Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: November 30, 2003
By: Laura Deni
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AN ENOLA GAY CHRISTMAS

Pilot Paul Tibbets in the cockpit of the Enola Gay

At approximately 8:16 am on August 6th, 1945, the crew of the Enola Gay dropped the world's first atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan.

Author Doug Field hopes his satirical play about the woman whose name is on the fuselage is not a bomb.

The AAF assigned 15 planes to the 509th Composite Group commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbets and he named his personal B-29 "Enola Gay" - his mother’s maiden name. The letters are not perfect because the rush paint job was slapped on the night before the plane’s mission.

An Enola Gay Christmas is a comedy about the woman whose son bombed Hiroshima. The production opens December 4 at Altered Stages in New York City.

The production's press release states: "In a brisk hour-long television Christmas Special format, Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the World War II bomber pilot who named his plane after her, is trying to clear her name."

An Enola Gay Christmas

A comedy about the woman
whose son bombed Hiroshima.

Ho Ho Ho

"What better way than a feel-good Christmas show broadcast from the downstairs of her suburban Miami, Florida home. The show features her singing a little, cooking a little, decorating a little and doing a little cocaine. She also has some very special guests - as well as one surprise guest. The play is full of history - both factual and fictional - the basics are fact - and then the fantasy begins."

Two performers play four parts. Drag actor June Bug plays Enola Gay Tibbets and Nan Schmid, a Second City (Chicago) veteran plays Shinto San, Beverlina Sanchez and the surprise guest. An off stage elf provides appropriate and inappropriate theme music."

Broadway To Vegas had to check this out.

"There has been no involvement with the estate of Enola Gay, or relatives of Paul Tibbets. Actually, Paul is still alive. The play is more about the events than the actual people," we were told.

Author Field, born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Pittsburgh, received a BA from Wesleyan University and a JD from the University of Southern California Law School. This is the fifth play for the attorney/author. His first play, Down South, an off-Broadway hit, recently named Play of the Year at the Column Theater Awards in Dallas, was set against the Cuban Missile Crisis.

"The material is protected by parody - first amendment. It is also protected because most of the characters are "public figures." Think Saturday Night Live, think Mad TV, in terms of similar use of parody."

Depicting the mother, Enola Gay, snorting cocaine?

"The cocaine, while not the focal point of the show, is such a departure from reality - that it is exactly the kind of material which qualifies as parody, because no reasonable person would believe it."

"An Enola Gay Christmas is especially timely now as the debate of whether we should have dropped the bomb in many ways parallels whether we should be in Iraq."

Enola Gay

"What makes this whole thing even more interesting is that the actual plane, the Enola Gay, will be displayed fully assembled for the first time to the public on December 15 at the new Smithsonian wing at Dulles Airport."

The plane, Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber, was one of nearly 4,000 B 29 bombers rushed into production for combat in the Pacific. The Enola Gay plane model B-29-45-MO, serial number 44-86292 is 141 feet long, 100-feet wide, and weighs 131,000 pounds. The AAF accepted this aircraft on June 15, 1945, from the Martin plant at Omaha, Nebraska.

The Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, located at the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, will be opened December 15 in conjunction with the 100th anniversary celebrations commemorating the first powered flight by the Wright brothers.

Standing: Major John Porter (ground maintenance officer), Captain Theodore J. Van Kirk (navigator), Major Thomas W. Ferebee (bombardier), Colonel Paul W. Tibbets (Pilot and Commanding Officer of the 509th Group), Captain Robert A. Lewis (co-pilot), and Lieutenant Jacob Beser (radar countermeasure officer). Kneeling: Sergeant Joseph S. Stiborik (radar operator), Staff Sergeant George R. Caron (tail gunner), Private First Class Richard H. Nelson (radio operator), Sergeant Robert H. Shumard (assistant engineer), and Staff Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenburry (flight engineer).

Toplining the exhibit will be the Enola Gay, on display, in one piece for the first time in 43 years.

The Enola Gay will be among 200 aircraft on exhibit. Surrounding the famous warbird will be other aircraft from World War II, including a British Hawker Hurricane, a German Focke-Wulf FW 190A-8 and a Japanese Aichi Seiran.

Angry survivors and relatives of those who perished in the Hiroshima blast are traveling to Dulles in protest of the Enola Gay presentation. They are not opposed to the aircraft going on display, but activists want to detail the death toll from the August 6, 1945 blast.

