Newsical the Musical Star John West on Stage Notes
“Fast, funny, and Irreverent! NEWSical makes it possible to get high on hilarity,” says The New York Times, and one of its stars, John West, is on Stage Notes this week. Don’t miss this week’s hilarious edition of Stage Notes Saturday at noon (EST) on WXXI (91.5). Follow this link for stream: http://interactive.wxxi.org/listen.
JOHN WALTON WEST
OFF-BROADWAY / NATIONAL TOURS
NEWSICAL THE MUSICAL Performer Theatre Row – Kirk Theatre
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE Man in Chair National Tour
THE PRODUCERS Carmen Ghia National Tour
REGIONAL THEATRE
THE PRODUCERS Carmen Ghia Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera
YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU Tony Florida Repertory Theatre
THE PRODUCERS Carmen Ghia Westchester Broadway Theatre
THE WOMAN IN BLACK The Actor Bethel Theatre
MOBY DICK: THE MUSICAL Moby/Coffin Seaside Music Theatre
(American Premiere)
THE LOST COLONY The Historian RIHA, dir. Terrence Mann
THE ROYAL FAMILY McDermott Seaside Music Theatre
Y.A.G.M., CHARLIE BROWN Linus Bethel Theatre
BAMBOOZLED! Dr. Graziano Chattanooga Theatre Centre
DISNEY’S ALADDIN The Genie Seaside Music Theatre
UNIVERSITY THEATRE
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Oberon Tennessee Governor’s School
THE IMPORTANCE OF
BEING EARNEST Jack Northern Kentucky University
ROMEO AND JULIET Romeo Northern Kentucky University
THE ELEPHANT MAN Treves Corbett Theatre
SWEET CHARITY Oscar Corbett Theatre
THE IMAGINARY INVALID M. Diaforius Corbett Theatre
THE CRUCIBLE Parris Corbett Theatre
BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL Dr. Parker Northern Kentucky University
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR Peter Northern Kentucky University
BABES IN ARMS Marshall Northern Kentucky University
Broadway Veteran Karen Mason on this Week’s “Stage Notes”
Broadway veteran Karen Mason is this week’s guest on Stage Notes. She’s currently starring as The Queen Hearts in the new Frank Wildhorn musical Wonderland, playing at the Marquis Theatre in New York City. In addition, music from David Burnham’s (Wicked, The Light in the Piazza) soon to be released new CD, One Day, will be featured. Don’t miss Stage Notes Saturday at 12 p.m. (EST) on WXXI (91.5). Stream at wxxi.org.
KAREN MASON BIOGRAPHY
Karen Mason has starred on Broadway, Off-Broadway, television, and recording: and “has few peers when it comes to ripping the roof off with her amazing voice that knows no bounds!” (TheatreScene.net) Karen is a ten-time MAC Award winner and has won the MAC Award for Major Female Vocalist of the Year for six consecutive years. She has also won the 2006 Nightlife Award for Major Female Vocalist and has three Bistro Awards.
Ms. Mason most recently originated the role of The Queen of Hearts in the pre-Broadway production of WONDERLAND at The David A. Straz Center for The Performing Arts in Tampa, FL. She originated the role of Tanya on Broadway in Abba’s MAMMA MIA!, and was awarded a 2002 Drama Desk nomination as Best Actress. Her other leading roles include Norma Desmond in SUNSET BOULEVARD, which she performed to critical acclaim and standing ovations on Broadway and in Los Angeles for three years; Velma von Tussel in the final Broadway company of HAIRSPRAY; “Monotony” singer, Mazeppa in JEROME ROBBINS’ BROADWAY; Rosalie in CARNIVAL (another Drama Desk nomination); plus featured roles in Broadway’s TORCH SONG TRILOGY; and PLAY ME A COUNTRY SONG.
Karen won the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance in AND THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND, and starred Off-Broadway in her own show KAREN MASON SINGS BROADWAY, BEATLES AND BRIAN.
Her television appearances include the hit dramas ED and LAW & ORDER: SVU. Film credits include SLEEPING DOGS LIE and A CHORUS LINE.
