Reprise Theatre Company Presents Ray Romano Live For One Night Only 6/7

Reprise Theatre Company presents Ray Romano Live for one performance only on Tuesday, June 7 at 8:00 pm, at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA. Ticket sales from Ray Romano Live support Reprise's mission to produce musical theatre of the highest artistic quality and to make this art form accessible to new audiences through education and outreach programs.

Tickets go on sale to the public on Tuesday, May 10. For tickets, please call the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310/825-2101 or visit www.reprise.org.

Reprise Theatre Company is headed by Artistic Director Jason Alexander. Christine Bernardi Weil is Managing Director and Gilles Chiasson is Producing Director of Reprise Theatre Company.

Ray Romano Live is an evening of stand-up, music and magic with "Everybody Loves Raymond's" Ray Romano. The evening will be hosted by Reprise Artistic Director Jason Alexander and will feature star pianist/composer Todd Schroeder and award-winning comedian/magician Dana Daniels.

As Ray Barone on the CBS hit, "Everybody Loves Raymond," Ray Romano was the star of one of the most respected sitcoms in television history and won numerous awards, including an Emmy for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series" in 2002. He also received two additional Emmys for "Outstanding Comedy Series" as one of the show's executive producers in 2003 and 2005. Along with the rest of the cast, Romano earned a SAG Award for "Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series" in 2003. He also won Peoples Choice Awards as "Favorite Male TV Performer" in 2000, 2001 and 2003; in 2006, he earned his fourth Peoples Choice Award when the show was named "Favorite Television Comedy."

Romano admits that he always knew he could make his friends laugh, but he never gave standup comedy any serious thought until one fateful open mic night at a New York comedy club in 1984. He did well, the bug bit hard, and Romano decided to pursue stand-up full time. He performed regularly at comedy clubs across the country, which led to appearances on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" and later with Jay Leno, as well as "Late Night with David Letterman." Letterman recognized something unique in Romano's persona and offered him a development deal with his production company, Worldwide Pants. Through that association, "Everybody Loves Raymond" was born.

Ray made his big screen debut as the voice of "Manny" the wooly mammoth in the 20th Century Fox hit, "Ice Age," and starred in the wildly successful sequels, "Ice Age: The Meltdown" and "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs". Other films followed, including "Eulogy," "Welcome To Mooseport" (with Gene Hackman), "Grilled" (with Kevin James and Burt Reynolds) and "The Last Word" (with Winona Ryder and Wes Bentley). In 2006, he was the subject of "95 Miles To Go," a documentary of his life on tour.

He is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, "Everything And A Kite," which was inspired by his comedy. With his brothers Bobby and Rich Romano, he wrote the children's book "Raymie, Dickie, and The Bean: Why I Love and Hate My Brothers," which was nominated for a Grammy in 2006 for Best Spoken Word album. His comedy album, "Live at Carnegie Hall," was nominated for a Grammy in 2002.

In 2009, four years after drawing the curtain on "Raymond," he joined forces with Mike Royce, a fellow stand-up from NY and writer for "Everybody Loves Raymond" to create his return to episodic television, the one-hour series "Men of a Certain Age," for TNT. The drama/comedy co-stars Golden Globe winner Scott Bakula ("Quantum Leap," "Star Trek: Enterprise") and Emmy winner Andre Braugher ("Homicide: Life on the Street," TNT's " ‘Salem's Lot"). "Men of A Certain Age" won the prestigious Peabody Award in 2011.

Todd Schroeder has performed at Carnegie Hall and the White House, with the Boston Pops and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and has appeared on numerous television shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show. As an accomplished composer, his original music has been featured in film and television. He composed music and lyrics with his writing partner, Kevin Fisher, for the new hit musical "Unbeatable: A Bold New Musical". The song "Live" from that show, was featured in the opening ceremonies of the 2009 Special Olympics Winter World Games in Boise, Idaho. He has also recorded four of his own CD's including the critically-acclaimed "Songs My Father Taught Me". Along with writing and producing, Schroeder has conducted and arranged for such artists as Angela Lansbury, Nell Carter, Jason Alexander, Rita Coolidge, and Sam Harris. He also serves as the vocal director for Disney's "Aladdin, A Musical Spectacular" and is the Musical Director for "Wicked" at Universal Studios Japan. And finally, he is the proud founder of the Todd Schroeder Young Artist Grant, an annual scholarship presented to graduating High School students wanting to pursue careers in the arts.

