SIXTH ANNUAL BROADWAY CABARET FESTIVAL
Series created, written and hosted for The Town Hall by Scott Siegel
Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 8 pm BROADWAY MELODY MAKERS Every show has them, the tunes you can’t stop humming. This new addition to the Broadway Cabaret Festival features an elite cast of talented stars performing those songs. An exciting concert brimming with rhythm and beauty, featuring hits penned by songwriters who made the Great White Way great—sensational songs people all over America knew and loved. Thrill once again to music of Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, and so many others down through the decades to the likes of Jule Styne, Cy Coleman, and more! Starring two-time Tony Award® nominees Mary Testa (42nd Street, On The Town) and Tom Wopat (Catared Affair, Annie Get Your Gun), along with Theatre World Award winner Nellie McKay (Three Penny Opera), Saturday Night Live’s Ana Gasteyer (Royal Family), and many more.
Sat, Oct 16, 2010 at 8 pm BETTY BUCKLEY Betty Buckley is one of only a handful of women who can be referred to as a real Broadway star and a true legend. Broadway credits include 1776, Cats (Tony Award) Sunset Boulevard, both in London’s West End and on Broadway. She has acted in films, starred on television, and is a three-time Grammy Award nominee. An evening with Betty Buckley is one you’ll remember forever.
Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 3 pm BROADWAY ORIGINALS! An unforgettable afternoon of songs and memories featuring a dazzling array of performers reprising songs they introduced either in the original Broadway production or revival. Witness the performances -- and the performers -- that have lit up the Great White Way these past 50 years. Experience the performances the original audiences saw, or if you were lucky enough to see them the first time, you can relive them. Featuring as many as twenty Broadway stars including Tony Award® nominees Christiane Noll (Ragtime), Stephanie D'Abruzzo and John Tartaglia (Avenue Q), joined by the legendary Jo Sullivan Loesser (The Most Happy Fella) and more!
Fifth Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival
Friday, October 16 at 8 pm A TRIBUTE DAVID MERRICK A tribute to the prolific Tony Award-winning American theatrical producer David Merrick, featuring songs from his musicals and reminiscences by colleagues. The tribute will include performances by Lee Roy Reams (42nd Street), Emily Skinner (Side Show), Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll & Hyde), Jim Caruso (Liza Minnelli's at The Palace), Stephen Bogardus (Falsettos) and more. Among the nearly 90 works he brought to Broadway during his nearly five-decade-long career were Gypsy, Oliver!, Hello, Dolly!, 42nd Street, Mack & Mabel, I Do! I Do! and more. In addition to backing some of the longest-running and most beloved shows in American musical theater history, Merrick also helped launch the careers of singer/actress Barbra Streisand, writer/actor Woody Allen, and countless others, and his productions gave some of Broadway's grand dames and leading men their signature roles.
Saturday, October 17 at 8 pm LINDA EDER "ALL OF ME" Linda Eder possesses one of the greatest contemporary solo voices of our time, she won a Drama Desk Award for her performance in Jekyll & Hyde, and has appeared on prestigious concert stages throughout the U.S. All of Me blends Eder’s signature songs into an exciting new show allowing her multifaceted voice to shine through. Newly penned originals and great cover songs from pop music legends are mixed with new arrangements to some of her classic “hits” like Vienna and Someone Like You. The show is packed with energy and grooves that keep your toes tapping. Multi-talented piano man Billy Stein is at the helm of a 7-piece band featuring guitars, fiddle, B3 and lush backing vocal harmonies, offering up some of the classic sounds that have made Eder’s arrangements famous. This show has something for everyone.
Sunday, October 18 at 3pm BROADWAY ORIGINALS “A rare opportunity to savor nearly sixty years of Broadway history.” – American Theatre Web. An unforgettable afternoon of songs and memories featuring a dazzling array of performers reprising songs they introduced either in the original Broadway production or revival. Witness the performances -- and the performers -- that have lit up the Great White Way these past 50 years. Experience the performances the original audiences saw, or if you were lucky enough to see them the first time, you can relive them. Featuring as many as twenty Broadway stars including Tony nominee Sharon McNight (Starmites), Alexander Gemignani (Les Miserables), Julia Murney (Lennon), Kerry O’Malley (Irving Berlin’s White Christmas), and many more! .
