The Broadway Boys Come To Westport Country Playhouse 12/20

The Broadway Boys, a collection of the hottest male voices currently working on the New York stage, will present a concert of Broadway and holiday favorites, on Sunday, December 20, 3 p.m., at Westport Country Playhouse.

Through their dynamic vocal prowess and redefining arrangements, The Broadway Boys add elements of pop, funk, gospel, jazz and folk to show tunes, classic pop and holiday songs and explore harmonies rarely presented by Broadway singers.
The Broadway Boys include Landon Bear and Danny Calvert from "Altar Boyz"; Maurice Murphy from "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"; Kyle Post from "Rent"; and Gabe Violett from "Spring Awakening."

Their concert repertoire will include holiday songs such as "Hark!," "Little Drummer Boy," "Take a Walk through Bethlehem," "This Christmas," "The Lights" (The Channukah Song), "All I Want for Christmas," and Broadway show tunes including "December 1963," "Old Devil Moon," "Feeling Good," So in Love," "Somewhere," "Can't Take That Away," "Defying Gravity" and "Lullaby of Broadway."
The Broadway Boys were created in 2005 to play a single night at a club in New York City. The overwhelming response forced the club to bring the boys back again for another sold- out evening. Realizing that this group had serious growth potential, The Broadway Boys decided to focus and develop their product into the "symphony of sound" that they have become.
Three Westport, Connecticut natives are part of The Broadway Boys' band: Justin Paul, musical director and accompanist; Dan Asher, bassist; and Drew McKeon, drummer. All three grew up in Westport and graduated from Staples High School. McKeon is a current Westport resident. Justin Paul works as a musical director/pianist regionally and in New York City, where he currently serves as musical director/conductor for the hit off-Broadway show "Altar Boyz." He has accompanied many Broadway solo artists including Laura Benanti, Andrea McArdle, Tituss Burgess, Mary Faber and The Broadway Tenors. Working with writing partner Benj Pasek, he composed the musical work "Edges." The team composed for the Disney Channel television series "Johnny and the Sprites" and was selected as 2007 recipients of the Jonathan Larson Award, as well as 2007-2008 Fellows in the Dramatists Guild Fellowship Program. The two were also named to The Dramatist magazine's "50 Dramatists to Watch" in 2007. Bassist Dan Asher has been performing and teaching in the New York area for much of the past decade, including performances at legendary jazz venues such as Birdland, the Blue Note and Smalls, covering a wide range of music including jazz, rock, R&B, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian. Drummer Drew McKeon maintains a full schedule of national and international tours, recording sessions and clinics as both a drummer and guitarist.
The Orlando Sentinel said, "If you love musical theatre, you need to see The Broadway Boys. If you think you don't like musical theatre (and we know who you are), you need to see The Broadway Boys."

Holiday events' board of trustees partner is Darlene Krenz; production partners are Bank of America and Sun Products Corporation.

Tickets are $35.For more information or ticket purchases, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets may be purchased online at www.westportplayhouse.org.

About The Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse, a not-for-profit theater, serves as a treasured home for the performing arts and is a cultural landmark for Connecticut. Under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management direction of Michael Ross, The Playhouse creates quality productions of new and classic plays that enlighten, enrich and engage a diverse community of theater lovers, artists and students. The Playhouse's rich history dates back to 1931, when New York theatre producer Lawrence Langner created a Broadway-quality stage within an 1830s tannery. The Playhouse quickly became an established stop on the New England "straw hat circuit" of summer stock theatres. Now entering its 80th season, Westport Country Playhouse has produced more than 700 plays, 36 of which later transferred to Broadway, most recently the world premiere of "Thurgood" and a revival of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" with Paul Newman, and in earlier years "Come Back, Little Sheba" with Shirley Booth, "The Trip to Bountiful" with Lillian Gish, and "Butterflies Are Free" with Keir Dullea and Blythe Danner. For its artistic excellence, The Playhouse received a 2005 Governor's Arts Award and a 2000 "Connecticut Treasure" recognition. It was also designated as an Official Project of Save America's Treasures by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is entered on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places. Following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005, The Playhouse transformed into a year-round, state-of-the-art producing theater, which has preserved its original charm and character. In addition to a full season of theatrical productions, The Playhouse serves as a community resource, presenting educational programming and workshops; a children's theater series; symposiums; music; films; and readings.

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