Seth Rudetsky Will Bring DREAMGIRLS Concert To Café Carlyle This Month

Seth Rudetsky is coming back to Café Carlyle for Black History Month and celebrating the musical Dreamgirls. Seth has been a super fan of the show and, in 2001, he mounted a concert version on Broadway that raised $1,000,000 for the Actors Fund.

The entire concert was recorded and released on a double CD by Nonesuch records. Seth will host and be the pianist for an evening full of inside stories about this groundbreaking musical and four incredible performers will join him, giving their personal Dreamgirls stories and performing the biggest hit songs from the show.

Joining Seth will be the incredible Sharon Catherine Brown who was cast in the pivotal role of Effie White by the original creative team, including director/choreographer Michael Bennett and co-choreographer Michael Peters. Sharon toured across the country as Effie and brought down the house eight times a week with her heart-wrenching and roof-raising version of "And I Am Telling You" which she will (of course) be performing at the Café Carlyle (amongst many other songs!). Sharon also broke color barriers on Broadway by replacing Laurie Beechman on Broadway as the narrator in Joseph And The Amazing Techinicolor Dreamcoat as well as taking the over the role of Lucy, created by Linda Eder, in Broadway's Jekyll And Hyde.

Darius de Haas is a veteran of many Broadway shows (including the original Broadway run of Rent) and he is currently known as the voice of Shy Baldwin on the hit show "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel". However, in 2001, he starred as C.C. White in Seth's concert version of Dreamgirls opposite Audra McDonald, Lillias White and Heather Headley. Darius will be performing numerous Dreamgirls songs at the Café Carlyle including his beautiful rendition of "Family" which was a highlight of the evening because of the poignance it had during the Dreamgirls concert which took place only 13 days after the attacks of 9/11.
Natalie Wachen starred as Mimi in Rent in NYC but she also played both Deena and Lorrell in various productions of Dreamgirls. At the Café Carlyle, Natalie be performing songs as Deena, Lorrell AND Michelle! We call that #versatility!

And finally, Tony nominee Lilli Cooper will round out the incredible cast of singers. Though she starred on Broadway in Tootsie, Spring Awakenin and Wicked, she has never done a production of Dreamgirl. However, she is a superfan of the show and, when Seth asked her to join, she jumped at the chance to finally perform various numbers from one of her all-time favorites musicals!

On Monday, February 20th, not only will there be classic Dreamgirls solos like "One Night Only" and "I Am Changing" there will also be trios like "Move", quartets like "Fake Your Way To The Top" as well as full-out group numbers with multiple characters like the classic fight scene at the End of Act One, immortalized at the 1982 Tony Awards!

Check out a video from rehearsal below!