Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: July 18, 2021
By: Laura Deni
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FIRST DATE MUSICAL IS CLEVER AND RELATABLE

Diana DeGarmo and Grammy nominated Ace Young – former American Idol contestants who are married in real life – co-star in a new virtual production of the 2013 Broadway musical comedy, First Date. The production, directed by Meg Fofonoff, will stream for five performances from July 23-25 on the ticketing platform, Stellar.

With a book by Austin Winsberg and music and lyrics by Alan Zachary & Michael Weiner.

Broadway To Vegas received an advanced look and totally enjoyed the quirky and on target production. Having never been on a blind date and never intending to go on one, never-the-less First Date which is cleverly written, well constructed, with interesting scenic design, camera work - and well acted - would actually make an entertaining - and conversation provoking - first date event - opening up numerous avenues for conversation as well as offering some "don't go there" moments.

First Date deserves a longer stream as well as a permanent off-Broadway production.

Book writer Aaron Weisberg isn't a household name. When it comes to inventive and a marvelous ability to blend reality with mind games - he should be. Weisberg is the executive producer and writer for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, currently nominated for 5 Emmy awards. He also adapted the live The Sound of Music television event, starring Carrie Underwood, for NBC and has written for Gossip Girl and Still Standing,

First Date, which came first, and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist have a lot in common. Both are for people who have a brain, rather than the ilk who want to just hear dumb, pointless and probably sexist jokes. The two productions speak some truths in an entertaining way, while encouraging you to think and make your own conclusions in relationship to your own life.

"What does a person expect out of a blind date? The musical First Date takes the audience through the first meeting of Casey and Aaron, two 30-ish New York City singles set up by friends and family. The two have nothing in common: Aaron is a conservative banker, Jewish, and looking for a meaningful relationship, while Casey is an artist, a shiksa, and a little too funky for Wall Street. With the influences of their friends and family (played out in their imaginations) as well as the effects of social media (Google, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube personified), this first date seems to be doomed. But with the help of a meddling but well-meaning waiter, Casey and Aaron might make a connection after all. With a contemporary rock score, First Date gleefully pokes fun at the mishaps and mistakes of blind dates and gives hope that there could be that one perfect moment." With an clever, catchy, contemporary pop Broadway score, and filled with those cringe-worthy yet priceless moments that might feel all-too familiar, First Date lets us know "it’s all part of the wonderful process of finding the perfect partner."

The cast also includes Nick Cearley as Man 2, Kevin Massey as Man 1, Jennifer Sįnchez as Woman 1, Vishal Vaidya as Man 3, and Aurelia Williams as Woman 2.

The opening is a fun, frothy, upbeat clever commentary about on line dating with several character types including a devout Catholic girl who doesn't believe in premarital sex but has a list of what she will do -and a man who isn't allowed within 60 feet of a playground.

Set in a bar where the blind daters have arranged to meet. Aaron Goldfarb, attempting to not appear nervous, is at the bar waiting for his date to arrive. The helpful bartender attempts to alleviate his nervousness.

Aaron is a blind date virgin BDV

Casey is charming, arty, cool, the kind of girl who ignored him through school.

In the musical number First Impression the couple exchanges thoughts about the other. Casey's phone rings as she has arranged for a bail out phone call - which she ignores. They begin to relax, realizing they have a lot in common - until she announces that she isn't "a Jew" - which he is. His deceased relatives appear to advise him. Her extremely Christian father appears to offer his point of view.

Suddenly, the two-person first date is filled with exes, angry family members (both deceased and living), helpful friends and other assorted people who are either trying to "help" or derail the couple.

Finally Casey admits that she now believes that organized religions have lost their purpose and she believes in the Power of Now. Aaron discovers that his awkward pauses which he thought were clever are coming up "dumb as ever".

Casey is somewhat of a game player with several "just kidding" moments making Aaron wonder if she looking for "the one" or looking to amuse herself?

Aaron learns that you should never bring up an ex on a first date.

The World Wide Web Is Forever musical number is a perky ditty explaining that Google displays all secrets for others to see.

The premise for First Date could easily have turned into something trite and superficial. In this case First Date is clever and relatable.

Whether viewed by streaming or in person, First Date is time well spent.

The ending which has nothing to do with either Aaron or Casey is smile inducing.

