New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 is hosted by Larry Adams and features Chicago’s newest talents performing unforgettable songs from the hit shows Les Misérables, Into the Woods, Me and My Girl and more.
Porchlight Music Theatre announces its newest virtual offering, the first online production of its New Faces Sing Broadway series, New Faces Sing Broadway 1987, hosted by Larry Adams, directed by Christopher Pazdernik and with music direction and arrangements by David Fiorello. New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 was filmed on-site at Chicago’s historic Studebaker Theatre, and will be available for streaming beginning Friday, Nov. 6 at 12 p.m. Central time through Nov. 29. Tickets are $25 - $50 and are on sale now. For more information, visit PorchlightMusicTheatre.org or call the Porchlight Music Theatre box office at 773.777.9884.
Porchlight Music Theatre’s New Faces Sing Broadway series returns, taking audiences on a musical journey from the start to the finish of an entire Broadway season in 90 minutes. Host Larry Adams, Jeff-nominated actor from Porchlight’s Sunset Boulevard, will introduce the audience to the next generation of Chicago music theatre artists while serving as the guide to the stars, songs and stories of the past. New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 includes hit songs from the Les Misérables, Into the Woods, Me and My Girl and other musicals from the 1987 Broadway season.
The cast of Porchlight Music Theatre’s New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 includes: Anna Marie Abbate, Isabella Andrews, Ciera Dawn, Taylor DiTola, Tim Foszcz, Cameron Goode, Garrett Griffin, Parker Guidry, Devon Hayakawa and Kelan M. Smith.
The production team of New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 includes: Christopher Pazdernik (director); David Fiorello (music director and arrangements); Alex Rhyan (director of production); CastleLight Productions (video, editing and audio services) and Michael Weber (artistic director).
ABOUT LARRY ADAMS, host
Larry Adams recently received acclaim and a Jeff Award-nomination for his portrayal of “Max von Mayerling” in Porchlight’s 2019 production of Sunset Boulevard starring Hollis Resnik. Adams is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and has worked with many of Chicago's leading theatre companies, including: The Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Drury Lane, The Paramount Theatre, The Marriott Theatre, Theatre at the Center, Light Opera Works and Victory Gardens Theatre. Broadway credit includes The Phantom of the Opera. Off Broadway credits include The Hunchback Variations and Photo Op. National Tours credits include: Scrooge. Regional credits include the title role in Sweeney Todd (Fulton Theatre). Adams is a graduate of The University of Wisconsin - Madison.
ABOUT CHRISTOPHER PAZDERNIK, director
Christopher Pazdernik is an artist with “a near encyclopedic knowledge of musicals” (NewCity Stage) based in Chicago. He is Porchlight Music Theatre’s casting & company manager and has frequently directed for Porchlight Revisits, Porchlight Music Theatre's lost musicals series, where he has helmed Anyone Can Whistle, City of Angels, Applause, The Rink, Do Re Mi, Minnie's Boys and Call Me Madam. For three seasons, he was the artistic director of Refuge Theatre Project, where he directed High Fidelity (Jeff Awards: Best Director & Best Musical), The Spitfire Grill, The Last Session and Hands on a Hardbody as well as producing the Chicago premieres of Things to Ruin and Lysistrata Jones. Other credits include work with Round Barn Theatre, Chicago Theatre Workshop, Underscore Theatre Company, Eclectic Theatre Company, Ohio Northern University, two years of the Non-Equity Jeff Awards and a judge for the 2019 Chicago Music Theatre Festival. His cabaret work involves curating and directing two editions of Broadway's Cult Classics at Davenport's Piano Bar, four editions of His & His for Pride Films & Plays and five editions of New Faces Sing Broadway for Porchlight. Pazdernik also has extensive producing, casting and management experience including First Date (company manager--Chicago premiere), Splintered Soul (company manager--Chicago premiere), Rosencranz Mysteries (associate producer--world premiere), Civility of Albert Cashier (associate producer--world premiere) and Miracle (casting director--world premiere). An openly HIV+ artist, Christopher produces Belt Fest, an annual benefit concert for Howard Brown Health, one of the nation's largest LGBTQ+ organizations.
