Tony Winner Tonya Pinkins to Join Tim Realbuto in BOOKSELLER IN THE RAIN

Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change) and Ovation Award nominee Erika Amato (Flashdance) have just joined the lineup of special guest stars for Tim Realbuto's Maury Yeston tribute concert Bookseller in the Rain.

Pinkins is most known for her Tony nominated tour de force as Caroline Thibodeaux in Broadway's Caroline, or Change. She won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for her performance as Anita in Jelly's Last Jam, starring opposite Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. Her numerous other Broadway credits include her Tony nominated turn as Lady Liv in Play On!; as well as starring roles in Merrily We Roll Along; Chronicle of a Death Foretold; LaChiusa's The Wild Party; Radio Golf; A Time to Kill; and the recent Holler If Ya Hear Me. On screen, she played the role of Phoebe Banks in Disney's Enchanted, but Ms. Pinkins is perhaps most recognized as Livia Frye on ABC's "All My Children."

Ovation Award nominee Erika Amato recently starred in the first national tour of Flashdance the musical. Off-Broadway, she starred as Berta Pluhar in the critically-acclaimed musical Signs of Life; and as Cleopatra in The Sphinx Winx. Her numerous regional credits include Nine; Hairspray; Anything Goes; The Sound of Music; Annie Get Your Gun; How To Succeed...; and Sunset Boulevard at The Hollywood Bowl. Ms. Amato is probably best known as the lead singer of popular 90's rock band Velvet Chain, performing regularly on the hit WB TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", as well as the show's subsequent soundtrack album, alongside Garbage and Alison Krauss.

As previously announced, award winning performer/writer Tim Realbuto is back, after his hugely successful solo shows Alone (With Plenty of Help) at 54 Below and Wunderkind, an autobiographical piece created by and starring Realbuto, which toured NYC all last year at venues such as Joe's Pub, The Laurie Beechman, and Stage 72, selling out every time. Realbuto then toured Wunderkind across the country, making his final stop at The Venue in Orlando, Florida in late December 2014. Now, he's back, not to talk about himself, but to honor one of his heroes, legendary Broadway composer Maury Yeston.

Mr. Yeston has once described Tim as the quintessential interpretation of his music, even saying "Realbuto sings my music the way it was meant to be sung." Realbuto felt like that statement defined him and he vowed that one day he would honor the man who said those words to him, to honor the man behind some of the world's most beautiful music. With the support and collaboration of Mr. Yeston himself, that evening has finally come to fruition. Tim Realbuto: Bookseller in the Rain, an evening honoring the music of Maury Yeston, will perform on Sunday, February 15th, 2015 at popular venue The Metropolitan Room in New York City.

See Realbuto, a rising star on the New York Theatre scene, interpret Yeston's music in an evening filled with song, memories, laughter and love. Expect to hear all of your favorite Yeston tunes sung by Realbuto backed by a full band led by Allegro's Julianne B. Merrill, with a special guest or two along the way, as well as a full 30-person ensemble to close the evening. Yeston's gorgeous harmonies will be heard in surround sound, with the ensemble filling up the entire room around you.

Aside from Pinkins and Amato, Realbuto's special guests for the evening include the previously announced Jenna Leigh Green ("Sabrina, the Teeange Witch"; Wicked; Bare); "Top Five" star Laurissa Romain (Broadway's South Pacific; "Are We There Yet?"); Kimberly Faye Greenberg (Danny and Sylvia; One Night With Fanny Brice); Abigail Ludrof (The HVAC Plays; Third Floor); and Emily Esposito (A Christmas Story; Evita). More guests will be announced in the coming weeks.

Realbuto is most known for co-writing the Broadway bound musical Ghostlight, as well as his appearances on the New York stage in Hair, Finian's Rainbow, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale Project, Love's Labours Lost, and the Off-Broadway premiere of White Widow: The Musical. His numerous film and television credits include the co-starring role of Jackson Pheiffer opposite Kevin Kline and Jesse Eisenberg in the Universal Pictures release The Emperor's Club, two seasons on Nickelodeon's "The Big Help" alongside Michelle Trachtenberg, and Jimmy on Season One of HBO's "The Sopranos."

Yeston is, of course, the Tony Award winning and Oscar nominated composer of hits such as Titanic (Tony Award for Best Musical), Grand Hotel, Phantom, December Songs, Cloud Nine, Death Takes a Holiday, In The Beginning, and, of course, the ever popular Tony Award winning Best Musical Nine (which was made into a major motion picture starring Daniel Day- Lewis and Nicole Kidman). Mr. Yeston has not only given the Broadway community so much. His contributions have spread across the world.

'Tim Realbuto: Bookseller in the Rain' was originally slated to play two nights due to popular demand, but Mr. Yeston and Mr. Realbuto's schedules would not allow for it. Instead, the one-night-only concert will take place on Sunday, February 15th, 2015 at The Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, NYC. Showtime is 9:30 PM. Tickets range from $22.50-$115.00 and are currently available at www.metropolitanroom.com

Mr. Realbuto will also be a guest on the Ginger New York Television Show to promote 'Bookseller...' and sing a medley of Yeston tunes featured in the show on Friday, February 6th, 2015 (check local listings). For more information on Tim, please visit www.TimRealbutoOfficial.com

Come and spend an evening with Mr. Yeston himself and listen to what he describes as the voice that makes his music truly come alive.

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