Broadway To Vegas
SHOW REVIEWS CELEBRITY INTERVIEWS GOSSIP NEWS
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Copyright: May 5, 2002
By: Laura Deni
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FRANK SINATRA COMES TO
BROADWAY
Frank Sinatra
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The Sinatra family is going to be staging it their way when the musical about Frank Sinatra opens
in New
York.
Frank Sinatra Enterprises has teamed with Radio City Entertainment to produce the first officially
licensed and sanctioned live theatrical multimedia stage production celebrating Sinatra.
James Sanna, senior vice president of marketing and business development for Radio City
Entertainment, announced that the Sinatra production will "celebrate the life of a musical legend
and revisit history in a creative and original way, creating a new theatrical medium and bring it to
American audiences." Sinatra's
youngest child, Tina, is executive producer.
Radio City Entertainment is the arm of Radio City and Madison Square Garden that
produces shows and special events. Projects are usually large in scale and include special events at
the Music Hall in New York as well as word-wide.
The first production of Sinatra is slated to premiere next year at Radio City Music Hall, where
Old Blue Eyes performed in 1978.
Tina indicated that they have not cast the Frank Sinatra role.
Last Wednesday Tina was at Yankee Stadium celebrating Frank Sinatra's New York
Memories,
tossing out the first ball before the game between the Yankees and Oakland A's. It was Nancy
Sinatra Jr. 's daughter, A.J. Lambert, who sang the national anthem.
The first 18,000 fans into the stadium received New York Memories as a gift, from
Budweiser and the New York Yankees. The commemorative CD contains four of Frank's songs
New York, New York, Summer Wind, The Best Is Yet To Come and
Fly Me To the Moon, plus sound bytes from historic Yankee games.
This wasn't the first time the names Sinatra and Budweiser have been linked. A special edition
Frank Sinatra Budweiser Album A Man And His Music was an exclusive release.You had
to be a Budweiser Wholesaler to acquire it and only about 1,000 were ever produced. Nancy
Sinatra is also on the album.
For Sinatra fans there is an unusual opportunity available to pump Frank, Jr. about all the inside
information on what it was like growing up the son of you know who.
Lunch With Frank, Jr. In Beverly Hills is currently up for auction on E Bay.
"The proceeds of this auction will go to benefit the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief
Fund to help assist the families of the fallen firefighters and EMS personnel in the city of New
York," states the auction site.
The lengthy and wordy auction description also promises "a once in a life time opportunity to find
out first hand what it was like to have Frank Sr. as a father and grow up with the "Rat Pack"
(Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford) as your dad's best friends, ...
then ... grow up to have these same men become your good friends....For Frank Jr., what was it
like to have Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow for a step mother... The stories
Frank Jr. must have about all those many visiting movie stars to your home, not to mention the
President of the United States. What about Marilyn Monroe? ... Which of Frank Sr.'s wives
and girl friends did he like the most."
The auction site continues: "Well here's your chance to have lunch with Frank Sinatra Jr. along
with his good friend Michael Callan, who starred in such motion pictures as Cat Ballou
and
Mysterious Island .... and get all those questions answered for yourself and
many more.... It's your choice, whatever subject comes to mind, a two-hour lunch with the gang
in Beverly Hills... at a fabulous and exclusive Beverly
Hills restaurant. The exact location of the restaurant
will be divulged to the High bidder at the close of the auction. The date of which will be mutually
agreed
upon between you and Frank, which may take place in two weeks or six months, your
choice."
When we last peeked, auction number 864184214, which closes Monday, had 17 bids posted
and was
up to $1,325.00, but below the reserve.
Before he heads off to the chow down and gab fest, it's Sinatra Singing Sinatra when Frank, Jr.
backed by a 36 piece orchestra - the same size his father always used - performs at the
MGM-Grand in Las Vegas May 8-15.
Sinatra Singing Sinatra
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The program will feature songs that the elder Sinatra sang during his more than four decades on
Las Vegas stages, including I've Got You Under My Skin, One For My Baby, New York,
New York, Luck Be A Lady, and Strangers In The Night.
