Paul Alexander Nolan, Chilina Kennedy & More to Star in NORTHERN EXPOSURE at 54 Below

54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, will present "Northern Exposure" on Sunday, February 5, 2023 at 7:00PM.

Broadway's biggest stars showcase the best of Canadian Musical Theatre! Discover new works created by our neighbors to the north, interpreted by an exciting mix of Broadway veterans and New York newcomers: Paul Alexander Nolan (Slave Play, Jesus Christ Superstar), Samantha Williams (Caroline, or Change; Dear Evan Hansen), Bryonha Marie (Prince of Broadway, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess), Chilina Kennedy (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Evan Alexander Smith (Merrily We Roll Along, Little Shop of Horrors), Lauryn Alexandria, Chelsea Williams, Joel Cumber (Tweed & Company Theatre's Ride The Cyclone), Alessandro Costantini (Dear Evan Hansen US National Tour), Anika Johnson (Writer: Dr. Silver a Celebration of Life, Performer: CorpusDance Projects), Izad Etemadi (Grow, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds), and more! Additional performances by composers and writers, Dora Award-winning Britta Johnson (Life After, Brantwood), and Colleen Dauncey (Grow, with Akiva Romer-Segal and Matt Murray) all combine for an extraordinary evening you won't want to miss!

There is a $45-55 cover charge ($51-62 with fees) and $25 food and beverage minimum. Tickets and information are available at www.54Below.com. Tickets on the day of performance after 4:00pm are only available by calling (646) 476-3551.

MORE ABOUT ARTISTS

Paul Alexander Nolan

is originally from Canada, where much of his career has been spent as a company member of the Stratford Festival. Since moving to New York he's led seven Broadway productions including Jesus Christ Superstar; Once; Doctor Zhivago; Bright Star; Chicago; Escape to Margaritaville and Slave Play. He originated the role of Jim in Slave Play at NYTW, on Broadway and at The Taper in Los Angeles. TV credits include "The Code," "Madam Secretary," and "Instinct" for CBS. Paul is currently collaborating on a concept album about isolation entitled T+L.

Samantha Williams

A Texas native, Samantha Williams made her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning hit musical Dear Evan Hansen as Alanna. She then went on to capture hearts as the spirited Emmie in the Tony Award-winning and Grammy-nominated Broadway revival of Caroline, or Change. Recently, she starred in the titular role of Alice in Life After at the Goodman Theater, earning her rave reviews. Additional credits include Pirates of Penzance (Mabel). Updates can be found at @sawmie.

Bryonha Marie

Broadway: Prince of Broadway; After Midnight; The Book of Mormon; The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess (Tony Award-Winning Best Revival); Ragtime. Off Broadway/NY: A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet (Regina Comet), Promenade (Servant); Candide (Paquette); NY Philharmonic's Showboat and Sweeney Todd (Beggar Woman); Ragtime @ Lincoln Center; National Tours: Falsettos (Dr. Charlotte). Concert: New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, San Diego Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Kansas City Symphony. Regional: Life After (Goodman-Jeff Award Nom), DAVE (Arena Stage-Helen Hayes Nom), The Sound of Music (MUNY), The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess (ART); Ragtime (Kennedy Center); Civil War (Networks); HAIR (Sacramento Music Circus); Dreamgirls (NSMT), Little Shop of Horrors (BTG), and many more! Television: SpongeBob Musical LIVE; "Madame Secretary;" Showboat and Sweeney Todd LIVE @ Lincoln Center for PBS (Emmy); 66th/68th Annual Tony Awards; "The Today Show." Twitter/Instagram: @BryonhaMarie

