BroadwayHD

Elaine Stritch

Elaine Stritch’s deeply personal Tony winning one person show Elaine Stritch at Liberty will stream exclusively on BroadwayHD beginning on March 1.

February 15, 2023: BroadwayHD, the premier streaming service for live theatre, announced that Elaine Stritch At Liberty the Tony Award®-winner for Best Special Theatrical Event, will be available to stream on their platform worldwide beginning on March 1, 2023. In this deeply personal one-woman show, legend Elaine Stritch details her 50-plus-year career on stage and screen in front of a mesmerized audience at London’s Old Vic Theater.

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Classical Music For Kids

American Classical Orchestra’s CMK – Classical Music For Kids

By: Alix Cohen

February 8, 2023: Two hundred fresh-faced, well behaved, grey-flanneled kindergarten to second graders file into the auditorium of St. Ignatius Loyola School filled with anticipation. It looks like a Bemelman’s drawing. The occasion is a presentation of Sergey Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf arranged for chamber orchestra by American Classical Orchestra’s Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford.

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Broadway Update

Leslie Odom, Jr.

Broadway Update: Leslie Odom, Jr. Stars in Purlie Victorious

By: David Sheward

February 3, 2023: Tony winner Leslie Odom, Jr. (Hamilton) will star in a revival of Ossie Davis’ comedy Purlie Victorious, set for a Broadway run in late summer 2023. Tony winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, Ohio State Murders, Topdog/Underdog) will stage the play which premiered on Broadway in 1961 starring Davis and his wife and frequent collaborator Ruby Dee. Subtitled “A Non-Confederate Romp through the Cotton Patch,” Purlie Victorious is a satire on stereotypical visions of a mythic Old South centering on the travelling preacher Purlie Victorious Judson who returns to his home town to save the community’s church and foil the bigoted plantation owner, Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee’. A film version entitled Gone Are the Days was released in 1963 with the 1961 Broadway cast repeating their roles including Davis, Dee, Godfrey Cambridge, Beah Richards, Sorrell Booke, and Alan Alda in his film debut. A 1970 musical version, titled Purlie, ran for 668 performances and won Tonys for Cleavon Little and Melba Moore’s performances.

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Broadway Babe

Omar Sharif, Barbra Streisand

Nostalgic finds from Broadway Babe include a Vintage Garry Moore Show with a young Barbra Streisand, a rare, start studded, 2002 Actors Fund Benefit and more. 

February 4, 2023: Broadway Babe, Randie Levine-Miller, has more nostalgic entertainment finds to share including, the Actors Fund benefit of “Funny Girl in Concert”; the old Gary Moore Show with a very young Barbra Streisand, Robert Goulet and Carol Burnett; Joan Rivers wowing her British audience; and Melissa Manchester paying tribute to Streisand for her 80th birthday.

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A Place For Us

Ari Axelrod

A Place For Us: A Celebration of Jewish Broadway
“Theater is my temple and my religion and my act of faith.” Harvey Fierstein

By: Alix Cohen

February 3, 2023: “Something’s Coming” ( Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim –West Side Story) opens this show with quicksilver nuance, not the usual swelling vocal. Ari Axelrod Puckishly plays. He bounces, hands on thighs, moving around the stage as if in a game of blindman’s bluff. It’s almost clownish – like Bill Irwin in a Beckett piece, serious clowning. Be alert, be aware he seems to say. With the shusssh of a skier, “Miracle of Miracles” ( Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick- Fiddler on the Roof ) exuberantly follows. “God has made a man today,” he stomps.

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BroadwayHD

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Memorable stories of Love & Romance on BroadwayHD 

January 27, 2023: Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and BroadwayHD has a perfect lineup of titles on love and romance for theatre fans. There are stories about star-crossed lovers, forbidden love, and even a fairy tale romance. There’s something for everyone to enjoy at the most  Romantic time of the year and maybe rekindle some old flames, if necessary. If you’re still thinking about what to watch around Valentine’s day, check out the titles below, all available on BroadwayHD for streaming from the comfort of your home.

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Anthony Rapp’s Without You

Anthony Rapp

January 26, 2023: Anthony Rapp opened his solo show, Without You, at New World Stages on January 25th, 2023, to a house filled with his Rentfamily and friends. Based on his New York Times Best Selling Book of the same name, Without You follows Rapp’s journey to Rent, its profound impact on his life, and the simultaneous losses of Jonathan Larson and his mother. Opening night marks 27 years to the day that RENT had its first public performance at New York Theatre Workshop.

