Celia Berk Returns to the Laurie Beechman Theatre in October

Back by popular demand! Bistro, BroadwayWorld, MAC, and Margaret Whiting Award winner Celia Berk returns to the Laurie Beechman Theatre in October to reprise On My Way To You: Improbable Stories That Inspired An Unlikely Path. The show plays on Sunday, Oct. 23rd at 4PM. The Laurie Beechman Theatre is in the rear and downstairs at the West Bank Café, 407 West 42nd Street. Tickets may be purchased here: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/11103685. Mark Nadler directs and Tedd Firth is the Music Director and accompanist.

In this highly praised show, which debuted earlier this year, Celia Berk explores the courage and daring of iconic performers including Al Jolson, Maria Callas and Barbara Cook, and the deep impression they left on her. The songs are as unexpected as the stories, from Tin Pan Alley to Pop and more. Tedd Firth and Mark Nadler's arrangements provide new ways of looking at classics.

Celia and Tedd Firth have completed a new recording featuring songs about love, including the kinds of hidden gems by great songwriters that have become Celia's trademark. Now That I Have Everything is slated for release in Fall 2022. Firth leads an ensemble which features percussionist Rex Benincasa, bassists David Finck and Jay Leonhart, and guitarist Matt Munisteri. It is co-produced by Grammy and Tony Award-winning sound designer Scott Lehrer.

Celia's album Manhattan Serenade received the 2017 LaMott Friedman Award and was arranged and conducted by Alex Rybeck and co-produced by Scott Lehrer, the team behind her debut album, You Can't Rush Spring. Lyricist David Zippel (whose "The Broadway Song" written with Cy Coleman received its first commercial recording on the album) wrote in the liner notes, "A tribute to her hometown, this collection is anything but renditions of the obvious New York songs. Manhattan Serenade is curated: a connoisseur's compilation of one exquisite, undiscovered musical gem after another." You Can't Rush Spring and Celia's solo cabaret debut, directed by Jeff Harnar, earned Celia a 2015 Bistro Award: Vocalist, 2015 MAC Award: New York Debut - Female, 2015 BroadwayWorld Award for Best New York Cabaret Debut, and The 2015 Margaret Whiting Award. The recording appeared on a number of Best of 2014 lists. Celia has made memorable appearances at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Town Hall, and the National Arts Club.

Tedd Firth is a musical director, jazz pianist and arranger. As a musical director and accompanist, he has worked with Barbara Cook, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marilyn Maye, Michael Feinstein, Karen Akers, Mary Cleere Haran, Margaret Whiting, and many others. Among the jazz musicians he has performed or recorded with are John Pizzarelli, Houston Person, Frank Wess, Mark Whitfield, Red Holloway, Benny Golson, and Joe Morello. As an arranger and orchestrator, Tedd's work has been performed by musicians including Bernadette Peters and Liza Minnelli and most major American symphony orchestras.

An internationally acclaimed singer, pianist, tap dancer and comedian, Mark Nadler has directed cabaret shows for a range of performers including Heather MacRae, Billie Roe, and Marta Sanders. As director/music director/accompanist/arranger for Nancy McCall's first cabaret show in more than a decade, he guided her to a 2020 Bistro Award for Interpretive Artistry. For Stacy Sullivan, he created and directed "A Night at the Troubadour." In reviewing that show, Stephen Holden of The New York Times said, "...the show, exquisitely directed by Mark Nadler, is a brave leap into the unknown and an acting tour de force."

All of Celia Berk's music is available on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, and streaming platforms worldwide.

Photo: Helane Blumfield.

 

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