In regional theatre, Karen starred in the world premiere of the stage production of WHITE CHRISTMAS, (playing the Rosemary Clooney role at St. Louis Muni Opera), SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM (Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida), GYPSY (Sundance Theatre in California), the world premiere of ONE TOUGH COOKIE (Apple Tree Theatre in Chicago), HEARTBEATS (Goodspeed Opera House in NY) and COMPANY (Huntington Theatre in Boston). Most recently in New York, Karen starred in the one-woman musical about Dorothy Parker YOU MIGHT AS WELL LIVE.
Karen has headlined Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Feinstein’s at The Regency, Rainbow & Stars, the Algonquin, Arci’ Place, The Supper Club and The Ballroom in NYC; The Cinegrill and the UCLA/ASCAP Concert Series in Los Angeles; The Plush Room in San Francisco; and Davenport’s in Chicago.
She has shared concert stages with Luciano Pavarotti, Rosemary Clooney, Liza Minnelli, Michael Feinstein, Jerry Herman, and John Kander & Fred Ebb, among others. Karen has given concerts in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Brazil, Scotland, Tokyo and Osaka. Her starring symphonic performances include The New York Pops with Skitch Henderson, The Oklahoma Philharmonic with Joel Levine, the premier performance of The Chicagoland Pops, The Indianapolis Philharmonic, and the St. Louis Symphony with John McDaniel.
In addition to her live performances, her voice graces the soundtrack of JEFFREY (Varese Sarabande), the studio cast recording of WONDERFUL TOWN (Jay Records), the original cast album of AND THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND(RCA Victor), THE CHILD IN ME Vol.1 (Harbinger Records) and LOST IN BOSTON II (Varese Sarabande).
In 2005, Karen released her fifth universally acclaimed CD, SWEETEST OF NIGHTS, after winning the 2002 MAC Award for Major Female Recording of the Year for WHEN THE SUN COMES OUT. Her other CD’s are BETTER DAYS (featuring the 1998 Emmy winning song, “Hold Me”, by Brian Lasser); NOT SO SIMPLY BROADWAY; and her live recording CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS!(all on Zevely Records).
Tony Award Winner Garth Fagan on this Week’s “Stage Notes”
Tony Award winner Garth Fagan is this week’s guest on Stage Notes. Tune to WXXI (91.5) at 12:00 p.m. (EST) on Saturday March 26th to hear how he conceived and implemented the choreography for The Lion King. Songs from The Lion King will be featured. Stream at wxxi.org.
Critics have called Garth Fagan “a true original,” “a genuine leader,” and “one of the great reformers of modern dance.” Fagan is the founder and artistic director of the award-winning and internationally acclaimed Garth Fagan Dance, now celebrating its 40th Anniversary season. A Tony and Olivier award winner, Fagan continually renews his own distinctive dance vocabulary, which draws on many sources: sense of weight in modern dance, torso-centered movement and energy of Afro-Caribbean, speed and precision of ballet, and the rule breaking experimentation of the post-moderns. “Originality has always been Mr. Fagan’s strong suit, not least in his transformation of recognizable idioms into a dance language that looks not only fresh but even idiosyncratic,” writes Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times.
For his path-breaking choreography for Walt Disney’s The Lion King, Fagan was awarded the prestigious 1998 Tony Award for Best Choreography. He also received the 1998 Drama Desk Award, 1998 Outer Critics Circle Award, 1998 Astaire Award, 2000 Laurence Olivier Award, 2001 Ovation Award, and the 2004 Helpmann Award for his work on the Broadway musical, which opened in fall 1997 to extraordinary critical praise. Fagan’s distinguished work in the theatre also includes the first fully staged production of the Duke Ellington street opera, Queenie Pie at the Kennedy Center in 1986 and the opening production of Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival’s Shakespeare Marathon: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (1988), set in Brazil and directed by A.J. Antoon.