First Date premiered at Seattle’s ACT Theatre in 2012 before a Broadway premiere in 2013 starring Zachary Levi and Krysta Rodriguez. It has since been seen in over 200 productions around the world, including in such cities as London, Melbourne, Tokyo and Buenos Aires.

Costume designer is Jennifer Tremblay. Storyboard artist is Sue Schaller. Film editor is Nate Wind. Director of Photography is Howie Michael Smith. Production Stage Manager is Julie Devore. Stage Managers are Stephen Milosevich and Lisa Ann Chernoff. Casting is by Alexandre Bleau, CSA.

Musical direction is by Julie McBride. Musical supervisor is Cynthia Meng. The band features Elena Bonomo (drums), Josh Plotner (reeds), Jakob Reinhardt (guitars), and Yuka Tadano (bass).

Art Lab and ShowTown Productions First Date is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals.

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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

ART AND ABOUT

WINDSOR CASTLE'S WARTIME PANTOMIME PICTURES REVEALED During the Second World War, The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) and her sister Princess Margaret took part in a series of pantomimes held in the Waterloo Chamber to raise money for the Royal Household Wool Fund, which supplied yarn to make comforters for soldiers fighting at the Front. At the beginning of the war, the series of portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence that usually line the walls of the Waterloo Chamber were removed from their frames for safe keeping. To make the space more festive, 16 ‘pantomime pictures’ were commissioned to cover the bare walls.

The teenage evacuee and part-time art student Claude Whatham, who went on to become a TV and film director, was asked to recreate characters including Cinderella, Peter Pan and Puss in Boots on rolls of wallpaper. He shared a temporary painting studio in the Garter Throne Room with Sir Gerard Kelly, who was working on King George VI and Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation portraits. After the war, the portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence were returned to the Waterloo Chamber, and the pantomime pictures remained hidden beneath them. They have been revealed just once since the war, following the fire of 1992.

During the recent closure of the Castle, the portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence were removed to facilitate essential maintenance work. The newly revealed pantomime pictures can be seen by visitors to Windsor Castle from July 23, 2020.

ROCK HALL SCORES TOM PETTY'S ARTIFACTS FOR EXHIBIT which includes Petty's electric guitar and outfit worn during his Super Bowl XLII Halftime performance with the Heartbreakers in 2008 in its Biggest Show on Turf: 55 Years of Halftime Shows on exhibit.

With a hundred million people watching and a performance that would later be nominated for an Emmy Award, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers turned it up for fans breaking out an incredible setlist of their biggest hits for the explosive 12 minute Halftime Show.

On a large guitar-shaped stage, Petty played "American Girl" from the Heartbreakers' self-titled debut album followed by "I Won't Back Down" and Petty's top commercial single, Free Fallin. ¯ The incredible show closed with Runnin' Down a Dream.

¯ On display is Petty's 1964 Rickenbacker (Rose Morris model 1997) used during the hard-hitting performance. He acquired this rare Rickenbacker guitar in 2007 after searching for many years for a pristine example. It was one of his most prized possessions.

Complementing the guitar is Petty's performance outfit, a yellow shirt and polka dot neck scarf with a dark suit. In an age where rock-god wardrobes were a given and before couture pop-stars there was Petty. He epitomized a look that was as cool as his vibe and as simple as his powerful song writing. His go-to looks included poet blouses under polka-dotted vests, velvet blazers over tees, and snakeskin boots.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers formed in 1976, and while members of the band rotated out during the years, the band still serves as an inspiration to many artists, including the Foo Fighters, The Strokes, Bon Jovi, and Kings of Leon, among others. They've paved the way for southern Americana ¯ rock, and Petty cited Elvis, the Beatles, Jeff Lynne from Electric Light Orchestra, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones, among his influences. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

The Biggest Show on Turf ¯ exhibit includes some of the best Halftime stories told through artifacts, including The Weeknd's mirrored infinity room set from this years COVID-era show, Bono's flag-lined jacket from U2's post-9/11 performance, Prince's turquoise suit worn during his iconic Purple Rain set where he asked production managers Can you make it rain harder?¯, and Katy Perry's beach-ball inspired costume and Left Shark¯ that ignited a pop culture phenomenon.