ABOUT DAVID FIORELLO, music director and arrangements
David Fiorello is a director, music director, performer, orchestrator and playwright that's had his work featured across the globe. Most recently, he co-founded and is artistic director for The Beautiful City Project. Fiorello’s history with Porchlight Music Theatre includes music directing for Porchlight the productions of Gypsy, Do Re Mi, Woman of the Year, two editions of Chicago Sings, nine editions of New Faces Sing Broadway and seen onstage as "Joe Josephson" in Merrily We Roll Along. Fiorello has been in Chicago since 2010, when he moved from the East Coast to music direct and vocal coach at Northwestern University’s Music Theatre Certificate Program. He served as music director for the Off-Broadway hit Danny & Sylvia: The Danny Kaye Musical, and has toured nationally and internationally with several productions, including John Doyle’s re-imagining of Sweeney Todd, as music director. Fiorello has worked in Chicago with Chicago Shakespeare, The Marriott Theatre and many others. A director, music director, performer, writer, arranger and show doctor, he has helped guide new works to development and world premieres in Chicago, at New York Musical Festival and several premieres in the United Kingdom. He has written and collaborated on several original pieces, including the musical The Language or the Kiss, a musical featuring the music of The Indigo Girls, that he conceived, wrote the book and starred in for many Off-Broadway industry readings.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
Porchlight Music Theatre is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the city’s Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimaging classic musicals, supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago’s most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.”
Now in our 26th season, our quarter-century production history includes more than 70 mainstage works with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres. Porchlight’s commitment to the past, present and future of music theatre led the company to develop the Porchlight Revisits and New Faces Sing Broadway program series, both quickly becoming audience favorites.
Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels, and community organizations, and we love our ongoing collaboration with Chicago Youth Centers. We annually award dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form.
The company’s many honors include 178 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 42 Jeff awards, as well as 33 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 12 BTA awards. This past season, Porchlight Music Theatre “graduated” to the Large Theatre tier of the Joseph Jefferson Equity Awards, stiffening our competition for the Jeff committee’s recognition. We await the virtual award ceremony and how Porchlight fared with our eight nominations in both technical and artistic categories, most notably Best Musical/Revue and Best Ensemble noms for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies.
Through the global pandemic, Porchlight has emerged as one of Chicago’s leaders in virtual programming, quickly launching a host of free offerings like Sondheim@90 Roundtables, Movie Musical Mondays, Porchlight by Request: Command Performances, and WPMT: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio. For the 2020-2021 season, Porchlight has announced a full Fall schedule of all-new ticketed virtual programs including Broadway by the Decade, New Faces Sing Broadway 1987, as well as collaborations with LA Theater Works, and much more coming in the new year.
Porchlight Music Theatre announces its newest virtual offering, the first online production of its New Faces Sing Broadway series, New Faces Sing Broadway 1987, hosted by Larry Adams, directed by Christopher Pazdernik and with music direction and arrangements by David Fiorello. New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 was filmed on-site at Chicago’s historic Studebaker Theatre, and will be available for streaming beginning Friday, Nov. 6 at 12 p.m. Central time through Nov. 29. Tickets are $25 - $50 and are on sale now. For more information, visit PorchlightMusicTheatre.org or call the Porchlight Music Theatre box office at 773.777.9884.
Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, Actors’ Equity Foundation, Allstate, Bayless Family Foundation, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, Chapman | Spingola, Attorneys at Law, the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Elegant Event Lighting, James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation, Hearty Boys, A.L. and Jennie L. Luria Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at Prince, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation, The Saints, Dr. Scholl Foundation, the Stuart Family Foundation, the Topfer Family Foundation. The season program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency, and by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.
FOR LISTINGS:
- Porchlight Music Theatre presents
- New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 with host Larry Adams
- Available for streaming Nov. 6 - 29
- Streaming price: $25 - $50
- Streaming begins Friday, Nov. 6 at 12 p.m. Central time
- Links are valid for 72 hours after purchase
- Available at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org
ADDITIONAL PORCHLIGHT VIRTUAL OFFERINGS
Zoot Suit
In collaboration with L.A. Theatre Works
Available for viewing: November 27 - December 20
Debuts: Friday, Nov. 27 at 12 p.m. Central
By Luis Valdez
Incidental Music by Daniel Valdez and Lalo Guerrero
Director: Luis Valdez
Music Director: Daniel Valdez
Cast: Marco Rodriguez, Kinan Valdez, Daniel Valdez, Alma Martinez, Primavera Flor-Valdez, Lakin Valdez, Gregory Itzin, Xochiquetzal Candelaria, Estrella Esparza, Ruben C. Gonzalez, Raul Cardona, Daniel Chacón, Katrina Valdez, Seth Millwood, Spencer Garrett and Al Ruscio
Ticket Price: FREE
Tickets on sale: Friday, Oct. 30 at 10 a.m.