It is thought that the mission resulted in the death of 230,000 people, both in the initial firestorm which consumed the Japanese city and in subsequent years from toxic radiation.

Operating under the umbrella of the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy, they have presented the museum with a petition calling for changes in the exhibit.

Signatories include the mayor of Hiroshima Tadatoshi Akiba, author and activist Noam Chomsky and film director Oliver Stone.

The National Air and Space Museum states its display will reflect the fact that the Enola Gay was, in its time, the most technologically advanced aircraft in the skies.

A decision to put it on display "does not glorify or vilify the role this aircraft played in history," it said.

The aircraft "dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan," on the descriptive label, in the only reference to its role in August 1945.

"In the end, the Enola Gay played a decisive role in World War II," the museum said in a press release prompted by the controversy. "It helped bring the war to an end in that after the bombing of Nagasaki, shortly after the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, surrendered unconditionally."

"But perhaps more critically, it profoundly affected our concept of major conflict and the importance of maintaining global peace."

EX-JAILBIRD DEBBIE REYNOLDS STAGES AN AUCTION

A showgirl's outfit Marilyn Monroe wore in the 1953 film, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

It's been 30 years since Debbie Reynolds was arrested and forced to spend the night in jail - so she doesn't need bail money. What she does need is money for her new Hollywood Museum. We'll get to her time in the pokey in a minute, but first you need to open up your wallet, let those moths fly out and spend a lot on some old star stuff.

The unsinkable Debbie Reynolds, who has one of the largest collections of Hollywood memorabilia in the world, is parting with some of it. Reynolds will sell more than 300 costumes and props from her fabled collection in the largest Hollywood costume auction in more than 30 years.

"In 1970, MGM had their auction. That was a major auction of all their props and costumes and cars, everything; and I went to that auction every day and I purchased groups of costumes from each famous film that won an Academy Award, or was the most popular film at MGM from the silent screen era on," said Reynolds.

The dynamite performer who closed last Friday at the Orleans in Las Vegas, returning to that stage on December 27, will attend an auction preview, from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, December 5, at the Le Meridien Hotel in Los Angeles.

Reynolds hopes the public sale will raise more than $2 million for her proposed Motion Picture Collection Museum.

Doris Day mermaid costume from Glass Bottom Boat

In a lease agreement the Museum will be showcased in a 20,000 square foot area of the top floor inside the developing Hollywood & Highland complex, a $615-million entertainment/retail complex sitting on two city blocks in the heart of Hollywood. Some of the highlights of the complex include the Kodak Academy Award Theater, a Multiplex Theater, a 640 room hotel and the Metro Rail portal. The entire complex surrounds the historic Chinese Theater.

When Debbie first had a vision about a museum I interviewed her about her dream. "I would like to see this museum happen while I'm still alive. My museum is going to be about motion picture history, not about Debbie Reynolds. It's about all of the stars that I've always loved and that the public has loved; Bette Davis, Jimmy Stewart - every star - Garbo. All of the films - the Academy Award winning pictures or pictures popular in the 30's through the 60's. That's the collection that I have. So, it will really be quite spectacular."

"I believe the old movies hold up because of the studio system that nurtured them. There was a learning process that went on. Traditions that were passed along."

"I was the last contact player of the golden age of Hollywood," she recalled, with a wisp of nostalgia. "There were so many stars then, and you'd meet them every day - Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford. Even in their presence you felt they were big."

The December 6 auction will contain items from several hundred Oscar-winning and notable films including costumes worn by Marilyn Monroe, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Julie Andrews, and James Cagney, and props from Gone With The Wind.

The colorful clown-like costume in which James Cagney danced and sang in the 1942 film, Yankee Doodle Dandy

"Debbie Reynolds personally handpicked items from her famous collection that represent a variety of film eras and actors, from the most glamorous stars to famous character actors, from silent films to musical comedies. She is selling about 10 percent of her extensive collection specifically to raise funds for a permanent Hollywood Motion Picture Museum," explained Bill Miller, President of Odyssey Auctions.

In the introduction to the auction catalog, Reynolds wrote: "The purchase of a piece of my Hollywood memorabilia collection will enable me to continue on with the conservation and preservation of this priceless collection. It has been my life-long dream of creating a museum to house this collection so that future generations of movie fans can see and enjoy the greatness of the 'Golden Age of Hollywood' for many years to come."

In addition to her career as a movie star and nightclub performer, Reynolds starred on Broadway. In 1973 Debbie signed a one-year contract to make her Broadway debut as the title character in a revival of the 1919 musical hit Irene, winning the Outer Critics' Circle Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1974.

