Ahrens & Flaherty, Christy Altomare and More to Join JAMIE DEROY & FRIENDS

Show business tour de force and eight-time Tony Award-winning producer Jamie deRoy will bring her acclaimed Jamie deRoy & friends cabaret show to New York's famed Birdland, Monday, December 6th, at 7:00 p.m.

Performers who light up the marquees of cabaret, theatre, music and comedy will join Ms. deRoy. The one-night only show is part of the club's Broadway at Birdland Concert Series. Birdland is at 315 West 44th Street in New York's theatre district.

Proceeds from the event, produced by Ms. deRoy, will benefit The Actors Fund: Jamie deRoy & friends Cabaret Initiative which assists those in the cabaret industry who have medical needs and concerns. The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs honored her with a MAC Award for her many shows that have benefited her signature initiative. The Jamie deRoy & friendscabaret series has been attracting New York audiences for over 30 years.

Ms. deRoy will host the show and welcome special guests:

Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty are considered the foremost theatrical writing team of their generation. They won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Ragtime, and were nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes for Twentieth Century Fox's animated feature film, Anastasia, which they also adapted for Broadway. Their many mutual theatre credits include Once On This Island (2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical); Seussical (one of the most produced shows in America); Rocky; My Favorite Year; Chita Rivera- The Dancer's Life; A Man of No Importance; Dessa Rose; The Glorious Ones; Lucky Stiff and two upcoming shows, Knoxville and Little Dancer. They are four-time Grammy nominees, and serve on Council for the Dramatists Guild of America, where they co-founded the DGF Fellows Program for Emerging Writers. In 2014 they were awarded the Oscar Hammerstein Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2015 they were inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

Jelani Alladin a Brownsville, Brooklyn native, is an actor of stage and screen. He was last on stage as Hercules in Public Work's Musical Adaptation of Disney's Hercules. In 2018 he made his Broadway Debut in Frozen the Musical as Kristoff which earned him a Drama Desk nomination for Best Leading Actor and a Drama League nomination for Distinguished Performance. Most recently Jelani starred as Will Campbell in The Walking Dead: The World Beyond (AMC). Jelani is a graduate of the inaugural class of Tisch School of the Arts' New Studio on Broadway and A Better Chance alumni. Jelani received the San Francisco Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Leading Actor In A Play for his work as Pharus in Choir Boy (Marin Theatre Co.). Other TV and Film credits include: FBI (CBS), Law and Order: SVU (NBC), Respect, and Tick, Tick...Boom!

Christy Altomare originated the leading role of Anya in the Broadway production of Anastasia for which she received the Theatre World Award and was nominated for an Outer Critics Award and a Drama Desk Award for lead actress in a musical. She made her Broadway debut playing the role of Sophie Sheridan in Mamma Mia!. Off-Broadway, Christy portrayed the role of Sue Snell in MCC's revival of Carrie the Musical. Christy can be heard in the cast recordings of both Anastasia and Carrie. She toured the country in the first national tour of Spring Awakening, playing the role of Wendla Bergman. Regional credits include Jerusha Abbott in John Caird and Paul Gordon's production of Daddy Long Legs, Guinevere in Camelot at Drury Lane in Chicago, and most recently, Nellie Forbush in South Pacific at the Aspen Music festival. Christy is a graduate of the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. Along with her passion for musical theater, she is a songwriter/recording artist, who currently released her new album of original music called Wandering Bird.

Ali Ewoldt has appeared as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, Cosette in Les Miserables (Broadway, National Tour), The King and I (Broadway, Lyric Opera of Chicago), Maria in West Side Story (National Tour, International Tour) and Luisa in The Fantasticks (Off-Broadway). She has also played Philia in A Funny Thing... (The Muny), Fan in A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theatre), Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls (Sacramento Music Circus) and Martha Jefferson in 1776 (The Muny). Ali's concert/symphony work includes: Feinstein's/54 Below, Tokyo's Theatre Orb, Canyon Ranch, Alice Tully Hall, The Town Hall, NY Pops at Carnegie Hall, American Pops Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Kaohsiung Symphony and The Boston Pops with Maestro Keith Lockhart. Her TV/Film credits include The Michael J. Fox Show, Yield, Mia and The Cactus. Ali has a BA in psychology from Yale University and is a proud Filipina-American.

Cassondra James No newcomer to the world of entertainment, Cassondra's colorful career includes stints as a background singer for some of music's most award-winning artists like Alicia Keys, Andra Day, Angelique Kidjo, Christina Aguilera, Cory Henry, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Burrell, and Ledisi. In 2017 Cassondra made her Broadway debut as an original story teller and flutist in the Tony-award winning revival of Once On This Island; she later replaced Michelle Williams as Erzulie, the Goddess of Love. She continued as Erzulie on the First National Tour of Once On This Island until the onset of the global Coronavirus pandemic. She is thrilled to be able to share space and make art again!

Mauricio Martinez is a Mexican Emmy Winning actor and recording artist whose body of work spans film, television, albums, concerts, plays and musicals. He starred as Emilio Estefan in On Your Feet! The Story Of Emilio & Gloria Estefan on Broadway as well as in the first National Tour. He can be seen in NBC Universal's original Emmy Winning TV series "El Vato" on Netflix. In 2020 he starred in the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical memoir Unmasked at Paper Mill Playhouse. In 2021 he returned to stage starring in Rodgers & Hammerstein's A Grand Night For Singing at the Goodspeed Opera House. Mauricio's television credits include multiple Telenovela's on Univision and Telemundo like Señora Acero and La Mujer Del Vendaval as well as the 40th Annual Kennedy Honors on CBS and The 2019 Gershwin Prize on PBS. Mauricio has released two Latin pop albums available on iTunes and is currently working on his first english album with Broadway Records.

Donna McKechnie received the Tony Award for her performance in A Chorus Line. Other Broadway shows include How To Succeed..., The Education of Hyman Kaplan, Sondheim-A Musical Tribute, (which she also choreographed) On The Town,Promises, Promises, Company, and State Fair, for which she received the Fred Astaire Award. She has starred in numerous productions in London's West End as well as Paris and Tokyo. Donna has also guest starred extensively with Symphony Orchestras throughout the country, as well as on television and in film. Ms. McKechnie's memoir, TIMESTEPS-My Musical Comedy Life, was published by Simon and Schuster.

Composer, Book Writer and Lyricist Barry Kleinbort directs Ms. deRoy's December 6th show with musical direction by award-winning arranger, orchestrator and conductor, Ron Abel with Ritt Henn on Bass and Ray Marchica on Drums.

Ms. deRoy is an acclaimed producer; cabaret, stage, film and TV performer; recording artist and humanitarian. In addition to Tony Awards, she has won eight MAC Awards, four Back Stage Bistro Awards and 11 Telly Awards for her extensive work on stage and screen. She has appeared on stage with luminaries like Joan Rivers and has headlined at many New York nightclubs. Ms. deRoy has produced nine CDs in the Jamie deRoy & friends series, all of which are available on Harbinger and PS Classics labels. Her cabaret shows serve as the basis for her award-winning cable television show which spotlights well-known entertainers and newcomers.

For more information visit: https://birdlandjazz.com/event/jamie-deroy-friends/

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