Click here or the image above to secure your tickets today!
03/16/2012
Tickets On Sale Now! Don't wait, this is a limited engagement May 2-20 for Chicago Audiences
Ticket Link is http://www.victorygardens.org/onstage/butterfly.php
12/29/2011
Best Female Solo Show of 2011
Spider Saloff Makes Los Angeles Theatre Critic's Pick as Best Female Solo Show of 2011 for THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY (the one-woman musical)
grigwarereviews.blogspot.com
Anyone can Vote but... Deadline is Dec 30, 2011
VOTE for Spider Saloff TODAY on BroadwayWorld Los Angeles -
Her one-woman show is nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Musical (Touring)... Go to this link and cast your vote!
http://losangeles.broadwayworld.com/vote2011region.cfm?region=LosAngeles
11/15/2011
Great Review for Spiderwoman
published online: 11/12/2011
Spider woman weaves wicked web
The Hawk Eye
Burlington is fast becoming the Little New York of the cabaret world.We've had a steady parade of stars in the Des Moines County Historical Society's Bart Howard Room, and this weekend is graced with singer Spider Saloff's salute to Cole Porter.
A&E columnist Bobby Wilson raved about Saloff's show, "I Get a Kick Out of You, Cole Porter" coming to town for two nights, and he was in good company.
"A wicked way with a lyric and a glint of well-controlled mischief," the New York Times said of Saloff. "Saloff's flexible pop soprano pipes are tops," Variety crowed. The San Francisco Examiner called her "a powerhouse of passion."
Saloff's show last night, introduced by David Wagaman, turned the Bart Howard Room into a dinner theater. She and Chicago pianist Tommy Muellner served a full-course menu of Porter delicacies on an all-acoustic platter.
"It's rare when I get to work without a microphone," Saloff said.
She strutted her stuff, sans electronics, in a black rhinestone-piped spaghetti-strap gown, working a white feather boa and swoops of pearls with black, elbow-length gloves.
Cabaret is not angsty warblers in dark bars. Cabaret is thespian art hung in a smoky corner, half in, half out of the shadows of the psyche, illuminated by the mysterious lamp of the human condition. What better way to experience the lyric genius of wildman Cole Porter than by the devoted interpretation of a Porter disciple in our shrine to cabaret itself?
Saloff's hour-plus show seemed to last mere minutes as she strolled through Porter classics including "Let's Misbehave," "Get Out of Town," "I Get a Kick Out of You" and a pinnacle ballad of love lost to vulnerability, "Weren't We Fools."
Saloff's polished dramaturgy included classic poses upon the piano, head turns, hand flutters and eyebrow bats - all the visual nuances a cabaret crooner must master in order to present the compositions of the beautiful and bygone era when Swing was the thing and the world was still young and naive.
"Cabaret" too often conjures an image of brawny belters, but the reality of cabaret performance is the use of a wide dynamic range, from a whisper to a shout. Saloff's delivery favors the soft and gentle side of things, her lung power serving more often to grace a sparkling falsetto than a booming crescendo. She has a liquid vibrato that trills like a clear mountain brook. Combine it all with her command of piano posings, and you've got a cabaret showcase.
Cole Porter was the darling of the high society set, a risque and risky man whose command of lyric art is rarely equaled and a bon vivant who was asked to leave Venice never to return. Spider Saloff creates a microcosm of Porter well worth experiencing.
The night's capper was not the encore - Saloff's vamp on Marlene Dietrich won everyone.
And Porter's "Tale of an Oyster" can't be topped by anyone writing today.
There was but one flaw last night: Bobby couldn't be there.
Spider Saloff will dedicate tonight's performance to Bobby Wilson. Showtime is 8 p.m.; tickets are $25 at the door, the Heritage Center, Weird Harold's and the Port of Burlington.
07/14/2011
Roar of the Butterfly Plays L.A. August 17-20
Celebration Theatre is thrilled to announce the Los Angeles premiere of THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY, with book, music and lyrics by Spider Saloff. An award-winning artist, Ms. Saloff also stars in this one-woman play which is produced by Matthew Oltman of Chanticleer. This limited-run production will take place Wednesday, August 17 - Saturday, August 20, 2011 at Celebration Theatre, 7051B Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Direct from the show's Australian tour, THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY is a one-woman play with original music starring Spider Saloff. The book, music, and lyrics are also by Spider Saloff. Based on a true story, this musical comedy is a tour de force with characters everyone will fall in love with.
