FLASH FRIDAY: Raul Rocks Out

In this super special edition installment of FLASH FRIDAY, we are taking a look at this weekend's featured performer on BroadwayWorld, the incandescent star of stage and screen, known for his roles in everything from Shakespeare to Sondheim to Pinter and Mamet, the one and only Raul Esparza. We have some of his personally chosen favorite moments from his career, as well as some highlights from his phoenix-like rise to the very top of Broadway. Sondheim and SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE to "There's A Sucker Born Every Minute", TABOO, CAROUSEL and more, this column is a perfect compliment to the exhaustive, 10,000 word interview with Raul Esparza, his most comprehensive interview to date, available only on BroadwayWorld. Also, we even have a preview of what we can expect in his upcoming emceeing duties and performance at this year's ASTEP CHRSTMAS IN NEW YORK benefit, with his inimitable performance of "O Holy Night", which is available in pristine audio form on the stupendous album on Sh-K-Boom.

Holy Nights

First, take a look at Raul Esparza's sensual and sensitive bossa nova take on "O Holy Night" from the first annual ASTEP CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK benefit.

Next, we have a clip from a LEADING MEN concert, singing the jaunty Cy Coleman ditty "There's A Sucker Born Every Minute" from BARNUM.

As if there is any way to follow that up except with another showstopper, here we have one of the first male versions of the famous WICKED anthem "Defying Gravity" done as only Raul can do it.

Perhaps Esparza's most striking and unforgettable performance to date - in a series of them - comes with his George in the Kennedy Center production of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE directed by Eric Schaeffer. It is near-impossibly not to be moved - and moved to tears - with a performance this stupendous.

If one Sondheim selection just isn't enough to satiate you, we have an assortment of clips coming up next which are solid proof of his versatility and strength in performing any number of roles - Sondheim, Shakespeare or otherwise.

First up is his Charley in MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG from the Kennedy Center, singing "Franklin Shepard Inc". BEWARE: Strong language.

Next, we have Esparza's "Marry Me A Little" from the John Doyle revival of COMPANY.

Here is another sample of COMPANY, with Raul's spine-tingling performance of the beloved Sondheim anthem "Being Alive" at the 2007 Tony Awards.

Last, in the Sondheim sequence, we have Esparza's most recent Sondheim stage role - that of Hapgood in ANYONE CAN WHISTLE at Encores! - singing the very tricky "Everybody Says Don't", made famous by Barbra Streisand.

https://www.youtube.com/embed?v=ItIr83niyOc

Finally, we bring our look at the ten-year journey from featured player to leading man so unique to Raul Esparza's idiosyncratic career to a close with this clip from his Broadway debut, leading the 2000 revival cast of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW on THE Rosie O'Donnell SHOW in an absolutely electric, throat-shredding iteration of "The Time Warp".

As a special bonus, check out Raul's next collaboration with Rosie O'Donnell, in his first Tony-nominated role, in TABOO, with a song he actually never sang in the show - "Talk Amongst Yourselves", which is Rosie's personal favorite song from the score.

Here's Raul's (and mine). "Petrified". WARNING: Contains violent content.

That's all for this week. Please remember that if you have discovered a particularly thrilling, unique, bizarre or hilarious Broadway-related clip to please send us a line at the link below. Until next week...