Author Archives: dannyashkenasi

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About dannyashkenasi

I'm a composer with over 40 years experience creating music theater. I'm also an actor, writer, director, producer, teacher and general enthusiast for the arts.

SPEAKEASY Reading December 7

Posted on November 27, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

R  E  M  I  N  D  E  R There will be a reading of SPEAKEASY John and Jane Allison in the Wonderland by Danny Ashkenasi December 7 7pm at the Theater for the New City 155 First Avenue, between 9th … Continue reading →

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CYNDI LAUPER Just Wants to Have Lots and Lots of Fun (and so do many guys)

Posted on November 24, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” is the song that put Cyndi Lauper on the scene and to this day is the song she is most identified with, even though she has had many other hit songs since, recorded dance … Continue reading →

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JULIAN CARNATION / JULIAN ELTINGE – Speakeasy’s Red Queen and Mad Hatter & Broadway’s Famous Female Impersonator

Posted on November 20, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

When I was researching Gay Culture of the 1920’s and 1930’s in preparation for writing “Speakeasy”, I came about an anecdote about a once famous female impersonator of the 1910’s and 1920’s, Julian Eltinge, a star of Vaudeville and the … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Live! On Stage, Notes in the News, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Speakeasy – An interview conducted by author Rebecca Cantrell – updated

Posted on November 17, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

The bestselling Author Rebecca Cantrell has posted an interview with me about Speakeasy on her blog.  In it I reveal some tidbits about Speakeasy and a song demo that had not yet found their way to Notes from a Composer. … Continue reading →

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SPEAKEASY KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED!

Posted on November 16, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

The Day Has Come!  We Have Launched Our Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign! CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PROJECT PAGE!   Help bring this original, ambitious new musical onto the stage! “Speakeasy – John and Jane Allison in the Wonderland” brings … Continue reading →

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BLONDIE vs. SHEENA – Grudge Match of the Bond Themes

Posted on November 14, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

With the release of the latest Bond, “Spectre”, a whole bunch of internet articles listed rankings of the Bond theme songs.  Sultry “Nobody Does it Better” generally wound up the #1 choice of most of these polls, followed by the … Continue reading →

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TROUBLE BUBBLES – The Songs from Childhood that Loom Large All One’s Life

Posted on November 11, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

I was three years old when Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was released and became the one of the most popular songs of its time.   One of my earliest memories is of me, small boy hardly taller than … Continue reading →

Posted in Beginnings, Melodies Linger On, The Teaching Artist | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

SPEAKEASY CAMPAIGN VIDEO PREVIEW – plus Audition and Facebook News!

Posted on November 8, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

Speakeasy Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign Video: Above is a sneak peek at the video we created for our upcoming Kickstarter fundraising campaign for Speakeasy.  Look forward to the fundraiser being launched in a little over a week.  Meanwhile you can now … Continue reading →

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FIRST GRADE OPERAS: New Similarities and Differences

Posted on November 5, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

When all three first grade classes chose “Magic” as the theme for their original operas I worried that the three pieces would all end up being too similar.  However, the three “Theme Sentences” (for 1-1: “Magic can control people’s minds”; … Continue reading →

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SPEAKEASY Campaign Video Update

Posted on November 3, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

Stolis Hadjicharalambous has completed the final edit of the Speakeasy fundraiser campaign video.  The Kickstarter fundraising campaign will launch in about two weeks. Meanwhile, here are stills of some the images and tracks of some of the music that will … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Catching HALLOWEEN around HALLOWEEN 1978 in a seedy New York theater

Posted on October 30, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

My father insists that the movie theater or rather many of the patrons in the theater were scarier than anything that was happening on the screen.  Possibly.  I was eleven and not world-weary enough to be wary of the pot-smoking … Continue reading →

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A Halloween Treat: THE TELL-TALE HEART – A MUSICABRE and the roommate from hell who planted its seed

Posted on October 28, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

Just in time for Halloween the Tell-Tale Heart page goes live today, showcasing the audio of a live performance of my musical adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”. The Tell-Tale Heart is the ultimate bad roommate story, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Beginnings, Chamber Works, Literary Lyricism, Poe Musicabres | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

SPEAKEASY – Attack of the 30 foot Incidental Music!

Posted on October 25, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

So many notes… so little time… The other day I had a meeting with Speakeasy‘s music director Jonathan Fox Powers.  One of those sessions where you make sure composer and music director are on the same page as it concerns … Continue reading →

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FIRST GRADE OPERAS: It’s MAGIC time, times three!

Posted on October 23, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

It’s a whole new season of First Grade Operas at the Brooklyn Children’s School.  The three first grade classes have all begun the process of creating their own original opera, or musical, with performances set for the end of March.  … Continue reading →

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BERLIN WALL MEMORIES #2 – You Might as Well Have Told Me the Earth was Flat.

Posted on October 21, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

The night the Berlin Wall came down, Nov 9, 1989, I was living in New York.  I got a phone call around 6pm that night, less than an hour in real time after East German Border guards had received the … Continue reading →

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BERLIN WALL MEMORIES #1 – Growing up 5 miles from the BRIDGE OF SPIES

Posted on October 16, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

The moment I read the announcement that Steven Spielberg was preparing his next movie called “Bridge of Spies”, I knew, without having any additional morsel of information, that Die Glienicker Brücke – the Glienicke Bridge of Berlin, also known as … Continue reading →

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