8/31: Queen Mary Art Deco Festival

Saturday, August 31, I'll join Dean Mora and The Queen Mary Orchestra and fellow vocalist Kayre Morrison as we return to play for the Grand Ball, part of the weekend-long Eighth Annual Art Deco Festival aboard the legendary Queen Mary.

In addition to tours, lectures, cocktails and dances, the Festival also makes an important contribution to ongoing efforts to preserve the original Art Deco design elements aboard the ship. Proceeds from the Grand Art Deco Ball will go to updating the Queen Mary Story Tour with new exhibits from the historic archives. Presented in association with the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.

Saturday, August 31, 2013 

Dean Mora and The Queen Mary Orchestra

The Art Deco Festival

RMS Queen Mary, 1126 Queen's Highway, Long Beach, California 90802

For tickets and more information, visit the Queen Mary site.

8/24: APACF's Great Gatsby Weekend

I'll be presenting songs written for the Leading Men of Broadway's Golden Era by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green this Saturday as I join David Burnham (Broadway: "Wicked," "The Light in the Piazza") and Eden Espinosa (Broadway: "Wicked," "Flora, The Red Menace") as the line-up of live entertainment at the Anaheim Performing Arts Center Foundation's Great Gatsby Weekend.

GREAT GATSBY WEEKEND

Anaheim Performing Arts Center Foundation
Saturday, August 24 at 5:30 PM

Tickets available at 714.554.2711 or gigi@apacf.org.

8/9-11 & 8/14-18: MARY POPPINS

Next up: I play the irascible George Banks in the regional premiere of MARY POPPINS at Musical Theatre of Wichita. The Disney Company, in partnership with Cameron Mackintosh, has agreed to allow MTWichita to be one of the first theatres in the world to develop its own production of this all-family classic. The beloved songs from the film, including “Chim Chim Cheree,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “Feed the Birds,” and “A Spoonful of Sugar,” have been expanded and enhanced with new material from George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (the creators of HONK!).

Music Theatre of Wichita’s production of

Disney’s and Cameron Mackintosh’s

MARY POPPINS

August 9 – 11 and August 14 – 18

MTWichita

Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center

225 W Douglas Ave  Wichita, KS 67202

A Musical based on the stories of  P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney Film

Original Music and Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman

Book by Julian Fellowes, New Songs and Additional Music and Lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe

Co-Created by Cameron Mackintosh,  Originally Produced by Cameron Mackintosh and Thomas Schumacher for Disney

UPDATE: The Wichita Eagle's Bob Curtright writes of the production:

"Music Theatre of Wichita’s ‘Mary Poppins’ brings out the kid in all of us":

"And this super—okay, okay, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocius”—production that caps the 42nd season for Music Theatre of Wichita, cheers and enthralls the kid in all of us with its colorful, whimsical imagination...but it also touches our hearts in a satisfying way that the film often glossed over in favor of surface fun... Directed with exuberant flair but an underlying emotional sensitivity to the subtler themes by MTW’s Wayne Bryan, this show is a regional premiere and one of only eight productions this year licensed by Disney."

For a "Sneek Peek" of the cast, visit MTWichita.org.

Photo: © Christopher Clark Designer Portraits 

Edward Sturm as Michael Banks, Damon Kirsche as George Banks, Claire Gerig as Winifred Banks,
 Londen Peebler as Jane Banks. Photo: © Christopher Clark Designer Portraits 

Mary Poppins (Lindsey Bliven) arrives at #17 Cherry Tree Lane. Edward Sturm and Londen Peebler as Michael and Jane Banks, Claire Gerig and Damon Kirsche as Winifred and George Banks  in Music Theatre of Wichita's production of MARY POPPINS (Photo: Jaime Green / The Wichita Eagle)

Karen L. Rob as The Birdwoman, Lindsey Bliven as Mary Poppins, David Elder as Bert
 in MTWichita's MARY POPPINS. (Photo: Jaime Green / The Wichita Eagle)