Patty & Emily talk to Seth Sikes about his upcoming 54 Below show: Seth Sikes is Still Singing Judy Garland! They also discuss Seth’s work on Sondheim: The Birthday Concert and some of the bad musicals we love. Seth’s show is at 54 Below on Thursday, April 16th at 7:00pm. Get your tickets now!
Patty & Emily welcome guests Emily Padgett & Erin Davie from our beloved Side Show to talk about theatre and their upcoming show at 54 Below on March 5th at 7pm! Hear all about it, then buy your tickets!
We sat down with one our favorite Broadway ladies (and Patrick’s Mothers), Kate Baldwin, to find out a little more about her upcoming show at 54 Below, Sing Pretty, Don’t Fall Down. Kate said the name came from advice her college musical theatre professor would give her when she had, she’s ashamed to admit, let her musical theatre assignments fall behind her academics. So the very least she could do was go out there, sing pretty, and don’t fall down. Little did she know, however, that this ended up being good preparation for the way professional performers are often expected to learn things on short notice.
So, the idea for the show was formed from all of the things Kate wished she had known about the business, all the ways you could “fall down.” She’ll be sharing stories about her falls, but also how she got back up again. Get ready to hear showbiz tales about her interactions with fans at the stage door and run-ins with other actors. We also learned that she is not good at ad-libbing, in fact it’s one of her least favorite things to do. Not great when you just did a show with who she calls “the master ad-libber,” Norbert Leo Butz. And we can’t wait to find out what “salty advice” she got from an actor.
Interwoven with these stories, of course, will be what Kate calls some of her “greatest hits.” Included on this list will be a song from each of her most recent shows, Big Fish and Giant, songs from one of her favorite collaborators Sheldon Harnick, a couple of Sondheim songs that Kate doesn’t think she’s ever performed publicly, and a song with special guest Katie Thompson. But there’s much more than this in store, and really, it doesn’t matter what Kate Baldwin is singing because, in the end, Kate Baldwin is singing.
We once again ended our conversation by asking Kate to answer our silly little questionnaire. Here are her answers:
Patty & Emily: Do you know Beth Leavel?
Kate Baldwin: Yes, I do. I have photos with Beth Leavel.
P&E: Which show do you most want revived?
KB: I want to do Sunday in the Park with George, and I want to play Dot.
P&E: Have you ever fallen asleep on stage while pretending to sleep or be dead on stage?
KB: Yes. In high school, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I played Titania. And you know, she has to fall…I fell asleep.
P&E: What happened?
KB: Um, I don’t remember. I just remember somebody jabbing me and waking up. And probably not saying something in Shakespeare. Like Shakespeare’s a language. It wasn’t in Shakespeare. It was English, but it wasn’t in verse.
P&E: What’s your favorite Broadway house?
KB: Oh, the St. James. It has to be the St. James.
P&E: Dreamcast us in a show.
KB: Dreamcast you in a show? Newsies? You could be some Newsies.
P&E: Do you have a monologue prepared?
KB: Hell no. Do I have a monologue? I have never had a monologue in my life. Never. That’s a big fallacy.
P&E: What is the show you’ve seen the most times?
KB: The Full Monty because I was a swing, so I would go every night and watch it.
P&E: What about shows you weren’t working on?
KB: I don’t think I’ve seen a show more than twice. I saw The Wedding Singer twice because it was fun. I dug it. I saw The Drowsy Chaperone twice. I saw The Light in the Piazza twice because I cried through the first time. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels twice? Maybe.
P&E: Who would you fangirl over?
KB: I fangirled all over Laura Linney and turned into a big pile of mush.
P&E: On a scale of 1-10, how awful is the Broadway World message board?
KB: What? Is it…it’s a message board so people post their opinions about things?
P&E: Don’t ever go on it. If you don’t know about it, then you don’t need to know it. It’s a 10. No, it’s a 20.
P&E: If you had comps and a time machine, what would you go see?
KB: Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady? Patti LuPone in Evita?
Kate will be at 54 Below for three nights: May 15th, 16th, and 17th. Get your tickets here, and we’ll see you there! And there’s a good chance she’ll be wearing these shoes, so you don’t want to miss out.
We were lucky enough to talk to Lillias White about her upcoming 54 Below show, The Lillias White Effect. But before we dove into that, we needed to make sure she knew that Audra McDonald went on a tweeting spree two weeks ago, posting links to YouTube videos of Lillias and calling her voice “singular, brilliant & perfect.” We couldn’t agree more and couldn’t be more excited for her upcoming show!
