These Broadway Stars Bring Something Different
Broadway Voices has never had a concert quite like the one promised by Jeff Kready and Talley Sessions. “We think the audience can expect a great time,” Kready said. “We’ll make them laugh, we'll make them cry, hopefully even on purpose. It will be an evening of Broadway favorites, spirituals, and some new songs that will become favorites.”
Broadway Voices has never had a concert quite like the one promised by Jeff Kready and Talley Sessions.
“We think the audience can expect a great time,” Kready said. “We’ll make them laugh, we'll make them cry, hopefully even on purpose. It will be an evening of Broadway favorites, spirituals, and some new songs that will become favorites.”
A few tickets remain for the concert on Feb. 15 at the Garner Performing Arts Center.
Kready and Sessions bring impressive Broadway resumes . Talley will rush home to enter rehearsals for a highly anticipated revival of Company _ but when they get together hijinks ensue.
“We have a lot of fun,” said Kready, who delighted a sold-out audience last year in a solo concert at the GPAC. “Talley is super talented.”
Originally, Kready was returning to Garner this year with wife Nikki Renee Daniels. It was going to be a romantic evening for Valentine’s Day.
But when Daniels was cast in a major new musical and was unavailable for the concert, Kready turned to his pal Sessions, a University of North Carolina grad, for a revival of their fun-filled show.
“I can't wait to be back in Garner!’ Kready said. “We had such a wonderful audience last year that I was excited to have the opportunity to come back.
“This will be my fourth time performing in the area, and I'm thrilled to bring my good buddy Tally with me this time, especially since he is a native North Carolinian and UNC grad.”
The jokes will take a back seat to the singing, though. Kready currently is in Tootsie and was the youngest Broadway Jean Valjean in Les Misérables on Broadway. He also has appeared in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Billy Elliot. Sessions is a veteran of Company, War Paint, Falsettos and School of Rock.
It is expected to be a night of soaring tenor and booming baritone. And laughs. And tears.
But the fun will start before the concert does. Kready and Sessions are coming into town early to conduct the PNC Arts Immersion Project. They, and their musical director Laura
Bergquist will be working with elementary and high school students in the area. The Garner Magnet High School singers will perform during the concert.
“Working with the students is what really makes this experience special,” Kready said. “Laura Bergquist and I were absolutely blown away by the talent of the kids last year, so we are thrilled to get to expand on that this year by not only having Die Meistersingers perform on stage again, but also by doing a program for elementary students the day before the concert. As a former elementary school music teacher, I'm looking forward to returning to my roots that afternoon.”
This Could Be Our Lady Luck Day
Lady Luck, a trio of Broadway divas and accompanied by remarkable musical director Mark Vogel, sold out the final concert of the ninth season of Broadway Voices in April. But before the last of their gowns were packed, the entertainers were asked to open the 10th season.
Neal Padgett and Tim Stevens, the co-producers of the award-winning Broadway Voices concert series, broke one of their unwritten rules when they invited Lady Luck to open the 10th season of the innovative series.
“We said we would never have an artist twice in one year,” Padgett said. “But our audience gave us little choice.”
Lady Luck, a trio of Broadway divas and accompanied by remarkable musical director Mark Vogel, sold out the final concert of the ninth season of Broadway Voices in April. But before the last of their gowns were packed, the entertainers were asked to open the 10th season.
“The reaction from our audience as incredible,” Padgett said. “People loved them. Lady Luck is totally about entertaining the audience and our audience recognized that. Over and over we heard that people wanted to see their Christmas show.
“Unwritten rules need to be broken occasionally.”
Heidi Webster, the redhead of the red, blonde and brunette trio, said it was quite an honor to be invited back so soon.
“We are the first ones? Really,” she said from Los Angeles as she packed the six gowns she will wear in the show. “That is really special. You have had some remarkable performers. We are excited to return and see some of our friends.”
Coming back so soon poses some problems for the group. They want to do some of the songs that the audience loved, but they want to perform a new show, too. They want to include lots of Christmas and holiday music, but they know people enjoyed their Broadway selections the last time.
“We really put a lot of thought into it,” said Webster, who is joined by best friends Nicole Kaplan and Rachel Tyler in the group. “We’ve got a lot of Christmas songs that will help people kick off their holidays in a happy mood, but we’ve included some great Broadway songs.
“We want someone who has never seen us to leave knowing what our usual shows are like, but for people who are coming back to see us again to experience something new. And, of course, the Christmas stuff is so much fun.”
Webster, Kaplan and Tyler met when they were cast in the mammoth “Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers “ in Las Vegas. They became great friends during the run of the show. When the show closed, they wanted to keep performing together.
Thus Lady Luck was born.
“It really is incredible to do all these fun shows and go to these exciting places with your best friends,” Webster said.
The harmony among the group is just as strong off stage as on.
Webster delivered one of the most memorable songs at the Garner Performing Arts Center in the spring. She has a Masters in Musical Therapy degree and has worked with hospice patients. She told the story of a Parkinson patient, who never spoke, suddenly singing “It Had to Be You” to his wife as Webster played.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the building, which Tyler acknowledged by throwing toilet tissue to the audience.
“They know how to entertain,” Padgett said.
Vogel, well known as a music producer as well as composer and entertainer, said Lady Luck is unusual because all three singers are remarkable.