STORM OF HOPE: LAW & DISORDER an exhibition of recent works by American artist Robert Longo presented by the Palm Springs Art Museum in California. The exhibition includes seven monumental-scale charcoal drawings chronicling our time through critical, social, and political subjects.

Since the 1980s, Longo has been associated with the Pictures Generation, a group of artists who understood images as neither neutral nor objective but rather with an inherent point of view that could be uncovered, revealed, and deployed as a form of critique and beauty. Central to the exhibition are Longo’s monumental works representing the three branches of the US government: the Capitol, the Supreme Court, and the White House. Each source image is marked by a critical moment in recent U.S. history—respectively, the presidency of Barack Obama, disputed nominations to the Supreme Court, and the presidency of Donald Trump—and serve as references for key points in contemporary history. Also included in the exhibition are four large-scale works that refer to issues of environmental reform, the representation of history through its monuments, the perils faced by immigrants, and the fragility of the free press. The political aspects of Longo’s work have become increasingly pointed in recent years—with focus on power, justice, and humanity, through the perspective of rage and urgency.

Longo’s practice begins with identifying a subject of interest and then searching for images in the media or by photographing them himself, which he then studies, adjusts, transforms, and reimagines. Although Longo’s images are so hyperrealistic that they are often mistaken for photographs, they could never exist as such. Each work of art is the result of months of labor-intensive processes to plan, alter, perfect, and then execute. However, the results are closer to history paintings, not only in their massive scale—mounted on paper seamed together to total, in some cases, 12 feet tall—but also in their weighty subjects.

This exhibition is organized by Rochelle Steiner.

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SWEET CHARITY

DAVID OGDEN STIERS

David Ogden Stiers left his 10,000 vinyl record collection to Oregon's Newport Symphony Orchestra. Photo: NSO

who gained world wide fame as the respected and beloved actor who played Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, on M*A*S*H donated his 10,000 collection of vinyl recordings to Oregon's Newport Symphony Orchestra.

Emmy nominated Stiers was NSO Resident Conductor from its beginnings in the early 1990's until his death on March 3, 2018 of bladder cancer. He was 75. Although best known as an actor, he had an active secondary career as a conductor. He guest conducted more than thirty American orchestras in such cities as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Honolulu, and Chicago.

Stiers’ acting credits included Broadway appearances in Ulysses in Nighttown and The Magic Show, and toured in The Three Sisters; Measure for Measure, and The Beggar’s Opera. His film credits included about 75 films; his movie debut was in 1971 in Jack Nicholson’s counterculture classic, Drive, He Said. Other flicks included: Oh God!; The Accidental Tourist; Beauty and the Beast, and Mighty Aphrodite. On television he played nearly 60 major roles including M*A*S*H; The Innocents Abroad, and Murder She Wrote. He narrated the PBS miniseries on Ronald Reagan and New York City. He was nominated three times for Emmy awards.

At his death Catherine Rickbone, who manages the Newport Performing Arts Center, recalled his Christmastime readings that drew large audiences and raised thousands of dollars for the PAC. “He assumed the characters’ voices as he worked his way through A Christmas Carol — Tiny Tim, Scrooge, Bob Cratchit. It was storytelling at its finest, and he held the audience in the palm of his hand.”

Stiers with conducting students. Besides appearances as resident conductor of the Newport Symphony Orchestra, Stiers inspired student musicians with his "Battle of the Batons," a competition for aspiring conductors that served to raise money and new talent for the orchestra. Photo: NSO

Of his death, Music Director Adam Flatt wrote: "All of us at the NSO are heartbroken. David Ogden Stiers was a generous, loving, and inspirational friend and pillar to our orchestra, and, indeed, to all of us individually. Our orchestra would not be here if it weren't for his great support and inspiration over three decades. His depth of musical feeling, love for our musicians, and charisma made his performances soar when he was on our podium. We will all work to keep David's spirit alive in all of our performances."

Stiers was credited for turning the ensemble into a regional showpiece.

