Broadway In Concert!

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Broadway In Concert!




This Saturday, August 14, Seattle Musical Theatre presents "Broadway in Concert: A Gala Fundraiser for Seattle Musical Theatre."


The gala concert features favorite performers from Seattle Musical Theatre performing your favorite Broadway songs--and Gina Wilhelm Actress is one of those performers!

The numbers featured will represent songs from past, current, and future shows that have played on the SMT stage, as well as a few that will probably never be shown there (I believe mine falls into the latter category).

Proceeds from this concert will benefit Seattle Musical Theatre. There are two performances on August 14, one at 3 p.m. and another at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $20 per person, but children under 12 can attend the 3 p.m. performance for free with a paying adult.

Both concerts are on Seattle Musical Theatre's stage at the Magnuson Park Theater, at 7250 62nd Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115, in building 74.

For reservations, please call (206) 363-2809 or visit http://www.seattlemusicaltheatre.com/.

Come to a fun concert for a terrific cause!

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Broadway Actress Comes Home

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Broadway Actress Comes Home

Sarah Jane Nelson got her start acting at the Strauss Theatre in Monroe, Louisiana. She was one of the original members of the Strauss's Young Troupe.

Since then, she's moved on to Broadway. She made her debut on The Great White Way in "The Green Bird" and appeared in "SWING."

She returns to the Strauss November 19 and 20 for two concerts. Tickets cost $15. Her husband and daughter will join her on stage, her daughter singing "Castle on a Cloud" from "Les Misérables."

However, the star, of course, is Nelson and her voice. She's excited to return home. "It's where I got my start," she says.

Gina Wilhelm Actress

New York Actress Johansson Comes to Broadway

Gina Wilhelm Actress - New York Actress Johansson Comes to Broadway

Scarlett Johansson is the latest Hollywood actor to come to Broadway. She'll be starring opposite Liev Schrieber in the revival of Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge."

Johansson, who was born in New York, will play Schrieber's 17-year-old niece. Previews for the play will begin December 28, and the show is set to run 14 weeks.

Strong sales this season on Broadway are being credited to high-profile screen actors like Johansson appearing on stage.

Some producers say having Hollywood stars in a play are essential to ensuring profits on Broadway.

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Chita Rivera Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Chita Rivera Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

Actress Chita Rivera was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom along with 15 other recipients at the White House on Wednesday, August 12.

The award is the country's highest award for civilians.

Rivera originated the role of Anita in "West Side Story."

She received Tony awards for her performances in 1993's "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and 1984's "The Rink."

She was also nominated for a Tony for "Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life." That show was also her last appearance on Broadway.

Rivera was the first Latina to receive the Medal of Freedom. She was recognized for "breaking barriers and inspiring a generation of women to follow in her footsteps."

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Tena Hopes to Work with Almodovar

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Tena Hopes to Work with Almodovar

Natalie Tena, who plays Tonks in the Harry Potter franchise of movies, is hoping to work with directors Pedro Almodovar and Julio Medem.

Tena has Spanish roots. She told AFP of her desire to work with the directors while speaking in Spanish.

Although she calls her role in the Potter movies small, she says the letters she receives from fans make her feel like a hero. She calls the films a "phenomenon."

The actress has played on stage, performing in "Othello."

Tena hopes her acting will take her around the world. Before her next birthday, she wants to go to Broadway.

Her acting role model is Helena Bonham Carter, who also appears in the Harry Potter movies.

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Kate Reinders On Televsion

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Kate Reinders On Televsion

Kate Reinders, the 29-year-old actress from Spring Lake, MI, who played Glinda in "Wicked" on Broadway, is making the move to television.

She'll next be a regular on the Lifetime Network sitcom "Sherri," playing a girl behind the counter at a Quizno's-type sandwich shop.

The program stars "The View" co-host Sherri Shepherd and begins filming in New York in August with a live audience.

Reinders is excited about that prospect, feeling it's "The most theatrical way you can do television."

She has also had a recurring role on "Ugly Betty." Although she's been working in theater since she was a child and has been on Broadway since 2002, she really enjoys TV.

"It's the same camaraderie as theater, but it's different every day. Theater is a little bit different each day, but you are always singing the same songs, saying the same lines, day after day."

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Elisabeth Moss, Cipher

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Elisabeth Moss, Cipher

Elisabeth Moss is a woman of contradictions. She plays a tightly controlled secretary-turned-copywriter on "Mad Men," yet she has to have a sign reminding her to lock her apartment door.

She recently appeared in David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" on Broadway, in which every word must be spoken as it appears on the page, but she's currently filming a Judd Apatow movie.

Apatow's movies relay heavily on improvisational work by their actors. In this one, "Get Him to the Greek," she stars opposite Jonah Hill.

