Theater News

Photo File

Douglas Sills, Deborah Cox, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Bacon, and Governor George Pataki are among the stars of our latest photo feature.

New York City

The ides of March did not prove to be unlucky for The Broadway Musicals of 1935, the latest installment in the “Broadway By the Year” series at The Town Hall; on the contrary, the show was a sold-out hit on Monday, March 15. One of its highlights was Douglas Sills’s intense, moving, “unplugged” rendition of “Begin the Beguine” from Cole Porter’s Jubilee. (Unamplified performances are a hallmark of the series.)

Sills — a.k.a. The Scarlet Pimpernel and Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. — was kept quite busy during the show. Here he is with partner Todd Murray, performing “Let’s Swing It” from Earl Carroll’s Sketchbook…




…and here he is again with Karen Akers, performing “Cigarette” from George White’s Scandals of 1936.



Among the show’s many other memorable moments: Darius de Haas singing “Farewell, My Lovely” from Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz’s At Home Abroad…



…Gretha Boston in “Thief in the Night,” also from At Home Abroad…

…Emily Skinner and Barbara Walsh duetting in Rodgers and Hart’s “Over and Over Again” from Jumbo…

…Chuck Cooper and Laurie Williamson in the glorious duet “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” from Porgy and Bess (music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin)…



…and the teriffic Never Gonna Dance team of Nancy Lemenager and Noah Racey, performing “The Gringola” from Earl Carroll’s Sketchbook.



The previous Monday, March 8, saw the one-night-only performance at the Little Shubert Theatre of Autobahn, a program of staged readings presented to benefit the Manhattan Class Company. Among the particpants were Kevin Bacon…

…the ever-beautiful Susan Sarandon (whose hubby, Tim Robbins, recently made his New York debut as a playwright with Embedded at The Public Theater)…

…Paul Rudd, whom you’ve been seeing a lot of on TV’s Friends…

…and another TV star, Chris Meloni of OZ.

On Sunday, March 14, pop singer Deborah Cox made her Broadway debut in the title role of Disney’s Aida. Here’s Cox at the after party, which was held at the W Times Square Hotel.

We leave you with two photos taken last evening at Keen’s Chophouse on West 36th Street, where the opening night party for Silent Laughter was held. Among the revelers were (right) Billy Van Zandt, one of the show’s creators and performers, with his brother, Steven Van Zandt (a sometime actor and longtime member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band).

And here’s a group shot from last night’s festivities at Keen’s (left to right): Libby Pataki, Steven Van Zandt, Billy Van Zandt, Jane Milmore (co-author of Silent Laughter and a member of the cast), Adrienne Barbeau (of Maude fame), and the head honcho of New York State, Governor George Pataki.