Chilina Kennedy

is known for playing Carole King in the musical Beautiful on Broadway for over 1,200 performances. She also recently originated the Tony Award-winning role of Dina on the First Broadway National Tour of The Band's Visit. Chilina's first appearance on Broadway was in 2012 when she played Mary Magdalene in Des McAnuff's Jesus Christ Superstar, which also had successful runs at the Stratford Festival of Canada and the La Jolla Playhouse. Other US credits include the world premiere of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, in which she originated the role of Phoebe at Hartford Stage and The Old Globe in San Diego (San Diego and Connecticut Outer Critics nominations), the world premiere of A Sign Of The Times as Cindy (Delaware Theatre Company), Binky in the Off-Broadway world premiere of This Ain't No Disco (Dir. Darko Tresnjak/Chor. Camille A. Brown) and Sophie in the 1st US National Tour of Mamma Mia!. Selected Canadian credits include the title role in Ted Dykstra's Evangeline (Charlottetown Festival and original recording), the title role in Ross Petty's Pantomime The Little Mermaid (Toronto Critic's Award), three seasons at the Stratford Festival (three Broadways World Awards) including Maria in Gary Griffin's West Side Story, Eva Peròn in Evita, Lois Lane in Kiss Me Kate, three seasons at the Shaw Festival, the World Premiere of The Lord of the Rings (Mirvish), Philia in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (Stratford/Toronto), Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest (Neptune) and the title role in Mary Poppins (Theatre Aquarius).

Evan Alexander Smith

Currently in Merrily We Roll Along at New York Theatre Workshop. Broadway: Amazing Grace. Off-Broadway: Little Shop of Horrors. National Tours: The Play That Goes Wrong, Dirty Dancing. Canada: The Toxic Avenger (Title role, Dora Award nomination), two seasons at the prestigious Shaw Festival. Selected Regional: Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse, Drury Lane Theatre, and Bucks County Playhouse. More at www.EvanAlexanderSmith.com. @IamEvanSmith

Lauryn Alexandria

54 Below debut! Past credits include Life After at The Goodman Theatre, Dorothy in The Wiz and The Pirates of Penzance (University of Michigan). Awards: US Presidential Scholar in the Arts & Congressional Black Caucus Performing Arts Award performing for Obama & Hilary Clinton. IG @laurynwiththe_Y

Chelsea Williams

recently played a Fury in Britta Johnson's Life After at The Goodman Theatre. Broadway: In Transit, Mamma Mia!. National Tours: Jesus Christ Superstar, White Christmas, Mamma Mia! (Sophie). Select Regional: Maine State Music Theatre, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Casa Mañana, Gloucester Stage. BFA Emerson College.

Joel Cumber

Named as "15 artists to watch at the 2019 Toronto Fringe." Past credits include: Ride The Cyclone (Tweed Company), The Adventures of Pinocchio (Young People's Theatre), One Small Step (Yonge Street Theatricals), Freaky Friday (Theatre Aquarius); Urinetown (The Musical) In Concert (TMC Productions); Every Silver Lining (Toronto Fringe); The Little Mermaid, Fiddler on the Roof (Capitol Theatre Port Hope); and Rumspringa Break! (Next Stage Festival), for which he received the 2018 Broadway World Toronto Award for Breakthrough Performance. Joel is a graduate of the Sheridan College Music Theatre Performance. @CoelJumber

Alessandro Costantini

was born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario. He is a graduate of the George Brown Theatre school-2014. He is the Artistic Director of YES Theatre, based out of Sudbury, ON. He has worked both in film and television as well as Theatre. He now lives in Toronto where he works as an actor and director. Travelling to and from Sudbury while continuing his work with YES. Recent credits include: Dear Evan Hansen (US National Tour), Merrily We Roll Along (YES Theatre).

Anika Johnson

is an award-winning Toronto composer and performer, she originated the role of Alice and served as dramaturg for Life After at Canadian Stage and San Diego's Old Globe. Writing credits include Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life (Outside the March/The Musical Stage Company/Pacific Playwright's Festival); Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang (YPT) and Blood Ties (from BBC America's Orphan Black). Upcoming projects include commissions from the Stratford Festival and Crow's Theatre and two musical feature films in development. Anika tours internationally as a performer with Corpus DanceProjects and Wannabe: A Spice Girls Tribute.