In the tradition of Lily Tomlin and Tracey Ullman, Ms. Saloff portrays eight different gender bending characters in this hysterical and moving new show. The scene of the show revolves around a memorial service for Butterfly, an Asian drag queen who has been a colorful and inspirational character in the lives of the attendees-an unlikely and diverse group, all of whom are portrayed by Ms. Saloff.
THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY is a comedy with a message and contains poignant moments touching on subjects of diversity, human loss and dysfunctional relationships. This show is not suggested for children under 13 years old without an adult.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Heard world wide as the co-star and co-creator of the internationally syndicated Public Radio series Words and Music, Spider Saloff has received critical acclaim nationally and internationally. Recently, Ms. Saloff was featured with the prestigious Chicago Jazz Orchestra in a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. And as one of the rare officially sanctioned acts of the Gershwin Centennial, her concert, Spider Saloff Sings Gershwin, toured the U.S. and headlined the St. Petersburg Gershwin Festival in Russia. Spider has played such renowned jazz and night club venues as New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center, Iridium, Joe's Pub, Birdland, The Russian Tea Room, Michael's Pub, and The Algonquin, as well as other leading venues include symphony orchestras and concert spaces such as; The Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, Wilmington Grand Opera, Wallingford Symphony, The Castro Theater in San Francisco, and Town Hall.
A five-time winner of the prestigious MAC Award, including one for Best Female Jazz Vocalist, presented by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets, she also received a special citation for her musical contributions from NARAS (presenter of the Grammy Awards). Saloff also has 8 solo CDs released nationally on Kopaesthetics Records. Television and radio credits include: The Bonnie Hunt Show (CBS), The Steve Baskerville Show (CBS), Centerstage (PBS), Artbeat (PBS), Words & Music (syndicated series), a one-hour feature on the Noteworthy Women series (Public Radio), and Studs Terkel (WFMT).
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY ABOUT Spider Saloff:
"She is dynamic, a powerhouse of passion!"
-San Francisco Examiner
"A wicked way with a lyric and a glint of well-controlled mischief."
-The New York Times
"Slyly sophisticated, easily accessible, Saloff stands as a kind of ideal."
-Chicago Tribune
ABOUT THE SCHEDULE AND PRICING
Performances are:
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2011
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011
FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2011
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2011
All performances are 8:00PM.
Ticket prices are $35.00 for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday performances.
Tickets price is $30.00 for Thursday performance.
This show is not suggested for children under 13 years old without an adult.
THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY is performed at Celebration Theatre, 7051B Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. For Tickets, please visit the Celebration Theatre website at www.celebrationtheatre.com or call 323-957-1884.
ABOUT Celebration Theatre
Starting its 29th season, Celebration Theatre is a community of artists dedicated to presenting innovative, provocative and relevant work that examines the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer experience. We endeavor to challenge society's perception of this community and give a vibrant voIce To its evolving identity.
The theatre is located at 7051B Santa Monica Blvd. (1/2 block east of La Brea Blvd.) in Hollywood. For more information, please visit www.celebrationtheatre.com.
05/30/2011
05/26/2011
'Spider Saloff prepares for her next big move'
The Butterfly with Roar in Melbourne, Australia & Los Angeles, CA This Summer!
Here is an article published by The Chicago Tribune
Howard Reich, Arts critic - May 26, 2011
When the accomplished Chicago jazz singer Spider Saloff takes the stage at Katerina's on Saturday night, she'll be bidding the city farewell — but just for awhile. "It's really a bon voyage party," says Saloff, who soon will be spending a month in Melbourne, Australia, where she'll unveil her long-in-gestation one-woman show, "The Roar of the Butterfly."
Though Saloff had done previews of the piece last fall at the Wilmette Theatre, when she called the evening "Entertaining Guests," she regards the Melbourne premiere as the official launch of a show that marks a major change of direction in her art.
Or at least a dramatic expansion of it. For though Saloff has devoted her career — until now — to interpreting what's often termed the Great American Songbook, "The Roar of the Butterfly" is built around nine songs she wrote. Moreover, Saloff also penned the book, in which she plays fully eight characters.