About nine months before his death, Stiers had asked his friend Leland Hall a favor, should his cancer prove terminal. He wanted his vast record collection sold for the highest return possible, on behalf of the Newport Symphony Orchestra. David had planned to sell the collection himself after he was no longer able to conduct. But as the disease encroached, conducting became impossible, and he was unable to begin the vinyl project. Leland agreed to pick up that mantle. Their collections had begun as a joint enterprise over 45 years ago. Their knowledge of recorded music from the ’50s helped form David’s enviable collection of over 10,000 vinyl disks, which includes rare classical recordings, studio sessions, live concerts, Original Cast Broadway, film scores, jazz, and popular music of the ’60s. These treasures are now available, all funds in support of the orchestra that David helped create.

The collection, in excess of 10,000 discs, is now being catalogued. Categories being used to organize the collection include:

78 rpm
Jazz
Comedy
Audiophile
Classical Music
Original Cast
Conductors
Rarities
Popular Music
Film Soundtracks
Virtuoso Performers
Oddballs
There are a few reel-to-reel tapes, 45 rpm singles, and special CD’s. The bulk of the CD collection was donated directly to the Library.

Pricing will be based on current market retail prices and recent auction sale averages. Since the goal is to convey as much to the orchestra as possible, they will not be bargain basement discount prices. Vinyl is in demand once again, and many demand a significant amount. The standard quality rating scale will be the underlying guide. Generally, Factory sealed records will be priced from 15 to 25 dollars per disc—however, collector’s rarities and audiophile releases are always higher. Most records that have been opened will be priced between 5 and 15 dollars, but will vary from a dollar a disc to a thousand dollars or more, depending on rarity, demand, and condition.

Some of the records are up for purchase on Amazon such as Ferdinand the Bull & Friends.

GIBSON GIVES the philanthropic arm of Gibson Guitars was relaunched in July 2019 -- and upon its two-year anniversary, is proud to announce it has raised over $2.5 million dollars worldwide through its mission of creating, developing, and supporting non-profit organizations in their efforts to advance musicians, as well as youth-focused education and wellness initiatives.

Gibson Gives has created two new groups which include an Influencers and an Artist Advisory Council whose members include Lzzy Hale, Celisse, Alex Lifeson, Matt Heafy, Joe Bonamassa, Billy F. Gibbons, Slash, Captain Kirk Douglas, and more.

The Gibson Gives Influencers group is comprised of a community of leaders across the Music and Entertainment Business, Sports, Youth, Education, Legacy, International, the Nashville “Music City” Community and our partner advisors. Gibson Gives Influencers include the following appointments: Music Education: Jeff Smith/Music Makes Us (Director of Arts, Metro Nashville Public Schools), Sports: Ken Adams (Co-Owner, Tennessee Titans), Matt Crews (CEO, Music City Grand Prix), Ian Ayers (CEO, Nashville Soccer Club), Music City Community: Ben Hall (Senior Director of Development, Country Music Hall of Fame), International: Lee Bartram, (Head of Marketing and Cultural Influence, Gibson Brands Europe), Youth: Toby Lee (musician), Legacy: Nina Miller (Executive Director of Miranda Lambert’s Mutt Nation/Former Executive Director, Gibson Foundation), Music Industry: Reid Shippen (Song Farm/Grammy award-winning producer/engineer/mixer), Music Industry (Non-Profit): Melinda Colaizzi (Founder, Women Who Rock), Partner Influencer: Erica Krusen (Managing Director of Mental Health, MusiCares).

Gibson Gives recently announced the launch of TEMPO, Training and Empowering Musicians to Prevent Overdose--a collaborative program with MusiCares, Harbor Path and 7 non-profits--to save musicians lives in response to continued and elevated opioid overdoses from over a year of confinement and Covid 19 closures. TEMPO empowers participating non-profits and venues by providing the life-saving training necessary for using the drug naloxone (Narcan, Naloxone Auto-Injector) to prevent opioid overdose.

AN OFFICE AND A GENTLEMAN THE MUSICAL MUSTERS A GRUELING AMERICAN TOUR

The road to Broadway is a complex one. If the new musical An Officer and a Gentleman ever sees it's marque on The Great White Way it will have been by way of Australia, England and a 42-city American tour. It also will have changed scores as well as directors, cast members and choreographers.

Will perseverance pay off?

After cancellations or rescheduling of the first few stops, the musical is set to open in Las Vegas at The Smith Center on October 26-31 - a longer stand (thus far) than most of the other stops.

