Relive Bright Star: In Concert on TheaterMania
(© Joan Marcus)
The cast of the Tony-nominated musical Bright Star reunited yesterday at Town Hall for a sold-out concert performance of songs from the show. The event was hosted by cocreators Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, who also performed, and was followed by a Q&A moderated by cast album producer Peter Asher.
Original cast members on hand included Tony-nominated star Carmen Cusack, Paul Alexander Nolan, Michael Mulheren, A.J. Shively, Hannah Elless, Stephen Bogardus, Dee Hoty, Stephen Lee Anderson, Emily Padgett, and Jeff Blumenkrantz, along with ensemble members Maddie Shea Baldwin, Allison Briner-Dardenne, Max Chernin, Patrick Cummings, Sandra DeNise, Richard Gatta, Lizzie Klemperer, Michael X. Martin, William Michals, Tony Roach, Sarah Jane Shanks, and William Youmans.
The program, which was streamed live on TheaterMania.com, can now be viewed below.
With direction by Walter Bobbie and choreography by Josh Rhodes, Bright Star is inspired by tunes from Brickell and Martin's Grammy-winning album, Love Has Come for You. The story follows a young soldier who is just home from World War II. With the editor of a Southern literary journal, he discovers a secret that changes their lives. The musical premiered at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in 2014, played a pre-Broadway run in 2015 at the Kennedy Center, and ran at Broadway's Cort Theatre earlier this year.
Bright Star is currently nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. The show won the 2016 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music as well as Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and Best Score. It also received five 2016 Tony Awards nominations, including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best Lead Actress in a Musical, and Best Orchestrations.
