newsmakers

newsmakers

‘Dancing With the Stars’ to hit the road

NEW YORK

“Dancing With the Stars” fans will have an opportunity to see some of the pros freestyle, jive and paso doble as the show hits the road again this summer.

The long-running ABC competition show, which pairs celebrities with professional dancers, will tour in more than 40 cities starting June 13 in Atlantic City, N.J. “Dancing With the Stars: Live!” will run through Aug. 11, hosted by all-stars season champion Melissa Rycroft. Stops on the tour will include Toledo; El Paso, Texas; and Las Vegas.

“Every time I think I’ll never do this again, they suck me back in!” joked Rycroft, who has competed twice on the show. The TV personality said she’s excited to travel by bus and “live like rock stars” with her husband and two children.

Pro dancers taking part in the tour include Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Witney Carson and Peta Murgatroyd. Performances will feature both new choreography and popular numbers from the show.

“Dancing With the Stars” is airing its 10th-anniversary season Monday nights at 8.

Julie Wilson, cabaret star, dies at 90 in NY

NEW YORK

Julie Wilson, a musical- theater actress and cabaret star who earned a Tony Award nomination and was cheered for her ability to harness the songs of Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter, has died. She was 90.

Christopher Denny, Wilson’s friend, said she died Sunday in New York after having suffered two strokes over the past several days.

Wilson’s most-famous stage role was the 1988 Peter Allen musical “Legs Diamond,” for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. Her other Broadway credits include “Park” in 1970, “The Girl in the Freudian Slip” in 1967, and she was a replacement for the role of Babe Williams in the original run of “The Pajama Game.”

But it was as a singer — known for her interpretations of such songwriters as Sondheim, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern and Porter — that made the biggest impressions, from recordings such as “Julie Wilson Sings the Cy Coleman Songbook” to her live sets at the Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel.

Associated Press