Cagney the Musical Plays its 117th Performance on Cagney’s 117 birthday.
James Cagney is an iconic actor of American film. A scrappy, wiry, yet diminutive man, Cagney snagged an Academy Award for his role as George M. Cohan, the song and dance man, in Yankee Doodle Dandy. But James Cagney was actually a Broadway performer for a period of ten years between 1920 and 1930 and appeared in a total of seven Broadway productions before Hollywood came a calling, providing him with the opportunity to play legendary tough guy characters in various movies like The Public Enemy, The G Men, and White Heat.
Jimmy Cagney’s birthday is July 17 and this year, he would have been 117 years old. In a stunning coincidence, the off-Broadway production of Cagney, The Musical, (which chronicles his life and career with music and amazing tap dancing) conceived by and starring the super talented Robert Creighton, is playing it’s 117th performance the week of Cagney’s birthday at the Westside Theatre on West 43rd Street.
Robert Creighton as James Cagney in Cagney Photo credit: Carol Rosegg
Check out Cagney, The Musical, (“about Hollywood’s tough guy in tap shoes”) and celebrate the life of a silver screen and Broadway legend.
Valerie Smaldone is a 5-time Billboard Magazine Award winner and is well known for her unprecedented success holding the #1 on-air position in the New York radio market on 106.7 Life-FM, an iHeart station. She has hosted, produced, and created several award-winning nationally syndicated programs featuring in-depth interviews with stars like Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Elton John and Mariah Carey among others. Her radio talk show "Bagels and Broadway" highlighted theatre and food personalities. She is an accomplished interviewer and voice artist heard on commercials, narrations, promos and audiobooks, as well as a sought after live announcer.
Most recently, Valerie produced and directed a film, The Thursday Night Club, featuring pop diva Gloria Gaynor in her movie acting debut. She is one of the creators and producers of a docu-series, Divine Renovation, starring Erik Estrada, on streaming networks soon.
