Broadwayworld.com has an exclusive sneak preview of Seth Rudetsky’s upcoming Sirius Radio Live interview with stars Howard McGillin, Rachel York, and Billy Stritch. York recalls her audition for City of Angels, McGillin reflects on how difficult it is to get the Phantom of the Opera glue off of his face, and Stritch remembers Cy Coleman’s fantastic combination of friendliness and genius.
Howard talks shop with Lauren Class Schneider for her new theatre talk show. Check it out.
Today’s Cy Coleman’s birthday. We’re all wishing him a happy birthday at 59 E 59 tonight.
Great performances, great music, great guy.
…is full of fantastic insights into Cy’s outlook, the output of his collaborators (especially Carolyn Leigh), and the song selection process for The Best is Yet to Come. Check it out.
“If you had lyrics dripping with sex and money, you needed Coleman to bring them to musical life.”
Cy wasn’t Playboy’s house musician for nothing, you know.
http://theaternewsonline.com/NYTheaterReviews/IVEGOTYOURNUMBERS.cfm
Last night, May 25, 59E59 Theaters welcomed the Rubicon Theatre in California to Americas Off Broadway with their critically acclaimed production of THE BEST IS YET TO COME: THE MUSIC OF Cy Coleman, devised and directed by David Zippel.
Check out Broadway Beat’s footage of our gala opening. Great crowd there – Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kathie Lee and Hoda, Danny Aiello, a host of other fantastic celebs, and coconut shrimp.
http://broadwayworld.com/videoplay.php?colid=241145
Normally, we’d say something about reviewer etiquette and waiting until opening, but Doug Marino liked us so much that we’re gonna write a pass on this one.
About David Burnham’s performance in particular, Marino writes:
Of course, I was completely charmed and mesmerized by just about every move David Burnham made – but I figure that everyone else at least enjoyed his rendition of Witchcraftand I’ve Got Your Number. I could say more but that would just be shameless flirting (who, me?).
Shameless adoration of David Burnham is, for the record, encouraged.
If you’re interested in reading more raves, you’ll either have to wait until opening or visit our reviews page before the reviews for our off-Broadway opening take over the page.
In the music world, and particularly in jazz and theatre, few people are held in such high regard as legendary jazz arranger & orchestrator Don Sebesky, an innovator and master arranger who quite literally wrote the book on modern jazz arranging, 1975′s The Contemporary Arranger. In Part 1 of this interview, Don talked a bit about his overall writing process and the rewards of working with Cy’s music. Today we delve deep into how he made our 8-piece band sound so full and rich.
In the music world few people are held in such high regard as the legendary jazz arranger & orchestrator Don Sebesky. Don quite literally wrote the book on arranging—his 1975 textbook The Contemporary Arranger is required reading for most jazz and pop orchestration courses, and most professional arrangers have a very worn-out copy on hand. Don’s arrangements in the late 60′s and 70′s were instrumental* in defining the jazz-rock sound, and his list of collaborators is extensive, peppered with jazz greats such as Buddy Rich, Wes Montgomery, Herbie Hancock, and countless others. His work also includes orchestrations for a number of Broadway shows; his work for Jason Robert Brown’s Parade won him a Tony Award for Best Orchestration.
It’s for that reason that we’d be hard-pressed to think of anyone better equipped to orchestrate The Best is Yet to Come than Mr. Sebesky, whose command of the jazz ensemble can take you from a sizzling simmer to full swinging boil in a measure. Don was generous enough to give us a bit of his time to talk with us about his process, some tricks of the trade, and his own relationship to the music of Cy Coleman. Continue reading
70 minutes from our first preview, and we’ve been very busy bees. A few developments:
• Band moved back in today, and it was a lucky thing that our stage manager knew first aid, because many of the invited audience members had their faces melted off by all that hot jazz shredding. Audience members are hereby warned to load up on face-cooling topicals prior to attendance.
• Our stagehand-slash-aspiring-orchestrator Andrew sat down with jazz legend (and our show’s orchestrator) Don Sebesky to talk through some of the tricks of the trade that Don used to make the band sound so face-meltingly good.
• Our facebook page has been the place to go for Cy & Co. video round-ups, and we unearthed this favorite: Cy performing for Hugh Hefner!
Cy Coleman – \”The Best Is Yet To Come\” on Playboy\’s Penthouse
Long before big pimpin’ was de rigeur for musicians, there was Cy. The man was just that cool. (Note: Video best enjoyed while wearing silk pajamas.)