Ron and I are hosting, so there’s be lots of surprises.  One thing not to be surprised at — please bring an unwrapped gift for Toys for Tots.  We’re expecting Marines to be coming to pick up the gifts!

Sign-up will be at 7:30pm and singing at 8:00pm.  The Atlas Theater is located at 1333 H St NE in Washington DC.

An interview with the stars who are about to open their revue on Broadway: 

Q. But you’re both such big personalities. Is it a challenge to share a stage together?

LUPONE There’s no challenge at all. I think insecure big personalities can’t share a stage. [Laughs]

Sunday, November 13, they’ll be performing an extended version of their concert Boom! at Strathmore at 7:30.

And on Monday, November 14, they’ll be presenting a master class for local singers at the Arts Club of Washington, Noon – 2:30.  Auditor slots still available.  More info.

THe NYTimes on cabaret’s top mother/son team:“The singer Sandy Stewart is the queen of calm. In a world in which everyone is shouting to be heard, Ms. Stewart — appearing with her son, the world-class jazz pianist Bill Charlap, at the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room — is a voice of reflection. As she and Mr. Charlap performed standards on Wednesday, you had the feeling of being in the presence of an empathic sibyl gently reminding you that life goes on.”

As to Maureen McGovern’s stand at Birdland: “Vocally Ms. McGovern, now 62, is a pop-jazz embodiment of that ideal. Unfailingly demure, unabashedly romantic, with a voice as strong and flexible as Barbra Streisand’s, she can go anywhere she pleases. It is a voice especially well suited to songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein and Alan and Marilyn Bergman.”

Participant slot — $125* / Audience slot — $40

Monday, 14 November 2011

More information

Registration: 11:30am / Class: Noon – 2:30pm.

Arts Club of Washington, 2017 I St NW, Washington DC

For additional information or to register, please contact Michael Miyazaki at MichaelMiyazaki@aol.com

*Currently all available participant slots have been filled; a wait list for cancellations is currently available.

Amanda McBroom Review in the Times

“…Jacques Brel’s “Carousel,” a song Ms. McBroom has sung for years, became an accelerating merry-go-round into madness in which the narrator metamorphoses from an angel into a demonic witch. Singing “The Portrait,” a sad autobiographical song about her mother, Ms. McBroom regressed into a little girl, extending her arms to the audience as she pleaded “Mama,” her face contorted in panic. Even “The Rose,”which is usually interpreted as an inspirational song of hope, was infused with despair and anxiety, its promised springtime a long way off.

““Strange Days” is a leap for Ms. McBroom, who conveyed the concentrated intensity of a Method actor determined to go to the depths. Arriving just in time for Halloween, it might be described as Ms. McBroom’s personal spook show. ”

A Look at Hugh Jackman on Broadway

The always-pointed Michael Riedel provides some inside-insight on the star’s Broadway appearance.

Jeff Blumenkrantz Wins the Fred Ebb Songwriting Award

Congratulation to the friend-of-this-blog named recipient of the seventh annual Fred Ebb Award, an honor for rising
musical theatre songwriters.

When I checked in to the DC / Phoenix portion of my flight yesterday I have to admit I was disappointed I didn’t score an upgrade to first class.  Until…  I noticed that John McCain was on the flight,evidently travelling home to Arizona by himself.  The thought of being sat next to him for four hours would have been a little overwhelming.  I mean, everybody on the flight owed him a debt, because there would be no DCA/West Coast flights if it weren’t for legislation he rammed through totally going against the plans of the regional airport authority so he (and we) could have the convenience of a direct flight home to Phoenix without going via Dulles or BWI.  But then the conversation might have gotten more pointed and I would probably have been met by the Secret Service in Phoenix.

So the moral — things work out.

The whole review is worth reading.