Debbie Reynolds and George Irving in Irene

It was while her name was in lights on The Great White Way that the petite lady was hauled off to jail.

Later Debbie told me about that incarceration. It seems that while Debbie was on Broadway her then 14-year-old son, Todd Fisher, developed a fascination for old guns.

It was Debbie's night off. She was relaxing, watching the old Shelley Winters' movie A Place in the Sun on television. As Debbie recalled, "Just as Shelley Winters fell out of the boat into the lake I heard this tremendous explosion and smelled smoke. Todd screamed. There was a hole in his knee as large as an orange. He was playing with a gun that he thought was an unloaded, antique toy. I had no shoes on. I threw on an old, brown dress and rushed him to the nearest emergency ward."

"I was arrested, fingerprinted and thrown into jail with a group of hookers. They kept me there until 6 a.m. and for the next three mornings I had to appear in court at 8 a.m. All that time I was performing at night in Irene.

"Todd has a large scar, but he's fine. I will say he hasn't touched a gun since. My mother told me I should have told the press that he wouldn't make his bed, so I shot him!"



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Thank you for your interest. Laura Deni P.O. Box 60538 Las Vegas, NV 89160

JEFF DANIELS HOSTS PREMIERE OF THE GOODBYE GIRL

It's dangerous to attempt a remake. Especially an update of an Oscar winning film - in this case The Goodbye Girl.

However, when both the original and remake were scribbled by Neil Simon, the odds look good.

The success meter looks even better when one views the cast. Patricia Heaton of Everyone Loves Raymond fame plays the role of the divorced single mom Paula McFadden, which was played by Marsha Mason in the Herbert Ross film. Daniels plays the part of wannabe actor Elliot Garfield, the role that earned Richard Dreyfuss a best-actor Oscar for the 1977 film.

Bernadette Peters and Martin Short - both Tony-nominated for their performances - played those roles in the 1993 Broadway musical, which featured a score by Marvin Hamlisch and David Zippel. In this re-make Hootie and the Blowfish used their off-day in Chicago to record a David Gates song.

The Goodbye Girl centers on the relationship between a dumped-on divorcee (Heaton) and an aspiring actor (Daniels) who become unwilling co-tenants in a New York apartment and, eventually, unlikely lovers.

Richard Benjamin, Jeff Daniels, Neil Simon, Patricia Heaton and Hallie Eisenberg on a break while filming The Goodbye Girl

A Tony Award winner for his portrayal of the Emcee in the Broadway revival of Cabaret, Alan Cumming, plays Off-Broadway director Mark Bodine. Hallie Kate Eisenberg is the wise beyond her years Lucy McFadden.

Daniels also serves as executive producer of the Richard Benjamin directed Turner Network movie.

Filming of The Goodbye Girl took place in Vancouver, BC and New York. Daniels used The Big Apple location to take Heaton on a "pathetic" tour of the places he had lived as a young actor trying to get work.

Daniels his wife, Kathleen, and their Purple Rose Theatre Company will host the movie premiere gala at The Michigan Theatre of Ann Arbor on January 10th. Following live entertainment Daniels will take to the stage to introduce the film. Afterwards there is an "afterglow" party.

TAKE THAT SCRIPT AND STUFF IT

If an author is told to take their script and stuff it - the phrase might be an indication of a projected production date - admittedly far off.

Achilles, a Trojan war trilogy, by dramatist Aeschylus known as the father of tragedy, has taken more time than usual to get mounted - 2,050 years. First, they had to get it out of the body.

The Greek play by is to be staged for the first time in more than 2,050 years after fragments of the text were found in Egyptian mummy cases.

Stuffing mummies with papyrus scrolls, or creating a paper mache mixture to encase a body, was a common practice in ancient Egypt. Or, when some critic suggested that he should take the script and stuff it, that's exactly what happened.

Cyprus's national theatre company, Thoc, has announced plans to perform a modern take on Achilles, performed in Cyprus and Greece.

Scholars had believed his trilogy to be lost for ever when the Library of Alexandria burned down in 48BC.

"But in the last decades archaeologists found mummies in Egypt which were stuffed with papyrus, containing excerpts of the original plays of Aeschylus," reported the director of Thoc, Andy Bargilly.

The play revolves around Achilles, the supposedly invincible Trojan warrior who was killed by Paris with a poisoned arrow fired at his only vulnerable spot, the heel.

