Past
Events
From June
4th to June 27th 2009, John toured Australia doing concerts
and Master Classes.
He gave
two performances at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival on June 7th
and 10th, a concert in Melbourne at Manchester Lane on June
14th, a concert in Sydney at the Supper Club on June 20th, and
a concert in Hobart Tasmania at the Theatre Royal (the oldest
theatre in Australia) on June 23rd.
The master
classes were held at the Victorian College of the Arts, The
University of Ballarat, and The APO School of Music (all in
and around Melbourne) and at the Supper Club in Sydney.
John was
joined in his songs on the first, third and fourth concerts
by some of Australia’s best singers including David Campbell,
Hayden Tee, Mark Trevorrow, Nick Christo, Ali McGregor, Avigail
Herman, Darren Percival, Ursula Yovic, Lucy Maunder, Virginia
Gay, Chris Durling, Tyran Parke, Lincoln Hall, Chelsea Plumley,
Chris Parker and Anne Wood.
May
16, 2009 - Andrea Marcovicci's 60th Birthday Concert
Andrea
Marcovicci sang John's song "Don't Ever Stop Saying 'I
Love You'" (from "A Catered Affair") at New York's
Town Hall with John at the piano.
April
20th, 2009 - Master Class
John gave
a Master Class at Shorter University in Georgia.
Monday,
March 9, 2009 - Performance at Birdland
John
performed a concert of his songs, “John Bucchino and Friends,”
at Birdland in N.Y.C. The “friends” included Brian
Stokes Mitchell, Ann Hampton Callaway, Justin Paul, Benj Pasek,
Lucas Steele, Jessica Phillips, Jamison Stearn, Zak Resnick
and Jacqueline Hester.
February
23rd, 2009 - Master Class
John returned
to give his second Master Class at one of his favorite schools,
Elon University in North Carolina. Many thanks to the head of
their incredible program, Cathy McNeela!
February
7th and 8th, 2009
Actor Alan
Cumming sang John’s song “Unexpressed” at
New York’s Allen Room as part of Lincoln Center’s
American Songbook series. Alan subsequently recorded the song
for his album “I Bought A Blue Car Today.”
February
6th, 2009
John gave
a Master Class at Yale University.
November
17th, 2008
John’s
revue, “It’s Only Life,” is given the Los
Angeles Ovation Award for “Book/Lyrics/Music for an Original
Musical.” (A terrific birthday present!) Huge thanks to
Daisy Prince, the extraordinary cast, Michael Jackowitz, the
Rubicon Theatre and everyone connected with the production.
John
performed a rare solo concert of his songs at New York City's
legendary Birdland on Monday Nov. 3, 2008. He performed
familiar
material from his CDs, some songs from his recent Broadway show,
"A Catered Affair" and also some seldom performed
and brand new songs!
World
Premiere of John's Musical, "IT'S ONLY LIFE" was at
the Rubicon Theatre from June 19, 2008 through July 13, 2008.
Click
here for a short video. *The songbook is available now!*
July
11th – August 7th, 2008
“Simeon’s
Gift,” the children’s musical for which John wrote
the lyrics, Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton wrote the
book and Ian Fraser wrote the music, had 5 performances as part
of an evening called “The Gift of Music.” “Simeon’s
Gift” was arranged for symphony orchestra by Harold Wheeler,
and the evening, which began with a first act tribute to Rodgers
and Hammerstein, was hosted by Julie Andrews (she even sang!)
The wonderful cast included Stephen Buntrock, Anne Runolfsson,
Christiane Noll, Kevin Odekirk and Jubilant Sykes. Performances
were in Louisville, two evenings in Los Angeles (at the Hollywood
Bowl,) in Atlanta, and Philadelphia. More performances around
the world are being planned.
May
16th, 2008
“A
Catered Affair” was chosen Best Musical by the New York
Drama League.
March
2008 – July 2008: A Catered Affair
“A
Catered Affair” with John’s music and lyrics and
a book by Harvey Fierstein ran for 116 performances at Broadway’s
Walter Kerr Theatre. The show starred Faith Prince, Tom Wopat,
Harvey Fierstein, Leslie Kritzer and Matt Cavanaugh. The Drama
League named it the year’s Best Musical, and Clive Barnes
gave it 4 stars and wrote in his N.Y. Post review:
AN
AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, A MUSICAL OF NOTE
“HUMOR,
yes, but humanity? That's rare in a Broadway musical. When it
does come along - as it did last night, when "A Catered
Affair" opened at the Walter Kerr - hug it to your heart.
