Ritt Henn News

Broadway's Future Songbook Series - presented by Arts and Artists of Tomorrow continues its twenty-sixth season on Saturday, December 10th in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center located at 111 Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street.  

Urban Stages has confirmed the line-up for this year's award-winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin tomorrow, Thursday, December 1, and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

Urban Stages has announced the line-up for this year's Award Winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2016, which will begin Thursday, December 1 and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

'Without Dietrich, there would have been no Madonna...and no Gaga,' Janice Hall announced at the outset of her brilliant revival of GRAND ILLUSIONS: THE MUSIC OF MARLENE DIETRICH, the most recent installment of Stephen Hanks' New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Co-produced by Father Jeffrey R. Hamblin and flawlessly directed by Peter Napolitano, Hall's show---for which the former opera singer won both MAC and Bistro awards in 2011 and 2012, respectively---seamlessly weaves together the music and life of the enigmatic movie star and international cabaret sensation whose greatest creation, in Hall's words, 'was herself.'

What do Anita Gillette (multiple award-winning Broadway actress and beloved star of theatre, film and television), and Harold Sanditen (international cabaret favourite and charismatic emcee in London's West End) have in common?

Amy Beth Williams returns to Don't Tell Mama with her show, Carried Away, featuring: Daryl Kojak - Piano Ritt Henn - Bass Will Holshouser = Accordion John Henry Williams - Violin

Cabaret audiences who fell head over heels for opera singer Janice Hall's 2010-2011 solo debut show—Grand Illusions: The Music of Marlene Dietrich—will get to fall in love all over again (and a new audience can become smitten for the first time) when Hall reprises her Award-winning show at the Metropolitan Room on September 13 at 7 pm, in the 12th installment of Stephen Hanks' monthly New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits Series (Associate Producer, Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD). Hall's Marlene Dietrich show is directed by Peter Napolitano, with Matthew Martin Ward as Musical Director/Pianist and Ritt Henn on bass and ukulele.

The Broadway at Birdland concert series was thrilled to present Tony Award-nominee Tony Yazbeck in concert, celebrating the release of his first studio solo CD, 'The Floor Above Me' (PS Classics). Scroll down for photos from the concert!

In a follow-up to their 2013 presentation Sin Twisters, on Wednesday night at Feinstein's/54 Below, show biz veterans Anita Gillette and Penny Fuller offered stories from the Broadway trenches, songs from their musical history, and affectionate one-upmanship, again deftly directed by Barry Kleinbort.

Feinstein's/54 Below, 'Broadway's Supper Club', presents JAY ALAN ZIMMERMAN'S NAUGHTY & NICE HOLIDAY SONGBOOK tonight, December 17th, 9:30pm.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, "Broadway's Supper Club", announces ANGEL DESAI has joined the cast of JAY ALAN ZIMMERMAN'S NAUGHTY & NICE HOLIDAY SONGBOOK on Thursday, December 17th, 9:30pm. 

This week FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visitwww.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

Feinstein's/54 Below, "Broadway's Supper Club", presents JAY ALAN ZIMMERMAN'S NAUGHTY & NICE HOLIDAY SONGBOOK on Thursday, December 17th, 9:30pm.

Eric Yves Garcia has stepped away from the piano. I repeat, stepped away from the piano. The performer strides into the center stage light, his dark eyes twinkling, his jaw defined by just the right amount of stubble. This guy could be a movie star. I was excited. For the Metropolitan Room audience, Garcia's November 5 opening night of his new show Pour Spirits was about to be a down and dirty tell-all of some of New York's bacchanalian carousers as related by the handsome, attentive piano man of Chez Josephine, Bemelmans Bar, and other NYC nightspots. Garcia remained center stage for the better part of the show, allowing his inner storyteller and actor to take the reins, punctuating his alcohol-soaked dispatches from the wrong side of midnight with songs far afield of the traditional American Songbook.

For the third installment of his New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits--a wonderful new monthly series at the Metropolitan Room celebrating award winning and critically acclaimed cabaret shows of the past--Producer Stephen Hanks (and his Cabaret Life Productions) wisely chose Maxine Linehan's What Would Petula Do? A Tribute to Petula Clark. Although this show won no awards, nor received critical acclaim in 2009 (when I first saw it at the Laurie Beechman Theatre), Linehan's revival this past Monday night of one of her first cabaret shows could certainly be considered one the best of this or any year. 

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director, Peter Napolitano, Producer/Director of Musical Programming) today announced the line-up for this year's Award-Winning Musical event WINTER RHYTHMS 2015, which will begin Wednesday, December 2 and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through December 13, 2015 at Urban Stages Theatre. WINTER RHYTHMS 2015 marks the seventh year that Urban Stages has brought noted musical artists to its stage during the holiday period. The mission of Winter Rhythms is to bring the talents of known and unknown singers, musicians, lyricists and composers to the attention of the New York theater community while performing at Urban Stages Theater. Winner of the 2015 Ruth Kurtzman Benefit Series MAC Award, WINTER RHYTHMS benefits Urban Stages' acclaimed Outreach Program, which brings more than 200 free "arts in education" presentations to libraries and schools throughout the five boroughs. This year's event features 20 shows and more than 100 artists.

Urban Stages announces the line-up for this year's Award Winning Musical event WINTER RHYTHMS 2015, which will begin Wednesday, December 2and will feature some of New York's best musical performances through December 13, 2015 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30thStreet, just East of 8th Avenue). Tickets are $25 per show and may be purchased by visiting urbanstages.org or by calling (866) 811-4111. For complete schedule information, visit urbanstages.org.

After critically lauded shows in New York, London and Paris, award-winning performer Eric Yves Garcia (Margaret Whiting Award; Bistro Award for Singing Instrumentalist) debuts his new show, 'Pour Spirits', on Thursday, November 5th at The Metropolitan Room.

For the third night of this year's Cabaret Convention at Town Hall, the uber-enthusiastic Karen Mason hosted Life Is a Cabaret (Directed by Barry Kleinbort) in celebration of long time collaborators, composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb. Introduced to each other by their mutual music publisher in 1962, the team's first Broadway show was 1965's Flora the Red Menace in which Liza Minnelli made her Broadway debut and with which the three began a long association. Their last together (Kander is alive and hopefully writing), was 2015's The Visit starring Chita Rivera, a production Ebb (who died in 2004) unfortunately didn't live to see. Kander and Ebb's best known musicals are Cabaret and Chicago, both of which seem to run forever on popular appeal, but they wrote many others, a wide selection of which were represented at Thursday night's show.