Achilles recounts his many brushes with death and the slaying of Hector, son of Priam, the King of Troy.

"People working on ancient texts knew the trilogy existed, because it was mentioned in Aristophanes and other writers of ancient Greece," Bargilly said. "We think it is a faithful adaptation."

SPREADING THE WORD

MICHAEL FEINSTEIN in an evening of music and conversation, December 7th on Everything Old Is New Again with host David Kenney. 9-11 PM(ET) over WBAI 99.5 FM and on the Internet at: www.2600.com/offthehook/hot2.ram

EXONERATED TALK BACK Directly following certain performances of The Exonerated, an informative talkback session is provided to learn more information about death penalty resources and other Exonerated persons. They typically last for 30 minutes, and most include a talk given by the speaker, and then a question and answer session follows with the audience. The next talk back takes place Thursday, December 4 with Sheri Lynn Johnson Professor of Law and Assistant Director - Cornell Death Penalty Project and John H. Blume Assistant Professor of Law and Director - Cornell Death Penalty Project. The Culture Project at Bleeker Theatre in NYC.

A CONVERSATION WITH CAST MEMBERS OF NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH Lincoln Center Theater's Platform series presents conversations with artists working at LCT before an audience of interested theatergoers. Admission is free and open to all. Platforms are held in the lobby of the Vivian Beaumont Theater. On December 2 the cast members of Nothing But The Truth will take place. The production, written by John Kani and directed by Janice Honeyman, has performances at the Newhouse Theatre through January 18.

HAVE A HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS WITH THE ANIMATION OF RANKIN AND BASS in person Arthur Rankin. Thursday, December 4 at the Museum of Television & Radio in New York.

SWEET CHARITY

DREIDELS & SLEIGH BELLS a Holiday Benefit for The Actors' Fund and West Coast Ensemble,one of the oldest non-profit theatre companies in Los Angeles, takes place December 8th. Special performances by Rod McKuen, Tyne Daly and Jason Graae with Gerald Sternbach at the piano.

Rod McKuen, poet and singer will perform several selections from his work. Tyne Daly will read Temple Bailey's classic story A Candle in the Forest. Jason Graae will perform excerpts of his one-man show. At the Magnin Auditorium at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY

UTAH SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

Fred Adams Photo by Karl Hugh, Utah Shakespearean Festival

which won the Outstanding Regional Theatre Tony Award in 2000, is experiencing a financial crisis resulting in cut backs. Fred C. Adams, founder and executive director of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, headquartered in Cedar City, disclosed this in the festival's newsletter, The Shakespeare Globe. He reported that this year's summer and fall seasons were fiscal flops, although artistically and critically successful. "This was one of few years in our existence that we ended up in the red on our balance sheet," he wrote in his Producer's Viewpoint column.

The festival is also confronted by the same problems that other theaters across the country are contending with - the weak economy, a dip in tourism and the uncertainty of war and terrorism.

Adams informed his readers that the 2004 season will see a few noticeable cutbacks. The Royal Feaste - always an expensive project to produce - is being eliminated. The Plays-in-Progress program is also being scaled back, with only three play readings scheduled for next season instead of four. There will also be significant changes in the way the popular Greenshow entertainment has been cast. In previous seasons, the Royal Feaste and the Greenshows were treated as a separate ensemble. Now, performers from the main-stage acting company will be utilized in both the plays and the Greenshows.

Another major change in the season was made earlier this year - dropping Moliere's The School for Wives and replacing it with Forever Plaid. The former would have been risky, while the latter - staged previously during the festival's first fall season in 1999 - continues to be immensely popular with audiences.

In a time when some theaters are either scaling back or being forced to close, Adams hopes that the festival can continue to "sustain our quality and emerge from this process in a year or two even stronger." Adams will address this situation as the keynote speaker for the annual meeting of the Utah Cultural Alliance taking place Monday, Dec 8.

STRONG TICKET SALES mean Henry IV has extended its run one week, to Jan. 18. Lincoln Center. A must-see show.



THE QUILTMAKER'S GIFT A new holiday musical. Book by Alan J. Prewitt. Music by Craig Bohmler. Lyrics by Steven Mark Kohn, based on the book by Jeff Brumbeau.

The musical is a fantasy tale that celebrates the quilting tradition, the value of generosity, and the spirit of community. This will be its West Coast premiere.

