CHRISTINE LAVIN, DANIEL CAINER, STEPHEN HANKS, ANN KITTREDGE, LAURIE KRAUZ, JEFF MACAULEY, SARAH RICE, JULIE REYBURN, TOM TOCE and many more

New York:Continuing its 35th Anniversary season, Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director) proudly announces the line-up for a brand-new festival patterned after its award-winning series WINTER RHYTHMS. SUMMER MELODIES 2019will begin Wednesday, June 19 featuring some of New York’s best musical performances through Saturday, June 29, 2019 at Urban Stages Theatre(259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

Tickets are $30 per show, $45 for two shows on the same day, and may be purchased by visitingurbanstages.orgor by calling (866) 811-4111.  For complete schedule information, visitwww.urbanstages.org. WINTER R

WINTER RHYTHMS 2018marked the tenth year thatUrban Stageswelcomes noted musical artists to its stage during the holiday period.  The mission of WINTER RHYTHMS is to bring the talents of well-known and up-and-coming singers, musicians, lyricists and composers to the attention of the New York theater community while performing at Urban Stages Theater. WINTER RHYTHMSwas the winner of the Bistro Award for Outstanding Series and the Ruth Kurtzman Benefit Series MAC Award. Proceeds from WINTER RHYTHMSbenefit Urban Stages’ acclaimed Outreach Program, which brings over 200 free “arts in education” presentations to libraries and schools throughout the five boroughs.

SUMMER MELODIES has been conceived to emphasize the development of new musical theater projects. Proceeds will benefit Urban Stages’new reading series, which will start in July with a reading of Gordon Learyand Julia Meinwald’s The Magnificent Seven, the story of the 1996 US Women’s Gymnastic Team.

This year’s benefit series will present 20 shows, many of them created especially for SUMMER MELODIES,all of them with sound and lighting design by Kim T. Sharp.  Disnie Sebastienis Production Manager. SUMMER MELODIESwill be produced by Tom Toce, who also produced WINTER RHYTHMS 2018and has been associated with that celebrated series as a feature songwriter and producer for the past seven years.

URBAN STAGES

WINTER RHYTHMS 2018, December 12 – 22, 2018

Cabaret, Musical Theatre, Jazz, Classical, Opera and more

The Two-Week Celebration featuring 20 different shows with more than 100 performing artists including:

JIM DALE, SIMON JONES, KT SULLIVAN,

MARK NADLER, ADAM B. SHAPIRO, JANICE HALL and many more

New York: Continuing its 35th Anniversary season, Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director) proudly announces the line-up for this year’s award-winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2018, which will begin Wednesday, December 12 featuring some of New York’s best musical performances through Saturday, December 22, 2018 at Urban Stages Theatre(259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

Tickets are $30 per show (except for Patron’s Night, Monday, Dec. 17th), $45 for two shows on the same day, and may be purchased by visitingurbanstages.orgor by calling (866) 811-4111.  For complete schedule information, visitwww.urbanstages.org. 

WINTER RHYTHMS 2018marks the 10th year that Urban Stages welcomes noted musical artists to its stage during the holiday period.  The mission of WINTER RHYTHMSis to bring the talents of well-known and up-and-coming singers, musicians, lyricists and composers to the attention of the New York theater community while performing at Urban Stages Theater. WINTER RHYTHMSwas the winner of the Bistro Award for Outstanding Series and the Ruth Kurtzman Benefit Series MAC Award. Proceeds from WINTER RHYTHMSbenefit Urban Stages’ acclaimed Outreach Program, which brings over 200 free “arts in education” presentations to libraries and schools throughout the five boroughs. 

This year’s benefit series will present 20 shows, many of them created especially for WINTER RHYTHMS, all of them with sound design by Douglas Millsand lighting design by Kim T. Sharp.  Victoria Ordinis Production Manager.  After seven years of producing and programming WINTER RHYTHMSaward-winning producer/writer/director Peter Napolitanowill pass the baton toTom Toce, who has been associated with the celebrated series as a featured songwriter and producer for the past six years. Napolitano will act as a consultant during this years festivities as well as a featured songwriter.   

WINTER RHYTHMSwill include a very special Patron’s Night Gala Celebrationon Monday, December 17 at 7pm withNOEL COWARD AND FRIENDS featuring Jim Dale, Jeff Harnar, Edward Hibbert, Simon Jones, Sidney Myer, Marissa Mulder, KT Sullivanand more.  Tickets are priced from $160-$500, including cocktails at 6:30pm, the show at 7pm and dinner afterwards.

