Broadway Represents on the Grammys

Sunday's broadcast of the Grammy Awards will include a performance by the Broadway cast of American Idiot. They will perform the song "21 Guns" with Green Day. Click here to read the Variety story. The Grammys will air this coming Sunday on CBS.

Kelli O'Hara's Brings the GLEE

You never know who you'll see at the Center! At Sunday night's performance of Kelli O'Hara, GLEE's very own Matthew Morrison was in the audience enjoying the cabaret show in Samueli Theater. A little bit of background - Kelli and Matthew appeared together on Broadway in the acclaimed The Light in the Piazza. After Kelli's performance, Matthew was kind enough pose for a photo with Karen Diche.

Julie Andrews on the Daily Show: These are a few of OUR favorite Things

Tell Me What You Want, What You Really Really Want

There have been stage musicals featuring the songs of ABBA, The Beach Boys, Queen, Elvis Presley and more, now Playbill is reporting that a new musical is in the works featuring the songs of...The Spice Girls.  Currently titled Viva Forever, the work is being produce by Judy Craymer, who knows a thing or two about these type of projects, having produced the international mega-hit Mamma Mia!

The Center in Anne Rice's latest novel

It seems acclaimed best-seller Anne Rice, author of Interview with the Vampire and The Life of Christ series, is a fan of the Center. In her most recent release, Angel Time, Rice included mention of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, as well as the Pacific Symphony and Leatherby’s Café Rouge. The book’s central character, assassin Toby O’Dare, muses in this excerpt:

Often, undisguised, I drove over to nearby Costa Mesa to hear the Pacific Symphony. I liked it, the contrast, moving from the stucco arches and rusted bells of the Inn to the immense Plexiglas miracle of the Segerstrom Concert Hall, with the pretty Cafe Rouge on the first floor.

In a personal email to the Center, Rice called the Concert Hall “gorgeous ... a beautiful and special place,” adding that she often incorporates personal experiences into her novels. Said Rice:

It was natural for me to have my hero in this new novel visit the hall. I was so taken with the performance of [the Pacific Symphony’s] The Rite of Spring that I wrote it into the book, and expanded on it fictionally, having the hero hear the composition early in his life, and then again at the Hall.

Thank you for your praise, Ms. Rice. We look forward to the next book.

Vintage Django

Here is an interesting video on Django Reinhardt.

Django Reinhardt
by hexholden

Harry Connick, Jr. raves about Kelli O'Hara

Harry Connick, Jr. Sings the praises of his co-star Kelli O'Hara before the two of them sing "There Once Was a Man" from The Pajama Game.

Twyla Tharpe is headed back to Broadway

Variety  reports that Twyla Tharp's Come Fly Away is Broadway bound.  Titled Come Fly With Me when it originally premiered in Atlanta, the suite of dances to Sinatra classics will open at the Marquis Theater this March.  Tharp is well-known to Center audiences with works ranging from the Tony winning Movin' Out to American Ballet Theatre's Rabbit and Rogue.