Entertainment Events Blog

Source: http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=152708&preview=on#ixzz0utOWSyuA

"Tailor-made for bachelorette parties"

FEATURE: Girls Night: The Musical

BroadwayWorld.com – 7/24/2010 – Jenna Esposito

"Friday night found me downstairs at Sofia's Restaurant on 46th Street for Girls Night: The Musical. Tailor-made for bachelorette parties, sisters, or any girls who 'just want to have fun,' Girls Night is a fun trip down memory lane for a group of five female friends (one of whom appears in angel form, having fallen off the back of her mo-ped at the age of 17). The songs, which are performed karaoke-style, include classic female anthems like 'At Seventeen,' 'I'm Every Woman,' 'Don't Cry Out Loud' and (of course!) 'I Will Survive.' The loosely woven plot revolves around Anita, Kate, Carol, and Liza (played by Christina Cataldo,Deborah Radloff, Alexandra Rush and Berty Jay, respectively) gathering at a bar to celebrate the engagement of the daughter of their mutual high school friend, Sharon (played byWilma Cespedes-Rivera, decked out as a bedazzled angel). As the ladies down their cocktails and lose their inhibitions, they re-live moments from their past, discuss their relationships, shed some tears, and reinforce their close ties to each other. The cast delivers high-energy, thoroughly entertaining performances, and keeps the audience whooping, dancing, and singing along throughout the course of the evening. Looking around, I counted four brave men who dared to attend the show - and they seemed to be having just as good a time as the ladies. Kudos to the guys on being such good sports! All in all, a really fun evening."

Girls Night: The Musical plays Off-Broadway in NYC and all across the Country.

For tickets and more info call (877) 386-6968.

It is currently available for Professional engagements. Contact Entertainment Events to book the Girls today!

Thanks for Blogging! > EEI Staff

Take the Girl’s Poll! (GN Poll #3)

Which "Real Housewife" would you like to see star in Girls Night?Market Research

"This show really allows you to laugh. It allows you to cry. It allows you to identify."

FEATURE: Girls Night: The Musical

NBC, WHEC.com - 7/13/2010 - Janet Lomax

"Call your girlfriends and head to Geva Theatre – It's 'Girl's Night Out.'

That's right. Girls Night: The Musical is now on stage and the party starts the minute the lights come up on stage. The show will have you dancing in your seat.

Jenna Paige Gagliardo who plays Liza in the show says, 'We expect everyone to have a good time. It's as if you were out at a karaoke bar, just singing with your friend.'

: Girls Night: The Musical at The Geva Theatre Center

Girls Night: The Musical tells the story of five friends whose bond is so 'strong,' their friendship so 'tight' one of them has passed away and even 'she' shows up—to narrate their story.

Gagliardo says, 'We have been best friends since we were thirteen all the way until now at age 40. And we've experienced everything together!'

And what Liza, Anita, Sharon, Kate and Carol have 'experienced,' people in the audience have too. Actor Carly Sakolove says the show can be therapeutic. 'This show really allows you to laugh. It allows you to cry. It allows you to identify.'

So if the show is called Girls Night: The Musical does that mean no men allowed?

Gagliardo says, 'Oh my gosh, men are totally allowed!' Sakoloveadds, 'Some men get dragged here. Some men are all about coming here but the men always love it. They always have a good time!' And according to Gagliardo the men "sometimes laugh extra harder than the women!'

It seems no matter what your gender everyone can benefit from a Girl's Night Out.
Gagliardo, 'I think it's always good to separate yourself from the craziness of life every once in awhile.'

The actors who take the stage each night want you to put the craziness aside and join them in singing their anthem—'I Will Survive.'

Sakolove says, 'We have women that come in who have survived breast cancer, they've survived divorce, and they’ve survived losing a child or their parents. And for them to walk out of the theatre with their head held high is what we aim for.'

You can see Girls Night: The Musical at Geva through August 1.

For more news and updates take a look at www.whec.com"

Source: http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S1649604.shtml?cat=566

Girls Night: The Musical plays Off-Broadway in NYC and all across the Country.

For tickets and more info call (877) 386-6968.

