BETTY BUCKLEY
It looks like it will be a busy fall for the one-and-only Betty Buckley whose new CD and DVD/video (“Stars and the Moon: Betty Buckley Live at the Donmar”) will be released on Sept. 11, the CD from Concord Records and the DVD/video from Image Entertainment. The track listing for each follows:
the CD:
“Not a Day Goes By” (Sondheim)
“Just the Way You Look Tonight (Kern/Fields)
“Stars and the Moon (Brown)
“Finding Home (Gordon/Landau)
“Answer Me (Winkler/Rauch/Sigman)
“Migratory V (Guettel) /Horse with Wings (Gordon)
“Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
Medley: “The Red Dress” (Gordon/Parker); “Souvenir” (Gordon/St. Vincent Millay); “Will There Really Be a Morning?” (Gordon/Dickinson)
“Old Friend” (Ford and Cryer)
“Send in the Clowns” (Sondheim)
“Close to Home” (Mayes)
“Amazing Grace” (John Newton -attrib.)

the DVD/video:
Act I
“Not a Day Goes By” (Sondheim)
“Just the Way You Look Tonight” (Kern/Fields)
“Come Rain or Come Shine” (Mercer/Arlen)
“Come on, Come on” (Carpenter)
“Meadowlark” (Schwartz)
“Answer Me” (Winkler/Rauch/Sigman)
“Stars and the Moon” (Brown)
Medley: “Migratory V”(Guettel) / “Horse with Wings” (Gordon)
Medley: “You're Nearer” (Rodgers/Hart) / “If Ever I Would Leave You” (Lerner/Loewe) / “My Funny Valentine” (Rodgers/Hart)
“As If We Never Said Goodbye” (Webber/Black/Hampton/Powers)
Act II
“Finding Home” (Gordon/Landau)
“Fire and Rain” (Taylor)
Medley: “The Red Dress” (Gordon/Parker) / “Souvenir” (Gordon/St. Vincent Millay) / ”Will There Really Be a Morning?” (Gordon/Dickinson)
“Old Friend” (Ford and Cryer)
“Send in the Clowns” (Sondheim)
“Memory” (Webber/Nunn/Eliot)
“Amazing Grace” (John Newton - attrib.)

And, of course, Buckley will make her Lincoln Center solo concert debut on Sept. 19 and 20 as part of the American Songbook series, which is dedicated to the American song. Although the concerts will contain songs from Buckley’s Donmar performances, there are several new additions as well, and the evening will feature lighting from Tony Award-winning designer Peggy Eisenhauer. Tickets are priced at $50 and $65 and are now available at the box office, by calling (212) 721-6500 or by visiting www.lincolncenter.org . . . If you can’t wait until the 19th for a dose of Buckley, you can listen to hear speak live about her upcoming concert engagements on three live radio interviews: Sunday, Sept. 9 with David Kenney on WBAI (99.5 FM) radio’s “Everything Old Is New Again” from 9 to 11 PM; Monday, Sept. 17 with Joan Rivers on WOR (710 AM) radio between 6 and 8 PM; and Tuesday, Sept. 18 with Leonard Lopate on WNYC’s (810 AM) “New York and Company” at 1:20 PM . . . Buckley will also be teaching a class for professional and aspiring actors at the Terry Schreiber Acting School in downtown New York. The Tony winner will teach six Monday classes beginning on Oct. 8 . . . And, don’t forget to catch Buckley in action on HBO’s gritty prison drama, “Oz.” Buckley stars as Suzanne Fitzgerald, the mother of one of the Oz inmates, and she will appear in seven of the eight new episodes, which begin airing in January . . . One last item: Although there is not a set date for Buckley’s participation in the “Food for Thought” one-act lunch series, BB will take part in the program some time in the future, so stay tuned for more info! (Be sure to check out Buckley’s beautifully redesigned website at bettybuckley.com.)

