Sean Hayes, center, stars as Chuck Baxter in the Broadway revival of "Promises, Promises."
An interview with Burt and Hal on the occasion of the current Broadway revival of Promises, Promises is featured on tonight’s episode of NPR’s Fresh Air.
As many of you know, Burt continues to recover from back surgery in December.
The full text of the press release on Burt’s surgery is as follows:
LOS ANGELES, January 4, 2010 – Legendary composer and conductor Burt Bacharach is recovering from back surgery at a hospital in Los Angeles, it was announced today. Bacharach had surgery on New Year’s Eve, and his prognosis is excellent.
Upcoming Bacharach concerts in Palm Beach, Florida, Australia and New Zealand through mid-March will be rescheduled for later in the year and/or 2011.
Bacharach last performed in concert on December 19 at Piazza Duomo in Milan, Italy, and returned home to spend Christmas with his family.
Here’s a special holiday treat from Burt. Thanks to Martyn for first posting this in the discussion forum.
The first Broadway revival of Promises, Promises is scheduled to open in April 2010.
I know this is old news to many of you by now, but Promises, Promises, Burt Bacharach’s much loved 1968 musical, is finally headed back to Broadway.
The revival—the show’s first since its opening on Broadway more than 40 years ago—is scheduled to open at the Broadway Theatre on April 27 with Sean Hayes (of TV’s “Will and Grace”) and Kristin Chenoweth starring in the roles originated on Broadway by Jerry Orbach and Jill O’Hara. The producers are John Gore, Thomas B. McGrath, Beth Williams, Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Candy Spelling, Pat Addiss and The Weinstein Company.
Based on the 1960 Billy Wilder film The Apartment and featuring a book by Neil Simon, Promises, Promises was one of the first mainstream Broadway musicals to showcase a pop music score, and it introduced a number of Bacharach-David classics, including “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “Whoever You Are, I Love You,” “Knowing When To Leave,” and the title song.
Needless to say, this is great news for fans of both Bacharach and Broadway.
I’ll post updates as I get them
(And for a fascinating insider look at Bacharach before and after the opening of Promises, Promises, visit the media archive to read the 1968 New Yorker articles Hits and Composer in Tartan Cap)
Apologies as usual for the long delay in updates, but as many of you know, Burt has a new series of shows scheduled for Australia next year, including a return visit to the Sydney Opera House, where he recorded his 2008 CD Live At the Sydney Opera House.
Burt and his band in Australia, courtesy of DavidCrigger.com.
| 2010 | |
| Jan. 29 | West Palm Beach, Fla. |
| Feb. 27 | West Perth, Australia (Kings Park) |
| March 4-6 | Sydney, Australia (Sydney Opera House) |
| March 11-13 | Melbourne, Australia (Hamer Hall) |
| March 16 | Adelaide, Australia (Adelaide Convention Centre) |
As always, please visit the Burt Bacharach Forum for the latest news.
Sorry for the lack of updates lately (where have I heard that before?), but hopefully you’ve all been checking out the discussion forum for the latest news.
Just a few years ago, Bacharach’s early and/or rare recordings were prized collector’s items. Fans used to trade cassette tapes of scratchy 45s they’d find at garage sales or used record stores. While Rhino’s The Look of Love collection from 1998 included a few relative obscurities, it wasn’t until the last few years that the floodgates have really opened on Bacharach’s early recordings.
One of the first Bacharach rarities collections on CD was 2003’s The Rare Bacharach, a two-disc collection on the Australian label Raven Records that included recordings from everyone from Andy Williams to Sylvester.
Last summer, Ace released Always Something There: A Burt Bacharach Collectors’ Anthology 1952-1969, an excellent single-disc collection that included Nat “King” Cole’s “Once in a Blue Moon,” one of the earliest recordings of a Bacharach song.
Most recently, forum participant robbieindart notes that a new Bacharach rarities collection, Rare Bacharach – The Early Years 1958 – 1965, will be released on July 31 on Rare Rockin’ Records. It looks like another good collection to fill in the gaps for the Burt completeists out there.
I just received confirmation of a new U.S. tour date for next year.
Burt will appear at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 29, 2010.
For the complete list of Burt’s upcoming concerts, visit the On Tour page.
Burt Bacharach will be performing at Wrightegaar den in Langesund, Norway, on July 13 and at Casa
de Campo de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, on July 29. The Langesund show’s location was previously listed as TBA and the Madrid venue is a different one than previously announced.
You can see all of Burt’s current tour dates by visiting the On Tour page.
Happy birthday to Burt Bacharach, who turns 81 today.
Sorry about the downtime, but the forum is back online.
Until I get around to installing a modification to prevent bot registrations, I’ve set it so that all new registrations on the discussion forum have to be activated by me. If you’re a new registrant and you want to start posting, send me an email at the address webmaster at bacharachonline dot com (you know what I mean) with your user name and put something in the header to let me know that you’re a real person and you’re awaiting activation.