Jacques Brel News

Ute Lemper returned again to the Royal Festival Hall bringing with her onto the stage something more than ever before.

WITH trademark theatrical flair, Camille O'Sullivan strode onto the stage of the RWCMD's Dora Stoutzker Hall dressed head to toe in red, including her shoes.

Things really are serious now. Not because the Greek acting Prime Minister, Panagotis Pikramennos, is called Judge Bitter.

It's ironic that Jason Robert Brown's musical revue, now playing at the MET Theatre in Hollywood, is titled Songs for a New World , since these are songs of the most hackneyed kind that would surely have been cut from a show during its out-of-town tryouts. Described as "a revue in the mold of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well ," Songs is a similar collection of themed compositions, but that's where the similarity ends.

He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle . More Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents.

The Ludington Visiting Writers presents Story on Stage VI Friday, May 4, at 7 p.m. at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts.

When the fabulous Chita Rivera sweeps on stage with her one-woman show this Friday night to support a benefit for Boston Youth Moves, she'll be thinking of the dance teacher she had as a child that made all the difference for her.