04-04-13 Cast members (L-R) Producer Cedric Yau. Bryce Ryness. Stephen Guarino. Emily Mcnamara. Leo Ash Evens. Jimmy Ray Bennett. director Rachel Klein att a Meet & Greet for "Around the World in 80 Days" at The Snapple Cente. 1627 Broadway. Thursday morning 04-03-13



Elaine Stritch opened at Cafe Carlyle for her final engagement before moving to Michigan, and many celebrities attended, including Tom Hanks, Martin Short, Liza Minnelli, Bernadette Peters and
Michael Feinstein

Phantom of the Opera cast members Samantha Hill and Hugh Panaro attended the unveiling of their portrait at Tony's Di Napoli applauded by members of their cast.

I attended a meet & greet for The Memory Show, starring Catherine Cox and Leslie Kritzer, where they performed three of the songs from the show. 

I also attended a photo op. for Around the World in
80 Days.

I received a magnificent CD from EMI Classics Rogers & Hammerstein at the Movies by the John Wilson Orchestra. There are 15 selections from five of their shows, such as South Pacific and Carousel, which were turned into successful films. The cast, which includes Sierra Boggess and Joyce DiDonato, are simply superb. All Broadway musical fans will want to add this marvelous recording to their collection.

MoMA presented The Young Stranger, by John Frankenheimer, USA, 1957, starring three excellent actors, James MacArthur, James Daly and Kim Hunter. The black and white film shows a wealthy family, with a spoilt, neglected son, struggling through a crisis when he is arrested for hitting a cinema manager. The dialogue is intelligent, the characters are realistic and the plot is absorbing. It is a very well made film.

MoMA is presenting The Weimer Touch April 3-May 6. a selection of historic films in collaboration with the Deutsche Kinemathek. Einmal eine grosse Dame sein, by Gerhard Lamprecht, Germany, 1934, is a charming operetta with lovely music, beautiful ladies and a fairy tale story, of a poor working girl (Kathe von Nagy), who  by a series of incidents becomes the wife of a handsome baron. The leading lady is delightful. Viktor and Viktoria, by Reinhold Schunzel, Germany, 1933, is a musical about a woman (Renate Muller), who impersonates a man, who impersonates a woman in vaudeville. It is a pleasant film, which has been remade in England with Jessie Matthews and in the USA with Julie Andrews. Muller is splendid in the title role.

Ballet in Cinema from Emerging Pictures presented Ballet's Greatest Hits: Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) Gala, a live performance on January 5, 2013 from the David A. Straz Center, Tampa, Florida. It featured six selections from famous ballets  performed by outstanding soloists. Various former dancers, choreographers and others associated with the ballet scene commented about the selections with photographs of former stars and occasional film clips, and the participants themselves spoke before they performed. The highlights were the White Swan Pas de Deux from Swan Lake, danced brilliantly by Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes from ABT, and the Grand Pas de Deux from Don Quixote by Maria Kochetkova and Taras Domitro, two young marvelous dancers from the San Francisco Ballet. Ashley Boulder and Daniel Ulbricht from  the New York City Ballet danced variations from Flames of Paris for the first time ever and were superb, and mention must be made of Alejandro Virelles from the Boston Ballet as the Nutcracker Prince in the Nutcracker Grand Pas de Deux who was simply wonderful.