A young boy, imagining that he is a King demands a toll to be paid by an Old Man so that he can pass. The Old Man is poor, but offers to tell him the story of real King and a Quiltmaker. The story goes that a wise and generous Quiltmaker, with magic in her fingers and love for humanity in her heart, sews the most beautiful quilts in the world and gives each one away for free to a needy recipient. The greedy King, his castle overflowing with riches and treasures, yearns for the one thing that will bring him laughter and happiness. To obtain a quilt, the thing he desperately wants, the Quiltmaker tells the King that he must give up all his treasures. Thus the King’s journey begins as he gives away his precious treasures all over the world. Along the way he learns the true meaning of happiness by bringing joy to the lives of others. This story celebrates the quilting tradition, the value of generosity, and the spirit of community in a beautiful and touching fable for our times. December 12 – 21 at the Laguna Playhouse, California.

WONDERFUL TOWN the revival starring double Tony Award winner Donna Murphy - a given that she'll be Tony nominated for her role as Ruth Sherwood, the role that Rosalind Russell created when the original production opened in 1953.

Worth the trip just to see Murphy - and the show is sparkling, witty, irresistible and delightful.

Jennifer Westfeldt making her sensational Broadway debut as Eileen. Couldn't ask for a better cast in Gregg Edelmann, Peter Benson, Stanley Wayne Mathis, Michael McGrath and David Margulies. Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green. Director/ choreographer is Kathleen Marshall. Orchestra conducted by Rob Fisher. Designer John Lee Beatty. Costume designer Martin Pakledinaz. Al Hirschfeld Theater, NYC.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE MUSICAL after ten years ends its annual run at the Theater at Madison Square Garden with this year's presentation. Tony Award winner Jim Dale stars as Ebenezer Scrooge. We've seen it seven out of the ten years it's been running and enjoyed every performance. If you miss it, bah humbug! to you. Through December 27, Madison Square Garden, NYC.

THE EXONERATED welcomes Alanis Morissette to the cast. The seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer will portray Sunny Jacobs, who served 16 years in prison before being exonerated. Morissette joins the cast on Tuesday appearing to Dec. 7. The Culture Project at Bleeker Theatre in NYC.

SAY GOODNIGHT, GRACIE starring Frank Gorshin, who reprises his critically acclaimed Broadway role of the lovable George Burns. Written by Tony and Emmy Award-winning writer Rupert Holmes, Say Goodnight Gracie is staged by veteran Tony-nominated director John Tillinger and will also feature Didi Conn as the singular voice of Gracie Allen. The production was nominated for a 2003 Tony Award for Best Play, and Gorshin won a 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award for his outstanding performance.The Majestic Theatre in Dallas with performances December 2-14.

THE NUTCRACKER performed by the acclaimed Moscow Classical Ballet, a company of 62 dancers, under the artistic direction of Natalie Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilyov, former leading member of the Kirov Ballet. Today, November 30 at the Brooklyn Center as part of the World of Dance series.

I AM MY OWN WIFE by Douglas Wright was a hit last summer off-Broadway. The play, about a German transvestite who survived both the Nazi and Communist regimes stars Jefferson Mays. Opens Dec. 3. at the Lyceum in NYC.

ORGASMA written and directed by Dan Israely. The world premiere stars Ed Asner as the voice of God and Rex Smith and Krista Allen are Adam and Eve. What most women eventually discover - that a man's penis is not connected to either his head or his heart - is the basis for this comedy about God's mistakes made during the creation. The press release points out; "For instance, God forgot to connect the man's penis to the heart and to the brain. Of course, these were mistakes that God fixed when he created Eve, the woman; therefore, making the woman the new and improved version - some think the better model."

Beverly Hills' Canon Theatre. Officially opens December 3 with performances through January 11.

CHRISTMAS FROM THE HEART FEATURING THE TOP SHOPPE starring Kenny Rogers marks the 16th Year of this annual holiday tour. This year, for the first time, the entertainer brings the show to 22 cities west of the Mississippi. Christmas from the Heart Featuring The Toy Shoppe, based on an original story written by Rogers and Kelly Junkermann, has performed for over 1 million people since its debut.

In each city the production incorporates local choir groups to join the production on stage. The shown features assorted Christmas folk gleaned from auditions held throughout the country. Recently as many as 500 hopefuls showed up to audition for the part of an elf. Rehearsals took place in Nashville for the tour which lasts through December.