Fourth Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival
Friday, October 17 at 8 pm – A TRIBUTE TO LERNER & LOEWE
Brent Barrett, Jim Caruso, Alexander Gemignani, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Sarah Jane McMahon, Daniel Reichard, Max Von Essen and more will convene to honor the dynamic duo of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.. Vienna-born composer, Loewe, and lyricist-playwright, Lerner, met in 1942. Had they not, BRIGADOON would never have materialized from the Scottish mists to make the world feel Almost Like Being in Love ... MY FAIR LADY would still be a less than lyrical English girl from Shaw's PYGMALION ... we might never have thought to Thank Heaven for Little Girls like GIGI ... CAMELOT would have stayed within the pages of Arthurian legend, and no one would have been there to PAINT YOUR WAGON.
Saturday, October 18 at 8 pm – COLM WILKINSON BROADWAY & BEYOND
The Town Hall is bringing him home to Broadway for one-night only.
The Irish actor and singer, who achieved international fame when he created the role of Jean Valjean in the hit musical, LES MISERABLES , and spent years on the stage mesmerizing audiences as the Phantom in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, will perform for one-night only. The show will feature Broadway blockbusters like Music of the Night, Bring Him Home, The Impossible Dream, Hello Young Lovers, Some Enchanted Evening as well as Irish Classics and Popular Standards.
Sunday, October 19 at 3pm –BROADWAY ORIGINALS
“A rare opportunity to savor nearly sixty years of Broadway history.” – American Theatre Web
An unforgettable afternoon of songs and memories featuring a dazzling array of performers reprising songs they introduced either in the original Broadway production or revival. Witness the performances -- and the performers -- that have lit up the Great White Way these past 60 years. Experience the performances the original audiences saw, or if you were lucky enough to see them the first time, you can relive them. Featuring over twenty Broadway stars including Lucie Arnaz (THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG), Stephen Mo Hanan (CATS), Karen Morrow (I HAD A BALL), Julia Murney (LENNON) and Pam Myers (COMPANY).
Third Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival
Friday, October 19 at 8 pm – A Tribute to Stephen Schwartz
A gala tribute to the famed composer of such timeless hits as Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, Working and most recently Wicked! Winner of 4 Grammys, 3 Oscars and countless theatre awards, Schwartz was in attendance to witness performances of his greatest songs from a career of extraordinary achievements. Scott Coulter directed this star-studded concert featuring Jane Olivor, Karen Akers, Marc Kudisch, Liz Callaway, Lari White, Scott Coulter, Jason Graae, Lisa Howard, Steven Lutvak, Chris DiCristo, Julie Garnye, and Carole Schwartz with a special performance by Stephen himself.
Saturday, October 20 at 8 pm – An Evening with Betty Buckley
Through her dazzling work in such musicals as Sunset Boulevard, Cats, 1776, Carrie, Song & Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Pippin, Tony Award winner Betty Buckley is one of a small handful of performers synonymous with Broadway. Her voice has been stopping the hearts of concert and theatregoers for years, and her Town Hall performance was no exception.
Sunday, October 21 at 3pm – Broadway Originials!
It was like having your musical theatre CD collection come to life!
A dazzling array of performers reprising songs they introduced in the original Broadway production or revival. Featuring Andre deShields (The Wiz), Jason Graae (A Grand Night for Singing), Ken Jennings (Sweeney Todd), Donna Lynne Champlin (Hollywood Arms), Anita Gillette (Mr. President and Jimmy), Karen Mason (Mama Mia!) Jerry Dixon (Once on this Island), Joan Copeland (Two by Two), Barbara Walsh (BIG), David Miller (La Boheme), Alan Campbell (Sunset Boulevard), Susan Bigelow (Working), Brad Oscar (The Producers), Jill O'Hara (Promises, Promises), Willy Falk (Miss Saigon), Catherine Cox and Martin Vidnovic (Baby), Tania Elg (Nine). George S. Irving (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and 174th Street), Martin Vidnovic (Brigadoon).
Second Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival
Friday, October 19th – Music in the Air: A Tribute to Jerome Kern.
Arguably the greatest melodist in all American musical theater, Jerome Kern, probably wrote about 700 songs over 4 decades. 15 of the crème de la crème of Broadway and cabaret performers paid tribute to the man who wrote the music to such Broadway shows as Show Boat, Sweet Adeline, Roberta, Music in the Air, Leave It to Jane and to films that included Cover Girl, Centennial Summer, You Were Never Lovelier, Swing Time, High Wide and Handsome. The evening featured Nancy Anderson, Cady Huffman, Ron Bohmer, Michael Winter, Stephen Bogardus, Leslie Kritzer, Joyce Chittick, Sean Martin Hingston, Julie Reyburn, Julia Murney, Noah Racey, Lari White, and was directed and choreographed by Mindy Cooper.
