On Wednesday night, the Atlantic Theatre Company officially opened their season with the often uproarious What’s That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, a “comedy with music” starring Peter Bartlett and two-time Tony Award nominee David Pittu, who also co-wrote and co-directed the work.
After the performance, young Brandon Goodman — who appears in the show’s final musical segment — caught up with his mother, celebrated performer Hazelle Goodman.
Paul Rudnick, Julie Halston, and Claudia Shear, three of the planet’s funniest people — and good pals of Bartlett and Pittu — were also in attendance.
That same evening, the York Theatre Company opened its mainstage season with a brilliant revival of Enter Laughing: The Musical. Here’s book writer Joseph Stein (center) with two of his previous collaborators, composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick.
Max von Essen, soon to appear in the Kennedy Center’s highly anticipated Broadway: Three Generations, was among the celebrities on opening night.
Jamie Farr and Anita Gillette, currently starring in the Off-Broadway comedy Flamingo Court at New World Stages, were also part of the opening-night throng.
On Tuesday, the press met the director and cast of the upcoming Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow: Neil Pepe, Jeremy Piven, Elisabeth Moss, and Raul Esparza.
Monday night was a busy one, as usual, with the highlight being a rare appearance by the legendary Shirley MacLaine at the premiere of her upcoming Lifetime movie Coco Chanel, in which she plays the famous fashion designer.
That same evening, Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle hosted a “birthday party” for the late country singer Patsy Cline with vocalists Kayce Glasse and Lisa Asher, Ellis Nassour, author of Cline’s biography Honky Tonk Angel, and the evening’s host, TheaterMania columnist Peter Filichia.
Downtown at the National Arts Club, the divine Marian Seldes was joined by friends such as actress Joan Copeland as she received the group’s Medal of Honor.
Hunter Foster (far left) and Rick Crom (far right), creators of Bonnie & Clyde: A Folktale, joined stars Diane Davis and Jason Wooten in introducing their new show.
Former Tarzan star and American Idol contestant Josh Strickland wowed the crowd with a selection from the upcoming NYMF musical Play It Cool.
Finally, on September 4, Manhattan Theatre Club renamed its Broadway theater (formerly the Biltmore) in honor of pioneering Broadway publicist Samuel J. Friedman.
Attending the dedication ceremony was Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, who starred on the theater’s stage last season in Mauritius.
For TheaterMania’s review of What’s That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, click here.
For TheaterMania’s review of Enter Laughing: The Musical, click here.
For TheaterMania’s NYMF preview feature, click here.
