A Gala Evening for the Holidays, headlined by Broadway stars Dale
Kristien and Bill Hutton, will be presented at 8:00 pm Friday, December
16, 2005 at the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium by and in benefit of the
San Gabriel Valley Music Theatre (SGVMT), a newly formed not-for-profit
producing organization whose mission is to bring back a dedicated
series of Broadway musical theatre productions at the San Gabriel
Valley Civic Auditorium after a four year absence.
A Gala Evening for the Holidays
will showcase the voices of Kristien and Hutton in a program
of such classic holiday classics as "Have Yourself a Merry Little
Christmas," "White Christmas," "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like
Christmas," "Baby It's Cold Outside," "Oh Holy Night," "The Christmas
Song," "Santa Baby," "Walking in a Winter Wonderland," "What Are You
Doing Christmas Eve?" and many more. Lloyd Cooper serves as musical director, with David Galligan as the show's director.
Kristien
is best known for her record-breaking four-and-one-half years in the
role of Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera. Performing on Broadway and in Los Angeles, she is– the actress who has played the most performances as Christine (over 1,700), and the only actress (anywhere in the world)
allowed to play the role for all eight performances per week. Prior toThe Phantom of the Opera, Kristien starred on
Broadway with Donald O'Connor in the Houston Grand Opera production of
Show Boat. She also appeared on Broadway with Richard Burton and later
with Richard Harris in Camelot, as well as in regional and local theater productions of such classics as Carousel, The Pirates of
Penzance, Show Boat, The King & I, The Desert Song, Kismet, The
Sound of Music, Camelot, and others.
Hutton received a Tony Award nomination for creating the role of
"Joseph" in the original Broadway production of Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat. He also originated the role of Auccussin
("Auccussin and Nicolette") in Festival, which played in San Francisco,
Los Angeles, Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. and off-Broadway in New
York. He starred in the original musical based on the Warner Bros.
Film, The Wrong Box, and was honored with a Los Angeles Drama Critics
Circle award nomination for the West Coast Premiere of William Finn's In
Trousers. Other credits include Blame It On the Movies!, and regional productions of Meet Me in St. Louis, Brigadoon, Call Me Madam and most recently, Life X 3.
"The first steps in an effort to bring
musical theatre back to the city of San Gabriel were taken January 23,
2005 when the newly formed San Gabriel Valley Music Theatre presented
"Open A New Window" - a benefit performance featuring a cast of
Broadway and regional musical theatre veterans. As the foundation for
a follow-up series of fundraisers throughout 2005, Open A New Window
led to the SGVMT's The Monday Night Cabaret Broadway at The Playhouse
("The Playhouse" being the original name of the legendary San Gabriel
Civic Auditorium), and once again garnered overwhelming support, not
only by professional musical theatre performers, but an ever growing
base of patrons of the arts," according to press notes.
Following A Gala
Evening for the Holidays, the San Gabriel Valley Music Theatre plans to
continue with their Monday Night Cabaret Broadway at The Playhouse
series and will then present their inaugural Broadway season at the
Civic Auditorium scheduled to begin in May, 2006 with The Sound of
Music, followed by Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in
January of 2007.
Tickets for A Gala Evening
for the Holidays are available at $20, 30, $40 and $60 and can be
purchased in advance by calling (626) 308-2865 Ext. 350 or (626)
282-1440.