Kimball and Von Essen Join the Cast of The Leading Men at Joe's Pub on May 30th
By: BWW News Desk May. 24, 2005
Two of Broadway's premiere leading men, Kimball and Von Essen are both accomplished musical theatre performers. This season, Kimball will star in Lennon, the new musical about the Beatles legend , which begins previews July 7th and opens August 4th at the Broadhurst Theatre. His Off-Broadway credits include Godspell and Finian's Rainbow, but he is perhaps best-known for playing Milky White the cow in the Tony Award-winning revival of Into the Woods. Having understudied Jack in that production, he will sing'Giants in the Sky' at the concert.Von Essen recently opened to strong reviews as Dominique in the Paper Mill Playhouse's production of The Baker's Wife; he will reprise his solo, 'Proud Lady,' at the concert. Von Essen's Broadway credits include Les Miserables and Jesus Christ Superstar, and he originated the role of the heroic Alfred in Dance of the Vampires. He has also appeared Off-Broadway in Finian's Rainbow at the Irish Repertory Theatre, in John and Paul and The Fantasticks.Produced by Wayman Wong, The Leading Men is a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS. Host John Tartaglia (Avenue Q) will be backed by the Johnettes: Jennifer Barnhart, Kelley McKinnon, Telly Leung and Lucas Steele. The concept of the benefit is to feature a line-up of basses, baritones and tenors who have been profiled in Wong's Playbill.com column of the same title. Tom Andersen, Scott Coulter, Tom D'Angora, Tim Di Pasqua, Brian and Ted Farley, Barrett Foa, Cheyenne Jackson, Matthew Morrison, Jai Rodriguez and Christopher Sieber are scheduled to perform (although Danny Gurwin withdrew due to a last minute-scheduling conflict). Alan Muraoka will direct the concert, while Seth Rudetsky will be in charge of the musical direction. Plus, the column's photographer, Ben Strothmann (whose name will also be familiar to the readers at BWW), will make his Joe's Pub debut.
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