In the world of concert dance, Fagan choreographs primarily for Garth Fagan Dance. His recent work, Mudan 175/39, was named by The New York Times as the third of the top six dance watching moments of 2009. Fagan has also produced commissions for a number of leading companies, including his first work en pointe, Footprints Dressed in Red, for the Dance Theatre of Harlem; a solo for Judith Jamison, Scene Seen for the debut of the Jamison Project; Jukebox for Alvin for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; and Never No Lament for the Jose Limon Company; and Ellington Elation, part of a triad of pieces commissioned by New York City Ballet in honor of Duke Ellington’s centenary and New York City Ballet’s 50th anniversary. Fagan began his career when he toured Latin America with Ivy Baxter and her national dance company from Jamaica. Baxter, and two other famed dance teachers from the Caribbean, Pearl Primus and Lavinia Williams, were major influences on Fagan. In New York City, Fagan studied with Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Mary Hinkson, and Alvin Ailey, who were all central to his development. Fagan was director of Detroit’s All-City Dance Company, and principal soloist and choreographer for Detroit Contemporary Dance Company and Dance Theatre of Detroit.
Fagan’s Additional Honors and Distinctions
In October 2001, Mr. Fagan a native of Jamaica was presented with the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander: a national honor bestowed upon him by the Jamaican government. In August 1998, he received that country’s Special Gold Musgrave Medal, for his “Contribution to the World of Dance and Dance Theater.” The evening before at Prime Minister P.J. Patterson’s Independence Gala, Mr. Fagan was presented with the Prime Minister’s Award, a plate bearing the signatures of all the Prime Ministers of Jamaica, acknowledging his achievements.
Fagan is a Chancellor’s Award-winning Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of the State University of New York, and he taught for over three decades at the State University of New York at Brockport. In the fall of 2003, Fagan received the George Eastman Medal from the University of Rochester for “outstanding achievement and dedicated service.” He holds honorary doctorates from the Juilliard School, the University of Rochester, Nazareth College of Rochester, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. In 2001, he was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award and was inducted into the American Academy of Achievement. In 1996, he was one of only twenty-five American scholars, artists, professionals and public figures to receive the title Fulbright 50th Anniversary Distinguished Fellow.
Fagan also received the 2001 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award, “established to honor those great choreographers who have dedicated their lives and talent to the creation of our modern dance heritage.” He is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the prestigious three-year Choreography Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. In recognition of his contribution to modern dance, Fagan has received the Dance Magazine Award for “significant contributions to dance during a distinguished career” and the “Bessie” Award (New York Dance and Performance Award) for Sustained Achievement. Other awards include the Monarch Award from the National Council for Culture and Art, the Lillian Fairchild Award, and the Arts Achievement Award from his alma mater, Wayne State University.
Stage and Recording Artist Joe Donohoe on this Week’s “Stage Notes”
RENT-heads will be thrilled that stage and recording artist Joe Donohoe is this week’s guest on Stage Notes. Tune in and hear Joe share many behind the scenes stories about being in the role of Mark Cohen and working with RENT’s creative team. Songs from his new CD A New Rising will be featured. Saturday at 12:00 p.m. (EST) on WXXI and 9:00 p.m. (EST) on WITH. Stream at wxxi.org.
Joe Donohoe hails from Littleton, Colorado. Broadway Tour: RENT. Off-Broadway: Serenade. . Recent LA credits: Side by Side by Sondheim, Schoolhouse Rock Too, Sweeney Todd, shAme (a rock opera), and the award winning rock opera, Lovelace, which also had a month stint at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Film/TV: Malcolm in the Middle, The Surfer King, and 3 for Anna. Joe is co-owner of the Tinseltone Carolers (tinseltonecarolers.com). He is a graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory. Joe’s Alternative/Rock album, can be purchased on iTunes. Visit joedonohoe.com.
Donohoe is a young singer poised to burst upon the music scene in LA, Denver and beyond. With an achingly commercial, yet eminently credible album recorded and ready to go, Joe is a charismatic performer whose name will undoubtedly soon be known well beyond the confines of California and Colorado.
The route to LA has seen Joe travel the length and breadth of the US. Originally from Littleton, Colorado, Joe first took centre stage upon leaving high school, fronting Last Exit, a band which, in a short time, gained a large Denver/Boulder following and extensive local radio airplay. Destined to move onward and upward, Joe headed east to study music at a conservatory in Virginia, but before long had been snapped up to join the national tour of cult rock opera RENT.
