First of all, in case you decide not to read any further…there will be NO Cast Party this coming Monday, February 14th. We have three big concerts at Birdland that night, and we sure hope to see you at one of them…but don’t come ready to sing your way into our hearts. The Party will continue next week as per usual!

The Julia Murney concert last Monday was SRO, and packed with all kinds of showbiz types, including Andrew Lippa, Paige Price, Nancy Anderson, Darius deHaas and Kelli O’Donnell. Julia, of course, sang her face off, and treated me with my favorite song on the planet, "Fancy," by Bobbie Gentry. By the way, everyone should sing that song. Every day. The following Cast Party was truly one for the ages. Celebrating The TheaterMania Guide to Musical Theater Recordings by warbling a tune were Stephanie d’Abruzzo (pictured above with Birdland owner Gianni Valenti), Richard Kind, Rita Gardner, Steven Brinberg, Christine Pedi, Karen Mason, Sally Mayes and George S. Irving (below right, photo by Joe Marzullo) among many others! Many thanks to TheaterMania for deciding to throw a swell party with us!

This Monday is Valentine’s Day, and we are thrilled to have three of the most talented and gorgeous girls around singing for you and your Valentine! At 7pm, Stephanie J. Block returns to Birdland moments before she leaves town to star as Elphaba, the greenest gal in town in the national tour of Wicked! Her show is sold-out, so don’t even think that you’re coming if you don’t already have tickets! At 9pm is the utterly amazing Christine Ebersole, along with Billy Stritch at the piano. Their two concerts last fall were sell-outs, and this one is getting close to jammed, so call now! As if that weren’t enough, the swingin’ Hilary Kole takes the stage at 11pm. She’s currently starring in Singing Astaire, but is going solo for one night only! Cast Party will return the following week, better and refreshed. (We hear it’s having "work done.")

If you care to trek though the history of Jim Caruso’s Cast Party from its inception to present day, you can watch "That’s Kentertainment" on TV Thursday February 10th at Midnight on Channels 34 or 107. You’ll see clips and and interviews with performers like Liza Minnelli, Betty Comden, Jocelyne Wildenstein, Julie Garnye, Murray Hill, Leslie Gore, Terri White, Andrew Lippa, Christine Ebersole and more! Many thanks to Ken Kleiber for thinking us worthy! You can also visit www.thatskentertainment.com to read more about the show!

This week on Cast Party – The Radio Show, you can hear my conversations with Broadway Babies Brent Barrett and Sally Mayes (at right with Jim)! Brent is currently playing
Billy Flynn in the Broadway company of Chicago, and Sally has just released a brand new CD, appropriately titled, "Valentine." I’ll play you some cuts from their recordings so you know just how brilliant they are, in case you’ve been under a theatrical rock! I’ll also let you hear the jazzy sounds of Peter
Eldridge, one of the famed New York Voices, who will be going solo for one night only at Birdland on Monday, February 21 at 7pm! Now you can listen to Cast Party – The Radio Show in two wonderful ways! It still airs Tuesday and Friday nights on BroadwayWorld.com Radio at 8pm. Or, by popular demand, you can listen any time "on-demand" by clicking over to the Cast Party page itself. Does it get better than that? No, we didn't think so.

Click here for the Cast Party Radio Show on BroadwayWorld.com! Produced by Brian Wilson at SoHa Media.

Newsletter by Love Bomb Productions for Jim Caruso's Cast Party, All Rights Reserved 2005