The 11 PM concert, dedicated to the memory of Gorme, was co-produced by Charlie Rosen and Max Friedman. Broadway Big Band was previously seen at 54 Below in March and May 2013.
Directed by Friedman, Big Band featured guest vocalists Nick Blaemire (Godspell, Dogfight), Tony Award nominee Breaker (Passing Strange, Shrek, Love's Labour's Lost), DeBose (Bring It On, Motown), Hannah Elless (Godspell, Somewhere In Time), Jason Gotay (Bring It On, F#%king Up Everything), Levy (Ghost, Hair, Murder Ballad), Alysha Umphress (On A Clear Day..., American Idiot) and the band's resident vocalist, Monet Julia Sabel.
Returning vocalists Blaemire, DeBose, Elless, Umphress and Sabel sang songs they have never previously performed with Rosen's Broadway Big Band.
Click here for the recent Playbill Playlist, where the ladies of Big Band, DeBose, Elless, Levy, Umphress and Sabel, pick their favorite standards (performed by some of their favorite females). Here's how the evening is billed: "Join Broadway bandleader Charlie Rosen (One Man, Two Guvnors) for an evening that puts both modern and classic showtunes on display, sung by the best and brightest of Broadway's young generation of leading performers, in the timeless tradition of Big Band. A full sized Jazz orchestra composed of 17 musicians play Rosen's re-imagined arrangements of an eclectic mix of tunes from Broadway's past, present, and beyond!"
Friedman and Rosen most recently teamed up to present the world premiere of their multimedia revue of the works of Stephen Sondheim, The Bluest Ink, which was staged in concert at (le) poisson rouge and is aiming for a New York return in the coming months.
Rosen previously composed the score for the Roundabout Theater Company's Cyrano de Bergerac and served as musical director and bassist for the onstage band in One Man, Two Guvnors. His other Broadway credits include Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and 13.