Here Joe found a musical soulmate in Casey Mahoney, the tour’s guitarist, and the two immediately began writing songs together while on the road. With the RENT tour covering thousands and thousands of miles, criss-crossing the USA, Joe used the opportunity to play out his new songs as he went, at small, late-night venues in numerous towns and cities, honing the material and picking up a dedicated fan base along the way.
After leaving the tour, Joe first lived in New York, while Casey headed home to LA, and writing and recording continued via the Internet. New York gigs followed, notably at the Mean Fiddler and the Cutting Room, the latter a full band show to try out the material, destined for the album, with Casey jetting in from California to join Joe and top New York musicians for the sell-out gig.
Quickly realizing the creative process would be made a lot easier with the writing team living in the same city, Joe relocated permanently to the West Coast, and with a producer (Jeffery David) on-board, completed recording the album, drawing in musicians who have played with artists as diverse as Ringo Starr, David Lee Roth and Bette Midler. The result is 11 fantastic tracks– alternative rock, commercial enough to promise extensive airplay, yet edgy enough to attract a credible, young audience. With the album ready to go, LA and Denver shows in the pipeline, a thirst for success, and the talent to match, Joe Donohoe is set to take the scene by storm. The journey begins here…
Heard on Denver’s Alice 105.9 and 93.3 KTCL
“I just really like this album…” – Sam Hill, DJ at Alice 105.9, Denver, CO
“Remarkable Pop songs that convey to the audience surprising variety, complicated emotion and a sense of confidence and competence that smacks of promising music careers.” – TruBlu, Colorado Music Buzz
“‘Scumbag’ is a pop gem.” – IndieMusic.com
“Well-conceived choruses…solid musicianship, great production, nice song diversity, and yes, the girls will be crooning over him…a new Jason Mraz.” – The Swami, Colorado Music Buzz
“Joe Donohoe is on the scene and he is bringing “it” fiercely with his latest offering: A New Rising…” – Charlotte D Aberrant, Colorado Music Buzz
Broadway Veteran Jill O’Hara on this Week’s “Satge Notes”
Tony nominated Jill O’Hara is this week’s guest on Stage Notes. Tune in and find out why Burt Bacharach wrote I’ll Never Fall in Love Again specifically for her. All this and more on Stage Notes Saturday, February 19th at noon on classical 91.5. Stream at wxxi.org.
Praised by Backstage Magazine for “one of those rare voices with a soothing, almost hypnotic quality,” award winning vocalist and actress Jill O’Hara has thrilled audiences with her recordings, concerts, TV appearances, film and stage roles. From guest starring television performances on the Merv Griffin, Ed Sullivan and David Frost Shows; live performances at Lincoln Center, Town Hall and London’s King’s Head Theatre, to her Tony nominated role in the musical Promises, Promises, Jill O’Hara’s talents has no bounds.
Winning a Backstage Magazine Bistro Award for her live club performances at Danny’s Skylight Room, Eighty-eights and The Ballroom, she earned audience and critical acclaim with noted New York Times critic Stephen Holden saying “not many singers meld a Broadway theatricality and a folk-pop torchiness with the naturalness and personality of Jill O’Hara.”
Her other notable nightclub engagements included The Bitter End, The Village Gate and Café Wha, where she shared the bill with Richard Pryor and Richie Havens. Her one-woman show in London’s West End, Jill and Her Jacks, played to audience and critical acclaim.
While Jill’s recordings have been few and far between, her efforts have been memorable and have received universal praise from critics, radio disc jockeys and listeners alike. She has the distinction of introducing to the world the pop classics I’ll Never Fall In Love Again and Whoever You Are, I Love You from the Grammy Award-winning album Promises, Promises and Good Morning Starshine from the original off-Broadway cast album of the ground breaking musical Hair.
Her solo recording debut, 1993′s Jill O’Hara became a classic and favorite of disc jockeys and critics, earning a spot as “One Of The Ten Best Recordings Of the Year” by Backstage Magazine. With all of the initial copies sold out, the recording became an in-demand, cult favorite that is garnering high prices for used copies on auction sites such as Ebay and amazon.com. Fans will now be delighted to know that O’Hara has re-released the album in conjunction with Jill O’Hara Alone Together.
