It's a Busy Time Musically - Get Out Your Calendars

So, spring is here and theatrical fancies turn to many things…we're already hearing about the litany spring benefit tributes…..the Drama League is honoring Paul Gemignani, Bartlett Sher and Ellen Stewart at their annual luncheon on May 16….the day before this New Dramatists will play tribute to Harvey Fierstein at their annual get-together to raise money….and then, on May 18 a one-performance concert presentation of the much-anticipated Pamela's First Musical - music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel, book by Wendy Wasserstein - will take place at Town Hall as a fundraiser for BC/EFA.

Looking at the spring season – it seems we have one more musical before the Tony cutoff. It's been announced in The Washington Post this morning that Glory Days will be making its home at . The paper is reporting a May 6 opening. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/25/AR2008032502456.html).

In the less distant future (a.k.a. the next week), we have a host of musical events, starting with City Center's Encores! presentation of Juno that starts performances tomorrow and runs through Sunday. I'm hearing that there are still tickets for this rarity from Marc Blitzstein that will star Victoria Clark. Then, on Monday, the Collegiate Chorale will be presenting a one-night concert of Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner's A White House Cantata, it will play at Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center in the Time-Warner Builidng on Columbus Circle. Come Tuesday, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will be presenting a concert version of a more recent musical, The Capeman. This one, Paul Simon: Songs from The Capeman, will play through the weekend at BAM.

Of course, we have the big Broadway opening of Gypsy tomorrow and next Thursday, Sher's staging of South Pacific will open at Lincoln Center Theater. Off-Broadway, we'll see a new musical debuting at the Connelly Theatre in the East Village. The Transport Group, which gave us the adventurous The Audience a few seasons back, will be debuting Marcy in the Galaxy, which the company is describing as " a funny, dark musical glimpse at what happens to a woman whose dream of being a New York artist takes longer to come true than she had planned." This one starts previews on Friday and continues through April 20.

Finally, just as all of this will be happening – meaning most folks will be out every night – the DVD of Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd arrives in stores on Tuesday. This means that at least one night, after taking in all of this work on stage, we'll have to be sitting up and checking out this one on our TVs at home.

QUICK LINKS:

Drama League: http://www.dramaleague.org/
New Dramatists: http://www.newdramatists.org/
BC/EFA: http://www.bcefa.org/
City Center: http://www.citycenter.org/
Collegiate Chorale: http://www.collegiatechorale.org/
Brooklyn Academy of Music: http://www.bam.org/
Gypsy: http://www.gypsybroadway.com/
Lincoln Center Theater: http://www.lct.org/
Transport Group: http://www.transportgroup.org/