Theater and film producer Barbara Ligeti and Emilio Barletta & Giuseppe Manica -- co-owners of popular Theater District restaurant Trattoria Dopo Teatro (125 W. 44th St., 212-869-2849; www.dopoteatro.com) -- are launching a twice-monthly series of supper & song: “I Saw Broadway” at Trattoria Dopo Teatro: Jonathan Brielle & Assorted Friends” directed by Michael Bush with special by-invitation performances on October 20 & November 3.
The Theatre District's newest cabaret destination, Trattoria Dopo Teatro will host a stellar evening of dining and song featuring renowned singer/songwriter Jonathan Brielle and guest artists from the 2011 Cabaret Conference of the Tony Award-winning Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center.
The evening will feature a collection of songs including the anthem "I Saw Broadway” by Brielle from his new musicals, including Nightmare Alley (Geffen Playhouse), Himself & Nora (The Old Globe) and “40 Naked Women, A Monkey & Me” (The O’Neill) -- now being developed in collaboration with director Michael Bush and this special event is the first in a series of evenings at Trattoria Dopo Teatro being curated by Brielle and Bush that will feature a rotating group of extraordinary performers.
For the kickoff, the dynamic team has lined up a dazzling roster of the stage’s best and brightest talents - from seasoned veterans to fresh faces on the Broadway scene - including legendary singer and songwriter Amanda McBroom (The Rose); Erich Bergen, fresh from his reign as rock impresario Bob Gaudio in the Broadway smash Jersey Boys; Jeremiah James, just off a critically acclaimed run as Billy Bigelow in the West End revival of Carousel; and Wendy Fox of Dreamgirls fame. Joel Silberman will be guest musical director for the first two shows.
The casually elegant evening will be reminiscent of the musical evenings that Cole and Linda Porter hosted in their palatial Paris apartment for society and entertainment’s crème de la crème and more contemporarily the song-filled nights that Billy Stritch orchestrated weekly in the posh Upper East Side pad of Liza Minnelli where Broadway babies mixed it up with legends like Lauren
Bacall and Phyllis Newman.
The evening will include a bountiful dinner from Trattoria Dopo Teatro’s widely praised menu featuring superb, artfully prepared dishes from the owner’s native Italy created by Executive Chef Alberto Alvarez.
The cornerstone of the series is Jonathan Brielle, who began moving hearts and minds with music and words over twenty-five years ago.Whether on Broadway teaching his songs to the legendary Jessica Tandy in Foxfire; writing the musical themes for Ford Motors; writing music and lyrics for Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus; performing for 5,000 Avon Ladies; producing the opening number for the MTV Music Awards (25 male Rockettes in drag and featuring Roseanne Barr); co-producing and creating the original score for the US and UK tours of Goosebumps; playing James Joyce at the James Joyce Center in Dublin; or creating one of the longest running spectaculars in Las Vegas at the legendary Stardust Hotel, Jonathan has spent his life pursuing musical story telling.
Jonathan’s current new musicals include: Nightmare Alley performed at the Geffen Playhouse this past May with Concert Readings in NYC; 40 Naked Women, A Monkey, and Me, his latest original score and book, debuted this summer at the Eugene O’Neal Festival in Connecticut; Menu, featured in a workshop presented by AMAS; and Himself & Nora, a musical based on the life of James Joyce which recently had a successful run in Dublin and is now gearing up for a New York presentation.
Trattoria Dopo Teatro is located at 125 West 44th Street in the heart of the Theater District. Dinner at 8:30pm. Performance at 9:30 pm.
