BANDSTAND's Laura Osnes Returns to Cafe Carlyle with 'COCKEYED OPTIMISTS' Tonight

Two-time Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes makes her return to Café Carlyle with Tony and Drama Desk Award winner Ted Sperling and special guest, two-time Drama Desk nominee Ryan Silverman in Cockeyed Optimists: The World of Rodgers and Hammerstein, tonight, September 26, through September 30.

Previously, Ted Sperling served as musical director for South Pacific when Laura Osnes starred as Nellie Forbush. They have performed together around the U.S. including a recent concert with the New York Philharmonic. Laura Osnes and Ryan Silverman starred together in a recent workshop of the Broadway-aimed musical, Somewhere in Time. Additionally, Ryan Silverman has performed several times with Ted as a guest of the Westchester Symphony for which Ted Sperling is musical director and She Loves Me at Caramoor for which Ted was also musical director.

Performances will take place Tuesday - Friday at 8:45pm; Saturdays at 8:45pm & 10:45pm. Weekday pricing begins at $75 per person / Bar Seating: $50 / Premium Seating: $125. Weekend pricing begins at $95 per person / Bar Seating: $70 / Premium Seating: $145. Reservations can be made by phone at 212.744.1600 or online via Ticketweb. Café Carlyle is located in The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel (35 East 76th Street, at Madison Avenue). Follow Café Carlyle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Laura Osnes is currently starring on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical Bandstand (Drama Desk, Drama League nominations). Other Broadway: Cinderella in Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella (Drama Desk Award; Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Astaire nominations), Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (Tony Award nomination), after creating the role at Asolo Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award), Hope Harcourt in the Tony Award winning revival of Anything Goes (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Award nominations), Nellie Forbush in Lincoln Center Theater's production of South Pacific, and Sandy in the most recent revival of Grease. Other New York/regional credits include The Blueprint Specials, The Threepenny Opera (Drama Desk Award nomination) at the Atlantic Theater Company; City Center Encores! productions of The Band Wagon, Randy Newman's Faust, and Pipe Dream; The Sound of Music in concert at Carnegie Hall; Carousel opposite Steven Pasquale at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Broadway: Three Generations at the Kennedy Center. On television, she has been seen on the CBS series "Elementary",in the HBO pilot "The Miraculous Year", Sondheim: The Birthday Concert at Avery Fisher Hall, HBO's documentary Six By Sondheim, and the Kennedy Center Honors salutes to Barbara Cook (2011) and Dustin Hoffman (2012). Her many concerts and cabarets include performing with Michael Feinstein, the New York Philharmonic, The New York Pops, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, The Boston Pops, The San Francisco Symphony, The National Symphony Orchestra, as well as appearing in such venues as Carnegie Hall, The Café Carlyle, 54 Below, Lincoln Center, NJPAC, The Smith Center in Las Vegas, and MN Orchestra Hall. In addition to being heard on several cast recordings, Laura has two solo albums, Dream A Little Dream: Live at The Café Carlyle and If I Tell You: The Songs of Maury Yeston.

Ted Sperling is artistic director of MasterVoices and principal conductor of the Westchester Philharmonic. He won Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his orchestrations of The Light in the Piazza, for which he was also music director. Broadway credits include rapturously received revivals of Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, and South Pacific; Guys and Dolls, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, My Favorite Year, and Sunday in the Park with George. Off-Broadway credits include A Man of No Importance, A New Brain, Saturn Returns, and Floyd Collins. Opera work includes Dido and Aeneas with Kelli O'Hara, La Voix Humaine with Audra McDonald and Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath and 27. Stage direction includes world premieres of The Other Josh Cohen, See What I Wanna See, Striking 12, and Charlotte: Life? Or Theater?. Recent gala performances include Show Boat with Vanessa Williams and the NY Philharmonic, The Making of A Chorus Line with Zachary Quinto, The Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline and Glenn Close, Cabaret with Anne Hathaway and Eddie Redmayne, Song of Norway with Judy Kaye, She Loves Me with Santino Fontana and Alexandra Silber, The Mikado with Victoria Clark and Babes in Toyland with Bill Irwin. Mr. Sperling received the 2006 Ted Shen Family Foundation Award for leadership in musical theater, headed the Music Theater Initiative at The Public Theater, and is creative director of 24 Hour Musicals. He recently conducted the Paul Taylor Dance Company season at Lincoln Center, and will be Music Director for the upcoming revival of My Fair Lady.

Ryan Silverman received a Best Actor Drama Desk nomination for Side Show on Broadway. Other Broadway credits include star turns as Billy Flynn in Chicago, Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, Cry-Baby. Other credits: Passion (Drama Desk and Drama League nominations), Into the Woods (MUNY), Camelot alongside Brian Stokes Mitchell (Kennedy Center), West Side Story (Olivier nominated production). Concert performances with: The New York Pops (Carnegie Hall), Seattle Symphony with Marvin Hamlisch, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philly Pops, The Cincinnati Pops, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony among others.

Originally opened in 1955, Café Carlyle is New York City's bastion of classic cabaret entertainment, a place where audiences experience exceptional performers at close range in an exceedingly elegant setting. Since composer Richard Rodgers moved in as The Carlyle's first tenant, music has been an essential part of The Carlyle experience. No place is that more evident than in the Café Carlyle.

Café Carlyle is known for talents including Woody Allen, who regularly appears on Monday evenings to play with thE Eddy Davis New Orleans jazz band. For three decades, Café Carlyle was synonymous with the legendary Bobby Short, who thrilled sell-out crowds for 36 years. His spirit lives on through the music at Café Carlyle.

Continuing the tradition of the 1930s supper club, Café Carlyle features original murals created by French artist Marcel Vertès, the Oscar-winning art director of the 1952 Moulin Rouge.

American Airlines in-flight magazine, American Way, recently included Café Carlyle within their 2017 Platinum List as one of the Top 3 Music Venues in the World.