Michael Cerveris & Seth Rudetsky Coming to CLO Cabaret This May

Pittsburgh CLO will host an exclusive evening with Tony Award-winner Michael Cerveris (Fun Home) and co-creator/star of DISASTER! Seth Rudetsky at the CLO Cabaret on May 23. This exciting fundraiser will support Pittsburgh CLO's continuing commitment to the fostering of new musicals for Pittsburgh and beyond.

Seth, host of "Seth Speaks Broadway" on Sirius/XM Radio, will interview Michael about growing up in an artistic home, his experiences performing in his father's multimedia creations and his own professional life as an actor. The conversation will be framed with songs from Michael's two time Tony Award-winning, 30-year career including selections from Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Hedwig And The Angry Inch, Fun Home, Titanic, and many others.

Pittsburgh CLO's new musical endeavors include the development and investment in 20 Broadway shows (29 Tony Awards) and the current productions of An American in Paris, On Your Feet, Kinky Boots and Matilda the Musical, as well as several National Tours and world premieres at the CLO Cabaret, including 'S Wonderful: The New Gershwin Musical and Judge Jackie Justice, Trials of Love. Pittsburgh CLO is a member of the Independent Presenter's Network, Elephant Eye Theatrical and partners with Carnegie Mellon University on the CLO/CMU New Works Project. Pittsburgh CLO is also a founding member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. Through all of these efforts Pittsburgh CLO is not only creating new product for Broadway, but also nurturing artists, and developing strategic partnerships and relationships that attract talent to Pittsburgh CLO and ensure that Pittsburgh audiences will be among the first to see Broadway's biggest hits.

"Pittsburgh CLO is dedicated to the development of new musicals - a commitment which includes the raising of funds critical to each work's progress. Events like these play a key role in providing our artists the time and resources necessary to develop their creations," said Pittsburgh CLO Executive Producer Van Kaplan.

Pittsburgh CLO's evening with Michael Cerveris and Seth Rudetsky will support the organization's new works mission, which also involves supporting the development of Looking for Erik, a new musical about the French composer Erik Satie written by Michael Cerveris' father.

Michael Cerveris is a two-time Tony Award-winning stage, film and screen actor. Raised in West Virginia, he divides his time between New York City and a home in New Orleans. He graduated cum laude from Yale University and spent a number of years criss-crossing the country in regional theaters and finding his footing in New York's downtown theater scene with artists like Meredith Monk, Maria Irene Fornes and Ping Chong. A job playing English guitarist Ian Ware on the TV series "Fame" took him to LA for a time, where he eventually resumed his regional theater career on the west coast, ultimately creating the role of Tommy in The Who's Tommy, a job that returned him to New York and his Broadway debut and first of 5 Tony nominations as well as the Theater World Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk nominations. In the years since, Cerveris has been hailed as "Broadway's most versatile leading man," in roles running from Shakespeare to new plays, musical theater to modern classics, including Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, Titanic, In The Next Room, King Lear with Kevin Kline, LoveMusik with Donna Murphy, Hedda Gabler with Mary Louise Parker, Cymbeline with Martha Plimpton, Evita with Ricky Martin, Hedwig in New York, Los Angeles and London's West End and most recently, the 2015 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Fun Home. Cerveris has performed concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Preservation Hall, New Orleans' Jazz Fest, and the Kennedy Center as well as tours of the US and UK as guitarist for punk icon Bob Mould.

Cerveris was most recently seen on television as State's Attorney James Castro on CBS' "The Good Wife," and spent five years creating the mysterious September for JJ Abrams' "Fringe" TV series and three seasons as Mervin Frey on HBO's "Treme." He has appeared in the films The Mexican opposite Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini, Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant with John C Reilly, and Stake Land, winner of the Toronto Film Festival's Cadillac Award.

Cerveris is also a singer/songwriter and guitarist musician who has appeared with Pete Townshend, Frank Black, The Breeders, Teenage Fanclub, and Stone Temple Pilots. In 2004, he released his first solo album, Dog Eared. He performs regularly with his country band, Loose Cattle. Their live debut record, North of Houston was followed by a new single, "Pony Girl," the video for which recently premiered on RollingStone.com. Michael's new solo record, Piety, recorded in New Orleans with an all-star roster of local musicians was recently released on Low Heat Records.

Seth Rudetsky has worked as the music director, pianist or conductor for some of Broadway's biggest stars: Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Megan Mullally, Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Matthew Broderick, Christine Ebersole, Megan Hilty and many more. He spent many years as a pianist on Broadway playing such shows as LES MISERABLES, Phantom of the Opera, Grease and Ragtime, and currently divides his time between being the afternoon Broadway host and the host of "Seth Speaks" on Sirius/XM radio and touring around North America doing his show Deconstructing Broadway. He was the Artistic Producer/Music Director for five Actors Fund Concerts including Dreamgirls with Audra MacDonald (recorded on Nonesuch Records) and HAIR with Jennifer Hudson (recorded Ghostlight Records, Grammy Nomination). As an actor, he played Sheldon (wearing a devastating unitard) in The Ritz on Broadway with Rosie Perez and starred opposite Sutton Foster in a one-night concert of They're Playing Our Song for the Actors Fund. On TV, he's been seen on "All My Children," "Law and Order: C.I.," and played himself on "Cash Cab," MTV'S "Made" and "Legally Blonde: the Search for the Next Elle Woods," and the Emmy-Award-winning "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" on Bravo. Last year, he was featured on "SMASH" and "Bunheads." As a comic, he won the title "Funniest Gay Male in NY" at Stand-Up NY, had a long-running show at Caroline's Comedy Club and spent two years as a comedy writer on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" (three Emmy nominations). He's written the books "The Q Guide to Broadway" and "Broadway Nights." "Broadway Nights" was also released as an audio book on Audible.com featuring himself, Jonathan Groff, Richard Kind and Kristin Chenoweth. His most recent book, "My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan" was released on the Random House label and the sequel will be published in 2015. The audio book stars himself, Megan Hilty, Josh Gad and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Currently, he has his own reality show on SethTV.com, his new online TV network that also features talk shows and exclusive concerts with Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Megan Mullally and Sutton Foster. Most recently, he co-wrote and has starred in The New York Times Critics' Pick DISASTER!, a 1970's disaster movie musical, on Broadway at the Nederlander Theater.

Tickets are $65-$125 and are limited. Tickets may be purchased online at pittsburghCLO.org or by phone by calling Andrew Frey at 412-281-3973 x 234.

Since 1946, the Pittsburgh CLO has been the driving force behind live musical theater in Pittsburgh and the entire Southwestern Pennsylvania region. Under the direction of Van Kaplan since 1997, this not-for-profit arts organization appreciates the support of nearly 200,000 patrons each year and produces a subscription series, educational programs, national tours and develops and invests in new works, including 20 Broadway shows (29 Tony Awards) featuring the current productions of On Your Feet, An American in Paris, Kinky Boots and Matilda. Its dedication to the musical theater art form extends to include such programs as the CLO Academy, the CLO Mini Stars, the Gene Kelly Awards, the Richard Rodgers Award, the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, the Construction Center for the Arts and the CLO Cabaret.