The orchestra, conducted by Terry Woodson, will be composed of the creme of musiciandom.
Members of his father's orchestra
are in the pack as well as The Chairman of the Board's longtime musical director and
accompanist - 87-year-old Bill Miller.
This is an extension of what was begun in 1996 with As I Remember It released on Angel
Records, a CD recorded as a tribute to his father's talents as well as the composers and arrangers
"who defined the Sinatra legend."
As I Remember It was first performed as a live event, July 26, 1995, at Carnegie Hall.
Utilizing a 44-piece orchestra, Frank then took the As I Remember It show on tour
including a standing-room-only audiences at Trump Marina Atlantic City.
The younger Sinatra last performed in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand in December as part of a
celebration marking Dec. 12 as Sinatra Day in Nevada, which was really an excuse for a slot
machine promotion, unveiling the Frank Sinatra gambling devise.
The elder Sinatra died of a heart attack May 16, 1998, at 82.
Then there is the newly mounted The Main Event, billed as "An Unauthorized Musical
Biography of
the Sinatra Era," which opened last week in Las Vegas at The Venetian Hotel. This is a Jeff
Kutash production, starring singing impressionist Bob Anderson who narrates the musical that
tells Sinatra story through the use of 40 songs. Portraying Sinatra is British nightclub singer
Stephen Triffitt, backed by a 15-piece band. While he sings the songs Anderson delivers the
dialogue.
Our Sinatra, currently playing at The Reprise Room at Dillon's in New York City, chalks
up its 1,000th performance today. This is a full-length production celebrating Frank through his music and
anecdotes about his life and career. The Off-Broadway musical revue currently stars Paul Greenwood,
Hilary Kole and Tom Postilio.
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PLAY SALUTES NORMAN
ROCKWELL
Donna McKechnie
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Rockwell starring Tony Award winner Donna McKechnie and Mark Jacoby
is a new musical based on the life of artist Norman Rockwell.
The limited run production also features Stephanie Pope, Jim Corti and Chris Grabher. Created by
the
sister team of Eileen Bluestone Sherman responsible for the book and lyrics and Gail C. Bluestone
who wrote the music, the production was inspired by Rockwell's autobiography My Adventures as an Illustrator.
Mark Jacoby
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Born in New York City in 1894, Rockwell always wanted to be an artist. At age 14, Rockwell
enrolled in art classes at the New York School of Art (formerly the Chase School of Art). Two years later, in
1910, he left high school to study art at the National Academy of Design. He soon transferred to the Art
Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty's instruction in
illustration prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. Finding success early he painted his first
commission of four Christmas cards before his sixteenth birthday.
The Saturday Evening Post cover called
Playbill
depicts two older cleaning ladies, forgetting their mops and buckets as they sit in the plush
crushed-velvet wine colored seats of the theater, looking over one of the discarded
Playbills for the previous night's performance.
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In 1916, the 22-year-old Rockwell
painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, the magazine considered by
Rockwell to be the "greatest show window in America." Over the next 47 years, another 321 Rockwell covers would
appear on the cover of the Post.
The '30s and '40s are generally considered to be the most fruitful decades of Rockwell's career. In
1930 he married his second wife, Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, and the couple had three sons: Jarvis,
Thomas, and Peter. The family moved to Arlington, Vermont in 1939, and Rockwell's work began, more
consistently, to reflect small-town American life.
Freedom From Want
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In 1943, inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt's address to Congress, Rockwell - as his
personal contribution during World War II - painted the famous Four Freedoms posters,
symbolizing for millions the war aims as described by Roosevelt.
They were reproduced in four consecutive issues of The Saturday
Evening Post with essays by contemporary writers. Rockwell's interpretations of Freedom of Speech, Freedom to
Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear proved to be enormously popular.
Freedom to Worship
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The works toured the United States in an exhibition that was jointly sponsored
by the Post and the U.S. Treasury
Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war
effort.