Saturday, October 20th – Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley Sing Broadway
They may not look like identical twins anymore, but Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner are still the best sister act in town. Reuniting for the second night of the Broadway Cabaret Festival, the two Side Show stars proved that as wonderful as they are individually, they’re best as a pair, playing off of each other’s energies and styles to excellent effect. They remain the only performers to be Tony-nominated for a single performance in a musical, and their two albums of duets have only further proven their unique chemistry. The high-octane concert let the ladies perform some remarkable solos and duets from new and classic shows. The wide-ranging songlist featured numbers by Sondheim, Menken & Ashman, LaChiusa and Berlin, giving the ladies a wide range of styles with which to show off their vocal and dramatic prowess. Naturally, the evening had to end with the standard duets the ladies made famous, and as they wailed out Who Will Love Me As I Am and I Will Never Leave You from Side Show.
Sunday, October 21st – Broadway Originals!
Recreating original performances from shows and revivals. Featuring Terri Klausner (Sophisticated Ladies), Beth Fowler (Beauty and the Beast), Helen Gallagher (Hazel Flagg), Nancy Dussault (Do Re Mi), Shelia Smith (Sugar), Stephen Bogardus (Falsettos), Christiane Noll (Jekyll & Hyde), Melissa Errico (1993 revival of My Fair Lady), Malcolm Gets (Amour), Lari White (Ring of Fire), Liz Larsen ('92 revival of The Most Happy Fella), Mary Testa (Marie Christine), Marvin Vindnovic (Oklahoma – ‘79 revival), Cheyenne Jackson (All Shook Up), Debbie Gravitte (Jerome Robbins’ Broadway), Beth Fowler, Liz Callaway and Catherine Cox (Baby), Kevin Chamberlin and Anthony Hall (Seussical), Nancy Lemenager and Noah Racey (Never Gonna Dance), Joanna Gleason and Chip Zien (Into The Woods) and Willy Falk (Marilyn: An American Fable). Directed by Dan Foster.
First Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival
The festival opened on Friday, October 21st at 8 pm, when the music of Kander & Ebb was performed by Nancy Anderson, Bryan Batt, Brent Barrett, Jarrod Cafaro, Belle Calaway, Jim Caruso, Scott Coulter, Cheyenne Jackson, Sharon Mcnight, Rachelle Rak, Billy Stritch, Michael Winther and Rachel York in Life Is A Cabaret: A Tribute to Kander & Ebb. Variety said that the evening "...captured the essence of all that fun, all that fervor and all that jazz with considerable distinction."
On Saturday, October 22nd at 8 pm, Broadway's generation gap was closed and history made when two pop/rock stars of the contemporary stage brought the musical theatre past into the present. The two new stars that made their Town Hall solo concert debuts where the Tony-nominated star of Taboo, Euan Morton and the electrifying star of Brooklyn: The Musical, Eden Espinosa.
On Sunday, October 23rd at 3 pm, history was made again on the stage in the form of Broadway Originals! A glittering array of theatre stars were assembled with the express purpose of singing the songs that they performed in their original Broadway productions. More than forty years of Broadway history was on glorious display when the actors from the original casts of more than twenty different shows sing the songs that thrilled five decades of theatergoers. Among the more than twenty great stars that performed were Karen Akers (Nine), Liz Callaway (Baby), Chuck Cooper (The Life), Penny Fuller (Applause), Randy Graff (A Class Act), Mary Louise (David Merrick's All Black Hello Dolly!), Priscilla Lopez (A Chorus Line), Jack Noseworthy (Sweet Smell of Success), Evan Pappas (My Favorite Year), Austin Pendeleton (Fiddler on the Roof), Alice Playten (Henry, Sweet Henry), Jimmy Randolph (David Merrick's All Black Guys & Dolls), Lee Roy Reams (42nd Street), Sarah Rice (Sweeney Todd), Pat Suzuki (Flower Drum Song), Jim Walton (Merrily We Roll Along), Walter Willison (Two by Two) and Rachel York. Directed by Dan Foster.