Kaufman Music Center’s Broadway Close Up series will offer three concerts celebrating musical theatre, all hosted by Sean Hartley at Merkin Hall in Manhattan.
The series will kick off October 23 at 7:30 PM with Jukebox: The Musical. Directed by Parker Esse with music direction by Nate Patten, the evening will feature tunes from such jukebox musicals as Jersey Boys, Jagged Little Pill, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Ain’t Misbehavin’, A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical, Moulin Rouge!, and The Cher Show. Performers will include A.J. Shively, Allison Blackwell, Nick Cearley, Elena Ricardo, and Gabrielle Stravelli.
Party at the Princes, celebrating late Tony-winning producer and director Harold Prince, will be presented November 13 at 7:30 PM. The evening will feature songs by the many theatre luminaries Prince worked with, including Stephen Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Bock and Harnick, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Attendees can expect to hear tunes from Fiddler on the Roof, The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, West Side Story, and Parade, performed by Kate Baldwin, Nikki Renée Daniels, Lora Lee Gayer, Jason Gotay, Isabel Keating, Jason Robinson, Nicholas Rodriguez, Kirsten Scott, Matthew Scott, Gabrielle Stravelli, Sally Wilfert, Michael Winther, and Alysha Umphress. Evan Rees is the music director.
The series will conclude December 4 at 7:30 PM with The Writers’ Room, spotlighting a group of young writers who met in the BMI Workshop and went on to influence Broadway. Expect to hear songs written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Avenue Q, Book of Mormon, Frozen), Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt (Next to Normal, If/Then), and Amanda Green (Hands on a Hardbody, Mr. Saturday Night). Cynthia Meng will be the music director for the evening, which is set to feature Jay Armstrong Johnson and more.
A three-concert subscription is available for $155; single tickets are $65. Visit KaufmanMusicCenter.org.
