Channing, Kunze And More Lead BACK WHERE YOU BELONG 4/16

Broadway's Carol Channing, Eric Kunze (Miss Saigon, Les Miserables), Krysta Rodriguez (The Addams Family, In The Heights) and Tony-Nominated Jonelle Allen (Two Gentlemen of Verona) join Musical Theatre University's "Kids Next Door" in BACK WHERE YOU BELONG - a benefit concert celebrating Carol Channing's 90th Birthday, April 16 at The Heritage Forum Theatre of Anaheim. Proceeds from the concert will benefit The Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation For The Arts, The Anaheim Performing Arts Center Foundation and Musical Theatre University.

BACK WHERE YOU BELONG is a fully staged, multi media event featuring the music of both Broadway and Hollywood with special tributes to such legends as Judy Garland, Lena Horne and Ms. Channing herself as she is honored for her work with the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation For The Arts which is working to insure that arts education is restored to every public school in America. The event will also include a silent and live auction.

Carol Channing is best known for originating the roles of Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello Dolly, for which she won the Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical. She received the Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award Nomination for her work in the film Thoroughly Modern Millie starring Julie Andrews. In 1981 she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame and in 1995 received the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. She was granted a doctorate in fine arts by The California State University, Stanislaus in 2004. Carol and her husband Harry founded the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts in 2004 to advocate for arts education as part of the standard curriculum in all public schools throughout the United States.

Eric Kunze made his Broadway debut at te age of 20 as Marius in Les Misarbles and wnet on to star as Chris in Miss Saigon and Joe Hardy in the revivial of Damn Yankees with Jerry Lewis. He starred in the national tours of both Whistle Down The Wind and Jesus Christ Superstar and in the Off Broadway production of Leopard's Leap.

Krysta Rodriguez originated the role of Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family. She played the role of Bebe in the revival of A Chorus Line in 2007. Other Broadway credits include the original casts of Spring Awakening and In The Heights and Good Vibrations.

Jonelle Allen made her Broadway debut when she was four years old in the revival Wisteria Trees starring Helen Hayes, Ossie Davis, Cliff Robertson and others at the New York City Center Theatre. Ms. Allen received a Tony nomination as Best Actress in a Musical and won the Drama Critics, Drama Desk, Theater World, and Outer Circle Awards for her performance as Silvia in the New York Shakespeare Festival production. Other Broadway credits include the original casts of Hair and George M, starring Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters. Ms. Allen has appeared in numerous feature films and teleVision Productions including Hotel New Hampshire, Cagney and Lacey, Hill Street Blues, Generations, Twice In A Lifetime for PAX-TV and Strong Medicine for Lifetime Network and she co-starred for six seasons on CBS-TV's Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.Ms. Allen also wrote and starred in Harlem Renaissance: The Life of Florence Mills which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland last year.

The KIDS NEXT DOOR are a nationally renowned song and dance troupe, in residence at Southern California's Musical Theatre University, and for the past twenty years have performed their high energy productions for conventions, trade shows, charity events, throughout Southern California and the United States, working with such corporations as Toyota, Walt Disney Productions, Coca-Cola, Isuzu, Southern California Edison and Home-Aid Orange County's "Project Playhouse". They have appeared on both national television and radio and have produced and starred in five PBS television holiday specials. They have appeared as headliners seven times in Las Vegas and worked with such stars as Tony Orlando, Debbie Reynolds, Vicki Lawrence, Carol Burnett, Bob Hope, Cathy Rigby, Rita Moreno, Don Ho and Broadway legend John Raitt. Alumni of The Kids Next Door include Tony-nominated Matthew Morrison (South Pacific, Light In The Piazza and Fox-Television's GLEE), Stephanie J. Block (9 to 5, The Pirate Queen, Meet Vera Stark ), Lindsay Mendez (Grease, Everyday Rapture), Krysta Rodriguez, Anneliese vanderPol (Beauty and the Beast, Vanities), Scott Barnhardt (The Book of Mormon, Big River), and more.

Tickets for BACK WHERE YOU BELONG are priced from $20. - $75. and are available at www.brownpapertickets.com. Special VIP tickets that include premiere seating and an after-concert, champagne birthday reception with Ms. Channing and the cast are available at www.musicaltheatreuniversity.com. The Heritage Forum Theatre is located at 201 E. Broadway, Anaheim, California. For further information on the concert visit www.musicaltheatreuniversity.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.