Interview: Ben Rimalower Reveals Details on THE LADY'S GOT POTENTIAL Concert; Plays 4/7 at Birdland

By: Apr. 04, 2014
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The Broadway at Birdland concert series will soon feature writer/performer/director Ben Rimalower, hosting The Lady's Got Potential, an evening of songs and conversation with some of the most exciting up and coming actresses working in musical theater today. The event will take place on Monday, April 7 at 7pm.

The Lady's Got Potential is named after the song from Evita about the ambitious woman on the rise, and is an evening of songs performed by some of the most exciting up and coming actresses working in musical theater today. Rimalower gave BroadwayWorld the the inside scoop on the upcoming show and you can check out what to expect below!

What can audiences expect from this concert?

The evening will feature a certain rarely performed song from Evita.

What inspired this concept?

I got so much great feedback for my article "The Lady's Got Potential: Top Ten Up and Coming Musical Actresses" that I seemed like a no brainer to get a bunch of them together for one fabulous night.

This event celebrates up-and-coming ladies in theatre- why no love for guys? Would you consider doing a male version in the future?

I'm glad you asked that! I recently wrote similar piece on some brilliant male performers who have yet to receive their first Tony nomination. Perhaps lightning will strike twice!

What Broadway diva(s) (other than Patti) would you like to have known while she was still an up-and-comer?

Well, right up there with Patti, I'd love to have gotten a close-up picture of a young Bernadette Peters or Betty Buckley, not to mention the great ladies who came before from Merman and Martin to Streisand and Minnelli. I'm endlessly fascinated by so many of these ladies. I really regret that I never got even see Laurie Beechman live, let alone talk to her, so she's definitely up there. Of today's divas, I think Kristin Chenoweth and Audra McDonald are thrilling. I'd love to know more about what makes them tick.

In Patti Issues, it was just you on the stage. Is it a relief knowing that you get to share it with other people for this event?

Doing Patti Issues, I definitely found out that I enjoy the spotlight. For anyone that knows me, I guess it was no big surprise when, after years of working behind the scenes, I made this transition. But I'm just such a fan of these women, so I'll be really excited to share the stage with them. I just love watching them perform.

Do you have any other projects in the works?

I'm writing a new solo play, which I'm going to open in the Fall. Stay tuned!

Ben Rimalower is the writer and original star of off Off-Broadway's long-running hit solo play, Patti Issues (New York Times Critics Pick, Bistro Award, M.A.C. Award), which he continues to tour all over the world. He writes for Playbill and the Huffington Post. In addition to directing a number of Off-Broadway plays, Ben was called "the Midas of Cabaret" by The Advocate for helming a slew of solo shows; most notably conceiving and directing Leslie Kritzer Is Patti LuPone At Les Mouches and subsequently producing Patti LuPone's "Live At Les Mouches" album for Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.

For tickets and more information, please visit www.birdlandjazz.com



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