The Los Angeles LGBT Center's Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center has announced Levi Kreis: Home for the Holidays, a special one-night-only concert at the Center's Renberg Theatre on Saturday, December 7, at 8pm. When the Tony Award-winning singer/songwriter/actor last appeared at the Renberg, he was hailed as having, "A voice to make angels weep and audiences scream ... those lucky enough to hold tickets can count themselves fortunate indeed." Kreis's Home for the Holidays infuses gospel, country, rockabilly, and jazz into an exuberant and spirit-lifting collection of Christmas classics and holiday favorites.
Levi Kreis (pronounced Krice) took Broadway by storm in 2010 with his show-stopping, Tony Award-winning performance as
Jerry Lee Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet, about which the Hollywood Reporter wrote, "The charismatic Kreis is hugely entertaining (and one hell of a pianist)." The New York Times agreed, "Mr. Kreis's Lewis has a brash goofball charm and his thrashing keyboard style is an impressive approximation of Mr. Lewis's febrile dexterity." In addition to the 2010 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Kreis was awarded an Outer Critics Circle Award; he also received a Drama League Award nomination. He also arranged some of the music for Million Dollar Quartet.
An East Tennessee native, Kreis spent his youth mimicking the piano style of southern gospel music and idolizing men like
Ray Charles. But he confesses that everything he knows he learned from one of Charles's younger peers, Little Miss Dynamite, Brenda Lee. Traveling on her tour bus and studying her genius on stage and off, Kreis adopted Lee's strong work ethic and classy reputation. But it was Lee's ability to have an audience in the palm of her hand that Kreis sought to make his own. By all accounts, he has succeeded. To this day Lee confesses, "I taught him everything he knows!" Kreis's seven albums have afforded him impressive accolades - Top 10 positions on various charts, #1 music videos, National Tours, and TV appearances on The View, The Late Show with
David Letterman, and The Tonight Show with
Jimmy Fallon. Kreis is now settling into what he knows best - southern soul. His newest project, Bad Habit, was recorded in Los Angeles and delivers a grittier perspective. The first single, Three Words, dropped on September 20. For more, visit
www.levikreis.com.
General admission tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at the door, and may be purchased online at
www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or by phone at (323) 860-7300. Net proceeds from all ticket sales will support the full range of free and low-cost programs and services offered by the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center's Renberg Theatre is located at 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood, 90038.
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