Tonight the show is at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Monday, December 1st, at the Civic Center of Great Des Moines in Des Moines, Iowa. On Tuesday the performance in at the Rushmore Plaza in Rapid City, South Dakota. The fun moves to the World Arena in Colorado Springs on Wednesday. The Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado is the stage on Thursday. On Friday the show is at the E Center in Salt Lake and next Sunday at the Adams Event Center in Missoula, MT.

SING-A-LONG WIZARD OF OZ opens in Chicago at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts on December 5th. Costumes are encouraged.

WHO'S WHERE

JOSE CARRERAS the Spanish tenor, with Lorenzo Bavaj on piano, performs at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday.

THE IRISH TENORS delighting crowds Monday, December 1, at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. Friday and Saturday they have a two nighter at Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, MA.

YO YO MA brings his funny personality and incredible talent to the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, December 3rd. On Friday he is on stage at the Peristyle Theatre in Toledo and on Saturday it's the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Ontario.

JOHNNY MATHIS in a two nighter, Friday and Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, CA.

LORNA LUFT performs Songs My Mother Taught Me, her cabaret-style show at Parker Playhouse in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida through Dec. 14.

WAYNE NEWTON aka Mr. Las Vegas takes the show to the Ryman in Nashville on December 8.

BILL COSBY telling funny stories Saturday Dec. 6 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

KD LANG on stage December 4 at the Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

WYONNA having a honeymoon while on tour. She performs Friday, December 5 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, Florida. On Saturday she's in the spotlight at a private event in Orlando and then returns to the public eye on Sunday, December 6 at the Philharmonic Center in Naples, Florida.

JIM BRINKMAN has a busy week.Tonight he is at the Coronado Theatre in Rockford, Illinois. On Tuesday the performance takes place at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minn. Wednesday the place to be is the Washington Ravilion in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. On Thursday the show is at the Omaha Music Hall in Omaha, Nebraska. Friday the act moves to the Rose State Performing Arts Theatre in Midwest City, Oklahoma and he ends the week, Saturday, by performing at the Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston, Texas.

CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS which is Al Jarreau, David Benoit and Melissa Manchester on stage tonight at the World Arena in Colorado Springs. On Wednesday the show is at the UTEP Don Haskins Center in El Pasco, Texas. On Thursday the gang is in the spotlight at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix and on Friday the show takes place at Boise St. University in Boise, Idaho.

MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER entertaining Thursday at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. On Saturday it's the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, N.C.

SIMON AND GARFUNKEL WITH THE EVERLY BROTHERS play Madison Square Garden in New York Tuesday through Thursday.

DAVID BOWIE AND MACY GRAY on stage Saturday at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City. Next Sunday the act is in the spotlight at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA.

TONY BENNETT performs Saturday, December 6 at the Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION FEATURING JERRY DOUGLAS on stage at the Abraham Chavez Theatre in El Paso, Texas December 5. On December 6th the performance is in San Angelo, Texas at the City Auditorium.

ETTA JAMES in the spotlight December 1 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.

A VERY LARRY CHRISTMAS STARRING LARRY THE CABLE GUY is at the Holiday Inn Expo Center on December 3. The next night, December 4, the show is at the Pershing Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. On December 4th the action shifts to the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, MO. They close out the week, Saturday, at the Bricktown Events Center in Oklahoma City, OK.

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA on stage tomorrow Monday, December lst at the Shubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven,Conn. On Tuesday the perform at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston. Friday finds the guys at the Robert Ferst Center for the Arts in Atlanta and on Saturday they are in the spotlight at the Empire Theatre in San Antonio, Texas.

CASSENDRA WILSON at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan on Saturday.

FINAL OVATION

FORRESTER MASHBIR Emmy and Peabody Award winning television director and former Las Vegas entertainment executive with the Sahara and Flamingo hotels, died in his Henderson, Nevada home on November 25. He was 82. He is survived by Carol, his wife of 34 years.

JOSEPH BEHAR a Las Vegas drama teacher. In the late 1960s Behar and actor Ed Asner formed a partnership to teach a weekly acting class in Los Angeles. After Behar moved to Las Vegas in 1973, he opened the Las Vegas Community Drama Workshop and the Comedy Corner that helped launch the career of comedian Drew Carey. Behar died November 24 in Las Vegas. He was 70. Survived by his wife, Carol Behar of Las Vegas; a daughter, Alana Riener of California; a sister, Suzan Hoffman of California; a brother, Leo Behar of California; and two grandchildren.

Next Column: December 7, 2003
Copyright: November 30, 2003. 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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