When the Celebrity Summit sails to Bermuda this summer, it will do so after enhancing its New York talent via a partnership with Manhattan’s noted “54 Below” to deliver a direct-from-Broadway experience.

Faith Prince

If 54 Below is unfamiliar to you, this will give it a little identity: It’s ensconced in a cool, cozy cellar space beneath the legendary, disco-era Studio 54. It has been dubbed “a throwback to the heyday of authentic New York nightlife” and “the hot new stage attracting Broadway’s brightest stars.”

Here is a list of the talents appearing at one time or another on the Summit’s Bermuda cruises this summer…

• Faith Prince, Tony Award winner for Best Actress in a Musical for Guys & Dolls

• Donna McKechnie, Tony Award winner for Best Actress in a Musical in A Chorus Line

• Anthony Rapp, best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in Rent

• Jarrod Spector, who starred as Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys

• Alice Ripley, who won a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for Next to Normal, and also has appeared in Les Miserables and Sunset Boulevard; star of the hit TV show Glee

Tom Wopat

• Andrea McArdle, who went on to also star in Les Miserables, Starlight Express and Beauty & The Beast

• Tom Wopat of TV’s The Dukes of Hazzard, City of Angels, 42nd St., Guys & Dolls, Chicago and Sondheim on Sondheim

• Karen Mason, who has appeared in Mamma Mia! and Hairspray and is best known for her portrayal of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard

All for now.

Today at cruisingdoneright.com: Norwegian Breakaway not full?

Richard Ridge, host of Broadway Beat for 20 years, spoke at Bradshaw Smith’s memorial.

Speaking at yesterday’s memorial for the award-winning cabaret singer, producer and videographer Bradshaw Smith, actor and ventriloquist Todd Stockman announced to the somber crowd, “I have a surprise for you.” Bending down, he pulled a fire-haired puppet from a small black bag, a puppet he hasn’t performed with for 15 years. “Are Bradshaw and John in heaven?” the puppet asked Mr. Stockman, referring to Mr. Smith’s partner John Scoullar, who passed in March 2011. “Because I can smell the marijuana all the way down here.”

Mr. Smith, who died in January from a sudden stroke, began his career as a cabaret artist, winning the 1987 MAC Award for Best Male Vocalist and the 1985 Backstage Bistro Award. In 1885, Mr. Smith went behind the camera and began the cable television show, Cabaret Beat, which eventually morphed into Broadway Beat. The show featured over 1,000 Broadway and cabaret performances, interviews with artists, opening and award ceremonies and other theatre events.

Though a memorial, Monday night’s performances at the Pershing Square Signature Center were not all filled with tears and painful goodbyes. “Bradshaw always told me, ‘Don’t sing sad songs, life is sad enough,’” Mr. Stockman said. Thus, the group of cabaret singers, Broadway actors and lifelong friends of the deceased performer tried their best to remember Mr. Smith with smiles.

Jamie deRoy, a singer and comedian, laughed and shook her head as she recalled the time Mr. Smith recorded one of her performances over a porno tape. “Bradshaw, I will miss you so,” she exclaimed, blowing a kiss upward.

She credited Mr. Smith for the success of her own cable television show, Jamie deRoy and Friends, her solo venture after co-hosting Cabaret Beat with Sydney Myer, who also spoke at the memorial.

“When we did my cable TV show, we would sit in his room and edit. Those were some of my favorite moments. The tape is rolling, and we’re just bearing our souls,” she told The Observer after the ceremony. “Sometimes it was him bitching about something, but he was a softie, really.”

Cabaret singer Linda Harris listed the things she would miss sharing with Mr. Smith: dinners at the Westway, DVDs of True Blood and his famous tuna pasta salad. Other speakers fondly remembered his cat, Butch, who relaxed on the equipment while Mr. Smith and his guests edited videos. Nearly everyone who performed commented on his generosity, crediting Mr. Smith for their careers.

“He was like the best friend who told you what nobody else would tell you,” singer and songwriter Meg Flather told The Observer. Cabaret performer Karen Mason said he would give her the best beauty advice. “He was always very conscious, if I was in one of those gala lines, making sure I looked good,” she told The Observer, laughing. “It’s really good, to have somebody in your face who’s lovingly saying, ‘Karen, put on a little lipstick.’”

