The estrogen level of Girls Night: The Musical did everything it could to blow the roof off of the palatial Hanover Theatre Wednesday night.

On Saturday mornings, Louise Roche got some actual time to herself. Her husband would take their three young children all under age 4 out of the house for a while, and Roche would sit at the kitchen table and think about girls night.

The highly unusual combination of crooner Jack Jones and The Count Basie Orchestra made for a musically interesting concert at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts yesterday afternoon.

Jack Jones was thrilled when he got his old job back as a gas attendant.

Betty Buckley, known affectionately as “the voice of Broadway” and the original Grizabella in the Broadway production of “Cats,” will formally open the 2008-09 season of the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts with a concert Sept. 20.

How do you turn a 2,300-seat theater into an intimate speakeasy? Easy. Draw the curtains, close the blinds, lock the front door so it looks like no one's home, open up an otherwise inconspicuous entrance on a side alley instead and be sure to station a couple of hefty looking staffers there to welcome the guests and make sure no revenuers get in.

You could just grab a digital point-and-shoot if you’re weary of always having to set the aperture and shutter speed on your real camera. After all, sometimes you just want to snap a quick photo without having to actually think.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio, clarinetist-saxophonist Paquito DRivera, and the fusion quartet FourPlay joined forces Saturday night at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts for the Legends of Jazz Tour 2008.

Robert N. Yiaski doesnt remember much about his father, who died in a freak accident just days after his third birthday.

Ballet will return as part of the Worcester Music Festival for the first time in many years next March when The Russian National Ballet Theatre of Moscow stages Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Last year, sax and clarinet master Paquito DRivera passed through New England with his Panamericana ensemble, a group that split the difference between big-band orchestration and small-combo flexibility.

A summer series of performances at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester, will be like a little club for people in the know, said Lisa Condit, the theater's director of marketing and public relations.

Brooms, broomsticks, lighters, trash bags, trash cans, dustbin lids, newspapers, plungers … these were just some of the items that the performers of “Stomp” persuasively turned into percussive instruments as the show opened its three night-run last night at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Everything but the kitchen sink, you might think. But no, they played that, too.

It required more than a hop, skip and a jump to take Andrew Patrick from “Stomp” to “Stomp.”

On Tuesday, he took a trans-Atlantic flight.

Patrick, who was born in Worcester and grew up in Grafton, is currently based in London, where he performs in the internationally acclaimed percussion show “Stomp.”


But for a few days he’s back to his old stomping grounds.

Formed in 1976 and still going strong, “Foreigner” will play the Hanover Theatre for Performing Arts May 31.

Tickets for Hanover Theatre members went on sale yesterday. Tickets will be available to the public April 21. Tickets prices are $47, $57 and $197, and are available through the theater box office at www.hanovertheatre.org or call (508) 831-0800.

The U.S. Air Force Concert Band, which performed to a packed house at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts last night, originally had planned a George Gershwin segment for the evening. After a rehearsal in the newly renovated hall, however, that part of the program was changed.

We know what you want to know, and the answer is “no.” Teen sensation Miley Cyrus did not make an appearance with her handsome dad, country singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus, at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts Saturday night. Superdaddy didn’t go it alone, however.

What would it sound like if you added synthesizers, an electric bass and a drum kit to the music of George Frideric Handel? Probably a lot like Mannheim Steamroller at the Hanover Theatre on Friday night.

With his role on the popular tweener TV show “Hannah Montana” and appearance on “Dancing With the Stars,” some may have forgotten that Billy Ray Cyrus started out as a country singer.

Though best known for its Christmas music (26 million yuletide albums sold and counting), New Age music chart topper Mannheim Steamroller is a band for all seasons.

FOUR STARS!!!!

“Hairspray” gelled perfectly right from the start at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts last night and heralded a new theater era in Worcester.

It’s Worcester’s night to take center stage. There are many luminaries in the Hanover Theatre lineup, from Bernadette Peters to BB King. But Thursday night will be local talents’ time to shine. The Worcester Performing Arts Extravaganza will draw dancers, singers, thespians, an orchestra and other performers from throughout the community and give them a chance to perform on the stage of the newly renovated theater.