It
emerges less like a musical and more like a play with music:
lovely, urban chamber music.
Harvey
Fierstein's book is nominally based on Gore Vidal's screenplay
for the 1956 movie, which in turn was taken from Paddy Chayefsky's
teleplay, presumably as a starring vehicle for Ernest Borgnine.
But
it's Chayefsky's spirit that dominates the scene, and Fierstein
has captured his 1950s, working-class milieu to perfection.
This
Bronx tale, with its interlocking, underlining and quietly beautiful
music and lyrics by John Bucchino, skims along the edge of sentimentality
to find honest sentiment in this story of a young soldier's
death, a wedding and a taxi.
This
is no run-of-the-mill Broadway musical - there's no chorus,
no dancing. Just evocative music (perfectly orchestrated by
Jonathan Tunick) interwoven with spoken dialogue, an authentically
devised set by David Gallo and Ann Hould-Ward's brilliantly
drab costumes.
It's
simply a musical with an honest heart, and that's enough.”
April
17, 2008 - Opening Night of "A Catered Affair"
on Broadway
March
25, 2008 - The first preview performance of "A
Catered Affair" on Broadway.
Click
here
to order.
It’s
Only Life is the newest musical revue of John’s songs,
co-conceived and directed by Daisy Prince. It was developed
at Musical Theatre Works and had a full production as part of
2004’s first Summer Play Festival in New York City. In
January of 2006, it was performed in a concert version as part
of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series and was recorded
for the PS Classics label (with that same amazing cast) the
following week.
The songs
not already included in the Grateful Songbook will be available
in a new songbook from the Hal Leonard Corporation (www.halleonard.com)
in early 2008. When available, it will be an
announced on this website.
Stock and
amateur dramatic performance rights to IT'S ONLY LIFE may be
obtained (as of early 2008) by contacting Rodgers
and Hammerstein Theatricals at (212) 564-4000 or www.theatre@rnh.com.
When available, it will be an announced on this website.
The extraordinary
performers participating in the recording are Brooks Ashmanskas,
Andrea Burns, Gavin Creel, Jessica Molaskey and Billy Porter.
John is at the piano accompanying them. The show features 23
songs which span John’s career, 14 of which have not been
recorded by John before. There are vocal arrangements by Jeff
Blumenkrantz and Jason Robert Brown as well as John. The songs
included are:
1. THE ARTIST AT 40 (All)
2. UNEXPRESSED (Gavin)
3. PAINTING MY KITCHEN (Brooks)
4. SWEET DREAMS (Jessica)
5. PLAYBILL (Billy)
6. THAT SMILE (All)
7. LOVE QUIZ (Andrea)
8. A CONTACT HIGH (Gavin)
9. WHAT YOU NEED (Billy)
10. WHEN YOU’RE HERE (Jessica)
11. IT FEELS LIKE HOME (Gavin)
12. A POWERFUL MAN (Billy)
13. I’M NOT WAITING (All)
14. PROGRESSION (John)
15. IT’S ONLY LIFE (All)
16. LOVE WILL FIND YOU IN ITS TIME (Gavin & Andrea)
17. IF I EVER SAY I’M OVER YOU (Brooks)
18. THIS MOMENT (Andrea)
19. ON MY BEDSIDE TABLE (Brooks)
20. I’VE LEARNED TO LET THINGS GO (Jessica)
21.TAKING THE WHEEL (Gavin & All)
22. GRATEFUL (Billy)
23. A GLIMPSE OF THE WEAVE (All)
In
his New York Times review of the show, Stephen Holden writes:
“On
the growing roster of younger New York songwriters jockeying
for recognition in the gray area between the art song and pop,
John Bucchino occupies a special niche. Mr. Bucchino, whose
work was showcased by Lincoln Center's American Songbook series
on Friday evening, personifies the therapy-sensitized, new-age-savvy
metrosexual seeker of love and truth minutely cataloging his
adventures on the street of dreams.
Mr. Bucchino's
flowing, finely made piano ballads describe an urban single
life in which relationships come and go in cycles of yearning,
fulfillment, heartbreak and healing. Romantic love is a serious
quest undertaken as a race against time. In a burst of self-appraisal
like "The Artist at 40," you can practically hear
the clock ticking.