She also wants to be taken seriously and not just trade on her looks. Luckily then, perhaps, her "Mad Men" character, Peggy, doesn't get to be very dolled-up.

The show's creator, Matthew Weiner, is impressed with her work. He says it's very instinctive for her.

"She works hard, but I think she also works hard to hide it. Either that, or she’s an alien."

Moss is thrilled that television critics can't understand Peggy. “That makes the performance more interesting,” she says.

Perhaps that makes her own contradictions more understandable.

Moss worked on "Speed-the-Plow" over the filming hiatus for "Mad Men." Weiner had encouraged her to do theater with the thought that she would do a workshop.

Instead, she performed in a Tony-nominated Broadway production.

Moss has been performing since an early age. At 10, she played Baby June in a television movie of "Gypsy" starring Bette Midler.

As a youngster, she was more focused on dancing than acting. She thinks this was good for her. She wasn't the 9-year-old whose whole life focused on getting a single part.

“We all know that 9-year-old, and she’s not a pretty picture,” Moss adds.

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Anne Hathaway to Play Judy Garland

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Anne Hathaway to Play Judy Garland

Anne Hathaway has been cast to star on stage and screen as Judy Garland.

The star of "Rachel Getting Married" will be in the adaptation of Gerald Clarke's "Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows."

Clarke wrote the biography that was the basis for the film "Capote."

Both the stage and film versions will be produced by the Weinstein Company.

Garland never appeared in a Broadway musical, though she did win an honorary Tony for her contribution to the revival of vaudeville.

Hathaway has also never appeared on Broadway, though she appeared in a concert version of "Carnival" opposite Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell.

This summer she will appear in Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park production of "Twelfth Night," which will appear in New York's Central Park.

It's unclear at this point whether Hathaway will do her own singing.

Clarke's book is based in part on an unfinished autobiography written by Garland.

Gina Wilhelm Actress

In New York Actress Gives "Chicago" Talkback

Gina Wilhelm Actress - In New York Actress Gives "Chicago" Talkback

The Kander and Ebb musical "Chicago" has been running on Broadway for 12 years. Starting in September 2008, they started having "Talkback Tuesdays," a monthy question-and-answer session after a Tuesday performance.

January 6, 2009, the Talkbacks continue. Tonight in New York actress Melora Hardin will lead the question-and-answer session.

Hardin, who has extensive screen credits, stepped into the role of Roxie Hart on December 29, 2008.

She isn't a New York Actress (she originally hails from Texas), but she'll give audience members a glimpse behind the curtain of a long-running Broadway show

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Stockard Channing Avoids Typical Older Actress Roles

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Stockard Channing Avoids Typical "Older Actress" Roles

Stockard Channing does not want to do piñata parts; those are the grotesque roles for older women, drunken mothers-in-law and the like.

Instead, she's returning to a singing role for the first time since 1984 in "Pal Joey" on Broadway.

She describes her character in the show, Vera Simpson, as the original cougar. Vera is a rich married woman who is one of the title character's two love interests in the play.

The role is also most assuredly not a piñata part, which makes Channing very happy - along with the chance to sing again. One of her songs in the show is "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered."

Gina Wilhelm Actress enjoys piñata parts, but she also isn't actually an older actress yet. She just sometimes gets to play those roles. It may change by the time she's "older."

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Remembering Eartha Kitt

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Eartha Kitt passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 81. She had continued performing up until her final days.

Among her many, many claims to fame were her portrayal of Catwoman on the "Batman" TV show and her recording of "Santa Baby," made in 1954, which is still played every Christmas.

Orson Welles once called the actress the "most exciting woman in the world."

She was nominated for a Tony for her performance in 1978's "Timbuktu!," an African-American take on the earlier play "Kismet."

She was still on Broadway in the 2003 revival of "Nine." In 2006 she appeared off-Broadway in "Mimi le Duck."

She also released an album in 2006, "Eartha Kitt: Live at the Carlyle."

After a harrowing childhood, Eartha struck out on her own as a teenager, eventually joining the Katherine Dunham Company, which took her on tour to Europe, where she was discovered by Orson Welles.

On returning to New York, she performed at the Village Vanguard, which led to her being cast in "The New Faces of 1952."

She was always outspoken, which as often happens, caused her to have some career problems when she made some anti-war comments at a White House luncheon in 1968.

She returned to Europe for a few years after that, as it was hard for her to get work in the US (The comments reportedly made Lady Bird Johnson cry).

Ms. Kitt wrote three autobiographies and was doing voice over work into 2007. She also appeared in the film "And Then Came Love" in 2007.

One-of-a-kind, she will be missed.

Gina Wilhelm Actress