John Lloyd Young, Max Von Essen and More to Take Part in Virtual Concert to Honor the Town of Garner

More than a dozen Broadway performers, and special guest Voices of Service, are participating in a virtual concert to honor the Town of Garner during Independence Day celebrations.

Tim Stevens produced Show N Tell Ministry's A Broadway Fourth, which will be available on July 1 on Show N Tell Ministry's YouTube page.

The concert includes leading actors from shows such as Les Misérables, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Rent, Lion King, Wicked, Book of Mormon, Ragtime, Tootsie, Porgy & Bess, Aladdin, An American in Paris, Jekyll & Hyde and Jersey Boys.

Voices of Service gained national attention while competing on America's Got Talent. They finished fifth in AGT in 2019 and were invited back for the champions event. The group consists of retired U.S. Army Master Sgt. Caleb Green, retired U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Ron Henry, U.S. Army Sgt. Major Christal Rheams and U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jason Hannan.

The group came together the Center for American Military Music Opportunities. They sing to highlight military veterans, active duty personnel and veteran affairs.

"As Voices of Service, we decided to come to 'America's Got Talent' because we wanted to spread this message to as many people as possible," Rheams, an active duty member of the U.S. Army who graduated from Enloe High School in Raleigh and attended UNC-Chapel Hill, told The News & Observer's Brooke Cain.

After Voices of Service's performance, AGT judge Heidi Klum said, "Your voices are weapons - weapons of inspiration, weapons of hope. Thank you very much for your service and for being here one more time."

But, most of the 45-minute show centers around Broadway.

Mark Vogel, an arranger, conductor, accompanist, and record producer, is the host of the show and teamed with David Burnham (Wicked and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) on three songs.

Vogel also produced a 35-singer version of "Put A Little Love in Your Heart" that is in the concert.

The performers sent material from all over the country, ranging from Wilmington, N.C., to Los Angeles.

The lineup includes John Lloyd Young, who won a Tony Award for his performance in Jersey Boys and starred in the Clint Eastwood-directed movie of the same name. Max von Essen was a Tony nominee for An American in Paris.

Craig Schulman is the only actor to ever perform Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, Phantom in Phantom of the Opera and the title roles in Jekyll & Hyde.

Jeff Kready (Les Misérables, Tootsie, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder) and wife Nikki Renee Daniels (Porgy & Bess, Les Misérables) included their entire family in the video they made for the show.

Garner's Manley Pope was a star in Rent and owns several other Broadway and television credits. He is joined by John Arthur Greene, who also grew up in Garner; Adam Jacobs, Broadway's original Aladdin; Ron Bohmer, in Ragtime, Les Misérables, The Scarlett Pimpernel, Book of Mormon and several other Broadway or touring shows; and others.

The idea of the virtual concert started when it became apparent that the Town of Garner would not be able to have its annual July 3rd concert at Lake Benson Park, Stevens contacted the town to see if the town was interested in a virtual Broadway concert. He had done a video when the town's Memorial Day event was cancelled earlier this year.

The town eventually decided to feature hometown talent in its Homegrown Concert, which will debut on July 3rd. Stevens gave the town some of the material that he had collected, including a performance by Scotty McCreery.

Stevens still had enough material for another full show.

"We won't have the North Carolina Symphony and fireworks, but our community will be able to get close to two hours of entertainment made especially for us," Stevens said.