Skylight Music Theatre to Stream Kate Baldwin Film BROADWAY COMES HOME

Skylight Music Theatre will stream Kate Baldwin's Broadway Comes Home, a concert and documentary film, Friday, Sept. 9 through Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022, on Skylight's website. Broadway Comes Home features footage from Baldwin's intimate concert last year in front of a small, invited audience on the stage of Skylight's Cabot Theatre, along with scenes from a visit to her hometown of Milwaukee, Wis.

This virtual presentation of Broadway Comes Home marks the national premiere for the film. Baldwin is donating all proceeds from the week of streaming to Skylight. Suggested donation is $25. Skylight is Milwaukee's professional Equity music theatre company celebrating its 63rd season.

Two-time Tony Award Nominee Baldwin is a two-time Broadway Tony Award nominee for her roles as Irene Molloy in the 2017 revival of Hello Dolly! starring alongside Bette Midler and Bernadette Peters, and for her starring role in Finian's Rainbow in 2009. She is also acclaimed for her performances in Big Fish on Broadway and Giant at The Public Theatre, among others.

Broadway Comes Home captures a 2021 Skylight concert in which Baldwin sang songs and told anecdotes from her career, accompanied by her long-time friend and collaborator Georgia Stitt. The concert featured special guests including guitarist Steven Lewandowski and performer Kevin James Sievert, who has appeared in productions at Skylight Music Theatre and who Baldwin met while teaching a master class in New York.

Baldwin got her start in theatre while a student in Shorewood High School's acclaimed theatre program led by director Barbara Gensler. In the film, Baldwin leads a master class with drama students at Shorewood High School, two of whom, Clara McElfresh and Ginny Mitchell, were invited to perform with her at the Skylight concert. The film references other mentors and performing experiences in Milwaukee including the Wisconsin Conservatory Children's Chorus, vocal coach Lee Dougherty Ross, and teacher Pam Kriger.

Baldwin co-produced Broadway Comes Home with 23-time Emmy Award winning HMS Media, a Chicago-based production company specializing in broadcast and streaming content for Broadway, national tours, and the arts.

Idea for Filmed Concerts by Broadway Stars Paying Tribute to Hometowns

Since leaving Milwaukee in 1993, Baldwin has been in six Broadway shows and nominated for numerous awards. "I carry with me all that I learned in my hometown," said Baldwin. "At the first rehearsal for my first Broadway show, Thoroughly Modern Millie, our director Michael Mayer asked us to state our names and where we were born. Of the 50 or so artists who were about to create a Tony winning Broadway hit show, only two were from New York City. The rest were just like me, born and raised in another great American city."

Broadway Comes Home represents Baldwin's personal dream of creating filmed concerts of Broadway artists who return to their hometowns for special performances.

"I was inspired after reconnecting with Skylight a few years ago, when I headlined a fundraising gala for their 60th anniversary in 2019. I grew up attending musicals at Skylight and wanted to create something to benefit Skylight as well as pay tribute to my hometown and all the people who helped me start thinking like an artist," said Baldwin.

"I hope this film will inspire Milwaukee to embrace its homegrown talent anew and bring support to Skylight, a place I value," said Baldwin. "My dream is that this could lead to a series featuring other Broadway actors as they remember their roots and give back to their hometowns."

Box Office and Streaming Information

Broadway Comes Home will be available for streaming starting at noon on Friday, September 9 through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, September 18, 2022. For more information and to purchase, go to this link. Suggested donation is $25 per person, with all proceeds benefitting Skylight.

Skylight thanks Kate Baldwin for making this fundraiser possible and allowing Skylight Music Theatre to launch the premiere of Broadway Comes Home.

More information available by calling the Box Office at (414) 291-7800, Mon. - Fri. noon -5 p.m., (starting Sept. 6, Box Office hours will be Mon. - Sat. Noon - 6 p.m.) or anytime via email at tickets@skylightmusictheatre.org or online at www.skylightmusictheatre.org.

About Kate Baldwin

Kate Baldwin starred as Irene Molloy opposite Bette Midler, David Hyde Pierce and Gavin Creel in the hit Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, for which she was nominated for the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle awards. She originated the role of Sandra Bloom in Big Fish on Broadway and earned accolades and a Drama Desk Award nomination for her work as Leslie Lynnton Benedict in Michael John LaChiusa's Giant at The Public Theatre. She received a Drama Desk Award nomination for her role as Jen in Keen Company's 20th Anniversary revival of Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald's John & Jen. She garnered critical acclaim and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Tom Kitt and John Logan's Superhero at Second Stage.

But it was her starring role in the 2009 revival of Yip Harburg's and Burton Lane's hit classic musical Finian's Rainbow, which drew Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle Award nominations and put her on the map as "a real musical theatre star." (New York Post)

Kate has appeared in the Broadway casts of The Full Monty, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Wonderful Town. She starred in The King and I at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Irving Berlin's White Christmas (San Francisco, Detroit, Toronto), The Women at The Old Globe, Henry V at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, She Loves Me at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and The Music Man and South Pacific at Arena Stage, earning a Helen Hayes Award nomination. She drew raves in spring 2022 for her portrayal of Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County opposite Aaron Lazar and directed by original cast member Hunter Foster.

She has performed in concert with the New York Pops, Boston Pops, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Portland Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Chicago Symphony, the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and at the legendary New York nightclubs Feinstein's, Birdland and 54 Below. Her concert work also includes several appearances with Stephen Sondheim as a featured performer in his critically acclaimed evening, "A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim." On television, her work includes a guest star on NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" and a featured role in the PBS filming of Stephen Sondheim's "Passion" and the Disney + series "Just Beyond."

Kate's debut album on PS Classics, "Let's See What Happens" features Lane and Harburg songs from both stage and film. Her second album celebrates the work of lyricist Sheldon Harnick and is titled, "She Loves Him." She is a graduate of Northwestern University and lives with her husband and son in Maplewood, NJ.

About HMS Media

HMS media, a Chicago-based production company, has won 23 Emmy Awards for its work as one of the country's leading producers of broadcast and streaming content for Broadway, national tours and resident theater, dance and music companies. HMS' dozens of live performance and arts documentary shows and series for PBS, Fathom Events and BroadwayHD include Chicago Voices with Renée Fleming and Jessie Mueller, A Christmas Carol: The Concert with E. Faye Butler and Michael Aaron Lindner and First You Dream: The Songs of Kander & Ebb, in which Baldwin starred alongside Norm Lewis, Heidi Blickenstaff and others, which included Baldwin's spectacular rendition of "New York, New York."

About Skylight Music Theatre

Founded in 1959, Skylight is Milwaukee's professional Equity music theatre company and the largest employer of Wisconsin actors in the state. Skylight produces the full spectrum of music theatre ranging from blockbuster Broadway musicals to reimagined operas, and from exciting world premieres to contemporary off-Broadway hits. Skylight's mainstage home is the Cabot Theatre in the Broadway Theatre Center, which was built by Skylight in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward in 1992. Considered to be one of Milwaukee's most beautiful theatres, the Cabot Theatre is based on the design of an 18th-century French opera house. With just 350 seats it offers audiences great views of the action onstage. Skylight Music Theatre marks its 63rd season in 2022-2023. Skylight Music Theatre is a proud Cornerstone Member of the United Performing Arts Fund.

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