An Interview with: Kathryn Kates (1080p)

After seeing Kathryn her wonderful and amazing performance as the mother trying to hold her whole family together in “The Last Seder” I knew we had to have her tell her story to you, our dear viewers. That actress that you all know from… that thing…! Enjoy!

Don’t forget to change the settings to view this at 1080p!

For more info the this amazing actress go to www.kathrynkates.com
www.facebook.com/kathrynkates

An interview with Peter Marc Jacobson 1080p!

Welcome to our FIRST video in 1080p!

Writer/Producer/Director and Actor Peter Marc Jacobson took time to sit down with me and talk about his hit show

Now in it’s 3rd season on TV Land!

Find out how he and his ex-wife/co-creator, Fran Drescher, came up with the idea for this show while on vacation after their 18 year marriage ended.

Don’t forget to change the settings for 1080p!


Be sure to watch every Wednesday night at 10:30pm/9:30 central!

VIDEO INTERVIEW & REVIEW: Martha Wash at B.B. King

The Queen of Clubland sat down with me between her Sound Check and Performance at the legendary B.B. King Blues Club to talk about her amazing life in Music and how she forever changed the way singer get credited for their work.

 

Video Interview: The Metropolitan Room’s Bernie Furshpan

Shifting focus slightly we got to sit down for an Interview with Bernie Furshpan Owner/Managing Partner of the Metropolitan Room about the amazing changes and additions he has made since taking over almost a year ago. Plus, we answer the burning question, Why the Chandeliers?

We also have a scoop: Your 2 Drink minimum at the Metropolitan Room will soon include Fine Kosher wines suitable for the most discerning pallets! Kosher Wine!

The Metropolitan Room Website

NY Hysterical Society Website

Video Interview: Alec Mapa “America’s Gaysian Sweatheart”

I was SO happy to be able to sit down with “America’s Gaysian Sweetheart” Alec Mapa after his delightful one man show, “Baby Daddy” currently playing at The Laurie Beechman Theatre. Here is the video interview:

GO SEE THIS SHOW!!! Enjoy!

For more information about this show, visit ALEC MAPA: BABY DADDY”.

Buy tickets HERE.

• “Smart, hilarious and funny.” — Ellen DeGeneres
• “Alec Mapa is a freak. No one should be this talented” — Variety
• “Truly insightful, hilarious, pungent and persuasive… See it! It says something important about how we live today.” — Edge
• “Both funny and poignant” — BistroAwards.com
• “By turns filthy, fierce and fabulous, Mapa’s seemingly mundane anecdotes are an outrageous delight… utterly divine.” — Next Magazine

After selling out a short run in February, ALEC MAPA (Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, The View, RuPaul’s Drag Race, The Gossip Queens, Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure) returns to New York with his critically acclaimed and wildly popular new show ALEC MAPA:  BABY DADDY.  It runs July 19 – 29, Thursday – Sunday at 7:30pm. The Laurie Beechman Theater is located inside West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street — at Ninth Avenue, accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,V,F,1,2 & 3 trains at 42nd Street). Tickets are $22 (plus a $15 food/drink minimum). To purchase tickets call 212-352-3101 or visitwww.SpinCycleNYC.com.

 

From Jazz at Lincoln Center – Michael Feinstein presents: Bringing Jazz to Broadway – Cy Coleman

From Jazz at Lincoln Center – Michael Feinstein presents: Bringing Jazz to Broadway – Cy Coleman (Produced, Written and Directed by the multi-tallented Scott Siegel)

Here are the video interviews with 3 of the wonderful performers, Tamara Tunie, James Naughton and Michelle Lee. The official review of the concert can be found above this posting.

Enjoy!

From jazz pianist and leader of a much-in-demand jazz trio to legendary Broadway composer, Cy Coleman brought the sound of big, brassy jazz to the Great White Way. One only need think of “Sweet Charity’s” Hey, Big Spender, and its bright blare of horns, to recognize Coleman’s Signature Sound, a musical style that dominated Broadway for more than a generation. Shows like “City of Angels,” “The Life,” and many others were permeated by Coleman’s propensity for jazz.

