Tinkling The Ivories with One Direction

To the Cosmopolitan Cafe in deepest Double Bay for a special treat. Legendary pianist Chet Clark ( above) had flown in from his home in Santa Barbara to give a concert for invited guests. Clark was big in the 50s, and the 60s and 70s. He appeared on every major rock'n'roll show in Australia and the USA and accompanied legendary names of rock and pop, too many to mention.

(left : Jenny Main,John Foreman & Maria Venuti at the Cosmo)

Joining Chet at the piano was the musical director of some of television's and live theatre's top shows John Foreman who flew in from Melbourne for the night.
The night was put together by producer Jenny Main and hopefully will be the first of many musical evenings to come
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The Shuttle will be at the Ch 7 studios in Martin Place tomorrow morning for One Direction's appearance. Are we looking forward to it ?. Not as much as Tony Bennett's final show tomorrow night at the Sydney Opera House which we managed to score a rare ticket for.

There is one thing everyone must do in this life. And that is see Tony Bennett sing live.
There is a reason Frank Sinatra said Bennett had "the best tonsils in the business". His voice is like pure honey and washes over you with a purity never experienced before. In our lifetime we have not seen a live singer with such perfection and poetry in their voice. There is no man or woman on this planet that is better. Bennett's recordings do not do his voice justice, as wonderful as they are. This is the singer who thrives on live performances and at 85 years old, by all accounts he is as good today as he was 50 years ago.

Oh yes, Rihanna is in town and attended the premiere of Battleship last night and went shopping in Paddington during the day before boarding a luxury yacht for the obligatory Harbour cruise. Perhaps she waved to One Direction who were also on the Harbour.

Annnie Get Your Gun-Maria Gets Engaged!

SHE'S THE LARGER than life red carpet regular but buxom Maria Venuti shocked even the jaded press tonight when she announced that she was engaged as she arrived at the premiere of the musical Annie.

Maria introduced the tall dark stranger accompanying her as her 'fiance' and who are we to doubt her?.
The gentleman's name is Glen Ware and Glen looked slightly taken aback at the news as out favourite Italian song bird gushed and grabbed her man to her side.  Good luck Glenn !

Annie is back for another season at the Lyric Theatre in the newly re-vamped Star Casino.

As I and a guest were escorted through the vast auditorium of the casino itself which looks like it's about 5 acres in size and packed to the gills with craps and roulette tables and thousands of poker machines as far as the eye can see, we now know where everyone has gone. There must have been a few thousand gamblers entranced by the spinning wheels and flashing lights.

Wiggle Anthony Field and kids

Annie stars Anthony Warlow as Daddy Warbucks and Nancye Hayes as the villain Miss Hannigan plus Todd McKenney-the Dancing With Star's judge everyone loves to hate plus several little Annies. And with the return of the famed TV show Young Talent Time where such discoveries as Kylie Minogue and sister Danni got their start, another YTT star was on hand-Debra Byrne as she escorted her granddaughter who plays one of the 'Annies'.

John Foreman flashes the paparazzi

And what a treat-in the Sydney production we have our favourite shock jock Alan Jones playing FDR. That will take some acting from Alan as everyone knows he and FDR's politics would have to be diametrically opposed.

Annie is on until March 25th and it then tours the nation.Book tickets here.
Right-Debra Byrne and Lucille who plays Annie.

Below is and one of the numbers from the show courtesy of theTheatreShowTV.