Yale Holds a 4-0 Lead in the Series

FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW, Broadway’s Supper Club, again presents a cast of Harvard and Yale grads in The Fifth Annual Harvard-Yale Cantata. Join us for a unique evening at Feinstein’s/54 Below, with Team Harvard looking to avenge another lucky narrow victory by Team Yale. Will it be five wins in a row for Yale? Harvard has a new team captain and a new music director, and they promise a strong showing. Most of the contests in this series have been very close, and the teams are always well-matched and brimming with talent.The Harvard songwriters will include Bonnie Raitt(“Nick of Time”), Leonard Bernstein(Broadway’s West Side Story, Candide,and Wonderful Town), and Pete Seeger(“Where Have All the Flowers Gone” and “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy”). The Yale team will feature songs by Maury Yeston(Broadway’s Nine, Grand Hotel,and Titanic) and Cole Porter(Broadway’s Kiss Me, Kateand Anything Goes). Performers for Harvard will include Debbie Deane, Matt Corriel, Jennifer Lauren Brown, Laura Sky Herman, Arianna Paz, Caro Ribeiro, John Forster, Matt Walker, and Jacob Rienstra. Additional performers will be announced as the date approaches.

The show is formatted after the Harvard-Yale Regatta. There will be seven heats, each with a Harvard song pitted against a Yale song. The show is produced by Tom Toce (Yale, 1978), who also hosts, in association with Victoria Ordin(Yale, 1995) and Jennie Litt (Harvard, 1986). Musical direction and accompaniment will be provided by Liz Kantor(Harvard, 2018) for Harvard and Andrew Gerle(Yale, 1994).  

Critics raved about Cantatas I through IV:
“A great time was had by all at this unusual and brilliant musical evening.” – TheaterPizzazz

 “One of the best—and funniest—shows I’ve seen.” –  Cabaret Scenes

“The Harvard-Yale Cantata”plays Feinstein’s/54 Below(254 West 54th Street) on Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 9:30. There is a $35-$40 cover charge ($60 premium) and a $25 food and beverage minimum. Tickets and information are available at www.54Below.com. Tickets on the day of performance after 4:00 are only available by calling (646) 476-3551.

Producer of Winter Rhythms Festival and Director of Musical Theater

Tom Toce has joined the Board of Directors at Urban Stages Theatre. Tom enjoys a long association with Urban Stages, having recently taken over as Producer of their annual Winter Rhythms festival. In addition to serving on the board, Tom has also been named Director of Musical Theater.

Tom Continues His Long Association with TheaterworksUSA 

Tom Toce has been elected Treasurer of the Board of Directors at TheaterworksUSA, the premier national theater company for young and family audiences. Tom is a TW alum, having written lyrics to two shows and book & lyrics to one more, as well as contributing songs to a revue. Tom has been on the board since 2016.

On December 1, 2016, Retrograde Music released Songwriter in the House, the studio recording of Tom’s MAC-nominated solo cabaret debut show. In addition to Tom’s lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and ukuleles, the album features Sean Harkness on guitar, Jon Burr on bass, and Justin McEllroy and Peter Millrose. Jon Burr also designed the album cover and mastered the tracks. Peter Millrose was the recording engineer.

Order a copy of the CD or mp3 downloads at CDBaby:

Songwriter in the House at CDBaby

Tom produces four shows in December

Two at Urban Stages, A Bulldog Christmas Carol (December 10) and Circles (December 11), and two different songwriter showcases at the Metropolitan Room on December 19. All of them featured at least one song by Tom, and in Circles, Tom led a trio of singer-songwriters in a guitar-based songwriters circle.

Both A Bulldog Christmas Carol and Circles were outgrowths of the Harvard-Yale Cantata. Megan Loughran directed and assembled a talented cast of young Yalie performers (herself plus Mallory Baysek, Sam Bolen, Nate Janis, Zina Ellis, and Miles Jacoby) singing songs written by Yale graduates. Alex Ratner was the musical director. The first part of Circles, the Circle of Life, was an expansion of one of the rounds from this year’s Cantata, featuring Peter Lerangis (Harvard ’77) and Kim Oler (Yale ’76) performing a nine-song set emphasizing the passage of time. Then Tom, Tina deVaron, and Jo Kroger performed a nine-song set of their songs. Finally, things came full circle with a group version of “I Chose Right” by(Yalies) Richard Maltby & David Shire. Tom directed Circles.

Tom formed The New York Songwriter’s Alliance at the suggestion of Bernie Furshpan, managing partner of the Metropolitan Room. A group of ten regular members and several more sometime attendees have been meeting twice a month since last April, and on December 19 the Alliance made its public debut with two programs of new songs.

Alliance members whose songs were featured were John Forster, Anya Turner & Robert Grusecki, Jeffrey Harris, Bobbie Horowitz, Jennie Litt, Paul Rolnick, Lawrence Rush, Alex Rybeck, Steve Sieck, Tracy Stark, and Tom Toce. Bob Levy was dubbed an honorary member and one of his songs was performed. Kip Dennis and Nicholas Levin are members whose schedules did not permit them to take part. Some songs were performed by the writers themselves. Other songs were sung by Dale Davidson, Kevin Dozier, Eric Michael Gillett, Sally Mayes, and Marissa Mulder. Tom produced and directed the showcases.

The Harvard-Yale Cantata II at Feinstein’s/54 Below!

On Thursday, September 8th Tom produced and directed the Second Annual Harvard-Yale Cantata, which Victoria Ordin called “wildly entertaining” in her Broadway World rave review. Check out this review:

Review of The Second Annual Harvard-Yale Cantata

Yale won again, 32-31.