One version of his Freedom of Speech painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art.
Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson sat for him for portraits, and he painted other
world figures, including Nassar of Egypt and Nehru of India.
In 1973, Rockwell established a trust to preserve his artistic legacy by placing his works in the
custodianship of the Old Corner House Stockbridge Historical Society, later to become the Norman Rockwell
Museum at Stockbridge. The trust now forms the core of the Museum's permanent collections. In 1976, in
failing health, Rockwell became concerned about the future of his studio. He arranged to have his studio
and its contents added to the trust.
Freedom of Speech
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This is Rockwell's preliminary study for Freedom
of Speech done in 1942. It set an auction record at $407,000.
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In 1977, Rockwell received the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, for his "vivid and affectionate portraits of our country." He died at his home in
Stockbridge on November 8, 1978, at the age of 84.
Conrad John Schuck, who recently starred a national tour of Annie, serves as director for
the musical Rockwell. Choreography
is by former New York City Ballet dancer Robert La Fosse. Joshua Sherman is in charge of sets
and
costume design. Jason Cina is the lighting designer and Eddie Guttman serves as musical director.
Jared
Coseglia is the assistant director.
Produced by the Blue Heron Theatre with the permission of the Norman Rockwell Licensing
Company,
Rockwell begins performances at the Blue Heron Arts Center, NYC on May 17 with an
official
opening on
May 19. The limited run ends June 2.
SWEET CHARITY
CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY benefits
from a May 12th screening of George Lucas' latest Star Wars installment, Attack of
the
Clones. That will be the finale for Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Film Festival which begins
unspooling
155 films on Wednesday.
TALK, LISTEN AND
LEARN
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES HOLDS
DISCUSSIONS
the Tennessee Performing Arts Center will
present two free programs to complement the national tour of The Vagina Monologues at TPAC
May 21-26.
The first "TPAC U" program is Women's Issues Equals Community Issues, tomorrow at
Davis-Kidd Booksellers. Linda G. Manning, director of the Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center at
Vanderbilt University, and Valerie Wynn, executive director of the Mary Parrish Center for
Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence will lead the discussion.
On May 20 the second program will be held at the Vanderbilt School of Nursing. Titled Private
Stories/Public Actions: Consider the Thistles. This will focus on the Magdalene Project.
The Rev. Becca Stevens, the project's executive director, and two project graduates will discuss
the program, which provides shelter and support for women with a history of prostitution and
drug addiction.
ALEC BALDWIN lauded by
Rosie O'Donnell as her favorite guest, will teach a theater class this summer at Southampton
University.
The actor will serve as a distinguished professor, teaching a master class at the college, which is
part of Long Island University.
The actor grew up in Massapequa, Long Island, and lives near the college in Amagansett.
Dean James Larocca praised the 44-year-old actor as ``a true artist.''
``Like our other distinguished professors, Alec Baldwin is a Renaissance person,'' Larocca said in
a statement. ``His talent stretches across many mediums, from the Broadway stage to the big
screen to literary festivals, public policy, activism and motion picture production.''
INTIMATE CONVERSATIONS
lecture series,
begins May 13 at Musical Theatre Works, NYC.
Jason Robert Brown and Daisy Prince open the series, when the composer and
director discuss the making of the new Off-Broadway musical The Last Five Years. May 14 brings Jerry
Bock, Joseph Stein and Sheldon Harnick, who will examine the creation of Fiddler on the Roof.
Michael Greif, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Anthony Rapp will speak about their Rent experience on
May 20, and Michael Mayer, Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan address the creation of Thoroughly
Modern Millie on May 21.
Musical Theatre Works also offers a series of one-on-one conversations with some of Broadway
most acclaimed stars. Bebe Neuwirth sits down for a chat on May 15. She will be followed by Tony
winners Mandy Patinkin on May 16, Betty Buckley on May 22 and William Finn on May 23.