Izad Etemadi

Born in Germany and raised in Victoria, BC, Izad Etemadi is a graduate of the Canadian College of Performing Arts and the inaugural musical theatre training program at the Banff Centre for the Arts. After relocating to Toronto, he won the Emerging Queer Artist award from Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in 2017. Represented by the Characters Talent Agency, he plays Simon on Overlord and The Underwoods (CBC/Nickelodeon), and Kevon on Revenge of the Black Best Friend (CBC). Other on-screen performances include Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+), Odd Squad (PBS Kids), Bajillionaires (Family Channel), and TallBoyz (CBC), as well as several national commercial campaigns. He was a resident of the 2021/2022 CBC Actors Conservatory at the Canadian Film Centre.

On stage, he has performed in several musicals and plays across Canada and the UK. In 2018, he played Pirelli in the Talk Is Free Theatre production of Sweeney Todd in London, England. Most recently, he originated the role of Samuel in the new Canadian musical Grow (from the producers of Come From Away). Since 2014, Izad has written and starred in several solo comedy shows that have sold out across the country and earned Izad awards including the 2016 Broadway World award for Best Independent Production. As a writer, he is working on shows in development and production with Shaftesbury Kids, Wilbrain, and Border2Border Entertainment. His new comedy special Say My Name is being developed in residency with Green Light Arts. Izad's work uses comedy to explore issues of queer identity, immigration, body image, and the terrors of being a millennial.

Britta Johnson

is a writer, composer and lyricist based in Toronto. She made her American debut when Life After opened at The Old Globe in San Diego in 2019 following an extended, multiple Dora award-winning run with the Musical Stage Company and Canadian Stage in Toronto. Her other writing credits include: With her sister Anika Johnson: Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life (Outside the March/MSC, Dora nomination), Brantwood (Theatre Sheridan, Dora Award), Jacob Two-Two (YTP, Dora nomination), Trap Door (Theatre Sheridan). With Sara Farb: Kelly v. Kelly (MSC/Canadian Stage; winner of the Playwright's Guild of Canada best new musical award), Reframed (MSC/Art Gallery of Ontario, Dora nomination). With Katherine Cullen: Stupidhead! (Dora nomination). She was the librettist for choreographer Robert Binet's adaptation of The Kreutzer Sonata with Ballet Moscow and was the inaugural Crescendo Artist with Toronto's Musical Stage Company which included a commitment to produce three of her shows in three years.

Colleen Dauncey & Akiva Romer-Segal

are a contemporary musical theatre songwriting duo that penned the scores to Going Under, Bremen Rock City, The Louder We Get and GROW. The latter received workshop presentations at Sheridan College's Canadian Musical Theatre Project, the Next Stage Theatre Festival (Toronto, ON), and the Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals (East Haddam, CT) before its recent premiece at the Grand Theatre in London, ON. The Louder We Get was most recently directed by Lonny Price at Theatre Calgary, after receiving the New Musical Award from the Playwrights Guild of Canada and workshop presentations at the NAMT Festival of New Musicals (NYC) and The Other Palace (London, UK). Colleen & Akiva are grateful alumni of the Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project in Chicago, Cutting-Edge Composers in NYC, and Musical Stage Company's Launch Pad, Noteworthy, Make Me a Song and One Song Glory programs. For more, visit www.colleenandakiva.com. Colleen is also a multi-instrumentalist and live-looping artist who has grown a large and dedicated audience on the popular live-streaming platform Twitch, where she performs several times a week: www.twitch.tv/colleendaunceymusic. Akiva recently adapted the musical April Fools for its North American premiere this past spring at the Segal Centre in Montreal.