Lillias said it all started when 54 Below reached out to her to do a show at the venue. We also have her good friend Joshua Sherman to thank for getting her to the 54 Below stage. (Check out this amazing video they did together!) What made it all come together, however, was when Lillias “locked eyes” with a young man at the opening night for Disaster! the Musical. This young man was Will Nunziata. He approached Lillias because in that moment he had a gut feeling that this was the “once-in-a-lifetime talent” he was looking for to direct in a show.
And this show sounds like it’s going to be amazing, not that we thought a Lillias White show would be anything less! When we called her, she had just been listening to Rosalind Russell in Gypsy in preparation. Billy Stritch is her musical director. And she’s working with a director for the first time on a show like this. She is enjoying having Will there to really shape it. His focus is to stay true to Lillias as an artist, so we can expect all those songs we want to hear Lillias sing, but maybe not from such an expected place.
We ended our conversation with Lillias by asking her to answer our silly little questionnaire we’ve used in our 54 Below shows. Here are her answers:
Patty & Emily: Do you know Beth Leavel?
Lillias White: Yes
P&E: Which show do you most want revived?
LW: Oh, there’s a list. I would love to see Gyspy revived with me starring as Mama Rose. I’d love to see Mame too. Hello, Dolly! with me as Dolly. I’d love to see a revival of Once on This Island. What else? The Wiz.
P&E: Have you ever fallen asleep on stage while pretending to sleep or be dead on stage?
LW: No
P&E: What’s your favorite Broadway house?
LW: The St. James. I love it up there. That was my first.
P&E: Do you have a monologue?
LW: Uh, yeah. I could do one. If they called me today and said have it tomorrow, I could do that.
P&E: What is the show you’ve seen the most times?
LW: Dreamgirls. I think I’ve seen that show more than anything.
P&E: Who would you fangirl over?
LW: There are lots of people, you know, who are fantastic! There’s a singer named Ledisi. Every time I see her, I just bow down. Also, Leontyne Price. Harry Belafonte. There was a girl in Motown, Morgan James. She’s got some pipes. Also, Valerie Simpson. Rachelle Ferrell. And Mariah Carey. Also, Gregory Porter! Oh, oh, oh! That voice is just fantastic.
P&E: On a scale of 1-10, how awful is the Broadway World message board?
LW: Oh, I don’t know. I don’t look at that every day. I’m not a computer person.
P&E: If you had comps and a time machine, what would you go see?
LW: Oh, man. If I had comps and a time machine, I would go and see all of the shows that I would not have been able to see during the period where blacks were not allowed into the theatre. I would go see original productions of shows that had Lena Horne and Harry Belafonte.
We also asked Will if he had comps and time machine, which Lillias White show would he go see. He said The Life, and we would be right there with him.
The good thing is you don’t need a time machine to see Lillias White at 54 Below! She’s doing three nights: May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Get your tickets here, and we’ll see you there! We’ll be the ones crying.
We had another show at 54 Below, and asked guest Jessica Phillips to sing a song from a “dream list.” Jessica chose to sing “Tell Me It’s Not True” from Blood Brothers with Sarah Ellis on the piano. Can you say revival?!
We had another show at 54 Below, and asked guest Cady Huffman to sing a song from a “dream list.” Cady chose to sing “As Long As He Needs Me” from Oliver! with Sarah Ellis on the piano. She’s amazing.
We had our first show at 54 Below and asked guest Julia Murney to sing a song from a “dream list.” Julia chose to sing ‘Waiting for Life’ from Once on this Island with back up by Amber Iman and Kevin David Thomas. It was everything.
We had our first show at 54 Below and asked guests Amber Iman and Julia Murney to sing songs from a “dream list,” including a list of duets. Amber and Julia chose to sing Agony from Into the Woods, and magic happened.