Dana Daniels, teamed with his Psychic Parrot Luigi, sets out to prove his little green friend is truly clairvoyant by performing incredible magic blended with rapid-fire clean comedy and audience participation. Dana has been awarded some the top honors in magic such as "Comedy Magician of the Year" and "Stage Magician of the Year" by the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood, CA. Dana's many television appearances include, "Stand up Live," "Evening at the Improv," "CBS Morning Show," "Masters of Illusions," "Lance Burton's Guerilla Magic" and the best selling clean comedy series on DVD, "Thou Shalt Laugh 4." Dana has also opened for such stars as Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Ray Romano, Tony Orlando and Charro. It's Dana Daniels unique twist on magic that separates him from other magicians, and separates Luigi from other poultry.

Since its inception in 1997, Reprise Theatre Company has been a focus of the Los Angeles musical theatre community, producing productions of great American musicals, and a wide variety of concerts, staged-readings, special events and outreach programs.

In May 2007, Jason Alexander became Artistic Director. Christine Bernardi Weil is Managing Director and Gilles Chiasson is Producing Director of Reprise.

Since its inaugural production of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Promises, Promises," which starred Mr. Alexander, Reprise has brought to the stage vibrant productions from all eras of American musical theatre including the Gershwins' "Of Thee I Sing" and "Strike Up the Band," Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," and Rodgers and Hart's "The Boys from Syracuse" and "Babes in Arms," Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel," as well as Richard Rodgers' later "No Strings." The "Golden Era" has been well represented - Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg with "Finian's Rainbow," Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe with "Brigadoon," Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green with "On the Town" and "Wonderful Town," Irving Berlin with "Call Me Madam," Robert Wright and George Forrest with "Kismet," both of the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross musicals "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees," Johnny Mercer and Gene dePaul with "Li'l Abner," Jule Styne with "Bells are Ringing," and Frank Loesser with "The Most Happy Fella" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

Musical theatre reached a new peak of popularity in the sixties, along with new creative talents, and Reprise has presented shows by many of them including Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt with "The Fantasticks," Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick with "She Loves Me," Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot's "Hair," Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone with "1776," Charles Adams and Lee Strouse with "Applause," Stephen Schwartz with "Pippin," Cy Coleman with "On the Twentieth Century" (libretto by Betty Comden and Adolph Green), "City of Angels" (lyrics by David Zippel), and "I Love My Wife" (libretto by Michael Stewart), Jerry Herman with "Mack and Mabel," Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's "Once on This Island," and four Stephen Sondheim musicals - "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Company," "Sweeney Todd," and "Sunday in the Park with George."

Many of the great stage performers working today, as well as those who make their residence primarily in Los Angeles, have appeared in Reprise shows including Scott Bakula, Christine Baranski, Brent Barrett, Orson Bean, Jodi Benson, Stephen Bogardus, Dan Butler, Len Cariou, Carolee Carmello, Vicki Carr, Patrick Cassidy, Anthony Crivello, Jason Danieley, Lea DeLaria, Cleavant Derricks, Manoel Feliciano, Rodney Gilfry, Kelsey Grammer, Josh Grisetti, Harry Groener, Bob Gunton, Sam Harris, Gregory Harrison, Simon Helberg, Mimi Hines, Judy Kaye, Jane Krakowski, Marc Kudish, Ledisi, Vicki Lewis, Judith Light, Rebecca Luker, Eric McCormack, Maureen McGovern, Joey McIntyre, Donna McKechnie, Andrea Marcovicci, Marin Mazzie, Julie Migenes, Karen Morrow, Burke Moses, Kelli O'Hara, John O'Hurley, Ken Page, Robert Picardo, David Hyde Pierce, Larry Raben, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Roger Rees, Charles Nelson Reilly, Cathy Rigby, Alexandra Silber, Douglas Sills, Rex Smith, Brent Spiner, Lea Thompson, Steven Weber, Lee Wilkof, Ruth Williamson, Marisa Jaret Winokur, Lillias White, Fred Willard, and Rachel York.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.