Matt Murray

is a Toronto-based musical theatre book writer, playwright and lyricist. Musical credits include: Grow - book writer (collaboration with Colleen Dauncey and Akiva Romer-Segal). Grow premiered at London's Grand Theatre in 2022 and was workshopped as part of the Canadian Music Theatre Project (2016, 2019). Grow was also part of Goodspeed's 2020 Festival of New Musicals. Maggie - co-book, co-music and co-lyric (collaboration with acclaimed recording artist Johnny Reid). Maggie received a 2017 workshop production in association with the Canadian Music Theatre Project and will receive its world premiere at Theatre Aquarius in April 2023. Matt also worked as book writer on Going Under, another collaboration with Colleen Dauncey and Akiva Romer-Segal. Matt has written six Ross Petty Pantos - Lil' Red Robin Hood, The Wizard of Oz and A Christmas Carol and Peter's Final Flight!, all at Toronto's Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres, as well as two digital productions, There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays and Alice in Winterland. A Christmas Carol was recorded for broadcast by CBC/Family Channel. Plays include: Myth Of The Ostrich was first presented at the Toronto Fringe Festival, followed by the Next Stage Theatre Festival, and then received its world premiere in 2016 at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Remember, Maggy? (collaboration with Carol Anne Murray) and Chronicles Of Sarnia. Other: Cellblock Tango Reimaged (EveryBody Onstage, Musicals Re:Imagined).

Michael Rubinoff

(Producer). A Toronto-based Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated producer who conceived the longest running Canadian musical on Broadway Come From Away. In 2011 he established the Canadian Music Theatre Project (CMTP), an international incubator for the development of new musicals, where he produced and developed the first workshops of Come From Away and 29 other musicals. In 2019 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General of Canada for his role in creating the show. He is currently represented as producer and creative consultant on Come From Away in London's West End and on tour across Australia and North America. Upcoming: the American premiere of Matt Murray, Colleen Dauncey and Akiva Romer-Segal's Grow and the world premiere of Johnny Reid and Matt Murray's Maggie. A
proud graduate of Western Law. Social @mrubinoff

Yonge Street Theatricals

(Producer). Yonge Street Theatricals is a Tony and Olivier Award-winning production company led by Linda Barnett and Natalie Bartello. The duo have been working together on new musical development at the grassroots level for 15 years. They develop original musicals and support and nurture exceptional works from the earliest stages. At the heart of their mission they strive to collaborate with the most exciting and engaging theatre professionals with an eye for shows that appeal to a wide audience. Broadway credits include; Come From Away, Diana, A Strange Loop and opening in April 2023, Good Night, Oscar starring Sean Hayes. In development; Life After (Multiple Dora Award Winner including Best Musical, San Diego Critics Circle Award Winner, Jeff Award nominee); Pollyanna (Canadian premiere upcoming December 2023).

MORE ABOUT 54 BELOW

54 Below was founded as a place for the Broadway community to celebrate Broadway performers, both established and new, who sing not only the music of Broadway and the Great American Songbook, but also new material intended for Broadway and off-Broadway stages. The club features fine dining and superb scenic, lighting, and sound designs entirely imagined by Broadway designers. For performers, writers, musicians, and more, 54 Below gives opportunities to advance their craft, expand their repertoires, and develop their voices in a way that is more personal, making them stronger as artists. It gives Broadway fans an opportunity to see their favorite artists in a different way, deepening their relationship and understanding of their talent.

A recipient of the 2022 TONY AWARDS® Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, 54 Below celebrates Broadway musicals and writers of the past and present, promoting an ongoing engagement with their work. It is also a place for innovation in musical songwriting and performance. Collaborations born at 54 Below give rise to and help develop new theatrical projects and new musicals. In addition, its popular streaming video activities and audio recordings support these activities, helping to build a new Broadway audience worldwide, both in age and geography.

54 Below is one of the most in-demand performance venues in the city, presenting over 700 shows each year. Unique in its mission, it has become an indispensable member of the Broadway ecosystem, providing a place for seasoned and emerging artists to hone their craft, try out new work, grow their fanbases, and gather as a community. The management team includes Proprietors and nine-time Tony Award® winning Broadway producers Steve Baruch, Richard Frankel, and Tom Viertel, Creative and Programming Director Jennifer Ashley Tepper, and restaurant General Manager Mandisa Boxill.

Located at 254 West 54th Street, the club presents live shows at 7pm and 9:30pm. Tickets and information at 54below.com.

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