Wetrock Entertainment presented performer/writer/jazz vocalist Andrea Frierson in "me & ella," at 54 Below last night. "me & ella," is a musical journey back to the beginnings of a young singer enamored with Ella Fitzgerald, set against a backdrop of New York City in the 1960's. Part memory play and part tribute, "me & ella" is both a singer's coming of age story, as well as a valentine to the First Lady of Song. Written and performed by Ms. Frierson with musical arrangements and musical supervision by Ron Abel and direction by Murphy Cross and Paul Kreppel, "me & ella"
Andrea Frierson is a
Helen Hayes Award winner who has performed on Broadway in Once on This Island as Erzulie, Goddess of Love (original cast); Marie Christine (Prisoner #2) and
Julie Taymor and Elliott Goldenthal's Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass (The Mother), both at
Lincoln Center Theater; Bring in 'Da Noise/Funk ('Da Singer); For Colored Girls...(original Broadway production), and A Christmas Carol (Young Scrooge's Mother, original cast) at
Madison Square Garden. Regional theatre roles include:
Aretha Franklin and
Tina Turner in Beehive! (
Helen Hayes Award;
Arena Stage, Washington, DC); The Homeless Woman in A New Brain (
Helen Hayes Nominee;
Studio Theatre, Washington, DC); and as the author and star of me & ella (The Downstairs Cabaret Theatre, Rochester, NY). Television audiences may remember Andrea as a 5-time winner and semi-finalist on
Ed McMahon's nationally syndicated vocal competition, "Star Search" and as Ms. Melody on "Allegra's Window" (series regular, Nickelodeon). Other TV appearances include: the Emmy award-winning episode of the FX comedy series, "Louie," "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," "Good Morning America," and "The PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer." Andrea was a 2006 Dramatist Guild Fellow (lyricist), as well as a member of the BMI workshop. She is also a Library of Congress award winner for her musical Soon of a Mornin' (an invited show in the 2005 NYMF Festival) about the quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama. www.andreafrierson.com
Ms. Frierson just finished a "fervent performance" (The New York Times) as the title character in
Charlayne Woodard and
Kirsten Childs "Grace," one of the two solo musical works in PREMIERES' "Inner Voices 2014," playing through.
Photo Credit: Stephen Sorokoff
Andrea Frierson
54 Below
Andrea Frierson
Ron Abel, Music Director & Andrea Frierson
Andrea Frierson & Ron Abel
Ron Abel
Ron Abel & Giselle Wolf
Paul Kreppel & Murphy Cross
Ron Abel, the band, Murphy Cross, Andrea Frierson, Paul Kreppel