Artistic director Lonny Price heads Musical Theatre Works, which is a not-for-profit theatre
dedicated to the development and production of new American musical theatre. All proceeds from the lecture
series go towards the company's Resident Writers program, supporting a new generation of emerging
artists.
THE LEARNING CURVE; HERE OR
ABROAD
COLLABORATIVE ARTS PROJECT 21 (known as CAP21), which operates one of the
largest and most respected schools teaching musical theatre performance, has
announced its comprehensive training programs for the summer of 2002.
The CAP21 Conservatory is the only program in Manhattan selected by a nationally
recognized university (New York University's Tisch School of the Arts) to
train their undergraduates in the demanding curriculum of musical theatre
performance.
The Conservatory has trained thousands of students, 80% of whom obtain
professional work upon completion.
The Professionally and Part Time Professional
Musical
Theatre Training Programs are for students 18 years and older and offer an intensive and
balanced program that includes Acting/Scene Study, Musical Scene Study, Dance
Program, Music Theory, Vocal Technique, Vocal Performance, Audition Technique
and Master Classes with theatre professionals.
The full professional
program, which includes 210 hours of training, runs Mondays
through Fridays
for six weeks. The cost is $2,550.
The Part-Time Professional Program, which includes all
of the above courses except the Dance program, lasts six weeks and costs $1,825. Private
voice training is also available. Conservatory Director Michon Peacock said: "The professional program is for college and post
college students who wish to immerse themselves in an intensive, broad-based
training program as a stepping stone to a professional career in musical
theatre."
Students may obtain academic credit from New York University by applying
through the Tisch School of the Arts.
AUSTRALIAN COLLEGE OF ENTERTAINMENT'S
INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS CONFERENCE is being held in Sydney
Australia,
July 14 to 21.
The conference is open to dance, acting & vocal students from
10 years to 21 years of age. Students can enroll individually or
as part of a group from a school, college or private coach.
ACE International Performing Arts Conference Sydney 2002 brings together the finest young performers from all
over the world to exchange ideas and share their love of performance - on and off the stage.
Conference officials promise to "gather Top Professionals
and Master Teachers from the Entertainment Industry and Arts Community to share their time
and expertise."
"Our goal is to pack a week with the perfect combination of
learning, performing, opportunities to share with other students
from around the world."
"Class emphasis will be on performance and will integrate - Dance
(Flamenco, Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Contemporary, Lyrical & Funk),
Acting, Singing, Choreography, Auditioning, Modeling, Acrobatics,
Musical Theatre, Television, Film, Musicology, Make-up and the
production aspects that make them work."
Parents are welcome as observers.
Each Studio may recommend two (2) Students to perform in the ACE International Performing
Arts Conference Sydney 2003 Company. Individual Students Attending the Conference may Audition
for the Company on Sunday Night July 13.
Students are "required to be multi-talented individuals who wish to combine their dance, vocal
and dramatic skills together, try some new things and share them with the entire conference
audience."
This cast will have late night rehearsals, thus older mature cast members are preferred.
The ACE International Performing Arts Conference Sydney 2003 Company will be working with
Members of "Dance Works" Performance Company and the show theme will be "Gotta Sing Gotta Dance."
"All tutors will be industry based working professionals. ACE has a philosophy that a teacher can
only teach professional performance skills if they have been or are a Professional Performing Artist or
Technician. Our Tutors will have professional experience both here in Australia and Internationally."
BARBARA COOK is honored by the New Dramatists on May 14 with
a lifetime achievement award. The former star of The Music Man, Eric McCormick, will
serenade Barbara, who was Broadway's original Marian the Librarian. The event takes place at
the Marriott Marquis Hotel in NYC.
KATHARINE HEPBURN the 85
year old grand dame is honored May 11. A garden will be named for her in Dag Hammarskjold
Plaza Park. The annual celebration can be enjoyed from 2-4 p.m.