As part of its Jazz & Popular Song series, directed by five-time Grammy Award-nominated singer and pianist Michael Feinstein, Jazz at Lincoln Center will present Cy Coleman: Bringing Jazz to Broadway on Tuesday, May 15 and Wednesday May 16 at 7:30pm. Feinstein, who featured Cy Coleman as a vocalist and jazz pianist in his nightclub the month before the famed composer died, leads a cast featuring Michele Lee (Coleman’s Seesaw, Knots Landing), Tamara Tunie (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Broadway veteran Chuck Cooper, singer-songwriter Johnny Rodgers and, on May 16 only, James Naughton (The Devil Wears Prada) that illustrates Coleman’s profound jazz influence on contemporary Broadway.

For more information about this series, visit www.jalc.org/jazzandpopularsong.

Next up: Sweet & Low Down: How Popular Standards Became Jazz Classics
The show plays at The Allen Room at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th Street, New York, NY. Ticket prices for this series, except for the family concert, are $75 for mezzanine concert seating, $95-120 for cabaret seating. Tickets for the family matinee are $25.

Tickets can be purchased through jalc.org or CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, open daily from 10am to 9pm. Tickets can also be purchased at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, located on Broadway at 60th Street, ground floor. Box Office hours: Monday-Saturday from 10am to 6pm (or 30 minutes past curtain) and Sunday from noon to 6pm (or 30 minutes past curtain). Limited subscriptions for the 2011-12 Jazz and Popular Song series are available. Visit jalc.org/subs for more information.

Video interview with Johnny Rodgers

Excuse me while I repeat myself;

Hello. My name is Elli, and I am a Johnny Rodgers-aholic.

Mr. Rodgers first appeared on my radar at the 2010 Nightlife Awards where I wrote,

“Act II brought out a new star that I had not had the pleasure of seeing perform, the fabulous Johnny Rodgers. Mr. Rodgers and his band brought down the house with an on-fire rendition of “The Birth of the Blues.” His rapid-fire piano skills, coupled with his great vocals, reminded me of a young Jerry Lee Lewis at work.”

Internationally known and always performing, I finally got the chance to sit down and have a chat with Johnny just before they called “Places” for his appearance in “Michael Feinstein’s Bringing Jazz to Broadway: Cy Coleman”. After you watch the interview, be sure to check out the rehearsal video below and look for the review of the evening elsewhere on this site.

The Johnny Rodgers Band will be performing in NYC on June 5th, 2010 at Iridium Jazz Club 1650 Broadway, NYC. Get your tickets before it sells out!
(P.S. It’s his birthday so make sure you don’t miss this!!!)

For more information, and to follow their International travels, check out the JRB website.

A gifted songwriter, Mr. Rodgers won ASCAP’s Jamie deRoy & Friends Foundation Award in 2009, The New York Sheet Music Society’s Gerald Marks Award and the Songwriters Hall of Fame Abe Oldman Award. Other honors include the Nitelife Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist Award 2010, Backstage Magazine’s Bistro Award and the MAC Award. Mr. Rodgers recently made his Broadway debut co-starring in the Tony Award winning “Liza’s At The Palace” with Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award winning superstar Liza Minnelli. JRB’s recently released CD, “Box of Photographs” (PS Classics) has won acclaim from critics and radio stations across the country.

PLAYBILL EXCLUSIVE:
In Rehearsal With Michael Feinstein and his Cy Coleman Tribute

Arje Shaw’s “MOOLAH” An Industry Reading May 7th 2012

On Monday, May 7th 2012, I was privileged to be invited to a reading of Arje Shaw’s newest play, Moolah starring Joe Pantoliano and Mario Cantone.

