Rex Smith, Kamilah Marshall Join Channing, et al. for BACK WHERE YOU BELONG, 4/16

Broadway's Rex Smith (Grease, The Pirates of Penzance) and Kamilah Marshall (Hairspray, Rent) join Carol Channing and the previously announced Eric Kunze (Miss Saigon, Les Miserables), Krysta Rodriguez (The Addams Family, In The Heights) and Tony-Nominated Jonelle Allen (Two Gentlemen of Verona) 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. The show also features Musical Theatre University's nationally renowned young performing group, The Kid Next Door.

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.

BACK WHERE YOU BELONG is directed by David Green, with musical direction by David Anthony and additional choreography by Michelle Ditto.

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.

Rex Smith Rex Smith made his Broadway debut in the musical Grease in the lead role of Danny Zuko in 1978. Smith also starred as Frederic in the New York Shakespeare Festival's Central Park production of The Pirates of Penzance. In 1981, Smith won the Theatre World Award for his role in Pirates. For the 1983 film adaptation, Smith reprised the role of Frederic along with two other cast members, Kevin Kline as the Pirate King and Linda Ronstadt as Mabel. Smith has appeared in other Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including The Scarlet Pimpernel, Grand Hotel, The Human Comedy, and Annie Get Your Gun. He played Joe Gillis opposite Diahann Carroll as Norma Desmond in the 1995 Canadian production of Sunset Boulevard. On television, Smith is best known for his role as motorcycle police officer Jesse Mach in the short-running 1985 television series Street Hawk, but he has also made guest appearances on a variety of television shows, such as The Love Boat, Baywatch, Caroline in the City and JAG. In 1982, Smith replaced Andy Gibb as a host on the music variety show, Solid Gold. During the late 1970s, Smith was popular as a teen idol and had a gold Top 10 single, "You Take My Breath Away," in 1979.

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.

Kamilah Marshall made her Broadway debut as a replacement for the role of Joanne in Rent. She was an original cast member of Hairpsray, featured as on one of the, and appeared in the Broadway and Los Angeles Companies' of Disney's The Lion King. Since 2003 she has been backing up Bette Midler as one of the Staggering Harlettes, most recently in The Showgirl Must Go On at Caesers Palace in Las Vegas. She has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The View, Oprah, Ellen and Late Night with David Letterman and has numerous film and television credits including The American President with Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. Ms. Marshall recently released her first solo recording, Gypsy Moonshine and is a frequent artist at Molly Malones and The House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.

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.

 

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