Part of the Broadway at Birdland concert series, Bean's concert is scheduled for 7 PM. James Sampliner is the evening's musical director, and actor-director Billy Porter is Bean's special guest. The singing actress, according to press notes, will "celebrate [her] musical influences, which include Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson. Their R&B classics will be rearranged and 'flipped' into a new acoustic jazz sensibility, befitting the historic Birdland site!"
Shoshana Bean, who starred as Elphaba in Broadway's Wicked, played Shelley in the original cast of the Tony-winning musical Hairspray. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Bean attended the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music before heading to NYC. She was first cast in the Off-Broadway production of Godspell and then in the national tour of Leader of the Pack. Bean was also part of the all-star Hair benefit concert. The singer-actress was seen this past December in a holiday engagement of The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Her solo recording is titled "Superhero."
Birdland is located in Manhattan at 315 West 44th Street. Call (212) 581-3080 or visit www.BirdlandJazz.com for reservations. There is a $25-$40 cover charge and a $10 food/drink minimum.