Some of Broadway's biggest stars are coming to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts this month for benefit performances supporting victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting. On July 24, Michael Cerveris, Judy Kuhn and the rest of the cast of Fun Home present a concert version of 2015's Best Musical, less than two months before it closes in NYC. The following night, From Broadway With Love brings together Tony-winners Chita Rivera, Norbert Leo Butz, Kelli O'Hara, Jessie Mueller, Brian Stokes Mitchell and many more for an evening of song and dance. Tickets to both shows are going fast; visit drphillipscenter.org to see if any remain.
New York's Broadway League Foundation held their annual National High School Musical Theatre "Jimmy" Awards late last month, and a couple of Central Floridians came up big winners. Maitland Middle School teacher Dawn Dunham was awarded a 2016 League Educator Apple Award for integrating arts into her civics classes, and West Orange High student Emma Heistand won a Special Recognition Scholarship presented by Tams-Witmark Music Library.
Three Orlando Fringe favorites took the recent San Diego Fringe Festival by storm. Tymisha Harris won "Outstanding Solo Performance" and "Best of the Fringe" for playing burlesque icon Josephine Baker in Josephine, a new biographical cabaret written by Tod Kimbro and directed by Michael Marinaccio. Watch for follow-up productions locally and across the Fringe circuit in the future.
NOW PLAYING
Spotlight Cabaret: Kelly Morris Rowan, July 13-14 at Winter Park Playhouse ... Wanzie's Ladies of Eola High Seas, through July 18 at the Abbey ... Urinetown: The Musical, through July 18 at Breakthrough Theatre ... Beauty and the Beast, through July 24 at Orlando Shakespeare Theater ... Avenue Q, through July 31 at Mad Cow Theatre.
UPCOMING
Equus, July 14-24 at the Acre ... PRT's Summer Shorts, July 15-31 at Orlando Shakes ... K.E.Y.S. by Dance Theatre of Orlando, July 15-17 at Marshall Ellis Theatre ... Phantasmagoria: Wickeder Little Tales, July 16 at the Historic State Theatre, Eustis ... Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical, July 22-24 at the Historic State Theatre, Eustis ... Sarah Lee Dobbs Sings the British Songbook, July 27 at the Persian Room and July 30 at the Footlight Theatre ... I Love My Wife, July 29-Aug. 21 at Winter Park Playhouse ... Sullivan and Gilbert, July 29-Aug. 21 at Moonlight Players Theater, Clermont ... Orlando Story Club, Aug. 3 at the Abbey ... The Big Meal, Aug. 5-28 at Mad Cow Theatre.