QUOTABLE QUOTES

Patti LuPone answers the question “Who would you include to your ideal dinner party (not including yourself and family)?” on her website:
“First of all, I would have my dear friend Dr. James Sacksteder, Associate Director of Austin Riggs Center for his shock value. Then I would invite my dear friend Michael Glass, General Counsel for Fairleigh Dickinson University because he, like the doctor, knows just about everything there is to know. Then I would invite my dear friend Jeffrey Richman, TV writer, because he's good for laughs. Of course, my beloved husband Matt because everybody loves him. Then I would invite landscape architect Gingy Parker because we are a toxic combination and Nancy Nichols, horticulturist, because she knows every lyric to every song ever written. Marc Shaiman because he would play the piano, Scott Wittman because he could teach all the young ones how Bette Davis said, ‘Eve!’ Oh dear, I've invited all my friends. I know this would be a very funny and loud dinner party.”

Cabaret singer Mary Foster Conklin speaks about her cabaret performances in a recent New York Times article by Terry Teachout:
“I got frustrated with standard cabaret because my perspective didn’t really contain a shred of what you’d call old-movie romance. One of my acting teachers told me: ‘You’re playing the part of a cabaret singer. You’re dressing up like your mother. Wear pants. Do material that fits your age, your story, your life.’ So I started singing songs that were more about sex than romance. Songs about anger. More contemporary stuff, by people like Tom Waits and Dave Cantor. And that was when I started to become myself.” FOR THE RECORD
Theatre and cabaret performer Cindy Benson, who starred as Mme. Thenardier in Les Miserables and as the tap-dancing Gumbie Cat in Cats, has just released her debut solo CD, “Out on a Whim.” Benson, who has also received kudos for her work in clubs around the country, is equally at home with comedic and dramatic material, and her new CD contains samplings of both. If there are bit too many comic songs for my taste, some of which are simply not funny on disc, there are several highlights, which include a wonderful arrangement of Cole Porter’s “Ridin’ High”; a terrific medley of two Show Boat tunes, “Bill” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man”; a lovely, gentle reading of “Slow Boat to China”; a touching version of the Edith Piaf staple, “If You Love Me”; plus the sweet ballads “If We Hold On Together” and “One More Walk Around the Garden.” “Out on a Whim” is available from LML Music, and the complete track listing for Benson’s disc follows:
“Pets” (Cole Porter)
“Slow Boat to China” (Frank Loesser)
“Song of the Moth” (Joe Darion/George Kleinsinger)
“The Boston Beguine” (Sheldon M. Harnick)
“If You Love Me” (Geoffrey Parsons, Marguite Monnot)
“More Than You Know” (William Rose, Edward Eliscu/Vincent Youmans)
“Mr. Right” (Alan Jay Lerner/Kurt Weill)
“Feelin’ Too Good Today Blues” (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller)
“Bill”/ “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” (P.G. Wodehouse, Oscar Hammerstein II/Jerome Kern)
“If We Hold On Together” (James Horner/Will Jennings)
“Mr. Paganini (If You Can’t Sing It, You’ll Have to Swing It)” (Sam Conslow)
“One More Walk Around the Garden” (Alan Jay Lerner/Burton Lane)
“Ridin’ High” (Cole Porter)

IN OTHER NEWS
Liz Callaway, who will be starring in the Off-Broadway musical The Spitfire Grill through Oct. 14, will also take part in several evenings devoted to the music of Stephen Schwartz, entitled “Stephen Schwartz and Friends.” The concerts, which will also feature Scott Coulter and Schwartz himself will be held on Oct. 14 in Hutchinson, KS; Oct. 19 in Asheville, NC; Oct. 21 in Greensboro, NC; Oct. 23 in Baltimore, MD; and Oct. 27 in Wilmington, NC . . . The original cast recording of Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick . . . BOOM! will be available in stores next week on Sept. 11. The musical, which takes audiences on the journey that led Larson to the Pulitzer Prize winning Rent, features former Kiss Me, Kate star Amy Spanger as well as Raul Esparza and Jerry Dixon. Available from RCA Victor, the 14-track disc also features a demo tape recorded in 1993 of Jonathan Larson singing “Boho Days.” . . .