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Broadway Update

Adrienne Warren

Broadway Update: Making ‘Room’ and Changes to the OCC Awards

By: David Sheward

January 25, 2023: The 2023 Broadway spring season is getting more crowded. The latest entry is Room, Emma Donoghue’s stage adaptation of her best-selling novel. She also adapted the work for the 2015 film version for which Brie Larsen won a Best Actress Oscar. Tony winner Adrienne Warren (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) will star as the young woman who is held captive by a sexual predator with her son in a shed. The play which features songs by Scottish songwriters Kathryn Joseph and Cora Bissett and direction by Ms. Bissett, will begin preview performances at the James Earl Jones Theater on April 3, prior to an April 17 opening. Room has had previous production in London (both in England and Canada), Dublin, Glasgow, and Toronto. Additional cast members will be announced.

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ACA Galleries

John Baeder, Market Tower, 2007 Oil on canvas, 30 x 48 in.

John Baeder:  Looking Back (1972-2018) on view at ACA Galleries, through February 18,2023.

January 29 2022:  ACA Galleries, 529 West 20th Street, hosted a reception to celebrate the artist John Baeder. ACA and MB Abram announced John Baeder’s first exhibition at the gallery, which began in early November. Comprising five decades of work from 1972 – 2018 the show includes the last remaining paintings from the artist’s personal collection alongside his final series of Matchbook Cover paintings as well as his luminous still life photographs.

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Off-Broadway Update

Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick in “Days of Wine and Roses”

Off-Broadway Update: Days of Wine and Roses. Musical

By: David Sheward

January 22, 2023: A musical version of the 1962 film Days of Wine and Roses will open Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company with previews starting May 5 and continuing till June 25. An opening date has not yet been announced. The show is a hot item because of its stars and the creative team. Tony winners Kelli O’Hara ( The King and I ) and Tony nominee and Drama Desk winner Brian d’Arcy James ( Sweet Smell of Success, Shrek ) will plays the leads, a young couple battling alcoholism played by Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon in the film (Piper Laurie and Cliff Robertson starred in the original 1958 TV play.) The score is by Adam Guettel (Richard Rodgers’ grandson and Mary Rodgers’ son) and Craig Lucas pens the book based on JP Miller’s screenplay. Michael Grief (Rent ) directs. Guettel and Lucas previously collaborated on The Light in the Piazza, both winning Tonys, which starred O’Hara.

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Bryce Edwards Frivolity Hour

Bryce Edwards Frivolity Hour – A Good Time Was Had By All

By: Alix Cohen

January 23, 2023: Embodying performance style of another era risks becoming an acquired (audience) taste. My response? I’ve discovered a great one. Bryce Edwards inhabits the 1920s/1930s like a bespoke suit. The multifaceted musician plays at least the five instruments proffered tonight and sings in nasal, megaphone-like, wah-wah and eef fashion popular at the time.

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BroadwayHD

Audra McDonald in “Lady Day”.

Celebrate Black History Month with Award -Winning productions on BroadwayHD.

January 20, 2023: BroadwayHD is honoring Black History Month with the voices of indelible stars like Audra McDonald and Montego Glover starring in Award-winning Broadway productions. The incredible stories of music, laughter, and community include Porgy & Bess, Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill and Pipeline. Below is more detailed information about each of these mesmerizing productions.

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Broadway Babe

Barbra Streisand

Nostalgic finds from Broadway Babe Randie Levine-Miller feature Barbra Streisand, Johnny Carson, and Fred Astaire with Ethel Merman.

The Friars Roast of Johnny Carson

January 22, 2023: This is real show business history where you see many of the comedic greats of yesteryear… From 1968, “The Friars Roast Of Johnny Carson,” with a star-studded cast of legendary performers who, unfortunately, are no longer with us. Then Mayor John V. Lindsay (looking movie star gorgeous) introduces the Roast. Carson is the guest of honor and is roasted by Roast Master and former Alan King and other comic legends including Groucho Marx, Don Rickles, Flip Wilson; along with Ed McMahon, Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan. Friars tradition is “you only Roast the ones you love” and that comes through on this show. After Carson is roasted, he then comes back at them with his barbs.  This entertaining Roast was not X-rated, which was the tradition of the Roasts, as it aired as part of the Kraft Musical series on NBC-TV, but it is still quite wonderful, and very watchable.

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Martin Luther King Tribute @BAM

By: Isa Goldberg

January 17, 2023: The 37th Annual Tribute to Martin Luther King, on the morning of January 16th, 2023, at The Brooklyn Academy of Music delivered a wham bang wake up call. Contemporary gospel-style music performed by the youthful voices of the Harlem Sings Choir made the morning soulful.

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Broadway/Off-Broadway Update

Jose Llana and Ruthie Ann Miles in the Off-Broadway production of “Here Lies Love”.

Here Lies Love and Hamlet

By: David Sheward

January 13, 2022: The new year has barely begun, but there are already theatrical plans for summer 2023. Here Lies Love, the immersive disco musical based on the career of the infamous Imelda Marcos and the rise of the People Power Revolution of the Philippines, will make its Broadway debut and the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park series at the Delacorte will present yet another production of Hamlet, this time set in a post-COVID contemporary America.

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