In a special arrangement with L.A. Theatre Works, playwright Luis Valdez masterfully uses the Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the unrest in Los Angeles following 12 Latino youths being unjustly convicted by a biased judge to examine the zoot suit culture of the 40s. Passionate and provocative, Zoot Suit pulses with the beat of big band music and traditional Latin songs.
This is the original radio broadcast recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles in July 2001.
This fall, Porchlight continues to offer free programming via its social media channels including Youtube.com. The continuing online Porchlight programming is:
Sondheim @ 90 Roundtable with host Artistic Director Michael Weber
Every other Saturday at 7 p.m. Central
FREE
Stephen Sondheim’s storied career is discussed show by show every other Saturday at 7 p.m. Central with special guests from the worlds of Chicago’s theater scene, Broadway and national music theatre presenters.
Dates TBA
The fall season launches with Weber talking with Deanna Dunagan (Tony Award-winning actor for August: Osage County, who appeared in the world premiere of Bounce at the Goodman, directed by Hal Prince), Chris Jones (Chicago Tribune chief theater critic and culture columnist, New York Daily News Broadway and WBBM-TV critic) and Michael Mahler (Jeff Award-winning actor, music director, composer/lyricist whose credits include creating additional lyrics for the Broadway revival of Miss Saigon as well as music direction for Road Show at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre) about Sondheim’s Road Show. Previously titled Bounce and before that Wise Guys and Gold!, Road Show, with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by John Weidman has a fascinating history, a complex evolution and has never appeared on the Great White Way but had productions in Chicago, Washington D.C. and off-Broadway.
Porchlight presents some complementary content, with a cocktail: I’ll Drink to That. A new episode of this series hosted by Porchlight Board Member and Hearty Boy Steve McDonagh debuts each Friday before a Sondheim episode. McDonagh, in his own original way, shares a cocktail recipe, pairing it with that week’s Sondheim @ 90 Roundtable with host Michael Weber's episode.
Movie Musical Monday
Every Monday at 7 p.m. Central
FREE
Each week a noteworthy host and special guest join in a ZOOM conversation about a musical movie with musical and movie fans. It’s like a book club for movies where attendees are asked to watch the movie before the chat and come prepared for an hour of conversation, fun facts and more.
WPMT PRESENTS: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio
Every Tuesday at 1 p.m. Central
FREE
Debuting this past summer and continuing into fall is Porchlight’s WPMT PRESENTS: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio. Artistic Director Michael Weber introduces musicals from the early to mid 20th century as they were heard on network radio programs such as The Lux Radio Theatre and The Theatre Guild on the Air, often featuring members of the original Broadway casts. A bonus feature to some of the series’ episodes are special guests joining Weber in conversation about that day’s broadcast. Past guests have included Mitchell J. Fain (discussing Strike Up the Band) and Christie Chiles Twillie (discussing Carmen Jones).
Tuesday, Oct. 27: WPMT PRESENTS: Phantom of the Opera with special guest, Chicago actor/playwright/teacher Tom Mula
Tuesday, Nov 10: WPMT PRESENTS: The Student Prince
Tuesday, Nov 17: WPMT PRESENTS: Allegro
Tuesday, Nov 24: WPMT PRESENTS: Holiday Inn
Tuesday, Dec 1: WPMT PRESENTS: Maytime
Tuesday, Dec 8: WPMT PRESENTS: The Lemon Drop Kid
Tuesday, Dec 15: WPMT PRESENTS: Babes in Toyland
Tuesday, Dec 22: WPMT PRESENTS: Meet Me in St. Louis
Tuesday, Dec 29: WPMT PRESENTS: On Your Toes
PORCHLIGHT BY REQUEST via Facebook, debut times vary
Fans of music theatre and others may request a show tune with a dedication and, in a "Command Performance," a favorite Porchlight artist customizes this song. Past Porchlight By Request videos have been dedicated to family members, front line responders, teachers and others.
Porchlight may change any of the above information for productions, artists, etc, due to new updates from the CDC or local government regarding up-to-date COVID-19 precautions and instructions.
New Faces Sing Broadway 1987