Her first release in fifteen years, Jill O’Hara Alone Together is an eclectic collection of standards and more contemporary material from Randy Newman and Amanda McBroom. Backed by some of NY’s premiere jazz musicians, including pianist/arranger Bill Mays (Frank Sinatra, Al Jarreau), arranger, conductor, songwriter and Grammy nominee Byron Olson, bass player David Finck (Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin) and sax player Tim Ries (Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, Rolling Stones), the long awaited recording is a triumph for Jill O’Hara.
In just a short time, the long awaited release has been greeted with instant acclaim. It was immediately premiered by WNCY’s Jonathan Schwartz Saturday Show, who heralded it as “a richly intelligent work,” while WBAI Radio’s David Rothenberg praised it saying “I was stunned by her interpretive powers …just beautiful.” In the short time of it’s release, Jill O’Hara Alone Together has already been named “One of the Two Outstanding CD’s” by Playbill Magazine and “One of the Ten Best CDs of the Year” by Sound Advice/ Talkin Broadway while receiving Broadway World.com’s highest rating of 5 out of 5 discs. Sound Advice critic Rob Lester called it “compelling listening,” and raved “Jill O’Hara communicates and captivates and her voice and tales stay in the ear and mind to linger long after the notes fade away.” Both of these landmark recordings are available on iTunes, amazon.com, rhapsody.com and jilloharamusic.com.
However, it will be for her memorable stage roles that O’Hara made her initial and indelible mark on the entertainment world. Becoming the toast of Broadway by the time she was 21 years old, in rapid succession, she originated leading roles in three hit musicals. She has the distinction of originating the female lead in the very first Public Theater production of Hair (that performance is now immortalized on the special commemorative cast album CD) before going on to a leading role opposite Joel Grey in the Tony Award-winning musical George M!. But it was starring above the title opposite Jerry Orbach in the Burt Bacharach-Hal David-Neil Simon musical Promises, Promises, that immortalized her. That performance earned Jill the Tony nomination for Best Actress-Musical Star, in addition to a Theater World Award and New Jersey Journal Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
A serious actress, as well as a musical star, Jill starred in the film Pigeons, directed by John Dexter and appeared in many regional theater and summer stock productions opposite such stars as Sid Ceasar.
Composer/Lyricist Scott Alan on “Stage Notes” February 12th at noon
This week’s guest on Stage Notes is Broadway composer/lyricist Scott Alan. Tune to classical 91.5 at noon on Saturday, February 12th to hear this fascinating interview. Songs from Scott’s CDs will be featured. Stream at wxxi.org.
Scott Alan
Scott wrote the book, music and lyrics for the musical Detour in Los Angeles. Since returning to New York City five years ago, many of Broadway’s elite have sung his music, including Liz Callaway, Shoshana Bean, Adriane Lenox, Stephanie J. Block, Cheyenne Jackson, Eden Espinosa and more, all of which can be found featured on his debut CD Dreaming Wide Awake: The Music of Scott Alan now available on his website and iTunes. He has sold out concerts of his music in New York City at The Duplex Cabaret Theatre, The Laurie Beechman Theatre and Birdland, London’s West End’s The Duchess Theatre and San Francisco’s Rrazz Room. In October 2008, Alan released the follow up CD, Keys, which features more of Broadway and West End elite singing his work, including Sutton Foster, Norm Lewis, Kerry Ellis, Randy Graff, Megan Hilty, Hadley Fraser, Julia Murney and many more. In the fall of 2010, Alan released his newest album, What I Wanna Be When I Grow Up., featuring Christiane Noll, Darius de Haas, Christopher Sieber, Willemijn Verkaik, Patina Miller and more.
His love for new talent helped conceive and produce the acclaimed monthly series, ‘Monday Nights, New Voices’ at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre, which is now heading into it’s eighth year. The series honors and celebrates new vocalists and new writers in the theatre community. Alan also produced and directed the Neo2 Benefit Concert at the York Theatre in 2006 featuring some of todays brightest up and coming composers and lyricists, sung by some of Broadways greatest performers. More information available at www.scottalan.net.
Genny Lis Padilla, who is currently in the role of Nina in the national Broadway tour of In the Heights, will be my guest on Stage Notes Saturday at 12:00 p.m. (EST) on WXXI (91.5). Stream at wxxi.org.
