no such thing as prejudice and there was no such thing as crime.  It was a great melting pot.

Eli Marcus: What inspired you to write this book and what are the main takeaways you wish for our audience to learn from reading it?

John Catsimatidis: I wanted my kids and grandkids someday to know where they came from.  I want them to have respect for their forefathers.   The other aspect is to help make a difference in young kids.  You know who is buying this book?  A lot of grandfathers.    A lot of grandmothers for their grandkids. A lot of fathers, mothers for their kids.  We are hoping that it will make a difference in these kids’ lives.   That was very important to me.  Someday if I have grandkids that they know where their origins are from.  I remember before my dad passed away that we sat down and wrote everything down. The 1860’s.  About his great grandfather, about his grandfather.  So it makes a difference.   We did a DNA test.  I’m 28% Italian. 60% Macedonian Greek.  6% Jewish.  The definition of my 6% Jewish is either one of my great grandmothers or great grandfathers was Jewish.  That’s what 6% means.

Eli Marcus: John, what do you believe are your secrets or not so secret principles that have enabled you to build not only a successful business empire but a very successful personal life as well?

John Catsimatidis: My parents taught me never to do anything to shame the family name.  My father worked two jobs to never have to go to his brothers to shame himself on asking his two brothers.  He worked Monday thru Friday as a busboy.  The reason he worked as a busboy is that he didn’t speak English properly.

Eli Marcus: What is your idea of common sense that you allude to in the subtitle of your book?

John Catsimatidis: How to do the right thing. It’s not about being a Democrat.  Not about being a Republican.  I was Bill Clinton Democrat.  I ran his campaigns in the New York area for quite a few years.  I started as a Democrat.  I helped run Jerry Nadler’s campaign for Borough President against David Dinkins.  Since my daughter married a Republican, we wanted to have peace around the Thanksgiving table.  When I ran for Mayor, I ran as a Republican liberal.

Eli Marcus: In the book, you say that you were insecure in public School.  It’s hard to believe that John Catsimatidis was insecure. 

John Catsimatidis: Well, with a name like Catsimatidis, there were not many Catsimatidis’s around.  People were always cutting their name short.  There is no such thing as a Pappas.  It used to be a bigger, longer name.  We never cut down our name.

Eli Marcus: What role does collaborating with others play in your life and do you have a prime example that comes to mind of a particularly mutually successful collaboration that stand out to you?

John Catsimatidis: I believe in communications.  I believe in talking.  Whether it’s Democrats or Republicans I believe that everybody, they should all sit down with each other.  We work very closely with other radio stations.  We’re syndicated in over 250 stations around the country. Our stream can be heard in 50 states, 173 countries.

Eli Marcus: Can you tell us what is the sink or swim theory you learned from your cousin in Greece when you visited there?

John Catsimatidis: I didn’t know how to swim. Forget about it.   I’m the kid from Harlem.    We didn’t have any swimming pools or go to the beaches much.  So we were on the dock on the island I was born.  We went there to spend two weeks.  My cousin taught me how to swim.  He threw me off the pier! What is the ole expression?  Sink or swim!

To listen to the entire interview on The Motivation Show podcast, click here:  https://open.spotify.com/show/3NVmTDAvGbzooN8TCW7tuN.

The question would be, what to pick to go see, out of the multitude of offerings. Here are our picks for October

92 Street Y: 1395 Lexington Ave. 10/1: Dr. Jane Goodall in Conversation with David Rubenstein; 10/4: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis: Martha Stewart; 10/9: “Gutenberg! The Musical!”: Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells in Conversation with MTV’s Josh Horowitz; 10/10: Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conversation: BE USEFUL: Seven Tools for Life; 10/12: Audra McDonald: Musings through Music with Andy Einhorn and 10/28 – 30: Tale as Old as Time: The Songs of Howard Ashman

Birdland Jazz: 315 West 44 St. Every Monday at 9:30pm Jim Caruso’s Cast Party; Every Tuesday at 8:30pm The Lineup with Susie Mosher; Every Saturday at 7pm Eric Comstock with Sean Smith (Bass) & special guest Barbara Fasano (Voice); 10/2: A Collective Cy Jeff Harner sings Cy Coleman; 10/9: The Unprecedented Amanda Green & Friends; 10/16: Maude Maggart: “Here Come The Dreamers” and 10/23: Jamie deRoy and Friends and 10/26 -28: Karrin Allyson: “Brazilian Nights And Beyond” Feat. Vitor Goncalves, Rafael Barata & Harvie S.