"It's based around a (fictional) memorial service for an Asian drag queen named Butterfly," explains Saloff. "But the people attending the memorial all know him from completely different walks of life. It's about how one person's life changes so many others."
This may sound like a far stretch from Saloff's life as a veteran Chicago jazz singer, but the piece — from which she'll sing some excerpts at Katerina's — carries more than a little autobiography. For inasmuch as "Butterfly" examines the after-effects of a life that has ended, it gives Saloff an opportunity to address the sudden, unexpected death of her husband two years ago, of a heart attack.
"In this play, I talk about human loss, and I was able to express the loss of my husband — but through the eyes of someone else," says Saloff, who had been married to Bob Drake for nearly 19 years. "There's a song (in the show) about loss that I'm very happy with. It's called 'Deep Inside the Rain.' "
The beautifully crafted ballad shows Saloff grappling with the pain of losing someone, but also trying to transcend it, through music.
When Saloff began creating her one-woman show, in 2001, she of course had no idea she eventually would be dealing with such heady issues. Back then, the conception of the piece was much more explicitly about her life as a jazz singer and, more important, it was built on well-known songs she had performed for years
Eventually, she put the piece away, only to come back to it in 2008, at that point deciding that she wanted to write her own songs (two of them were penned in collaboration with other musicians). Moreover, she wanted to remove herself as a character in the drama. Ironically, the story she invented better enabled her to probe her emotional inner life, she says, through the guise of characters she has created.
Saloff expects the show to play in Los Angeles late this summer, with a hoped-for run in Chicago in the fall. Until then, Chicago listeners will be hearing her in club and concert settings, such as this weekend's Katerina's date.
How's life on the jazz circuit for Saloff, who moved here from New York with her husband in 1993 and never looked back? "I'm doing fantastic," she says, though getting past the recent second anniversary of her husband's death was challenging.
Apart from that, "I love everything about my life. Yes, I wish I had more money, but who doesn't? "Everybody wishes the jazz business was more lucrative than it is. But that's why I have felt compelled to use my talent in other ways." As in "The Roar of the Butterfly," which later this year should give us a deeper look in to Saloff's art and life.
05/16/2011
"A wicked way with a lyric and a glint of well-controlled mischief." – The New York Times
"Slyly sophisticated, easily accessible, Saloff stands as a kind of ideal." – Chicago Tribune
"Spider Saloff is a gifted and polished song stylist. A most enjoyable musical outing!" – NY Observer
SPIDER SALOFF BIO
Spider Saloff has performed in such nationally recognized venues as New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, Chicago’s Green Mill, San Francisco's Castro Theater, Yoshi's and the Jazz Heritage Center. As one of the rare officially sanctioned acts of the Gershwin Centennial, her Gershwin concert, The Memory of All That, continues to tour the globe including Russia where she headlined the St. Petersburg Gershwin Festival. In addition to her famed Gerhswin concert, Ms. Saloff also tours with own one-woman show entitled The Roar of the Butterfly, which performed in Melbourne and Tazmania, down-under to sold-out crowds, and then on to a successful run in Los Angeles and will open for a limited run in Chicago Spring 2012. Spider Saloff will also tour again with acclaimed biographer, James Gavin, in a show about Chet Baker, called Deep In a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, which will tour the Midwest fall and winter of 2012/2013.
As a guest artist Ms Saloff has performed at The Smithsonian Institution, Denver Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Jazz Orchestra the Willingford Symphony and at the Wilmington Grand Opera.
Ms. Saloff received a special citation for her musical contributions from the presenter of the Grammy Awards and also is A five-time MAC Award Winner, including one for Best Female Jazz Vocalst.
Discography includes 1938; Sextet; The Memory of All That; Cool Yule; A New Set of Standards; and Like Glass. Her Christmas CD entitled Cool Yule was a finalist for the Indie Awards. Her latest recording, Cole Porter Live at Maxim's, was released in 2008. Spider Saloff and the shows mentioned above are exclusively represented by KMP Artists. More on Spider can be found through kmpartists.com.
MP3 File of a song written and performed by SPIDER SALOFF:
Youbetterwatchyourselfwiththatone
|
Exclusive Booking Contact for Ms. Saloff 310.734/7079 Los Angeles |
