AMANDA
MCBROOM IN CONCERT AT AUSTIN CABARET THEATRE
Amanda
McBroom brings her elegant show to the AUSTIN CABARET THEATRE at the
Driskill Hotel (604 Brazos Street, Austin, TX - TKTS: 512-453-2287
- http://www.austincabaret.org/
) on Sunday, November 7th at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $40.
Ms. McBroom has been called "...the greatest cabaret
performer of her generation, an urban poet who writes like an angel
and has a voice to match." Her name first came to the attention of
the music public when Bette Midler's version of Amanda's song THE
ROSE hit number one all over the world in 1979. But it was Amanda's
performance of her own song on the Golden Globes (she won), Grammy's
(she didn't) and The Tonight Show that launched her career as a singer
as well as songwriter.
Her songs have have been recorded by the likes of Bette
Midler, Leanne Rimes, Barry Manilow, Judy Collins, Barbara Cook, Anne
Murray, Harry Belafonte, Betty Buckley, Stephanie Mills, The Manhattan
Transfer, Donny Osmond, the Chipmunks, and the Baby Dinosaurs in LAND
BEFORE TIME (she wrote all the songs for 11 Universal Cartoon videos
with longtime collaborator Michele Brourman). But growing audiences
worldwide became convinced that the best interpretations of McBroom
songs are by McBroom herself and applaud her in concert halls around
the world including Carnegie Hall in New York, the FORD Amphitheatre
in Los Angeles, Wolftrap and Kennedy Center (where she sang with the
National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marvin Hamlisch) in Washington
DC, Angel Recital Hall in Sydney, Meyer Hall in Melbourne where she
headlined the Festival of the Arts and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
in Taiwan and Pizza on the Park in London. Amanda's concert career
was documented over two evenings high atop Manhattan's RCA building
for release as AMANDA McBROOM LIVE AT RAINBOW & STARS by the DRG label
in 1995 and remains her only live concert recording.
Her recording career began on an MGM soundstage where
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had overdubbed the sounds of their
tap routines over forty years before. It was 1980 and she recorded
direct-to-disc - no tape, no overdubs, no mixing, no fixing - for
the prestigious vinyl audiophile label Sheffield Lab Recordings. GROWING
UP IN HOLLYWOOD TOWN became an audiophile classic around the world
and set a new standard for vinyl recording and hi fi stereo reproduction.
Billboard called the LP a "stunning artistic success" and Amanda became
"the queen of the high end" for the purity of her vocals and the emotional
depth of her songs. Sheffield released a second McBroom direct-to-disc
recording entitled WEST OF OZ in 1981. Both recordings were compiled
and re-released as AMANDA by Sheffield in 1996. In 1985 Amanda and
her manager Garry George partnered in their own label GECKO RECORDS
and released DREAMING in 1986. Under the auspices of Monster Cable
Products, Inc. Amanda performed live at the Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1987. From that performance and the birth
of the CD format, DREAMING became a classic around the world especially
in SE Asia. GECKO releases followed including MIDNIGHT MATINEE in
1992, A WAITING HEART in 1997 and the "best of" collection PORTRAITS
in 1999 released in conjunction with Hal Leonard publishing company's
release of a bound songbook of Amanda's songs.
Her love of and background in musical theatre (she
starred in the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and European productions
of JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS, on Broadway
in SEESAW, and in SWEENEY TODD, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and MAME) compelled
her to create a musical based on her songs. HEARTBEATS made its debut
in 1989 in Los Angeles and the play has enjoyed over 15 regional theater
productions around the U.S. The original cast recording was released
in 1994 on Varese Sarabande Records. The musical is represented by
the Rogers and Hammerstein Music library.
Long time fans still revere Amanda's many guest starring
roles on television in everything from STAR TREK; THE NEXT GENERATION
to her most recent appearance at the Kennedy Center in the NBC special
FROM THE HEART.
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