August 12, 2005
An
extry-special Cast Party took place last Monday, as we
celebrated our pal Bob Dolphin's 81st birthday! For the
past three years, he's been entertaining us with his singing and dancing,
and as I've said time and time again, has tapped his way through miles
of indoor/outdoor carpeting. We thought it was high time to surprise him
with an actual tap floor, and thanks to Randy Swartz
at Stage Step, we did just that! And was he serenaded!?
Marilyn Monroe (aka Sarah Hayes, above
with Bob) sang “Happy Birthday" in her own inimitable
way, and Michael Feinstein sang a perfect version of
Bob's favorite, “My Romance.” LA boys Brian
Lane Green and Lee Lessack crooned “For
Good,” Shonn Wiley sang his big song from
Thrill Me, Phoebe Kreutz performed
a haunting “Lesbian Cowgirl,” Johnny
Rodgers and his band gave a taste of their new CD, Heather
Sullivan made her Birdland debut, and the amazing Lodi
Carr knocked everyone out with another brilliant performance!
Here's to many more happy, healthy and joyous birthdays, Bob! This coming
Monday, Billy Stritch and Steve Doyle
will make up the Cast Party Symphony Orchestra, and we
will be celebrating the hottest, bawdiest show in town, SILENCE!
Speaking
of that, I'll be performing a hilariously tasteless song this Sunday,
August 14th in Sounds of SILENCE…and Other
Inappropriate Showtunes. The event (at the Dodger
Stages, 340 West 50th Street) is a fundraiser
for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The
Tesseract Theatre, one of the presenters of the eagerly anticipated
Fringe Festival show, SILENCE!
Yes. It's the musicalization of “Silence of the Lambs.”
The cast for this filthy, filthy event will include Tony nominee Stephanie
D'Abruzzo (Avenue Q), Gary
Adler (composer of Altar Boyz), Amanda
Green (composer of the upcoming High Fidelity),
Lisa Howard (25th Putnam County Spelling
Bee) and Michael Arden (Pippin,
BARE), Kathy Brier (Hairspray),
Natalie Joy Johnson (BARE),
Larry O'Keefe (composer of Bat Boy
and the upcoming Legally Blonde, the Musical),
Tyler Maynard (Altar Boyz),
Jen Barnhart (Avenue Q), Stephen
Bienskie (Cats), Phoebe Kreutz
(Avenue Q), Natalie Douglas
(The A-Train Plays), Kate Pazakis
(The Sexless Years), Julie Garnye
(HAIR Concert), AJ Irvin (Finian's
Rainbow) and others. Brian Nash will musical
direct, and Scott Nevins will host. You can get tickies
at Telecharge.com
for $25.
On Monday,
August 15, MONDAY OFF - The Vocal Group (above),
will be ON stage at Birdland
at 7pm! The quartet (Richard Roland, Raymond
Sage, Hilary Gardner, and Amy Cervini) was formed
in 1999 while the four original members were appearing in the National
Tour of Titanic. They've appeared with the New
York Pops twice at Carnegie Hall, at jazz festivals
across the country, on the Broadway stage and on TV. Their Birdland
debut will showcase a cross-section of their repertoire: jazz, swing,
pop, R&B, Latin, vocalese, and their specialty: twisting Broadway
favorites into new experiences with their mixture of flawless harmonies.
Call the club for reservations (212.581.3080) or click
on www.InstantSeats.com/Birdland.
You will love them! Coming up in The New Season, (presented
with much assistance from TheaterMania.com)
Miss Sally Mayes on August 22 and Miss
Linda Lavin on August 29.
Jim Caruso's Cast Party is back on BroadwayWorld.com,
and it's back in a big way. Aside from being available on the site in
both streaming and downloadable form, new episodes can be automatically
downloaded via Apple's iTunes Service. You can now
subscribe to the Cast Party podcast by searching for
the show on iTunes!
This week's episode features highlights from Jim's weekly show-biz bash
at Birdland in NYC, where up-and-comers and already-theres
entertain each other at the piano. A phoner with Stephanie J.
Block (above, in her Birdland concert),
who stars as Elphaba in the national tour of Wicked,
will update fans on the massively successful production. She talks about
star-sightings, her gravity mishap, and the glamour of the dry-erase
board. It's only on Cast
Party - The Radio Show!
Tune into BroadwayWorld.com
radio on Tuesday and Friday nights
at 8pm. Or, you can make life even easier by clicking
on the site for an "on demand" experience
you'll love! In the words of Liza Minnelli, "Cast
Party IS New York!"
Cast Party Radio Show is produced by Brian
Wilson at SoHa
Media.
"The Party simply
glows with New York nightlife ambiance. It feels like a throwback to another
era but it has this era's top-notch entertainers dropping in to schmooze,
sing, eat, and drink. Caruso consistently provides a
flow of exciting singers, and he's definitely hip, cool and classy all
by himself."
-THEATERMANIA
When:
Every
Monday at
BIRDLAND
315 West
44th Street (between 8th & 9th)
212.581.3080
Woo hoo!
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