It is currently available for Professional engagements. Contact Entertainment Events to book the Girls today!

Thanks for Blogging! > EEI Staff

"BOTTOM LINE: Our highest recommendation!"

REVIEW: Girls Night: The Musical

New York Theater Guide – 6/29/2010 – Ron Gross

"BOTTOM LINE: Our highest recommendation! I’ve never seen an audience enjoy a musical more than at this touching and hilarious romp.

There was a table of six having a bachelorette party, a mom and her two 20-something daughters, and a banquette of boisterous gals sporting pink feather boas who were often on their feet, stampin’ and hootin’ and having the time of their lives.

I was too. And so will your racier attendees.

Girls Night follows five friends in their 30s and 40s during a wild and outrageous girls night out at a karaoke bar. Pals since their teens, they have all had their fair share of heartache and tragedy, joy and success. Oh – one of them’s (gulp) dead – she’s wearing white angel wings, can’t be heard by the others, and can remember everything about their embarrassing moments together.

Among the living are Carol the party girl, blunt Anita who tells it like it is, Liza with her marital (and eating) issues, boring Kate the designated driver and Sharon, the not-so-angelic angel who just couldn't resist tagging along. Together, they reminisce about their younger days, celebrate their current lives and look to the future, all the while belting out an array of classic anthems.

There’s a 'guy' too – but I won’t be a spoiler by telling you about him and his remarkable *****.

The cast is sensational: they project more energy and enjoyment than most ensembles currently on Broadway. But they are not standard showbiz beauties; in fact they are definitely on the pulchritudinous side, and they jiggle their stuff with wonderful comic and erotic effect.

If the show were a cocktail, it’d be made up of two parts 'Sex and the City,' one part 'Desperate Housewives,' and a dash of Grease.Backstage said that it 'involves the audience in a way that the current Broadway cast of Hair in its earnestness, can only envy.'

The show brims with over a dozen rousing or deeply moving songs, from classics like 'Cry Me a River' and 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,' to less renowned but equally delightful tunes like 'The Love of My Man' by Ed Townsend and 'It’s Raining Men' by Jabara and Shaffer.

Berty Jay leads the company as Liza, who can’t bear to limit her immense joy in living (to say nothing of her immense T & A) to just her husband. But kudos all around: Tina Mallon is bewitching as Sharon, Carly Sakolove is ebullient as fun-loving Carol, Deborah Radloff is terrific as Anita, and Laurie Gardner is disturbingly authentic as the troubled Kate.

The shananegens are masterfully managed by director Jack Randle.

Girls Night is a perfect addition to your Spousal Offerings, especially for those gals who welcome language and sentiments that jolt you out of your seat!"

Source: NYTheaterGuide.com

Girls Night: The Musical plays Off-Broadway in NYC and all across the Country.

For tickets and more info call (877) 386-6968.

It is currently available for Professional engagements. Contact Amy Payne at amy@entertainmentevents.com / Dottie Peterson at djp@entertainmentevents.com.

Thanks for Blogging! > EEI Staff

Take the Girl's Poll! (GN Poll #2)

Who's Your Favorite Character From GIRLS NIGHT: THE MUSICAL?survey software

Take the Girl's Poll! (GN Poll #1)

Of these Selections, what is your Favorite Song from GIRLS NIGHT: THE MUSICAL?online surveys

"What comes after 'Menopause?' More of the same."

REVIEW: Girls Night: The Musical

The Philadelphia Inquirer – 5/19/2010 – Lini S. Ladaba

: The Cast of Girls Night: The Musical at The Kimmel Center in Philly

"The songs of Girls Night: The Musical - timeless tunes such as 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,' 'Holding Out for a Hero,' and the favorite of any bifocal bunch, 'I Will Survive' - could play as the life soundtrack for the droves of middle-aged women who have packed the show in recent weeks.

'We can relate,' said hairdresser Sharon Hahn, 50, of Runnemede, after she and two dozen of her girlfriends watched the Kimmel Center production about four childhood friends who stayed close through the turbulence of time. 'It was awesome.'

'It was very inspiring and fun,' agreed friend Lois Lampe, an executive assistant who gave her age as '49 and holding.'