“I love to watch the audience early in the show,” Vogel said. “The first one sings and the audience is mentally saying that she is the best. Then the next one sings and the audience is thinking, the third one must be the weakest. Then she sings and the audience suddenly realizes they are three great soloists in addition to having incredible harmonies.”
All three had solo careers before striking pay dirt together.
Webster has starred in Grease, The Music Man, Little Shop of Horrors, Into the Woods, Pippin and How to Succeed in Business.
Tyler, who is English, is known of London’s West End for Miss Saigon, Smokey Joe’s Café and the Rocky Horror Show. She spent two years on United States national tours of Mamma Mia.
Kaplan recently made her European stage debut in the Ukraine in Chicago. Stateside, she has performed in Camelot, Love Letters, Candide, Forum, The Little Mermaid and others.
A limited number of tickets, $35, are available at the Garner Chamber of Commerce or by calling 919-661-4602.
10th Season of Broadway Voices Features Biggest Lineup Ever
By Tim Stevens
The three-performance series at the Garner Performing Arts Center will feature six Broadway standouts, three remarkable musical directors and dozens of area high school students.
Heidi Webster of Lady Luck.
Garner’s award-winning Broadway Voices returns for its 10th season with its biggest lineup ever.
The three-performance series at the Garner Performing Arts Center will feature six Broadway standouts, three remarkable musical directors and dozens of area high school students. A new addition this year is the PNC Arts Immersion Partnership, which gives public school students of all ages the opportunity to work with Broadway stars Jeff Kready and Nikki Renee Daniels.
“We are excited to include so many of our community students this year,” said Neal Padgett, the president of the Garner Chamber of Commerce. “The opportunity to bring this level talent to our community and to have them work with our students is remarkable. This will be a memory forever for some of them.”
Sandwiching the Feb. 15 show and Master Class by Kready and Daniels are a holiday show by Lady Luck on Nov. 15, 2019 and a solo show by Broadway and television star Bryce Pinkham on April 25.
Season tickets for all three shows are available for $75 for a limited time (ends October 1st)
The regular price is $85.
Lady Luck
November 23, 2019
Garner Performing Arts Center
Lady Luck, a trio of Broadway veterans who electrified the GPAC last spring during a sold out performance, opens the season on Nov. 23, with a Christmas show.
Heidi Webster, Nicole Kaplan and Rachel Tyler’s holiday show is expected to include songs such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “Santa Baby,” and other beloved Christmas songs, plus some Broadway favorites.
The spring concert was filled with laughs and a few tears. Webster, who is a music therapist, talked about working with a non-responsive Parkinson patient who broke into song when Webster began strumming “It Had To Be You” on her guitar. The Hospice patient and his wife shared an improbable moment.
Nikki Renee Daniels and Jeff Kready
February 15, 2020
Garner Performing Arts Center
Jeff Kready is thrilled to return to Garner and work with area students and talent.
Kready, who starred in Les Miserables, Billy Elliott and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, conducted a Master Class with Garner Magnet students last year and prepared them to share the stage with him at the GPAC.
He has invited the group to return to the stage with him and has added Daniels, his wife, to the concert and master class. They will conduct another Master Class at an area elementary school as part of the PNC immersion project.
Daniels currently is in the mega-hit Hamilton and is known for her show-stopping performance of “Summertime” in Broadway’s Porgy & Bess. She also performed in Les Miserables, Lestat, Anything Goes, Book of Mormon and six other Broadway shows.
Nikki Renee Daniels
“Her resume is astounding,” Padgett said.
Kready and Daniels, who will share the stage with Garner Magnet students, are doing a Valentine’s Day concert (Feb. 15) and promise love songs galore, plus standards from some of Broadway’s biggest hits.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to return to Garner, especially to work with area students,” Kready said. “The talent and dedication of budding performers in the region is extraordinary. Having a chance to coach them one-on-one will be exciting.”
Kready said the Garner audience was so appreciative last spring that he is excited to come back.
“To sing again for Garner audiences will be a joy . . .they were so receptive last time, and I know they'll be bowled over when they get to hear Nikki,” Kready said.
Jeff Kready sings on the Topeka Festival Singers concert.
Bryce Pinkham
April 25, 2019
Garner Performing Arts Center
Pinkham, a Tony nominee for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Marriage, also has two Drama Desk and one Outer Critics Award nominations.
He also acquired fame as Maj. Clayton McBurney, III in the television series “Mercy Street” on PBS. Pinkham also recently starred in the Bing Crosby role of “Holiday Inn.”
Season 10 of Broadway Voices
Season Tickets
$75 until Oct. 1, $85 thereafter
Get your season tickets and don’t miss a single show.
Lady Luck Holiday
Nov. 23 - Tickets $35
Nikki Renee Daniels and Jeff Kready
Feb. 15, 2020 -Tickets $35
Bryce Pinkham
April 25, 2020 - Tickets $35
Broadway Voices Series
Broadway Voices is a partnership among the Town of Garner, The Garner Chamber of Commerce and area businesses.
The Triangle’s Broadway Voices returns for its TENTH star-studded season with three concerts featuring Broadway's hottest stars.
The series has attracted Tony Award nominees and Tony Award winners who have starred in some of Broadway's biggest shows including "Cher," "Hamilton," "Tootsie," "Porgy and Bess," "Beauty and the Beast," "Wicked," "Mary Poppins," "Phantom," "Les Miserables," "Ragtime," "Jekyll & Hyde," "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Chicago."