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News/Gigs Archive 2016-2017

DECEMBER 2017

BASTARD JONES stars 
Evan Ruggiero and Elena Wang
have been nominated for Clive Barnes Awards!
Read about it in PLAYBILL



SO MUCH FUN to climb aboard the annual CHRISTMAS WITHOUT TEARS sleigh again with Judith Owen and Harry Shearer and their amazing guests including Fred Willard, Julia Fordham, Amy Keys, Peter Asher, John Michael Higgins, Michael Nouri and Dona Oxford.  This year I put the Virgin Mary in mothballs (!) and premiered a brand new, James Brown-type jam, "Saint Nick Dick Pic." Yes, you read that right. Studio recording to follow... 

OCTOBER 2017



DON'T TELL MAMA, NYC - MY OWN DEVICES II


with Laura Whitmore in her ACOUSTIC KITCHEN!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13 @ 7PM
Acoustic Kitchen House Concerts, Needham, MA



For more information and pix of TRIPTYCH, click HERE

A drive-by with THE BOBS on their Farewell Tour...
Can't believe it's been 6 years since I spent 14 years with them!
Metropolitan Room at the Triad NYC, 10/18/17

(R) at the Bobs' final show at Wolf Trap, 10/21/17 with a fan who was not yet born when I joined the band. "Hey, that's me on your shirt!"


October 2017 Developmental Reading: IN THE NAME OF LOVE
A revue-sical featuring the music of Don Oliver
As lyricist/perfomer, pictured w/cast, band and other creatives @ The York


JUNE/JULY 2017




"...catchy songs, reminiscent of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s poprock catalog... Bastard Jones' nonjudgmental approach to sex and disability, and its brash desire to entertain, are winning." 
NEW YORK TIMES
 
"Tom Jones has got wood. It’s thick, it’s hard, it extends below his knee, and he can do amazing things with it. No wonder ladies can’t keep their hands off the illegitimate but well-favored hero of Marc Acito and Amy Engelhardt’s ribald new musical comedy...Bastard Jones is randy yet ingenuous; it’s like a very bawdy Disney movie, with hummable pop music to match... smartly plotted and irrepressible."
TIME OUT NY

"If I could fill this review with synonyms for “brilliant” 
it still wouldn’t be enough, or do justice 
to just how good Bastard Jones is..."
STAGEBUDDY

And here's what the Huffington Post had to say about our production's mission of diversity and inclusion


CLICK ON BASTARD JONES FOR MORE REVIEWS!
 
Playbill (includes video)
Cabaret Scenes (interview with me!)

"THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS" from Bastard Jones

MAY 2017


APRIL 2017



Hosting Seattle's Moisture Festival(As Princess Leia), April 2017

House Concert in Gaston, Oregon  (mit baby goats!),  July 2017
MY HOSTS ON THE RIGHT, Chez Corvus!
House Concert in Nevada City, CA April 2017


MASTER CLASS: FINDING YOUR FUNNY
COACHING COLLEGIATE VOCAL GROUPS
SHE SINGS 2017, BERKELEY, CA 

House Concert/Benefit for BASTARD JONES
Cherry Hill, NJ March 2017

JANUARY 2017

 AJ MAHAL House Concerts
Jersey City, NJ - January 2017


2016


(rear) Loud Guitarist, Joe Pusateri (drums), Fred Willard, Two Reindeer Elves, Rene Ruiz, Schoolcraft & Murray, Michelle Hemmings, Eric Bradley, Cindy O'Connor, Michael Nouri, Godfrey Daniels, Arkanjel Productions, Dona Oxford, Julia Fordham, CJ Vanston, me, Harry & Judith, Lee Sklar 


 I was thrilled to be a composer in residence at the NAUTILUS COMPOSER/LIBRETTIST STUDIO at Pasadena's Boston Court Theatre in December 2016.

 

Now THIS is a great setting for a house concert! Chez Wiseman/Umbrasas
overlooking Mission Bay in San Diego, CA

Artist-in-Residence at Temple College in Temple, TX 
October 2016




Video of "Bridge and Tunnel" at E-Spot Lounge, Studio City, CA, August 2016


 Spent another fantastic summer with the Flying Karamazov Brothers and the The Old Time Chautauqua bringing our volunteer vaudeville to culturally underserved communities in or near Washington State Parks. Read my blog about it HERE.

On the way up to Washington, a house concert Chez Green in McMinnville, OR
, loaded with Bobs fans!




The luminous Nina Herzog performs "So Good" from TESLA at A LITTLE NEW MUSIC in Los Angeles, June 2016
(Book by Marc Acito, Music by James Beaton, Lyrics by Amy Engelhardt)
.

ARTISTIC PRODUCER - AMY ENGELHARDT
MANAGING PRODUCER - HEATHER SHIELDS

JUNE 20, 2017 - MAY 9, 2017 - MARCH 14, 2017







 HILLARY ROLLINS: SONGS I WISH I'D WROTE
E-Spot Lounge, June 2016

 Phoenix Theatre, May 2016, with fellow composer/lyricists Rachel Peters and Colleen Porter and Phoenix Theatre Artistic Director Michael Barnard

 Miguel Jackson and Kristen Drathman perform selections from "Bastard Jones"
I Jerry Lee Lewis/Blaspheme with "How Did This Thing..." May 2016

 NYC developmental reading of MEND by Steven Hillyer and Tim Marback, May 2016
Cast (including Dan Lauria and ME, after a 10-year straight-play hiatus) and creatives



MINNEAPOLIS Residency produced by Amy Klausen Burge (L), April 2016
House Concert Chez Shuck/Olsen (special guest: Dan Bob Schumacher!)
Musical Improv Workshop w/The Pickup Artists
Public Concert (Headliner)

 

HOSTING AND PERFORMING 
in Seattle's MOISTURE FESTIVAL
MARCH 2016

 
House Concert at Sisyphus Farms, Gresham, OR, March 2016



HOUSE CONCERT/BENEFIT
MUSIQUE SUR LA MER YOUTH ORCHESTRAS
SEAL BEACH, CA   JANUARY 2016

MISCELLANEOUS 2016 SNAZZINESS 
WITH THE KINGSTON BAND
IN LOS ANGELES AND ORANGE COUNTY