Click here for a slide show of the Hanover Theatre opening.

Hanover tries for wide appeal

Just after people had taken their seats at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts at its gala opening March 14, a photographer took a picture of the audience.

APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE — Worcester needed a success story, and the opening of the Hanover Theatre provided it. Through an almost miraculous effort, the crumbling old burlesque house at Federal Square was turned into a state-of-the-art entertainment venue, as well as a major community asset.

Restaurants provide shuttle buses to theater

WORCESTER— In its heyday, Maxwell Silverman’s Toolhouse Restaurant’s red London-style double-decker bus was a beloved fixture in the city, transporting diners in quirky style to the theater and other nightspots around town.

After Saturday’s performance at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, Joy Behar jumped into the limo and headed for a private “after party” at KJ Baaron’s Fine Wine & Spirits, 220 Summer St., Worcester, where she joined 150 of her dearest and closest fans.

Hanover scores as Irish musicians fill the aisles with dance

Those who went to the opening of The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts on Friday can claim to have witnessed history. Those who went Sunday created a bit of history as well, being the first audience to dance in the aisles of the freshly renovated concert palace.

At 8:50pm, March 14, 2008, Broadway baby
Bernadette Peters became the first
performer to christen the newly renovated
Hanover Theater for the Performing Arts, the
culmination of eight years of fundraising, land
swaps, design, and renovation, begun by 2
men, but completed by scores if not hundreds
of others. It was a night for the record books.

HUMOR REVIEW

The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts showed last night that it, too, can revel a bit in the delights of adult humor. After the glitter and Broadway sophistication of Bernadette Peters at the Friday gala opening, last night brought Joy Behar to the Hanover Theatre — live, candid, plain-speaking and funny — although how funny may depend on a person’s political point of view.

Don’t gush.

That was the advice offered by a friend who knew I’d be writing about the grand opening Friday of the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts.

“Don’t gush,” she warned. “You tend to gush.”

Part of the marketing campaign for the new Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts produced an advertisement proclaiming “Finally!”

Hanover Theatre’s curtain to rise Friday

Bernadette Peters is mindful of the significance of being the first performer to take the stage when the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts formally opens its doors Friday.

The new Hanover Theatre displays a bit of impeccable timing in having The Saw Doctors play the freshly renovated building next Sunday, meaning one of Ireland’s top bands will be in downtown Worcester on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day.

Carroll Plaza One Step Closer

The City Council Public Works Committee last night enthusiastically endorsed a proposal to rename Federal Square Plaza, and the part of Southbridge Street that runs into it, the Francis R. Carroll Plaza.

Hanover Theatre getting finishing touches

WORCESTER— Black tie and hard hats, anyone? Officials of the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts insist protective headgear won’t be necessary at the opening night gala March 14, even though the downtown construction site at Federal Square still is a work in progress.

It all began eight years ago when two local businessmen noticed the large, vacant Poli Palace Theater in Federal Square.

When the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts celebrates its grand opening, one Worcester resident in particular will be watching with more than a touch of nostalgia and a sense of irony, not to mention a strong sense of personal vindication.

Excitement builds as Hanover Theatre grand opening nears. It was a scene of ladders, scaffolding, welding and workers in hard hats. Just before Christmas, the welder’s sparks were flying as renovation / transformation work continued at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts at Federal Square.

Tony Award winning Broadway singer Bernadette Peters will be the first star to grace the stage of the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts when she gives the grand opening night performance at 8 p.m. March 14.

The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, 554 Main St., Worcester, has announced three more shows for its inaugural season.

WORCESTER - Advance ticket sales for the not-yet-opened Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts' first three Broadway touring shows swamped the box office only minutes after single-show tickets became available for the first time for members at noon yesterday.

WORCESTER - The Hanover Insurance Group Foundation is giving a $1 million matching grant to the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts to jump-start a membership campaign that starts today and will lead up to the scheduled March 14 grand opening of the elaborately renovated $30 million downtown venue.