The formal announcement of the coming together of the inimitable Michael Feinstein and New York’s popular nightclub 54 Below, was made on Thursday September 17th at the club. Michael Feinstein, Ambassador of the Great American Songbook, seeking a New York home after...

        Interview by Marilyn Lester   When Broadway powerhouse Craig Schulman headlines the upcoming Robin’s Nest/A Benefit for HelpUsAdopt.org it will be as one who knows whereof he speaks. In 1998 Schulman and wife Monica Robinson experienced the unthinkable: the...

    Interview by Marilyn Lester   Singer-songwriter Kiki Ebsen is the youngest of Buddy Ebsen’s seven children – and the one on the end of a 20-year span of siblings that’s gone most actively into show business. It’s partially from this perspective that Ebsen has created “To...

      by: Sandi Durell   Today was a photo and interview op with the stars of the upcoming Manhattan Theatre Club’s “Fool For Love” where Tony Award Winner Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur, Born Yesterday), Sam Rockwell (A Behanding in Spokane, The Way Way...

  Cooper Lawrence, radio and television personality, a PhD and author of five books, has had a history of interviewing some of film and television’s most famous. Happily, she shared her recent interview with Meryl Streep and Rick Springfield, two of the stars from “Ricki and...

      Interview by Marilyn Lester   That popular axiom of real estate, “location, location, location,” may well translate to theater as “timing, timing, timing.” Certainly a matter of timing was the case for Michele Lee, who’s just assumed the role of Madame Morrible in...

      AUGUST 3, 2015. This past weekend, actor-turned-filmmaker Michael Lee Stever, (Super Force, Broadway; The Golden Age) and revered stage actress and Academy Award nominee Piper Laurie (The Hustler, Twin Peaks, Carrie) joined Scares That Care founder Joe Ripple and his...

      by Marilyn Lester   The “This Is Your Night” series, hosted by Metropolitan Room Managing Partner, Bernie Furshpan, profiles an honoree who has “contributed in some significant way to the NYC Entertainment Industry.”  With a packed house, and a cavalcade of some 30...

  An illuminating and entertaining intergenerational look at two dance legends.       By Joel Benjamin       Illuminating doesn’t begin to describe the meeting of two charismatic dance/theater artists on the stage of the Upper West Side’s go to place for...

  Interview by: Paulanne Simmons         In 2009 when Ty Jones became artistic director and a member of the board at the Classical Theatre of Harlem, the organization was in financial distress and had lost the confidence of many supporters. Six years later, thanks to...

            By Brian Scott Lipton   In less than a decade, Billy Magnussen has emerged as one of the most exciting young actors of his generation, excelling both on the stage (including his Tony-nominated turn as the frequently unclothed Spike in Broadway’s...

    by: Brian Scott Lipton   A group of outsiders gather in the parking lot of a now-closed seedy New Orleans hotel to give a “living funeral” to the woman they revere. That’s the plot of Lisa D’Amour’s “Airline Highway,” which arrives on April 1 at Manhattan Theatre Club’s...

    by: Brian Scott Lipton   There’s gold in the hills of New York City Center! Well, to be precise, there will be scores of good-looking gold miners on the New York City Center stage – in the personage of such actors as Keith Carradine, Justin Guarini, and Nathaniel Hackmann –...

                by: Brian Scott Lipton             Deceit. Betrayal. Intrigue. Death. These are just a few of the heart-pounding activities that take place throughout “Wolf Hall,” the two-part play based on Dame Hilary...

        By Brian Scott Lipton     March is a month of milestones for two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster (“Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Anything Goes.”). On March 18, the eternally gamine singer-dancer turns 40. On March 31, her new TV series “Younger,”...

  by: Brian Scott Lipton   Ooh la la! The first-ever stage adaptation of the beloved MGM musical “An American in Paris” is getting ready to hit our shores (after a debut last year in Paris), with previews beginning at Broadway’s Palace Theatre on March 13 in advance of an April 12...

        By: Sandi Durell       As I was thinking about how cold it was here (3 deg.), the phone rings and it’s Lani Hall (Mrs. Herb Alpert) calling from Malibu, Ca. where, she says, the weather is just . . . well just, just! More importantly, however, was...

                by: Sandi Durell   January 18th, marked the day that songwriter Ervin Drake (1919-2015) was put to rest after passing away on January 15th. The rains came down in what seemed like endless torrents all day, but the Riverside Funeral...

      Interview by Sherry Amatenstein   It’s not a job for the faint of heart to take on the lead role in Here Lies Loves, the dazzling ‘poperetta’ by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim that offers the audience an aerobic experience along with a unique and dazzling show. Enter Jaygee...

By Brian Scott Lipton Photos/Video: Sandi Durell   Perhaps we truly cannot go “back to before,” but Broadway songwriters Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty saw 30 years pass before their eyes in just a few hours on Monday, November 24 as they were celebrated at the York Theatre Company’s...

      by: Sandi Durell & Magda Katz   “I Am Harvey Milk” – an oratorio written by Tony and Grammy Award Nominee Andrew Lippa in which he and Kristin Chenoweth appeared for a one-night only concert at Avery Fisher Hall, featured Noah Marlowe and the...

    by: Brian Scott Lipton   Strange things can happen when family and friends converge in the country, as we’ve seen in such great works as Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s “A Little Night Music.” Now, Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies...

  By Sherry Amatenstein         From the opening moments of a telephone interview, playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis has the ability to make a stranger – a reporter! – feel like a trusted friend to whom he can spill his secrets, vulnerabilities and...

  by: Sandi Durell   I’m happy to have found this review and interview I had with Elaine at the Cafe Carlyle and to share it with you! (Sept. 14, 2011) How can an 86 year old veteran actress keep coming up with new surprises? Seems to be unique to this sleek looking leggy...

by: Sandi Durell             There’s a new musical about to open in previews on June 25th, with an official opening night on July 21st – “Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story.” The highly anticipated musical has been brewing for 15...