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Cheers to 2025 and memorable musical performances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts!
The Center is toasting the New Year with three Broadway performers in the Samueli Theater in January and February as part of the 2024/2025 cabaret series.
On January 16 through 18, composer/performer Jason Robert Brown (“Bridges of Madison County,” “The Last Five Years,” “Parade”) is joined by actor and vocalist Anika Noni Rose, both Tony Award winners, for an evening of his Broadway songs and American standards.
A week later January 23 through 25 is the debut of singer and actor Kerry Butler from “Mean Girls” and “Beetlejuice” with an eclectic evening comprising her many roles in numerous shows.
A few weeks later February 20 through 22 comes Claybourne Elder (“Company,” HBO’s “The Gilded Age”) making his debut with a comedic, song-filled show entitled “If The Stars Were Mine” with pianist Rodney Bush.
Tickets for the Cabaret performances start at $111.87 and are available online at www.scfta.org, in person at Segerstrom Center for the Arts Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, or by phone at (714) 556–2787.
About Jason Robert Brown with Anika Noni Rose
After making his Center debut last season and delighting audiences with his humor, anecdotes, and beloved music, Jason Robert Brown takes the stage once more for a wonderful cabaret performance, this time featuring Anika Noni Rose.
As a composer, his notable works include “The Bridges of Madison County,” “The Last Five Years,” “Honeymoon in Vegas,” and “Parade.” Brown won three Tony Awards including Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations, and his contributions to contemporary musical theater have earned him countless accolades including six Drama Desk Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.
In recent seasons, Brown scored “Mr. Saturday Night” and wrote music and lyrics for “Parade,” which won Best Revival of a Musical at the 2023 Tony Awards.
A Tony Award-winning actress for Tony Kushner’s “Caroline, or Change,” Anika Noni Rose is probably best known in popular culture for voicing Tiana in Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog.” She was named a Disney Legend in 2011 and has continued to excel in her career onscreen and onstage. Rose starred as Lorrell Robinson in the Academy Award-winning film “Dreamgirls,” and her Broadway credits include “Footloose,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” and “Uncle Vanya.”
About Kerry Butler
Kerry Butler is a Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama League Award nominee. She has appeared in twelve Broadway shows. Some of her favorite roles include Belle in “Beauty and the Beast,” Penny in “Hairspray,” Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors,” and Kira in “Xanadu” which earned her a Tony nomination.
Most recently Kerry appeared in “Mean Girls” and “Beetlejuice.” Kerry has also crossed over into film and television with roles in “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” “Honor Society,” “30 Rock,” “Gilmore Girls Reunion,” “Law & Order: SVU,” and “The Mindy Project.”
About Claybourne Elder with Rodney Bush
Enjoy a hilarious and heartfelt evening that’s part cabaret and part stand-up with Broadway’s hunky gay ex-Mormon dad Claybourne Elder in “If The Stars Were Mine.”
Currently playing John Adams on HBO’s smash-hit period piece “The Gilded Age,” Claybourne recently starred on Broadway as Andy in the 2021 Tony Award-winning revival of “Company” with Patti Lupone.
Elder is a SAG Award, Grammy, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominee who’s brought laughter and heart to audiences nationwide with roles in “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” and “Torch Song.” His TV and film credits include “The Carrie Diaries,” “FBI,” and “Bad Cupid.”
Using his favorite music from the Great American Songbook, Sondheim, Whitney Houston, and beyond, “If The Stars Were Mine” explores sex, fatherhood, religion and love. For this performance, Elder is joined by Rodney Bush, a composer, songwriter, and music director who has worked on over 50 productions nationally and internationally of musicals and operas.
