Irving Berlin

This is the most Irving Berlin-est time of the year, what with "White Christmas" being heard, in one form or another, a zillion times. But it's really always Berlin time, since the songwriter, who died in 1989 at the age of 101, was such a prodigious creator of treasurable hits. A sampling of that legacy will be celebrated in "A Concert Tribute to Irving Berlin" opening Friday at the Everyman Theatre. This is the third in the theater's series of cabaret shows over the past few years guided by music director Howard Breitbart.

Midweek Madness wonders, like the rest of you, what's up with this weird weather? In Baltimore, we're expecting 90 or thereabouts, and it's only the second week of April. Seems like a great excuse to drag out Irving Berlin's "Heat Wave. " And this being Midweek Madness, that means a great excuse to find a delicious performance from the vaults of 1960s TV.

It would be impossible, not to mention foolhardy, to choose one contender for the title of America's greatest songwriter. But if such a designation absolutely had to be made, a lot of money would be riding on Irving Berlin. There is such a startling amount of quality in the quantity of Berlin's songs (more than 1,200), and a remarkable consistency in terms of communicative power. A hearty sampling of that power is on display in "A Concert Salute to Irving Berlin," the fast-paced cabaret show onstage through the weekend at the Everyman Theatre.

Anyone interested in time travel need not settle for an episode of “Dr. Who.” You can be whisked back to the 1950s in a flash just by catching the production of “Irving Berlin's White Christmas” at the Kennedy Center. You have to check a lot of baggage first, though. For a start, you can't take aboard any prejudices against mid-century musicals with snowflake-thin, surprise-free story lines and songs that do nothing to advance the plot or provide character insights. You also can't carry on your usual cynical antipathy to cornball humor, tap-dancing routines or precocious kids onstage.

Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia is offering what has become a seasonal favorite — Irving Berlin's "White Christmas, The Musical" in evening and matinee performances through Jan. 8. Not just another holiday show, "White Christmas, The Musical" is also a celebration of the American popular song as defined by its prolific composer Irving Berlin. The show gives us with such favorites as "Blue Skies," "I Love a Piano," and "How Deep is the Ocean," along with introducing lesser-known Berlin tunes.

The stage pulsated with energy at St. John's College during the weekend when the Talent Machine Company opened Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, featuring its younger performers in the 7-to-14 age group. With its depiction of authentic American icons such as Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull, the 1946 classic proved an ideal choice for this 50-member cast. Every member of the cast exuded high-voltage energy with talent to match and a high degree of professionalism that sprang from rigorous rehearsal.

1922: Irving Berlin's "April Showers"1923: James P. Johnson pens his "Charleston"1925: The Grand Ole Opry is born

Period concert -- Musica Antiqua of Maryland will perform its annual concert at 2 p.m. today at Liriodendron Mansion, 502 W. Gordon St., Bel Air. The concert will feature performers in period costumes using period instruments to play light classics, show tunes, ragtime, Irving Berlin, traditional Irish and Scottish music, and a Yo-Yo Ma piece, Gabriel's Oboe. Free. 410-529-0791.

Midweek Madness wonders, like the rest of you, what's up with this weird weather? In Baltimore, we're expecting 90 or thereabouts, and it's only the second week of April. Seems like a great excuse to drag out Irving Berlin's "Heat Wave. " And this being Midweek Madness, that means a great excuse to find a delicious performance from the vaults of 1960s TV.

Our faithful Chestertown correspondent and longtime friend, Douglas R. Price, who in his younger days was a member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's White House staff, sent me a letter the other day explaining the history of "I Like Ike," which became his former boss' 1952 campaign song. Price said he has been annoyed that the two authors of the "I Like Ike" slogan have been more or less forgotten, and is determined to set the record straight. "The origin of the Irving Berlin 'I Like Ike' song dates back to a Broadway musical titled Call Me Madam, starring Ethel Merman with lyrics by Irving Berlin," wrote Price, who is finishing up his book, They Liked Ike, about Eisenhower's 1952 campaign.

Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas," one of the biggest-selling songs of all time, with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Although the wistful tune soothed homesick soldiers in such God-awful places as Guadalcanal more than half a century ago, and no doubt it still plays in Kandahar today, Berlin most likely wrote what he called "the best song that anybody's ever written" somewhere in the sunny Southwest, probably while sitting by a swanky hotel swimming...

Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia is offering what has become a seasonal favorite — Irving Berlin's "White Christmas, The Musical" in evening and matinee performances through Jan. 8. Not just another holiday show, "White Christmas, The Musical" is also a celebration of the American popular song as defined by its prolific composer Irving Berlin. The show gives us with such favorites as "Blue Skies," "I Love a Piano," and "How Deep is the Ocean," along with introducing lesser-known Berlin tunes.

Well along in rehearsal at the Naval Academy's Mahan Hall, the cast of "Annie Get Your Gun" seemed ideally suited to American composer Irving Berlin's musical story of American heroine Annie Oakley. At a recent rehearsal, cast members leaped from their seats onto the stage when the music director summoned them for the opening number, "There's No Business Like Show Business." Berlin would have been pleased by these enthusiastic midshipmen - few of whom were even born at the time of his death in 1989 at age 101. A World War I veteran who toured with servicemen during World War II, Berlin wrote "Annie Get Your Gun" shortly after returning from the war. The musical tells the story of sharpshooting country girl Annie Oakley, who joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and became world-famous for her marksmanship, defeating vaudevillian/sharpshooter Frank Butler in competition.

It would be impossible, not to mention foolhardy, to choose one contender for the title of America's greatest songwriter. But if such a designation absolutely had to be made, a lot of money would be riding on Irving Berlin. There is such a startling amount of quality in the quantity of Berlin's songs (more than 1,200), and a remarkable consistency in terms of communicative power. A hearty sampling of that power is on display in "A Concert Salute to Irving Berlin," the fast-paced cabaret show onstage through the weekend at the Everyman Theatre.

This is the most Irving Berlin-est time of the year, what with "White Christmas" being heard, in one form or another, a zillion times. But it's really always Berlin time, since the songwriter, who died in 1989 at the age of 101, was such a prodigious creator of treasurable hits. A sampling of that legacy will be celebrated in "A Concert Tribute to Irving Berlin" opening Friday at the Everyman Theatre. This is the third in the theater's series of cabaret shows over the past few years guided by music director Howard Breitbart.

Our faithful Chestertown correspondent and longtime friend, Douglas R. Price, who in his younger days was a member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's White House staff, sent me a letter the other day explaining the history of "I Like Ike," which became his former boss' 1952 campaign song. Price said he has been annoyed that the two authors of the "I Like Ike" slogan have been more or less forgotten, and is determined to set the record straight. "The origin of the Irving Berlin 'I Like Ike' song dates back to a Broadway musical titled Call Me Madam, starring Ethel Merman with lyrics by Irving Berlin," wrote Price, who is finishing up his book, They Liked Ike, about Eisenhower's 1952 campaign.

Saturday evening was indeed "A Grand Night for Singing" as the Arundel Vocal Arts Society presented a generously programmed evening of selections by Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim and others.Thanks to spirited singing by conductor Glenette Schumacher's choir of 60, excellent solo work from sopranos Vicki Estep and Sally Gilles, tenor Jeff Sneeringer and baritone James Handakis, and first-rate accompanying by pianist Cynthia Slate, the concert provided a lovely opportunity to appreciate anew the melodic magic of the American musical stage.

Fred Astaire by Joseph Epstein Yale University Press / 224 pages / $22 Fred Astaire, writes Joseph Epstein, the veteran critic and essayist, "was the very model ... of the democratic dandy, itself an innovative figure." He adds that G. Bruce Boyer called Astaire in his movie roles "the democratic ideal: a classless aristocrat." If T.S. Eliot calling the mature Henry James "a European of no known country" isn't the same thing, it's close enough. Astaire's career is full of paradoxes like these.