Other friends remembered Mr. Smith with clever musical numbers. Theatre star Lee Roy Reams donned a red feather boa to perform the suggestive “La Cage Aux Folles” from the musical with the same name. “It takes a man to wear a boa like this!” he bellowed as his performance began, claiming the song was one of Mr. Smith’s favorites. Comedian Mario Cantone performed a parody of the theme song from Twilight of the Golds, singing, “His head could be shaped like a perfect balloon. But what if he’s gay in the womb?” Dan Daly, who lived near Mr. Smith and his partner at their Grove Manor home in Fire Island, sang a hand-written song about a broken-hearted man and his prince. “I hope I can make it through this,” he said somberly before the performance.

Susie Mosher, one of Mr. Smith’s neighbors, also performed at the memorial. “His spirit was so generous. It’s almost shocking. It’s almost archaic. I mean, who’s like that anymore?” Ms. Mosher told The Observer after the memorial, recalling late nights spent talking in Mr. Smith’s apartment. “He made me feel so taken care of. He was such a daddy.”

She was home the night Mr. Smith has his stroke. “My partner, Hope, was over at his apartment, editing with him, editing a brand new beginning for Broadway Beat. We’d finally convinced him, after 20 years, to put ‘Bradshaw Smith Presents Broadway Beat,’” Ms. Mosher said.

Mr. Myer, who co-hosted Cabaret Beat, remembered meeting Mr. Smith at the cabaret club Panache in 1981. “He was wonderful, larger than life,” he told the crowd. “He was to cabaret like what MTV was to rock-and roll… Bradshaw’s visionary videography has made it possible for many cabaret performers to live forever.”

The evening also featured presentations from Steven Skeels, Jerad Bortz, Jeff Harnar, Julie Halston and Richard Ridge and two slideshows depicting Mr. Smith’s life in pictures and in clips from his videography and cabaret careers.

Looking around the memorial, Ms. Flather smiled, commenting, “This is elegant and perfectly Bradshaw.”

What I’m getting at here is we are all on a journey, and only a small percentage of us actually know what that journey is. We all have general journeys of working, paying our bills, and securing a retirement life for our golden years… but speaking in detail… what is your journey?

I can help by adding… my journey, is first to grow as a person.  Hey Jeff! That’s to general, it belongs in the paragraph above.” OK, I’ll accept that, moving on… my journey is to be as best a screenwriter I can be and sell a screenplay or two or more. But wait! I have another journey, to be a popular blog writer. I also want to write a book, I’m also open to acting again, Wait I also am exploring a detox cleanse to help me shed a few pounds.

What’s happening here is we all have MANY journeys. Some intertwine, some not. But sit back, and think, think about the journeys you are on… where you are headed, what you are involved in. Sometimes just thinking about something and reminding ourselves why we are here… gives us a clearer picture of who we are and how we fit in.

Smiling in NYC.

-Jeff

I was lucky enough to get a pre-release copy of the new CD Take You There,  from Uptown Express and was both surprised and excited right away.

I’ll tell the truth, the first time through I was engaged by the music but laughed out loud (LOL!) at each song change. By the third song, I was on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. You see, I didn’t get a track list so I had really no idea. I encourage you to listen without first studying that list.

I don’t often yell to people to come listen to something, but this time I did it several times. You would have thought I was the one singing. I was so amazed by the quality of each song and that just about every song is a favorite. It’s one of those collections you feel was done as your own, personal mix tape!

Here is another thing I don’t usually do with music (besides laughing and calling people over!)… amidst the mayhem comes Erasure’s Always. I had actually gotten a pre-pre-release of that song, so I knew it was coming, but hearing it in the mix of the rest got me. I choked up a little there. OK, a lot. I LOVE that song! I sang right along with Chris. I don’t think I’ll be the 5th member or anything, but I didn’t need a microphone. ‘Nuff said.

I can best describe the ‘happy’ of this CD by saying that as I drive along and hear random songs on the radio, a song will come on that makes me sit up, sing along and hope to remember its name so I can add it to my imaginary jukebox. This CD is like the jukebox in my mind. Each song, though very different from the last, made me sit up and remember a time, a place, a person.

I won’t go through all the tracks, I’m really hoping you’ll feel some of that surprise that I did, but the songs range from superstar covers to Broadway kitsch and cabaret to current stuff. Each member has his time to shine and shine each one does. The voices, each different on their own and then when they all sing together… another kind of magic. Friend of the group and a New York diva-megafab star in her own rite, Karen Mason winds up the CD belting out Bette like nobody’s business.