A LETTER FROM ETHEL KENNEDY
written by the late Christopher Gorman, a former CBS
television executive, directed by Tony winner Joanna
Gleason, featuring Anita Gillette has begun previews at the MCC Theatre,
NYC. A comedy about a man
who is seeing his parents for the last time or so he thinks. Wednesday lunches
at Joe Allen Restaurant are
the recurring setting of this play about a Manhattan man trying to reconcile with his parents,
come to terms with
his Long Island roots and still make a 2 o'clock curtain. If only that Caesar salad would get
here
The cast includes: Bradford L. Cover, Jay Goede, Randy Harrison, and
Bernie McInerney.
Set Design: Jeff Cowie, Costume Design: Martin Pakledinaz, Lighting Design:
Michael Chybowski, Original Music: David Van Tieghem, Sound Design: Jill
B.C. DuBoff, Production Manger is B.D. White, and the Production Stage Manager is
Deborah Gayle Sullivan.
The show officially opens May 16 for a scheduled run
through June 1.
THE GUYS at The Bat Theatre in
NYC is using a rotating cast. Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins appear through May 8. They are replaced by
Tom Wopat and Amy Irving, who will perform May 14-June 14. Before then Wopat brings his singing
act to Long Beach, California for shows May 8-9.
The Guys, based on writer Anne Nelson's real experiences, is a dialogue between a New
York City fire captain who has lost most of his men in the Sept. 11 attack and an editor who helps him
write the eulogies, as she struggles to come to terms with the event.
NIGHTTOWN written and
directed by Susan Mosakowski featuring Matthew Maguire and Michael Ryan begins
performances May 8 at The Flea Theater, NYC.
In Nighttown a
Shakespearean actor named Caesar McCarthy institutionalized in a Dublin asylum for the
attempted murder of his adulterous wife, finds himself paired up with another cuckold, a Mr. Leo
Kettle, interred because he believes that he has drowned his wife's lover. Homesick and pining for
their wives, Caesar re-invents himself as James Joyce, and casts Mr. Kettle as Leopold Bloom
from the novel Ulysses. Through their transformation and intense camaraderie, the men set
off on an imaginative journey to Dublin's infamous red-light district, which Joyce called
Nighttown.
TWELFTH NIGHT
by
William
Shakespeare starring Judith Blazer and David Garrison directed by David Warren.
Others in the cast include Kathleen McNenny, Dan Snook, Natacha Roi, Tom Beckett, Guy Boyd, Allyn Burrows,
Blaise James, Daniel John Kelly, Tom Parker, W. Scott Russell, Christine Scippa, Robert
Stanton, Rex Young, Michele Massa, Charley McAfee and Jessica Murphy.
In Twelfth Night the Bard's lyrical, incandescent language helps transform a small
Italian villa into a mystical paradise overflowing with music, dancing, laughter and
romance, in a sparkling tale filled with mistaken identities, mischievous trickery and unrequited love.
Ahead of its time in its day, Twelfth Night remains one of the most ingenious
romantic comedies ever written for the stage.
James Youmans (sets), Toni-Leslie James
(costumes), Peter Maradudin (lighting) and James Gromada (music and sound). Sean
Curran is the choreographer.
Connecticut's The Long Wharf Theatre,
through June 8.
Long Wharf Theatre was the creation of Jon Jory and Harlan Kleiman, two Yale alumni. In
1965 the staged Arthur Miller's The Crucible for a two-week engagement. Named for
the Long Wharf port along New Haven Harbor, the theatre was built in a
vacant warehouse space in a busy food terminal, with its Mainstage originally stocked with seats borrowed from a
retired movie house. The first year's budget was $294,000, and the theatre
played to more than 30,000 patrons.
Now in its 37th season, Long Wharf is an organization of
international renown with a $6.5 million budget and an annual audience exceeding 100,000. Long
Wharf is recognized as a leader in American Theatre with more than twenty productions
transferring virtually intact to Broadway or off-Broadway.
WHO'S WHERE
CHARO
Charo
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opens tomorrow at the
Sahara Hotel Las Vegas in a show called Bravo.