REMINDERS:

BETTY BUCKLEY
That Tony-winning dynamo, Betty Buckley, has just released a new slate of concert performances, which follows:

September 19 and 20 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall (American Songwriters Series) in New York, NY
September 29 at Centre East in Skokie, IL
October 6 at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ (with Michael Feinstein)
November 10 at the Naperville North Central College Performing Arts Center in Naperville, IL (with Michael Feinstein)
November 14-18 at the Mohegan Sun Cabaret in Uncasville, CT
November 24 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ (with Michael Feinstein)
December 6 at Abravenal Hall with the Utah Symphony in Salt Lake City, UT (Xmas program)
December 7 at the Ellen Eccles Theatre in Logan, UT
December 27 at the Verizon Regional Performing Arts Center in Philadelphia, PA (with Michael Feinstein)
January 4 & 5, 2002 at the Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford, CT
March 15 & 16, 2002 with the North Carolina Symphony in Raleigh, NC
March 30 at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA

BARBARA COOK
Sept. 25 at the Papermill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ
Oct. 9-14 at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, CT
April 12 and 13 with Marilyn Horne at Michigan State University’s Warton Center in MI
April 26 at Symphony Hall in Boston, MA
June 5-9 and June 12-16 at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre in Washington, DC LINDA EDER
Eder in concert:
Sept. 27 at the Arts Center at Iowa Western Community College in Council Sept. 14 at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, PA, (215) 893-1999
Sept. 27 at the Arts Center at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, IA (712-388-7140)
Sept. 29 at the Eisenhower Hall Theatre at West Point, (845) 938-4159
Oct. 14 at the University of Texas at Austin’s Bass Concert Hall in Austin, TX
Oct. 19 and 20 at the Atlanta Symphony Hall, go to www.atlantasymphony.org
Nov. 3 at the Youngstown Symphony Center in Youngstown, OH, (330) 744 4269
Nov. 16 and 17 at Jacobs Symphony Hall in Jacksonville, FL, (877) 662 6731
Dec. 1 at the State Theatre in Easton, PA (610-252-3132)
Dec. 5 at the Papermill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ, (973) 376-4343
Dec. 11 at Symphony Hall in Boston, MA, (617) 266-1492
Dec. 14 and 15 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, (800) 444-1324

PATTI LuPONE
The Tony and Olivier Award-winning actress has also just released a whole new slew of concert dates, which follow:

September 15 at the Rialto Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia (“Matters of the Heart”)
October 10 at Symphony Hall in Boston, MA (“Matters of the Heart”)
February 9, 2002 at the Tilles Center with the Long Island Philharmonic (“Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda”)
February 22-23, 2002 at the Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, NY with the Buffalo Philharmonic (“Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda”)

February 28 at Carnegie Hall in New York, NY (“Coulda Woulda Shoulda”)

BERNADETTE PETERS
Sept. 14 at Orchestra Hall in Detroit
Oct. 13 at CSU in Bakersfield
Oct. 19-21 at the Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis
Oct. 24 at the NJPAC in Newark
Oct. 26 at the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, Canada
Nov. 3 at the Keneseth Israel Hall in Philadelphia
Nov. 21-25 at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco
Jan. 4, 2002 at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater
Jan. 6 at the Barbara Mann Hall in Ft. Myers
Jan. 7 at Van Wezel Hall in Sarasota
Jan. 9 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach
Jan. 10 at the City Center in Coral Springs
Apr. 5-6 at the OCPAC in Costa Mesa

Well, that’s all for now. Happy diva-watching!

By Andrew Gans