That search
for a lasting relationship is part of a deeper philosophical
quest. Two of Mr. Bucchino's best-known songs, "Grateful"
and "This Moment," describe personal epiphanies: yearning
gives way to rapturous flashes of insight in which the songwriter
recognizes life's blessings and realizes that the moment is
all there is. But more often than not, he is dogged by insecurity
and fear. Personal victories, like the sense of mastery expressed
in his buoyant song "Taking the Wheel," are hard won.
Mr. Bucchino's
language sometimes verges on the flowery. "Grateful,"
with its hymnlike harmonies, for instance, conspicuously rhymes
"truly" and "duly"; the song preaches gratitude.
But Mr. Bucchino never wastes words. Songs like "Painting
the Kitchen," an amusing depiction of home improvement
as a therapeutic exercise during which the narrator carries
on an interior dialogue with his therapist, emphasize his gift
as a witty phrasemaker in the Sondheim mold.
These were
among more than 20 Bucchino songs woven into a suite in "It's
Only Life" at the Allen Room at Frederick P. Rose Hall,
where the composer, playing piano, accompanied
five singers
in a survey of his impressive output. As the show progressed,
fragments from earlier songs were brought back as a linking
device that gave the concert a steady dramatic arc.
The singers,
Brooks Ashmanskas, Andrea Burns, Gavin Creel, Jessica Molaskey
and Billy Porter, brought conviction and personality to their
monologues. Collectively they evoked a group therapy session
peopled by creative, high-strung articulate Manhattanites approaching
middle age with high expectations, high anxiety and open hearts.”
John
writes:
It’s
been a dream of mine for many years to put together a revue
of my songs. Now, thanks to the brilliance of Daisy Prince and
the participation of some of the best performers around, we
have It’s Only Life.
We recorded
the show on Feb. 1st and 2nd, 2006 in two intensely focused
sessions. The singers did a miraculous job of capturing my intentions
for the material while dramatically infusing it with their own
personality and unique musical style. I couldn’t be more
thrilled with the result. I hope you enjoy!
John's
CD "On Richard Rodgers' Piano" was recently chosen
by Show Business Weekly as the Best Instrumental Cabaret CD
of 2004. Here's what they said: 
John's
song "I've Learned to Let Things Go" has been recorded
by Cris Williamson on the new CD entitled "Cris & Holly,"
which features John on piano. Please visit 
On
Oct. 7, 2004 John performed his songs at New York City's Opia
cabaret with special guests Lucas Steele and Michael Arden.
On
August 8, 2004, John was interviewed on NPR by Liane Hansen
regarding his "On Richard Rodgers' Piano"
CD. To hear that interview, visit: 
One
June 26, 2004, John performed an evening of his music at the
Cinegrill in Los Angeles. 
On
May 17, 2004, John won his 4th MAC (The Manhattan Association
of Cabarets) Award, this one as "Singer Songwriter."
The cabaret community's annual celebration filled New York City's
Symphony Space with great music, comedy and camaraderie.
In
May of 2004, John was interviewed by Jim Caruso for his online
show “Cast Party.” To hear that interview please
visit: 
On
April 24, 2004, John performed in two shows in Houston at Ovations
Night Club (located at 2536 Times Blvd. at Kirby Drive in the
Rice Village). 
On
February 27th, 2004, a reading of a new revue of John’s
songs called “It’s Only Life, The Songs of John
Bucchino” was done at Musical Theater Works in New York
City. The piece was co-conceived and directed by Daisy Prince,
and the stellar cast for the reading included Brooks Ashmanskas,
Andrea Burns, Gavin Creel, Jessica Molaskey, and Clarke Thorell.
John was at the piano. Plans are in the works for an off-Broadway
production.
John
performed a solo show of his songs as a benefit for the Gay
and Lesbian Center in New York City on Sunday January 18th,
2004.
John
was a special guest at the 10/29/03 Carnegie Hall concert of
pals Michael Feinstein and Jimmy Webb. John performed Jimmy’s
song “If These Walls Could Speak” and his own “If
I Ever Say I’m Over You” (the lyric of which is
included in Jimmy’s book on songwriting: “Tunesmith:
Inside the Art of Songwriting.”)
John
performed a solo evening of his songs on Wednesdays in July
and August 2003 at the Duplex. Thanks to the wonderful audiences
who made this another great series of shows. 
John
gave a master class and performed in a solo concert at the Clarke
Recital Hall at the University of Miami on January 18, 2002.
John's
solo show, "IT'S ONLY LIFE" returned to The Firebird
Cafe for three more sold out performances September 1st, 8th,
and 15th 2001.