If you like a CD with all  fun music… that’s  AllFunMusik!, or if you like a group of hot guys singing to you, or even if you just don’t have enough CDs to fill that new rack you bought at Ikea… get to a music store, the Uptown Express site or do what I did and all the really cool people do, get on iTunes and download it using your American Express card and pay for it next month. And, yes, I did buy it even though I had a free copy. I liked it a lot and hey… these guys gotta eat. Hmmm…. 4 Gay guys… how much are they really going to eat? Then they’ll run to the gym. Hey, maybe I can get a refund and get a hamburger and a pillow. Where was I?… right… buy it. They don’t have to eat, but they have to buy outfits for all those TV and stage appearances. You’ll be seeing and hearing from them quite a bit from now on, I suspect.

OH! Always is on again…. gotta go. Great job guys. You took me there and back! Cheers!

Uptown Express last album review

Uptown Express Official Website

Uptown Express on Facebook

Members: Chris Caswell, John DePalma, David Gurland, Brad Parks, Music Director: James Followell

The universally panned production of Bye Bye Birdie, starring John Stamos and Gina Gershon, closed on Broadway on Jan 24 after playing 117 performances. Though selling at 90% capacity, producers decided the show’s success would dwindle upon the departure of its stars and so closed as planned, rather than extending its run.

Hello New Work

Wildhorn’s Wonderland

An exciting new musical that’s been getting lots of buzz in the social media sphere Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlett Pimpernel, The Civil War) and Jack Murphy’s (The Civil War) Wonderland, a new take on Lewis Carol’s “Alice in Wonderland.” The show opened on Jan 20 at the Alley Theatre in Houston.

The cast includes a lot of Broadway names, including Janet Dacal (In the Heights, Good Vibrations), Jose Llana (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Karen Mason (Sunset Boulevard, Mamma Mia!), Darren Ritchie (Dracula: The Musical), Nikki Snelson (Legally Blonde), Ed Staudenmayer (Forbidden Broadway) and Tad Wilson (Rock of Ages).

This show definitely has Broadway aspirations, though no dates or official plans have yet been announced. Cross your fingers that its sooner rather than later.

Duncan Sheik’s The Whisper House

Spring Awakening‘s Dunkan Sheik celebrated the world premiere of Whisper House, which opened Jan. 21 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. The show, which features a hauntingly beautiful score, has hopes of making it to Broadway sometime in the next couple of years.

The Pee Wee Herman Show

Another show with Broadway aims is the Pee Wee Herman Show, which opened on Jan 20 at the Los Angeles’ Club Nokia @ L.A. LIVE. Paul Reubens stars the title role he created back in the 1980s and looks to be having just as much fun today as he did back then. Though more a show with music than a musical, I couldn’t not include it on the blog here. I mean, it’s Pee Wee Herman!

A Spice Girls Musical?

Yep. Pee Wee Herman isn’t the only pop-culture icon to be brought to the stage. Mamma Mia! producer Judy Craymer is turning her attention to a jukebox musical that will use the songs (and we can only hope, the personalities) of that crazy English girl-group of the 90s – the Spice Girls.

New Horizons

Original Foursome will Make their Broadway Debuts with Million Dollar Quartet

The original foursome from the Chicago production of the musical Million Dollar Quartet, Eddie Clendening, Lance Guest, Levi Kreis and Rob Lyons, will reprise their roles in the show’s Broadway premiere, all making their Broadway premieres. They will be joined by two Broadway veterans: Hunter Foster (Urinetown, Little Shop of Horrors) and Elizabeth Stanley (Cry-Baby, Company).

Showtime to Document the Process of Taking a Musical from Concept to Broadway

If you’ve kept up with the blog here, you know that Speilberg is producing a new Showtime series tracing the evolution of a new musical.

Composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can) were previously announced as being on board, and now a writer has surfaced – Theresa Rebeck – the author who penned the recent off-Broadway hit the Understudy and has a fair number of TV shows under her belt.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see this show get off the ground, and if the success of Glee and the long string of casting shows series, I’m not the only one that’ll be eating it up.

Norbert Leo Butz on TV

Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Wicked, The Last Five Years) is starring as Rowdy Kaiser on ABC’s “The Deep End,” a new drama series about five first-year lawyers starting out at a top firm. If you missed last week’s premiere – check it out on ABC’s website.

WOW! Seriously. Wow! I just received the copy of the soundtrack today. Oh my goodness, this is an amazing musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass. This show is filled with a beautifully eclectic style of voices mixed with astounding music! If I didn’t know any better I’d almost be fooled into thinking this was a CD of songs from different bands, it seriously is an amazing sounding album.

