October 9th, 10th and 11th 2009
John will be accompanist to singer Holly Near at “The Iron Horse” in Northampton, MA, the Unitarian Society of New Haven in Hamden, CT, and the Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Pawtucket, RI. For information, see the concrt schedule at www.hollynear.com.
October, 2009
Both John’s revue “It’s Only Life” and his Broadway show, “A Catered Affair” will be available for Stock and Amateur productions. For more information, please contact the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization at theatre@rnh.com or (212) 541-6968.
November 2nd – 7th, 2009
John will conduct a series of Master Classes in Boston. There will also be two concerts, one on the 6th and one on the 7th where John will accompany students who have participated in the classes. The masterclasses and concerts are being sponsored and organized by The Vox Humana Project and Eric Larivee Enterprises.
For tickets and information, please go to www.bostontheatrescene.com (internet sales end 1 hour prior to each performance), or call (617) 933-8600 (Phone sales end 30 minutes prior to each performance), or visit the Calderwood Box office at 527 Tremont St. Boston or The Roberts Theater at the Calderwood Pavilion, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston MA 02155.
March 19th – 21st, 2010
John will hold a Master Class at Ohio Northern University.
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.