January 2, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Patty & Emily
IN
Patty & Emily &
With Special Guests Julia Murney and Amber Iman
A Joyous Late Night Talk Show of Broadway Love
Thursday, January 9th 2014 at 11:30pm
AT 54 BELOW, BROADWAY’S SUPPER CLUB
www.54Below.com
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54 BELOW, Broadway’s Supper Club, presents Patty & Emily in “Patty & Emily &” on January 9th at 11:30pm. Patty & Emily are taking their special brand of fangirl enthusiasm off YouTube and bringing it on the 54 Below stage! Join in the obsessive Broadway chat with this late night talk show. Patty & Emily, along with music director Kevin David Thomas, will welcome Broadway guests Julia Murney and Amber Iman for performances and interviews, all the while gushing over them embarrassingly. There will be gasping, laughing, probably a lot of tears, and a whole lot of Broadway love.
Kevin David Thomas is a music director, vocal coach, and performer. As a musician, he’s worked on numerous shows as music director, keyboard player, and music copyist from Broadway (A Tale of Two Cities) to Moscow, Russia (Russian Theater Academy). As an actor, Kevin has performed on Broadway in A Little Night Music and Les Miserables. He is a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University.
Julia Murney last appeared on Broadway as Elphaba in Wicked after playing the role on the national tour for which she received an Acclaim Award. Other New York credits include Lennon, Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party (Drama Desk nomination), Falling (Drama Desk nomination), The Vagina Monologues, A Class Act, Saved, Crimes of the Heart, Queen of the Mist, Closer Than Ever, and Time and Again (Lucille Lortel nomination).
Amber Iman – Broadway: Soul Doctor, (Nina Simone). Off-Broadway: A Civil War Christmas (NYTW), and RENT (New World Stages). Amber is delighted to sing with the fabulous Julia Murney.
Patty & Emily in “Patty & Emily &” plays 54 Below (254 West 54th Street) on January 9th, 2014 at 11:30pm. There is a $10 cover charge and 2 drink or $20 food and beverage minimum. Tickets and information are available at www.54Below.com. Tickets on the day of performance after 4:00 are only available by calling (646) 476-3551.
MORE ABOUT PATTY & EMILY
Patty & Emily came to New York separately with a love of musical theatre, sarcasm, and sass. They met in improv class at the Upright Citizens Brigade, forming an instant bond over how amazing Patti LuPone is, and eventually started a Vlog. Mixing their theatre knowledge with their snarky senses of humor, their Vlog soon gained attention from Tony nominees and Broadway producers. As special correspondents for Memphis, Patty & Emily interviewed the cast at the Tony after party and hosted the “Memmy Awards” for Memphis’s one year Broadway anniversary. Their comedy videos have been featured by Broadway musicals Newsies, Leap of Faith, and Lysistrata Jones.
MORE ABOUT 54 BELOW
54 BELOW, Broadway’s Supper Club, is the new performance venue in the grand tradition of New York City nightlife. A few blocks from the heart of Times Square and just below the legendary Studio 54, 54 BELOW is a classically designed state-of-the art nightclub in the theatre district that hosts audiences with warmth and style. The venue provides a food and beverage menu from early evening through the wee hours of the morning that is worthy of the world-class entertainment on the stage. In their description of 54 BELOW, The New York Times writes “the club has the intimacy of a large living room with unimpeded views and impeccable sound; there is not a bad seat. Its sultry after-hours ambience is enhanced by brocade-patterned wall panels planted with orange-shaded lanterns. And the atmosphere is warmer and sexier than in Manhattan’s other major supper clubs.” Located at 254 West 54th Street, 54 BELOW features up to three shows nightly with cover charges ranging from $15-$95.
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Hopefully, you’ve all seen that we’re doing a show at 54 Below in January. But next week, on December 12th at 11:30pm, our friends Sarah Taylor Ellis and Lane Williamson are doing a show! They are super talented composers, and we can’t wait to see their show, Intersections! Here’s what they say about it:
At the intersection of classic musical theater and contemporary classical music, Sarah Taylor Ellis and Lane Williamson’s vernacular art songs cut to the core. Their smart and contemplative music encompasses settings of prose, sonnets, and tumblr posts, and their new chamber musical The Yellow Wallpaper adapts Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s early feminist short story into a haunting theatrical work. Join Ellis and Williamson for the 54 Below debut of a distinctive new songwriting team.
Intersections features Michael Parker Ayers, Christina Benedetto, Sally Eidman, Camden Gonzales, Karen Hayden, Rachel Lee, Travis Leland, Mary Kate Morrissey, Rachel Sussman, David Alan Thornton, Rebecca Tucker, and Max Vernon.
AND, we have a promo code for you! Use EW54BLOG for 20% off the cover charge! So click here for tickets. We’ll see you there!