Wonderland: Alice‘s New Musical Adventure was a limited engagement at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. It opened this last year on November 24th, 2009, and closed early this year on January 4th, 2010. This original musical had its world début at TBPAC. For those lucky to live close enough, it get the opportunity to see it when it moved to Houston, Texas for another limited engagement running January 9th to February 14th, 2009.

This musical has some big names, aside from  Alice, The Mad Hatter, the White Knight, the Caterpillar, the Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, even the Jabberwock, who are all old classic characters who have undergone a modern makeover from Lewis Carroll‘s Alice in Wonderland and it’s book sequel Through the Looking Glass! Both books have inspired countless more books, movies, and t.v. shows.

Wonderland

Book by Jack Murphey & Gregory Boyd     Lyrics by Jack Murphy     Music by Frank Wildhorn

Directed by Gregory Boyd     Choreography by Marguerite Derricks     Produced by Frank Wildhorn & Jeremy

Alice Cornwinkle - Janet Dacal          Chloe – Julie Brooks

The Caterpillar – Eugene Fleming          El Gato - Jse Llana         

Mrs. Everheart/Queen of Hearts – Karen Mason

Jack/White Knight – Darren Ritchie    

Madeline/Mad Hatter – Nikki Snelson

Richard/Rabbit - Ed Staduenmayer          Jabberwock – Tad Wilson

Think you recognize some of these names?

Janet Dacal (Alice) came from her Broadway performances of In the Heights, a 2008 Tony Award winning musical. She has also lended her vocal stylings for Grammy winning artists like Gloria Estefan.

Karen Mason (Queen) has performed in popular musicals like Hairspray, Mamma Mia! (2002 Drama Desk nomination as Best Actress), and Sunset Boulevard. She’s even won nine Mac Awards, and has several solo CDs. www.karenmason.com

Darren Ritchie (Knight) has performed in WIldhorn’s Dracula, Little Shop of Horrors, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Les Miserables. National tours include Fame, and he’s even been on Law & Order SVU

Nikkie Snelson (Hatter) can boast being Broadway’s original Brooke Wyndham in the popular musical adaptation of Legally Blonde as well as performing with Bernadette Peters in Annie Get Your Gun. National tours include A Chorus Line (Cassie), tick, tick … BOOM! (Susan), Show Boat, Beauty and the Beast, and Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing. You may also recognize her from her TV/Film performances in Desperate Housewives, Reefer Madness, and Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe. www.nicolesnelson.com

Edward Staudenmayer (Rabbit) recently came from the Las Vegas production of Monty Python’s Spamalot. He also has appeared in Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Forbidden Broadway, Beauty and the Beast, Cats, Noises Off, The Producers, and Little Shop of Horrors. He has also been a Barrymore and National Theatre Award nominee.

Tad Wilson (Jabberwock) has been in both Broadway and Off-Broadway productions of Rock of Ages, along with show like Les Miserable, and The Fully Monty. www.tadwilson.com

Tommar Wilson (Caterpillar) has been in Broadway musicals like Hair, Hairspray, Lestat, and The Music Man. National tours include Mamma Mia! and Ragtime. www.tommarwilson.com

Gregory Boyd (Director/Book) has directed many an award-winning shows. Some include Jekyll & Hyde, Macbeth, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and most recently Our Town.
Jack Murphey (Book/Lyrics) has written music for Linda Eder and musical The Civil War, which earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Score.

Frank Wildhorn (Music) has written music for popular Broadway shows like Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and The Civil War, and overall getting him eight Tony Awards. He also written music for Wildhorn’s Dracula, and Victor/Victoria. Julie Andrews (who was in Victor/Victoria), as well as Whitney Houston, Liza Minnelli, Clay Aiken, and Colm Wilkenson have all performed his music. He has even written music for the Olympics.

Marguerite Derricks (Choreographer) has won many awards for the vast amounts of work she has done. Some shows that she has worked on include  3^rd Rock From the Sun, Fame LA, Sister Act: the Musical, FAME remake, Little Miss Sunshine, Spiderman 3, Donnie Darko, Charlie’s Angels, and Hugh Jackman’s performances on the 58^th Emmy Awards as well as CSI Miama, and Cirque Du Soleil’s Zumanity.

Act One. Alice Cornwinkle is a children’s book writer who’s creatively blocked. She and her husband are trying to keep their divorce under wraps, and hidden from their daughter, Chloe, but she soon finds out about the impending separation and runs away. (“Worst Day of My Life”) In order to find her daughter, she must follow the clue left by her daughter in the form of an Alice in Wonderland book.