The cuchi cuchi girl is a favorite of designer Issac
Mizrahi who is
receiving an Outer Critics Circle award for designer the Roundabout Theater production of
The Women.
The couture cut-up was enthralled by Charo whom he called "inspiring
because she put me completely at ease. She seems so intimidating before you meet her. I was a little nervous, but as
soon as she walked in the room, she infects you with her love of life and energy. She treats life as one big
screwball comedy. She is absolutely wonderful. I love her."
LAURYN HILL will perform
at the St. Lucia Jazz Festival which opened Friday. Hill will be the headline act for the
open-air show
at Pigeon Island peninsula on May 11. Smokey Robinson, Stephanie Mills, Branford
Marsalis and India.Arie are also scheduled to perform at the festival, which will run though May
12.
KENNY CHESNEY continues
with his tour
appearing May 9 in Pelham, Alabama. On Friday he performs
in Charlotte, N.C. at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. He closes out the week on Saturday
in Raleigh, N.C.
at the Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek.
TOGETHER WE STAND THE WINANS in the spotlight Thursday in Washington, D.C. at DAR Constitution Hall. On Saturday the gang
is in Charlotte, N.C.
at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre.
FELICIA FINLEY star of
Aida, performs her
nightclub act at the Arts Nova Theater, NYC as part of its Broadway Spotlight series. The
event is tomorrow,
May 6.
ALANIS MORISSETTE
performs tonight in San
Jose, CA at the Compaq Center. On Tuesday she is in the spotlight in Phoenix, Arizona at
the Dodge
Theatre. Thursday the tour continues in Las Vegas at the Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel.
On Friday the
spotlight shines on her in West Valley, Utah at the E Center. She closes out the week on
Saturday in
Denver, Colorado at the Magness Arena.
WILLIE NELSON telling his
tales in song Friday in
Salem, Virginia at the Salem Civic Center. On Saturday he'll be in Bristow, Virginia at
the Nissan
Pavilion.
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN
entertaining Tuesday in
Boston, MA at Symphony Hall. On Saturday he can be enjoyed in Buffalo, New York at
the Kleinhans Music
Hall.
B.B. KING performs today in
Lynchburg, Virginia at the EC Glass Auditorium. On Wednesday the tireless entertainer is in Winnipeg at the
Centennial Concert
Hall. Thursday B.B. and his guitar, Lucille, will be on stage in Brandon, MB at the Keystone
Centre.
On Friday the
songs will be delivered in Saskatoon, SK at the Saskatchewan Place. He ends the week
Saturday in
Regina, SK at the Regina Agridome.
PINK center stage tonight in Las
Vegas then brings her Party Tour 2002 to Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah on Tuesday, May 7.
HARRY CONNICK, JR has
a
busy
week. Today he
stars in West Lansing, Michigan at the Wharton Center. On Monday the show moves to
Grand Rapids,
Michigan for a performance at DeVos Hall at Grand Center. He's got a two nighter
Wednesday and
Thursday in Chicago at the Chicago Theatre. Another two nighter follows Friday and
Saturday in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Riverside Theatre.
CHRISTOPHER CROSS behind the
microphone
Saturday in Bowler, Wisconsin at the Mohican North Star Casino.
TONY BENNETT on Thursday
opens a
four night
stand in Las Vegas at the Paris Hotel.
SHIRLEY
JONES in concert in Houston, Texas on May 10.
PAUL ANKA stars at the Mirage
Hotel in Las Vegas May 9-20.
PIFFLE AND
PROFUNDITIES
PHYLLIS DILLER rings down the
curtain on her
stand up comedy this evening with a performance at the Suncoast Hotel in Las Vegas. Expected
to be in
the audience are Jerry Lewis, Phyllis Diller, Rich Little, David Brenner and Marty Allen.
Next Column: May 12, 2002
Copyright: May 5, 2002. All Rights Reserved. Reviews,
Interviews, Commentary,
Photographs or Graphics from any Broadway To Vegas (TM) columns may not be published, broadcast,
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compensation
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