Directed by Charles Messina, (The Accidental Pervert), Moolah is fast moving, one word, Who’s On First type vaudvilian humor and it’s very enjoyable. Here’s what the invitation said about it:

MOOLAH tells the story of two con men who fall out of favor with the Mob.
Ant’ny is a dandy, sharp-talking shyster and small-time bookie.
His younger cousin Sonny, a gay hit man, runs a hair salon by day and moonlights as a contract killer by night. Sonny’s salon slogan: cut by day, clip by night.

This darkest of comedies reveals the fortunes and misfortunes of the two in a “Waiting for Godot” meets “The Sopranos” thriller which penetrates the core issues of love, money and sexuality.

These men are desperate.
Each one with a bounty on his head.
Each one conning the other only to discover they have only conned themselves.

I got a chance to chat with Messrs Pantoliano, Cantone and Shaw after the reading and they were wonderful to chat with as you will see below. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you’d like to become a Producer of Moolah and help see this marvelous piece go to Broadway by investing, please contact Mr. Shaw by email and tell him Elli at broadwaykingdom sent you!

Special thanks to Chinua Thomas for Videography.

Video Interview with Peggy Herman (& Alex Rybeck)

I got to sit down and chat with the amazing Peggy Herman about her CD release party on Sunday May 7th 2012 at Feinstein’s at the Regency in NYC.
I hope you enjoy it!

(Click picture to make reservations)

540 Park Avenue (at 61st Street)
New York, NY 10021
212-339-4095

Doors open 5:30 for Dinner
Show at 7:30pm

Special prix fix dinner
Use code RSPH2012 when booking for
special discount of cover charge – $40.00 plus One drink minimum.

 Each guest will receive Peggy’s CD

Jackets required. Reservations a must!

Peggy Herman releases a brand new recording of her critically acclaimed show, “Herman on Herman,” her tribute to Broadway legend Jerry Herman, at Feinstein’s at the Loews Regency, 540 Park Avenue, on Sunday May 6 at 7:30pm. The one-night-only concert features many of the songs from the show’s premiere in May of last year, plus additional material that was added to the project in the intervening months.

With arrangements by the renowned music director Alex Rybeck, “Herman on Herman (with a Touch of Merman)” gives the Jerry Herman songbook a whole new spin, lending a fresh take on these classic Broadway show tunes. Backing Herman on Herman – and blending a range of popular styles, including folk-pop, smooth jazz, Brazillian and Broadway — are Rybeck on piano, Jered Egan on bass and Rex Benincasa on drums and percussion. The same threesome play on the album, augmented by strings, brass, winds, and guitarist Sean Harkness.

Like the show’s premiere at the Metropolitan Room, the CD release concert is directed by Peter Glebo, and the nine-time Tony Award winner Tommy Tune. The performer and show business chronicler Richard Skipper co-hosts the event with Feinstein’s, which is offering a special “It’s Today” dinner-and-show package (premium seats $50, general seating $30, plus a $25 food and beverage minimum). All of the evening’s attendees will receive a complimentary signed copy of the new album.

“Herman on Herman… Peggy Sings Jerry” (the CD’s title) features exciting new arrangements of songs from “Hello Dolly!” “Mame,” “La Cage aux Folles,” “Mack & Mabel,” and other Herman hits. In the studio, Herman and Rybeck added new songs, including “The Best of Times is Now,” “Before the Parade Passes By,” and “If He Walked Into My Life.”

Born in Philadelphia, and raised in Miami Beach, Herman has appeared in such musicals as “Nunsense” (Mother Superior), “South Pacific” (Bloody Mary) and “Grand Hotel” (Raffaela Ottanio).

Her solo CD debut, “Mercer and More…” (Original Cast Records), was hailed as “a lush album” by John Hoglund in Back Stage, where he added, “she’s got a big voice that serves a big talent.”

For more info on Peggy Herman: Facebook       Website

For more info on Alex Rybeck: Facebook 

Brought to you by the NEW www.broadwaykingdom.com

For more info on Elli – The King of Broadway www.thekingofbroadway.com

For more interviews & reviews go to www.broadwaykingdom.com

Special thanks to Marc Baron for his videography!