The friends relished the comic musical revue during their own girls' night out last month, as have thousands of other Philadelphia-area women in the throes of middle age. Shows like Girls Night; which features the anthems of sisterhood and friendship that dominated the airwaves during the '70s and '80s - are proving the rage for gaggles of girlfriends past the big 4-0.

Throughout the two-hour show that Friday, the group - mostly executive assistants who work at Campbell Soup Co. - boogied in the aisles, belted out lyrics from their youths, and laughed till those post-pregnancy bellies they're still trying to work off ached.

'I love the baby boomer songs,' said Lampe of Runnemede, who was one of the organizers of the outing. 'I definitely would have had all those songs on my iPod - if they had iPods then.'

Since Girls Night opened April 20 in the intimate, 215-seat Innovation Studio, it has sold out show after show, said Matthew Wolf, the center's vice president of programming and theatrical presentation.

The vast majority of ticket holders are women in the married-with-grown-kids demographic. 'A few guys get dragged along,' Wolf said, 'and I don't feel particularly good for those guys.'

Initially scheduled for five performances a week, the Off-Broadway hit, which closes Sunday, has expanded to eight. 'This thing exploded,' he said.

No theater type would confuse these productions with stage spectaculars such as The Lion King or even Mamma Mia! 'I wouldn't necessarily consider these shows high art,' Wolf allowed. Theater critics, too, have not always been kind in reviews.

Yet, the shows deliver a certain sort of goods, like a 'Desperate Housewives' with songs.

Carol C. Davis, an associate professor of theater at Franklin & Marshall College, attributes the appeal to the subject matter. Many musicals focus on young love, she noted. But what happens after the honeymoon?

'This isn't a fairy tale,' she said. 'This is real life. You get old. You get heavy. You go through menopause.'

And somehow it's all bearable when set to music. Like the boomers filling the seats, 'the women on stage sing their way through life, but with better voices, choreography, and jokes,' Davis said.

The actresses, who at times engage the audience in riffs, appear authentic - down to their less-than-perfect bodies. Before the curtain closes, they've become girlfriends to the audience members, 'helping each other through the remarkable and unremarkable moments that make up a woman's life.'

True, the plot lines are often skeletal - it's really all about the music, after all - but the themes are so completely familiar. Who hasn't gone out for a few drinks with the girls and kvetched about their relationships, about the husbands and kids and bosses?

Girls Night and its ilk 'show us the stages of our lives with humor and tenderness, and draw us into a supportive sisterhood,' Davis said.

'It's the quintessential ladies' night out show,' Roy, the producer, said. 'It's a very accessible genre of theater. It bridges the gap between theater and cabaret entertainment.' In fact, plays like these are good at attracting people who are theater novices.

Ultimately, popularity comes down to one word: enjoyable - at least for one gender. These comic musicals, which do have their poignant moments, 'allow you to laugh at yourself,' said Wolf of the Kimmel. 'At the core, people want to have fun.'

That certainly was the vibe at the show attended by the Campbell Soup crowd. Before the first Girls Night actress even took the stage, emcee Jeremy Sartin, with a Chippendales' bod, was enticing women old enough to be his mother on stage to dirty dance and, for one lucky gal, rip off his shirt. 'Anyone celebrating a birthday?' he asked. 'Anyone celebrating a divorce?' he added wickedly to roars of laughter.

The par-tay, bachelorette style, was off to a rocking start. Many in the audience imbibed wine from plastic cups, sported light-up tiaras, and draped hot-pink feather boas around their necks. On stage, the jokes - often vulgar in that no-men-around way - came at the expense of husbands, pregnancies, husbands, divorce, and husbands.

'We're lifelong friends,' said a giddy Lo Layden, 51, of Westampton, a former Campbell's executive assistant who's director of customer service at Jones Apparel Group.

'We've raised our kids,' she said. 'This is our turn - a girls' night. We have no shame.'

Source: http://www.philly.com/inquirer

Girls Night: The Musical plays Off-Broadway in NYC and all across the Country. It is currently available for Professional engagements. For more info call (877) 386-6968.

Thanks for Blogging! > EEI Staff