An Officer and a Gentleman, The Musical is a stage rendering based on the film of the same name, written by Douglas Day Stewart. It had its world premiere May 18, 2012 at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney, Australia. The musical closed six weeks later on July 1, receiving mixed reviews and a review from The Australian which was so scathing that the original score was trashed, replaced with songs from the film.

Originally, the book was written by Douglas Day Stewart and Sharleen Cooper Cohen and the score was written by Ken Hirsch and Robin Lerner. The Australian production was directed by Simon Phillips. It starred Ben Mingay as Zack Mayo and Amanda Harrison as Paula Pokrifki.

"Zack Mayo, who is in the U.S. Navy pilot boot camp, where a sergeant is determined to drill his arrogance out of him. Zack finds comfort in the arms of a local factory girl, but it isn’t until tragedy befalls a fellow candidate that Zack learns the importance of love and friendship and finds the courage to be his best self and win the heart of the woman he loves."

Stewart was so outraged at The Australian review that he published a rebuttal defending the production and attacking the critics for their "eclectic, overly intellectual point of view"

A new version of the musical made its premiere at Curve in Leicester, England in April 2018 before touring the UK. It was directed by Nikolai Foster and used songs from the film's soundtrack such as "Up Where We Belong", "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Toy Soldiers", "Alone", "Don't Cry Outloud" and "Material Girl", opposed to the musical's original score by Hirsch and Lerner.

The British production starred Jonny Fines and Emma Williams.

The two-hour, 30 minute musical is choreographed by Paula Wilcox. Assistant director is Matt Kunkel. Dan Lipton is music supervisor and arranger and George Dyers serves as orchestrator and arranger.

A national tour casting call advocating inclusion, specifically sought a Black man for one of the lead roles - that of Sid Worley, Jr,- thus facilitating an interracial romance - a brave move considering the era in which An Officer and a Gentleman is set.

The Las Vegas-National Tour cast includes: Wes Williams, David Wayne Britton, Mia Massaro and Molly Martin.

The Dick Scanlan directed tour steps off following a year long setback thanks to Covid-19.

Rather than polishing the production by settling in at a theater in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago or Philly this production is headed to grass roots audiences in such places as Thousand Oaks, CA; Toledo, Ohio; Peoria, IL; Elmira, NY; South Bend, IN; Eugene, Oregon; Phoenix, Arizona; Colorado, Springs, CO; Birmingham, Alabama; Charlotte, NC; Paducah, KY; Palm Beach, FL; San Antonio and Amarillo, TX; Providence, RI; Wausau, WI; Bloomington, IN; Wichita KS; Conway, AR; Iowa City, IA and others.

These are - for the most part - locations which are more apt to be the recipients of the third national tour of a musical which played Broadway a decade ago. To be on the cutting edge of the mounting of not only a new production, but one which is based on a box office hit movie is groundbreaking.

It is, by the way, residents of those grass roots cities who bought tickets to the 1982 Richard Gere, Debra Winger movie and may be inclined to want to view the stage version. Or, perhaps the creatives - once burned/twice shy - hope that smaller city and publication critics might express a less "eclectic, overly intellectual point of view".

SPREADING THE WORD

DID YOU KNOW THAT A BLACK MAN

Extract from the Westminster Tournament Roll. John Blanke, (center) the only figure wearing an orange turban latticed with yellow.

John Blanke was employed as a royal trumpeter at the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII, (1507-1512).

He reportedly came to England as one of the African attendants of Catherine of Aragon in 1501.

He is one of the earliest recorded black people in England after the Roman period.

He remains the only black Tudor for whom there is an identifiable image.

Little is known of Blanke's life, but he was paid 8 pence per day by King Henry VII. A surviving document from the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber records a payment of 20 shillings to "John Blanke the Blacke Trumpet" as wages for the month of November 1507, with payments of the same amount continuing monthly through the next year.

He successfully petitioned Henry VIII for a wage increase from 8d to 16d.

AN EVENING WITH SIR BRYN TERFEL One of the world’s finest opera singers makes a spectacular return to the Royal Albert Hall as part of Love Classical. Friday, July 23, 2021 at Royal Albert Hall in London.

SUTTON FOSTER star of Broadway makes her West-End debut in Cole Porter's Anything Goes July 23 through October 17 at the Barbicon Theatre in London.

