Bruce Springsteen Plans Solo Shows on Broadway this Fall

Posted on August 10, 2017 by admin

Bruce Springsteen is planning a number of small solo performances at the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway this fall. He intends for the shows to be “as personal and intimate as possible,” featuring both his music as well as excerpts from his autobiography Born to Run.

“My show is just me, the guitar, the piano and the words and music,” Springsteen explains. “Some of the show is spoken, some of it is sung. It loosely follows the arc of my life and my work.”

The shows will begin on October 12th and run five nights a week until November 26th. According to Jon Landua, Springsteen’s manager, “Bruce has had this specific idea in mind since last December. It came into focus slowly and then all at once last January.”

When asked about the choice of venue, Springsteen said “I chose Broadway for this project because it has the beautiful old theaters which seemed like the right setting for what I have in mind. In fact, with one or two exceptions, the 960 seats of the Walter Kerr Theater is probably the smallest venue I’ve played in the last 40 years.”

“All of it together is in pursuit of my constant goal to provide an entertaining evening and to communicate something of value,” he said.

Upscale Movie Complex Coming to South Street Seaport

Posted on March 9, 2016 by admin

A Lighthouse-esque structure near South Street Seaport Museum, New York City. Photo by Andy C.

With plans to open this coming autumn, iPic Entertainment is adding an eight-screen movie theater complex to the newly renovated South Street Seaport. The Seaport is getting its $1.7 billion overhaul care of the Howard Hughes Corporation.

There are also at least three key movie operators who are in active negotiations with Fosun International. Cinemex, an operator based in Mexico City; Landmark Theaters-owned by Mark Cuban; and Cinemark, the third largest US-based movie theater chain, based in Texas.

The theater will take up 50,000-square-feet of space at the base of what was One Chase Manhattan Plaza at 28 Liberty Street. That comes to 25 percent of the entire retail space available on the ground floor of the 60-story building. The retail space, which Fosun is renovating complete with glass-walled storefronts, will go for $100 per square-foot.

MCNY Exhibit Celebrates Yiddish Theater

Posted on November 8, 2015 by admin

Yiddish theater actors and personalities in 1888: from left to right: Jacob P. Adler, Zigmund Feinman, Zigmund Mogulesko, Rudolf Marx, Mr. Krastoshinsky and David Kessler

A new exhibit set to open on March 9, 2016 at the Museum of the City of New York is “New York’s Yiddish Theater: From the Bowery to Broadway.” The exhibit is the first time a major museum displayed a major survey of this fascinating subject, says Edna Nahshon the guest curator for the show.

“It is a topic that begged to be dealt with,” Nahshon, who is a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, told the New York Times.

The presentation documents the rise and blossoming of New York’s Yiddish culture from the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. As Jewish immigrants arrived by the thousands from Eastern Europe and other countries, a thriving Yiddish culture in New York, especially in Manhattan’s Lower East Side was established. The exhibit will feature items which were donated by the family of Boris Aronson, the Tony Award-winning set designer who worked on Fiddler on the Roof and The Diary of Anne Frank.

The MCNY website describes the show:

“From the late 19th to the mid- 20th century, a thriving Yiddish theater culture blossomed on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, entertaining over 1.5 million first and second generation Eastern-European Jewish immigrants.”

“Second Avenue became the ‘Yiddish Broadway,’ where audiences of new New Yorkers celebrated their culture and learned about urban life in the city via cutting-edge dramas, musical comedies, and avant-garde political theater. As stars of the Yiddish stage gained mainstream popularity, New York’s Yiddish theater became an American phenomenon. This legacy resonates today through enduring dramatic themes, classic New York humor, and a large crop of crossover actors, directors, and designers who found work on the mainstream New York stage and in Hollywood.”

Among the memorabilia on display will be Aronson’s original wooden set model of the Anatevka home of Tevye the dairyman, the hero of Fiddler on the Roof.

MCNY is located at 1220 Fifth Avenue.

The Bowery Hotel Hosts Bash for “The Butler”

Posted on August 10, 2013 by admin

Oprah Winfrey Stars in The Butler

Welcoming such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Keisha Nash Whitaker and Forest Whitaker, the Bowery Hotel held a gala event in honor of the premier of Director Lee Daniels’ most recent film, “The Butler.”

The film is scheduled to be released to the general public on August 16, and stars David Oyelowo, Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey.

Lower Manhattan’s Entertainment Landscape Clearing after Sandy Passes Through

Posted on November 6, 2012 by admin

New York is getting back to normal entertainment-wise as most of the electricity has been restored to lower Manhattan almost exactly one week from the time Hurricane Sandy made landfall along the east coast. Having the power back means that downtown’s off-Broadway theaters, independent movie houses, Lower East Side concert halls and Chelsea art galleries can open again for business and the pleasure of its customers.

It was for the first time that the Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting was forced to issue permits on an as-needed basis for film shoots at exterior sites. This means that the business of movie and TV filming can begin to get back to normal for the twenty-four TV series and the over one dozen films now in production which use the streets of New York as their backdrop. Filming in New York’s A zone, the areas hardest hit by Sandy’s relentless winds, rain and ocean surges, is still not permitted. This includes parts of Brooklyn and all of Staten Island.

Katherine Oliver- NYC’s Commissioner of The New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting

“We’re getting back on track and back into business,” said Katherine Oliver, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. “There was minimal damage to stages last week — a little bit of water damage here and there. But they were able to get back on stages at the end of last week and, as of today and going forward; they will be on exterior locations as well.”