Tony Award nominated actor Laura Osnes is not letting the recent closing of her Broadway musical Bandstand slow her down. She is jumping right from the stage of the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre to Manhattan’s Café Carlyle nightclub with cabaret concert Cockeyed Optimists: The World of Rodgers and Hammerstein, running September 26 to 30.
Her special guests for the series will be conductor, orchestrator, and music director Ted Sperling (dozens of shows including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I and South Pacific,) and Drama Desk Award-nominated actor-singer Ryan Silverman (Side Show, Cry Baby), who was featured with Osnes in a 2015 workshop of the musical Somewhere in Time.
Osnes has played several gigs at the Carlyle, including 2012’s Dream a Little Dream, which was recorded and released on CD, and a 2011 duo engagement with Paulo Szot. Her Broadway shows include Bonnie & Clyde (Tony nomination), Anything Goes, Grease, and two R&H shows: Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Tony Award nomination), and South Pacific, in which she replaced Kelli O’Hara as Ensign Nellie Forbush.
Performances of Cockeyed Optimists take place 8:45 PM September 26–30; with an extra 10:45 PM performance September 30. Tickets cost $50–$125 weekdays; $70–$145 weekends. The Carlyle is located at 35 East 76th Street in Manhattan. Tickets can be ordered by clicking here.
Osnes has been a special guest performer on two of Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas cruises. Cabins are available for Broadway on the Danube River with Michael Feinstein for November 3–13, 2017, also featuring Rachel Bay Jones, Julia Murney, Christopher Fitzgerald, Marc Kudisch, Christopher Sieber, Brandon Uranowitz, and Seth Rudetsky.
Tickets are also now on sale for Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas July 2018 cruise to Iceland, accompanied by Judy Kuhn, Christine Ebersole, Rob McClure, Jarrod Spector, Carmen Cusack, and Sierra Boggess. Visit PlaybillTravel.com for booking and information.