We follow Alice down to her first destination. She runs into the Caterpillar, who helps her fix her disheveledness. (“Advice From a Caterpillar”) Next Alice meets El Gato, this story’s version of the Cheshire Cat. (“Go With the Flow”) Next she finds the Rabbit who helped Chloe escape, and ends up running into the White Knight and his boy band. (“One Knight”) The Queen calls forth the Mad Hatter to foil Alice’s attempts to find her daughter. (“The Mad Hatter”) Now accompanied with the White Knight Alice travels through Wonderland, unknowingly falling into a terrible death trap set up by the Mad Hatter. The two are close to find Chloe, but the Rabbit appears and tells them that the Mad Hatter has stolen Chloe and taken her to the Looking Glass prison. The three try to pass through, but the Rabbit and the White Knight are taken away and Alice is forced to pass through alone. (“Through the Looking Glass”)

Act Two. The act opens with the audience finally meeting the Queen of Hearts and her jazz-club style singing and we find out that the Mad Hatter is trying to get rid of Alice and her imagination. (“Off With Their Heads”) To quickly further along the process of Alice arriving the Queen decides to release the White Knight so that way he may lead her to them. As they begin to talk and grow closer, they begin to compare love and relationships, and how their not in love with each other. (“Dont Wanna Fall In Love”) But soon, the two realize that they are actually in love with the other. (“Love Begins”) Chloe, meanwhile is able to escape from the prison. (“Home”) Both groups end up finding themselves close to the 7^th door on opposite ends, which hides the legendary Jabberwock. Here we learn of the Mad Hatter’s true plans to overthrow the Queen. (“The Nick of Time”) Alice and her team enter the Jabberwock’s lair. All are captured, with the exception of Alice, who is the only not distracted by the Jabberwock’s despair. (“Misunderstood”) Alice answers the Jabberwock’s riddle and frees her friends, the Caterpillar, El Gato, and the White Knight. As she is about to pass on to the final section the Mad Hatter appears and declares she cannot go any further until Alice can beat her in a game of chess. No matter what, Alice cannot defeat the Mad Hatter at her own game. Suddenly the Mad Hatter kills the Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts declares Alice the champion because it’s Chloe’s unbirthday, and hit the rest button.

Alice awakes from what appears to have only been a dream. She gives one last rumination on Wonderland. At the end she is reunited with her family, getting the happy ending that she and her book both deserve. (“Finding Wonderland”)

Song List (The songs found in the synopsis & below are only the songs on the CD. There are many more songs, but I felt it would be best to only include the ones on the CD)

Worst Day of My Life……….Alice and Company

Advice From a Caterpillar……….Caterpillar and Alice

Go With the Flow……….El Gato and Company

One Knight……….White Knight and Boy Band

The Mad Hatter……….Mad Hatter and Company

Through the Looking Glass……….Alice, White Knight, Rabbit, and Company

I Give You the Queen of Hearts………Rabbit

Off With Their Heads……….Queen of Hearts and Company

Don’t Wanna Fall In Love………White Knight, Alice, Girl Group, and Boy Band

Love Begins……….Alice and White Knight

Home……….Chloe

Once More I Can See……….Alice

The Nick of Time……….Mad Hatter and Company

Misunderstood……….Jabberwock

Finding Wonderland……….Alice                           

*Go With the Flow……….sung by Rob Evan, bonus track on Wonderland Concept Recording

So what do I have to say about the music…?

Best Ballad: “Finding Wonderland” sung by Alice at the end of the play. This song is an inspiring and powerful urge to keep the magic in you alive. Though it could be seen as cheesy it doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t. It is a song about finding your own personal “Wonderland.” It’s a song I feel like many people can personally connect to. The opening lyrics are a very adult-like, more mature reflection on how we treat our lives. (“We move too fast. We miss so much. We seldom see all the miracles in front of us and the warm embrace of human touch.”) It lets us know that magic isn’t something just for children, but something that we should carry in us. (“It’s not too late, here in my prime.”) I like this song so much because sometimes it does feel that people (myself included) get too caught up in life and forget to enjoy it. Other ballad-like songs in this show include Chloe’s “Home” (which wins 2^nd place), the Queen of Heart’s “Off With Their Heads” (jazz-club style), and Alice’s other song “Once More I Can See.” There is also a love duet between the White Knight and Alice, “Love Begins.”