Darren Criss & Sutton Foster to Kick-Off Second Season of Broadway @ The Nourse Concert Series

Mark Cortale's acclaimed Broadway @ The Nourse concert series returns to San Francisco this season with stars Darren Criss and Sutton Foster. Hosted by Sirius XM Radio Star Seth Rudetsky whom the New York Times dubbed "The Mayor of Broadway," the popular series will return for the 2015/16 season at The Nourse Theater with two concerts. First up will be the red-hot star of TV's "Glee" and Broadway's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," Darren Criss on October 30, followed by two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster on January 16. What differentiates this concert series from any other is the seamless mix of intimate behind-the-scenes stories from Broadway's biggest stars - prompted by the encyclopedic-minded Rudetsky's probing, funny, revealing questions - and their stellar singing of musical theatre repertoire. The Broadway @ The Nourse concert series will benefit San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Project Open Hand, and San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Tickets are now on-sale - further information can be found at www.cityboxoffice.com/broadway or by calling (415) 392-4400.

Darren Criss is widely known for playing Blaine Anderson on Fox TV's hit musical comedy/drama series "Glee." On the series, as lead vocalist of the show's Dalton Academy Warblers, his cover of the song "Teenage Dream" became the fastest-selling "Glee" single ever, reaching as high as number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was a certified gold single in the U.S. Darren was nominated for an Emmy Award this year for writing the song "This Time" for the "Glee" finale. On Broadway, Darren Criss has starred in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". He is one of the founding members and co-owners of StarKid Productions, the musical theater company based in Chicago, at which he starred as Harry Potter in the company's production of "A Very Potter Musical." The company's original album "Me and My Dick" made Billboard history by becoming the first charting student-produced musical recording, debuting at number eleven on the Top Cast Albums chart in 2010. Criss made his feature film debut in 2012 in the comedy "Girl Most LIkely."

Sutton Foster won two Tony Awards for her leading roles in "Anything Goes" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and starred in the ABC Family TV series "Bunheads." She has just returned to TV this past year as the star of the hit new series "Younger" on TV Land by "Sex and the City" creator Darren Star, to rave reviews. She recently starred in the revival of Andrew Lippa's "The Wild Party" for Encores at City Center this past July. She was nominated for another Tony Award in Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley musical "Violet" at New York's Roundabout Theatre in 2014. Sutton Foster has starred on Broadway in "The Will Rogers Follies," "Grease," "The Scarlet Pimpernel," "Annie," and "LES MISERABLES" before her big break and Tony Award-winning performance in "Thoroughly Modern Millie." She has since then originated roles in the Broadway productions of "Little Women," "The Drowsy Chaperone," "Young Frankenstein," and "Shrek the Musical." She recently starred as Reno Sweeney in The Roundabout's revival of "Anything Goes," a role that earned her the 2011 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Astaire, and Broadway.com's Audience Favorite Awards.

She was first seen on television on "Star Search" at age 15, and has appeared in "Johnny and the Sprites" and "Flight of the Conchords." More recently, she was the star of the ABC Family TV ballet 'dramedy' "Bunheads," created by "Gilmore Girls" writer/producer Amy Sherman-Palladino. She is the star of the brand new TV Land series "Younger" by "Sex and the City" creator Darren Star, which just premiered on March 31, 2015, and co-stars Hilary Duff and Debi Mazar. Last year she also appeared on the prestigious 36th Annual Kennedy Center Honors broadcast, where she performed a medley of hit Broadway songs made famous by honoree Shirley MacLaine, including "Something Better Than This," "Steam Heat" and "She's No Longer A Gypsy."

Seth Rudetsky is the afternoon host on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio's ON BROADWAY as well as the host of SETH SPEAKS on Sirius/XM Stars. As a pianist, Seth has played for more than a dozen Broadway shows including Ragtime, Les Miz and Phantom. He was the Artistic Producer/Music Director for the first five annual Actors Fund Fall Concerts including "Dreamgirls" with Audra McDonald (recorded on Nonesuch Records) and "HAIR" with Jennifer Hudson (recorded on Ghostlight Records, Grammy Nomination). In 2007 he made his Broadway acting debut playing Sheldon (singing "Magic to Do" in a devastating unitard) in "The Ritz" directed by Joe Mantello for The Roundabout Theater. Off-Broadway he wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed "Rhapsody in Seth" (directed by Peter Flynn) at the Actors Playhouse and has also appeared on TV on "Law & Order: CI" and had a recurring role on "All My Children." As an author, he penned the non-fiction Q Guide To Broadway, the novel Broadway Nights and the recently published My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan (Random House). Broadway Nights is available on Audible.com starring Kristin Chenoweth, Andrea Martin and Jonathan Groff and My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan stars Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ana Gasteyer and Megan Hilty. Seth played himself on "Kathy Griffin; My Life on the D-List," was the vocal coach on MTV's "Legally Blonde" reality show and starred opposite Sutton Foster in "They're Playing Our Song" for the Actors Fund. Recently, he co-wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed "Disaster!," a 1970's disaster movie musical which is now slated to transfer to Broadway in 2015. Right now, he tours the country performing with Broadway stars like Patti LuPone, Sutton Foster and Audra McDonald. His newest book, The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek was published this past June by Random House and is available on Amazon.com. For more info visit: www.SethTV.com.

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