Broadway's D. Sabella To Bring THE RAZZLE DAZZLE OF CHICAGO To The Pheasantry

Broadway's David Sabella will bring his solo show The Razzle Dazzle of Chicago to The Pheasantry April 21-22, 2023 7PM.

Original co-star in the history making, mega-musical CHICAGO (1996), David Sabella brings his audience an up close and personal view of it's creation, and his personal journey through gay marriage and parenting, all set to the music of the legendary songwriting team of Kander & Ebb.

The "Hamilton" of it's time, CHICAGO remains the longest running American musical on Broadway, whose record-breaking, blockbuster movie ushered in a new era of the movie-musical, and propelled this masterpiece into the very zeitgeist of American and global culture.

In addition to his work on this show, David Sabella is an internationally acclaimed singer and winner of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, whom Luciano himself declared to be "Excellent, not good, excellent!"

MORE ON David Sabella

David Sabella began his professional performance career as a member of the now legendary all-male opera comedy troupe "La Gran Scena," conceived by and starring Ira Siff. La Gran Scena was to opera what Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo was to ballet, spoofing all the great early and mid-century opera divas and great operatic scenes. During his time with the troupe, Sabella was the inimitable "Mirella Frenzi" and sang arias/roles including Aida, Butterfly, Lakme, Semiramide, Sofie, and Adrianna Lecouvreur.

His 4+octave range also landed him opportunities in voice-over work for both Disney ("Teacher's Pet" with Nathan Lane), and Fox Animation ("Peter Pan and the Pirates" with Tim Curry) where he played the evil villainess "Frau Brumhilde Broomhandle" (YouTube Video of this cartoon here -> https://youtu.be/nIWzJD1c9so)

In 1995, Sabella made history winning the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition when Maestro Pavarotti, so moved by Sabella's performance, stopped him before the end of his audition to publicly declare "I don't have to hear to the end. This is excellent! Not good, excellent!" This highest praise from the "King of the High C's" propelled Sabella into an international career, singing roles like Julio Cesare, Oberon (Midsummer Night's Dream), Ottone (L'incoronazione di Poppea), and Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), as well as appearing at both Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall as a principle soloist on numerous occasions, including PDQ Bach's "Three Bargain-Counter Tenors." Sabella is cited, along with colleagues David Daniels, Brian Asawa, and Mark Crayton as one of the originators of the "American countertenor sound," and remains the only one working in the popular music genres of Broadway, Pop, and Great American Songbook.

On Broadway, Sabella originated the starring role of "Mary Sunshine" in the 1996 revival of CHICAGO with Bebe Neuwirth, Ann Reinking, and Joel Grey. He remained in that show for the better part of ten years, both on Broadway and on the national tour (Las Vegas), and performed with a host of celebrities including Chita Rivera, Hall Linden, Melanie Griffith, Patrick Swayze, Linda Carter and Marilu Henner, just to name a few.

Sabella is also known as a highly sought-after vocal coach and "Singing Voice Specialist" (SVS), working with medical teams to assist and retrain recovering singers after injury, illness, or surgery. His highly seminal research on the "High Contemporary Belt" was published as part of the 52nd Conference of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and lead to him being featured in "So You Want to Sing CCM," a textbook profiling 12 international teachers, credited with creating a new Contemporary Commercial Music pedagogy. Sabella is also the author (with Sue Matsuki) of "So You Want to Sing Cabaret," (2020, Rowman & Littlefield), the unequivocable urtext on the subject of small venue solo vocal performance.

Most recently, Sabella has performed in concert venues throughout the country including Jazz at Lincoln Center (Rose Hall), Feinstein's/54 Below, Birdland Theater, Laurie Beechman Theatre, Urban Stages, Pangea, Judy's Chelsea and Don't Tell Mama. Since 2015 he has also starred Off-Broadway in Jules: The Julian Eltinge Story, and The Phillie Trilogy, for which he won the Fresh Fruit Festival award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play." He is also the 2022 MAC Award winner for "Major Male Artist."

David Sabella's personal caricature was unveiled (June 1998) and hangs in the world-famous theater restaurant, Sardi's. And, in addition to press quotes included in this release, he has been featured in national magazines such as Opera News, In Theater, Entertainment Weekly, A&U (Cover), OUT, Next, and most recently Gay Parent (June 2021).

Mark Hartman (Music Director) is a New York-based pianist, coach, conductor, arranger and composer working in theater, cabaret, and concerts around the world. Mark was the Associate Conductor of Sondheim On Sondheim and Avenue Q on Broadway. Off-Broadway, he was the Music Director for The Streets Of New York (2022 Drama Desk Award Nominee, Best Orchestrations), Pageant, Silence! The Musical, Ernest In Love, After The Ball, Finian's Rainbow, and The Irish...and How They Got That Way (also Nat'l Tour), Avenue Q (Vineyard) and The Fantasticks (Sullivan St. and Orbach Theater productions). Regional credits include Asolo Rep, Broadway In Chicago, Goodspeed, Guthrie Theater, Old Globe, PlayMakers Rep, In cabaret, Mark has enjoyed a long-time partnership with 13-time MAC Award winner Natalie Douglas. He is one of the music directors for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Cabaret Conference. Mark is the winner of 3 MAC Awards and the Backstage Bistro Award for Music Direction.

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