Foster is reprising her Tony Award-winning performance as the delectable Reno Sweeney. She'll be joined by Robert Lindsay as Moonface Martin, Felicity Kendal as Evangeline Harcourt and Gary Wilmot as Elisha Whitney.

TONY AWARD WINNER BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL returns to Lincoln Center in NYC with an evening of song titled "Out with the Old, In with the New" as part of the Restart Stages series. “Stokes,” whose velvet baritone has been captivating Broadway audiences since the 1990s, will perform a wide range of songs, contemporary as well as favorites from the American songbook and Broadway, accompanied by a trio of musicians led by music director Tedd Firth.

July 21-23 and August 12-14, 2021, at The Restart Stage at Damrosch Park.

JUSTIN BIEBER entertaining July 24 in Inglewood, CA at the SoFi Stadium.

SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE The Songs of Leiber and Stoller. Words and Music by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

Starring: Charl Brown, Michael Campayno, Mykal Kilgore, Tiffany Mann, Hayley Podschun, Dee Roscioli, Christopher Sams, Nasia Thomas and Jason Veasey.

Music direction by Abdul Hamid Royal, and choreography by Josh Walden, based on original choreography by Dodge.

The production team includes scenic design by Edward E. Haynes Jr., costume design by Sully Ratke, lighting design by Rob Denton, sound design by John Shivers and David Patridge, video design by Kevan Loney and wig design by Kelley Jordan. The production stage manager is Matthew Lacey.

July 26 – August 1 at The MUNY in St. Louis, MO.

BRIAN MAY and his wife Anita have lost some of their most cherish possessions after a flood ripped through the Kensington area of London leaving the basement of their home filled with "stinking" sewage.

Posting videos of the damage on Instagram, Brian May wrote: "After a nice day at The Royal Holloway College, we came back to horror in our house. The whole bottom floor had been inundated with a sewage overflow - which has covered our carpets, rugs and all kinds of precious (to us) things in a stinking sludge. It’s disgusting, and actually quite heartbreaking. It feels like we were have been invaded, desecrated." He explained: "I had rescued all my most treasured childhood photo albums and scrapbooks from my studio house because it was threatened with a forest fire some months ago. Where did I put it all for safety ? In the basement here in Kensington. Irony. Today it turned into a sodden mess. I’m devastated - this stuff is only ‘things’ - but it feels like Back to the Future when the photograph fades - feels like a lot of my past has been wiped out."

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THE LATIN GRAMMY CULTURAL FOUNDATION awarded the Juanes Scholarship to 18-year-old cuatro puertorriqueńo student Xavier Cintrón during a special presentation with the artist in Miami. The Prodigy Scholarship (Juanes Scholarship) — created seven years ago to support music education and the Latin music genres — holds a maximum value of $200,000 and allows Cintrón to pursue a bachelor's degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston, starting this fall.

The Puerto Rico native was selected by the Foundation's Scholarship Committee from a highly competitive group of hundreds of applicants worldwide. Since its establishment, the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation has committed an extraordinary sum of more than $6.5 million in scholarships, grants, musical instruments, and educational events throughout the United States and Ibero-America. "We are so proud to award Xavier Cintrón with the Prodigy Scholarship for his hard work, commitment and passion for Latin music, " said Tanya Ramos-Puig, President of the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation. "This annual scholarship represents our investment in both education, and equality. We remain committed to providing opportunities for young musicians – no matter their background, income, or zip code – to foster future generations of Latin music creators through education."

COMEDIAN BILL MAHER received the Key to the Las Vegas Strip at The Mirage Hotel & Casino on July 16, 2021.

Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom presented him with the key following his show at The Mirage Theater. Commissioner Segerblom also named July 16th as "Bill Maher Day" in his honor.

Bill first performed in Las Vegas, opening for Diana Ross, in 1982 and has performed in the city for over a decade. He perform this past week-end as part of The Mirage’s Aces of Comedy series and is next back in the city on November 26th and 27th.

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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

Next Column: July 25, 2021
Copyright: July 18, 2021 All Rights Reserved. Reviews, Interviews, Commentary, Photographs or Graphics from any Broadway To Vegas (TM) columns may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, utilized as leads, or used in any manner without permission, compensation and/or credit.
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Laura Deni

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