Kevin David Thomas News

Get ready to laugh your tuchas off because the creator of Forbidden Broadway, Tony Award winner Gerard Alessandrini, swings by Shetler Studios to talk to Rob and Kevin about the many incarnations of off-broadway's most hysterical musical series!

Rob and Kevin are having a wild, wild party with the brilliant composer/lyricist Michael John LaChiusa whose works include Hello, Again, The Wild Party, First Ladies Suite, First Daughters Suite, Giant, Little Fish, See What I Wanna See, Bernarda Alba, Queen of the Mist, and so many others! 

The one and only new girl in town, Tony Award winner Linda Lavin, joins Rob and Kevin for a phone chat that discusses not only her appearances in A Family Affair, It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman, Broadway Bound, and Last of the Red Hot Lovers, but what inspires her as an artist, what it was like making the rounds during her formative years, and how she like to collaborate with directors and writers.

Complete casting has been announced for 54 BELOW CELEBRATES THE RICHARD RODGERS THEATER at Feinstein's/54 Below on Sunday, February 10th, 2019 at 7pm and 9:30pm.

Richard Frankel is one of Broadway's most respected producers and is one of the co-owners of Feinstein's/54 Below, arguable the most influential cabaret space in the world. As a producer, his passion for theater led to audiences discovering such theatrical pieces as Penn & Teller, Driving Miss Daisy, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune, Stomp, Angels in America, The Producers, Hairspray, and revivals of The Sound of Music, A Little Night Music, Company, Sweeney Todd, and so many others.

She's Dee-lightful, she's Dee-licious, she's Dee Hoty! Three time tony nominee Dee Hoty swings by Shetler Studios to look back on her illustrious performing career which includes starring roles in Barnum, Me and My Girl, City of Angels, The Will Rogers Follies, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, Follies, Footloose, Mamma Mia, Gigi, and Bright Star!

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Alexia Sielo and friends in Women of Color on Broadway on Monday, February 25, 2019, 9:30pm.

The Richard Rodgers Theater, which has played host to such musicals as Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Raisin, Chicago, In The Heights, and, its current tenant,Hamilton, will be celebrated at Feinstein's/54 Below on Sunday, February 10th, 2019 at 7pm and 9:30pm in 54 CELEBRATES THE RICHARD RODGERS THEATER.

Today's guests are Ethel Merman, Julie Andrews, Eartha Kitt, Angela Lansbury, and Carol Channing... well, not really, but you would think we had them all in one place at the same time because our guest this week is the fabulous impressionist, and host of Sirius XM's On Broadway, the sensational Christine Pedi!

This year we lost so many legends from Marin Mazzie to Gary Beach, Neil Simon to William Goldman, Rick McKay to Craig Zadan. We end our year celebrating their life and legacy with a legend who called many of these artists friends, colleagues, and companions: the incomparable Lee Roy Reams.

While he was known by many as The Butcher of Broadway, Frank Rich is still considered to be one of the greatest critics who ever covered The Great White Way. Despite that savage moniker, he was, and is, a proud theater geek whose desire to collect obscure anecdotes and musicals makes him a kindred spirit to all of us.

It would be hard pressed to find someone who, in the past thirty years, has influenced the development of the American Theatre more than Andre Bishop. For ten years, he was Artistic Director of Playwright's Horizons, which was followed by his current stint as the Artistic Director of Lincoln Center Theatre, which has given the American musical theatre such new works as A New Brain, Parade, Contact, and The Light in The Piazza, as well as revivals of South Pacific, The King & I, and My Fair Lady.

She is as passionate offstage as she is on and her philosophy on life, art, and everything in between, makes Tonya Pinkins one of Broadway's fiercest artists. From her Broadway debut in Merrily We Roll Along, to appearances in Jelly's Last Jam (for which she won the Tony), The Wild Party, Play On, Caroline, Or Change, Radio Golf, and Holler If You Hear Me, plus her controversial associations with Mother Courage and Rasheeda Speaking, Tonya is one of the industry's most, no pun intended, courageous artists. 

Actor. Writer. Lyricist. Director. Mark Waldrop has done it all. His acting career started on Broadway with appearances in Hello, Dolly, The Grand Tour, Evita, and La Cage Aux Folles. Then there were stints directing Bette Midler, collaborating on Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly and Whoop-Dee-Doo, and shepherding Bea Arthur's one woman show to Broadway!

Yes, we all know about her unfortunate run in with a hot dog cart, but there is so much more to incredible character actress, Mary Stout, who has appeared on Broadway in Copperfield, Me and My Girl, A Change In The Heir, Beauty and the Beast, My Favorite Year, and Jane Eyre! There was a Christmas with Sergio Franchi, a moment with Bill Cosby, and a dream with Tommy Tune!

Woody Allen. Stephen Sondheim. Mel Brooks. Alan Menken. Eric Idle. These are only a few of the artists whom the wonderful Glen Kelly has had to give music, and sometimes lyrics, to in his career as one of Broadway's most respected dance arrangers and musical supervisors.

In one of their most inspiring interviews to date, Behind the Curtain sits down with one of Broadway's most respected artists, Daphne Rubin-Vega, to discuss not only her career in such shows as Rent, Miss You Like Hell, A Streetcar Named Desire, Les Miserables, and more, but to spotlight the role of diversity and politics in the creation of art.

Abingdon Theatre Company held their special one-night-only gala event on Monday, October 22 at The Edison Ballroom. The evening, honoring two-time Tony Award winner Donna Murphy (Hello, Dolly!; Passion; Wonderful Town), was hosted by Randy Rainbow.

One of Broadway's most respected chroniclers, Steven Suskin, swings by Shetler Studios to talk to Rob and Kevin about his career as a General Manager AND as the author of some of Broadway's best history books.

Abingdon Theatre Company isn't one to shy away from grandiosity. Sure, the 26-year-old grassroots theatre company may pride itself on its daring, intimate productions, but that doesn't mean they don't know how to throw a party, repeatedly pulling out all the stops at their annual anniversary bash. "We're able to take something small - say, a show with a seven or eight-member cast - and transform it into this big, lavish spectacle… without sacrificing the true heart of the story or the music or any of that," says company Associate Artistic Director Chad Austin. "You could say it's our special little Abingdon touch." One look at last year's flashy, brassy And the World Goes 'Round gala event, which capped off a quarter century on the off-Broadway scene, and you're sure to agree. That's likely why it comes as no surprise that this year finds them back at the Edison Ballroom ringing in #26 with a(nother) glam and glitzy extravaganza like only they can produce.