Platinum Broadway

For New Years, a Party Where They Honor Noël Ca-ad - New York Times

Link: For New Years, a Party Where They Honor Noël Ca-ad - New York Times.

Thirty-one hours of Noël Coward is a bit much, like 31 profiteroles or 31 martinis. But taken in small doses, one bitter comedy or frothy farce at a time, Coward’s work goes down easily. And some of it has surprising staying power. “The Noël Coward Collection,” recently released by BBC Video as a seven-disc DVD set ($79.98, unrated), contains two dozen television and radio productions, plus odds and ends like performances of his songs and interviews. “I didn’t really particularly wish to be significant,” Coward said on the television program “Omnibus” in 1969, the year he turned 70. “The main motivation was to entertain the audience.”

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Bookends - Katharine Houghton - New York Times

Link: Bookends - Katharine Houghton - New York Times.

The New Jersey Repertory Company here has always had a taste for the unusual, and the genesis of its current production, a world-premiere musical called “Bookends,” is suitably quirky. The piece came about when the woman who took Sidney Poitier home for dinner met the rare-book dealers who exposed Louisa May Alcott’s dark secret.

'Legend of Sleepy Hollow' Cast Album Now Available (BroadwayWorld.com)

Link: 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow' Cast Album Now Available (BroadwayWorld.com).

The New York cast recording of James Crowley and Robert Stempin's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, based on the classic work by Washington Irving, is now available.

PBS to Present Company Revival on Great Performances?

Variety reports that Company, which won the 2007 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, may be presented on PBS' "Great Performances" series. The Stephen Sondheim/George Furth classic, directed by Tony Award-winner John Doyle and starring Raúl Esparza, closes on July 1st, but producer Ellen M. Krass (filmed versions of "Follies in Concert," "Sweeney Todd in Concert") will film the matinee and evening performances of Company on June 30th. No air date has been announced, but negotiations between Krass and producers of "Great Performances" are underway.

Curtains Cast Recording to be Released June 5 (BroadwayWorld.com)

Link: Curtains Cast Recording to be Released June 5

Broadway Angel / Manhattan Records will release the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the new musical Curtains on June 5, 2007. The show features one of the last scores by the legendary team of John Kander & Fred Ebb, the Tony-winning songwriters of the musicals Cabaret and Chicago, as well as the classic title song from the film New York, New York, among much more. Recorded on March 26, 2007, the album is produced by nine-time Grammy-winner Jay David Saks (Into The Woods, Chicago revival) and is executive produced by Bill Rosenfield, with liner notes by Rupert Holmes. The musical starring David Hyde Pierce and Debra Monk opened on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on March 22, 2007.

Radio Station is closing

Due to several factors including cost of operation and frequency of advertsising we are obligated to close down our Broadway Radio station.

We are discussing the possibility of streaming our own broadcast without the aid of of Live365 and when we make a decision we will post it here.

We want to thank all our kind listeners and those of you that have wrote us with comments and suggestions.

New York Pops - Music - Review - New York Times

Link: New York Pops - Music - Review - New York Times.

A concert hall is not necessarily the ideal place to lend an ear to the lullaby of Broadway. The hip-hooray can sound a little staid, the ballyhoo less informally brassy than you might like. But at Carnegie Hall on Friday night, Rob Fisher, Kelli O’Hara and the New York Pops breezed through a half-century and more of American musical theater with warmth and personability that made the evening feel like a spontaneous family gathering around the living room piano.

Tammy Grimes @ The Metropolitan Room: Love Her While You May (BroadwayWorld.com)

Link: Tammy Grimes @ The Metropolitan Room: Love Her While You May (BroadwayWorld.com).

When the seventy three year old Tammy Grimes first took The Metropolitan Room's stage on opening night of her all-too-brief cabaret engagement (final performance is April 12th) the two-time Tony Award winner seemed genuinely overwhelmed at the enthusiastic welcome she was receiving from the packed house which had just greeted every song of music director/arranger Dennis Buck's piano prelude with hearty applause. The child-like look of wonder in her eyes as she softly enchanted the audience with "Rose of Washington Square" and "Ring Them Bells" may have been hiding a touch of nervousness, but by the time she was called back to "another time, another place, another me," as she used to sing as the ghostly Elvira in High Spirits, those delectably gritty tones of her younger self returned, delivered by a joyful belt, and she, and we, were securely ensconced in "Home Sweet Heaven."

Bob Gaudio WINS Grammy for Jersey Boys Cast Recording!

Link: Jersey Boys Blog » Breaking News: Bob Gaudio WINS Grammy for Jersey Boys Cast Recording!.

Producer Bob Gaudio has just won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album for Jersey Boys!! Congratulations to Bob Gaudio, Bob Crewe, orchestrator Steve Orich, musical director Ron Melrose, the cast, and everyone associated with the cast recording!! Listen to samples on the Jersey Boys Original Broadway Cast Recording Preview Page.

Grey Gardens - Spring Awakening - Cast Albums - New York Times

Link: Grey Gardens - Spring Awakening - Cast Albums - New York Times.

Here’s a musical question that won’t be answered anytime soon: in the big, brassy world of Broadway, where “American Idol” meets Las Vegas in jukebox hell, what is the place of the small, serious show whose songs are unlikely ever to come under the scrutiny of the Cowell-Abdul-Jackson triumvirate or be covered by Celine Dion? To listen to the original-cast albums of “Grey Gardens” and “Spring Awakening,” two shows competing with behemoths like “Wicked,” is to bring to mind two phrases seldom linked nowadays: “Broadway musical” and “artistic integrity.”

Jersey Boys Podcast

Link: Jersey Boys Podcast.

The Jersey Boys Podcast #25 for October 28, 2006 has been published. This podcast includes Part 3 of 3 of our Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli guest DJ appearance in 1994 on BBC Radio; the latest news & fan feedback about Jersey Boys; and a super fan interview by my wife Christy during her recent trip to New York City. Song segments sampled courtesy of Rhino Records included: "Can’t Take My Eyes Off You" [Cast CD] "Big Man In Town" [Anthology CD]