Cafe Carlyle: 35 E 76th St. 10/3-7: Peter Cincotti; 10/11 -14: Patina Miller; 10/17 – 28 John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey and 10/31 – 11/8: Steve Tyrell

Hailey Kilgore by Tom Lupton, Derek Klena by Jenny Anderson, Javier Muñoz by Chad Griffith, Ali Stroker by Jenny Anderson

Carnegie Hall: 881 7th Ave at 57th St. 10/2: Lyle Lovett and His Large Band; 10/18: A Very Good+ Night of Comedy with Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer & Ronny Chieng
Special Guest D-Nice and 10/27: The New York Pops with Hailey Kilgore, Derek Klena, Javier Muñoz and Ali Stroker 

Chelsea Table + Stage: Hilton Fashion District Hotel, 152 W 26th St. 10/20: Marieann Meringolo

Don’t Tell Mama: 343 W. 46 St. 10/28: Quinn Lemley

Dizzys Club Coca Cola: Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street. 10/1: Songbook Sundays: Harold Arlen

The DJango: 2 Avenue of the Americas.

54 Below: 254 West 54 St. 10/2 The New York Pops Underground; 10/2, 17, 28 and 30: Norbert Leo Butz Sings Torch Songs for a Pandemic; 10/3, 7 and 11 Linda Eder; 10/5 -6 Mauricio Martínez: 5’11” Based in NYC, feat. Linedy Genao & more!; 10/8: Little By Little Reunion Concert, feat. Darrin Baker, Liz Larsen, and Christiane Noll; 10/12: Lee Roy Reams: Uncensored! For Adults Only!’ 10/14 -16 and 23 -25 and 30: Marilyn Maye; 10/20 – 21: Lorna Luft; 10/22: A Gentleman’s Guide 10th Anniversary Celebration and 10/ 26 -28: Jai Rodriguez: A Thousand Sweet Kisses

The Green Room 42: 570 10th Ave. 10/9: Natalie Joy Johnson; 10/11 – 12, 14 -15: Candace Bushnell; 10/15: Reeve Carney; 10/17: Spencer Day; 10/19 Mamie Paris and 10/24: Dawn Derow and Sean Harkness

Sony Hall: 235 W. 46th St. 10/4:Daniel Nardicio presents Witch Perfect An all live-singing parody of Disney’s Hocus Pocus feat. Emmy-winning stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race: Scarlet Envy, Tina Burner & Alexis Michelle and 10/16: Rockers on Broadway 30th Anniversary

Theatre at the West Bank Café: 407 West 42 St. 10/14 and 28: Mark Nadler – CRAZY

The Triad: 158 W. 72 St. 

The Town Hall: 123 West 43rd Street. 10/10: A Not That Fancy Conversation and Performance with Reba Mcentire and 10/11: Alec Baldwin’s Here’s The Thing Live With Michael Wolff

In October from 11:57pm – 12am, artist Anna Ridler introduces a new kind of countdown clock in Times Square. Using complex algorithms to explore non-human ways of keeping time, Ridler’s Circadian Nocturnefeatures AI-generated animations of night-blooming and night scented flora – queen of the night cactuses, the moonflower, night-blooming jasmine, night phlox, and evening stock. Painterly petals slowly blossom into a dreamlike garden — chronobiological clocks set against the mechanical and digital structures that set the pace of our contemporary lives.

Created with artificial intelligence and a high-tech machine that can keep time at an atomic level, Circadian Nocturne also pairs modern, highly precise computerized timekeeping methods with the often unpredictable and imprecise imagery created by autonomous digital software and is part of an ongoing project exploring time and technology. Welcoming this tension, Ridler visually obscures tech-based accuracy with something more organic and in sync with the natural landscape.

Launching in the fall, an artist-designed mobile app featuring a smaller, single screen version of the project and an original musical score by composer William Marsey will accompany the Times Square presentation of Circadian Nocturne, allowing for more intimate experience of the work from anywhere in the world.

Based in London, Anna Ridler is an artist and researcher who works with systems of knowledge and how technologies are created in order to better understand the world. She is particularly interested in ideas around measurement and quantification and how this relates to the natural world. Her process often involves working with collections of information or data, particularly datasets, to create new and unusual narratives.

Ridler holds an MA in Information Experience Design from the Royal College of Art and a BA in English Literature and Language from Oxford University along with fellowships at the Creative Computing Institute at University of the Arts London. Her work has been exhibited at cultural institutions worldwide including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Barbican Centre, Centre Pompidou, HeK Basel, the ZKM Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica, Sheffield Documentary Festival and the Leverhulme Centre for Future Intelligence. She was a European Union EMAP fellow and the winner of the 2018-2019 DARE Art Prize. Ridler has received commissions by Salford University, the Photographers Gallery, Opera North, and Impakt Festival. She was listed as one of the nine “pioneering artists” exploring AI’s creative potential by Artnet and received an honorary mention in the 2019 Ars Electronica Golden Nica award for the category AI & Life Art. She was nominated for a “Beazley Designs of the Year” award in 2019 by the Design Museum for her work on datasets and categorization.

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