Ben Cameron - Page 8

In the premiere episode below, Ben tests his will power with SOMETHING ROTTEN!'s dance captain, Eric Giancola! Can you keep up? 

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then parody is a regular old kiss on the lips to any masterpiece. And that's what Spamilton is to Hamilton, a big fat kiss on the lips. And it takes an awfully talented bunch to pull off a loving lampoon of Broadway's biggest hit. We recently welcomed that awfully talented bunch to Broadway Sessions. The Spamilton cast brought the funny, the fierce and the in your face. And don't you worry none, they paid great homage to Hamilton with beautiful renditions of Dear Theodosia, Satisfied and Burn. Check out Nora Schell, Juwan Crawley, Dan Rosales, Christ Anthony Giles, Michael Wordly, Claudia Yanez, Nicholas Edwards and our "Rising Stars" Payton Reilly and Billie Aken Tyers blasting the roof right off the Beechman basement roof.

Cast members from the ill-fated return of Motown on Broadway reunited at Broadway Sessions recently and proved that the closing was way too soon. Cast members Allison Semmes, Elijah Ahmed Lewis, Galen Williams, Jarvis Manning Jr., Leon Outlaw Jr., Talya Groves, Trisha Jeffrey, Nicholas Ryan, Olivia Puckett and Motown cast member turned Hamltlon caster Nik Walker were nothing short of multi platinum! Rising star Claire Manship was equally dazzling. Check out performances here!

It was that magical time of the month of again when super talented "stars to be" gathered for our All Open Mic party on October 6th. Check out some highlights below!

Cast members from Waitress served up sweet slices of song at Broadway Sessions recently. Alicia Keys, Sondheim and of course, Bareilles were on the menu. Cast members Charity Angel Dawson, Henry Gottfried, Thay Flood, Aisha Jackson, Ryan Vasquez and Olivia Lucy Phillip poured their hearts out in song and even explored some of the audience's most nightmarish real life 'waitress experiences' (with dramatic underscoring by musical genius Joshua Stephen Kartes). The evening also featured performances by vocalists Esteban Suero, Lexi Lyric and the Voices of Gotham barbershop chorus. NOM NOM NOM...

Fall is officially in the air school is in full session. We recently went back to school at Broadway Sessions, inviting some Broadway favorites to perform the roles they sang in their high school musicals. And maybe a song or 2 they didn't get to, because (fill in the blank) got the part over them. The revenge was sweet, the stories hysterical and the voices unreal. Enjoy Wicked's Jenna Leigh Green, Phantom's Jeremy Stolle, Book of Mormon's Matthew Marks, Les Miserables Beth Kirkpatrick, Beautiful's Mike Longo and more.

BroadwayWorld is proud to announce our latest exclusive series: DANCE CAPTAIN DANCE ATTACK!  

WE'RE BACK! After a long summer hiatus Broadway Sessions returned to The Laurie Beechman Theatre Thursday night to kick off our 9th season of Broadway fun. And what better way to celebrate than by featuring our audience in an ALL OPEN MIC party? The packed house proved to be ripe for the harvest with one performer after the next knocking the ball clean out of the park. Check out these super talented up and comers and remembers these names. Today's open mic star may just be next year's Broadway star. And with talent like this, I'd put money on it.

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time daydreaming about someday making it on big Broadway. There was lots of community theatre and talent shows and dancing for grandma and daydream after daydream. For a lot of us it was just that- a dream. But for these kids, it's just another day at the office. Big talent comes in little packages on The Great White Way. Here's a look back at some of the incredible Broadway kids from Matilda, Finding Neverland, On Your Feet, Once, Les Miserables, Kinky Boots, Elf, South Pacific and of course the face shredders from School of Rock!

This week our Broadway [OB]Session is our good friend, and arguably one of Broadway's best actors, Patrick Page! Broadway's favorite villain (Hunchback's Frollo, Lion King's Scar, Spider-Man's The Green Goblin... HADESTOWN!) is equally at home on the musical stage (he was THE GRINCH after all) as he is sinking his teeth into Shakespeare on the world's finest stages. Patrick is the sort of actor that can find truth and meaning in any text... SO we at Sessions have put his skills to task with a series of dramatic readings. Enjoy Mr. Page putting his stamp on Lady Gaga and Nikki Minaj (a personal favorite) as well as performances from some of his iconic roles and more. Keep your eye out for his beautiful wife Paige Davis! Here's to a master of his craft at WERK!

WICKED!!!! You tingled didn't you? It's hard not to. No modern musical has had quite the impact that this mega musical has had all over the world. And I won't lie to ya, Wicked hold's a very special place in my heart (listen to track #2 of your cast album, you may hear a familiar voice asking 'Glinda, is it true you were her friend?') But humble bragging aside, Wicked is nothing short of a phenomenon. So this week we've compiled some of our favorite Broadway Sessions performances from Stephen Schwartz's box office blockbuster! 'The Wizard and I,' 'Popular,' 'As Long As Your Mine,' 'No Good Deed,' 'Defying Gravity' and even a cliff notes version of ensembling in Wicked w/ myself and original caster Marcus Choi, it's just too good…or is it Wicked?

Broadway became just a little more Broadway this last week as CATS made it's return to the Great White Way. Whether or not you think Cats is a ground breaker or a punch line, one thing is certain, the man behind the music is a living legend. Andrew Lloyd Webber has been an ubiquitous part of any theatre fans experience for decades. From those first chilling organ chords in Phantom (which still gets me every time- then again I wore my Phantom T-shirt to have my 8th grade school photos taken); to the synth pop of Starlight Express; to the irresistible bubble gum goodness of Joseph; it's hard not to walk out of a Lloyd Webber show not humming the tunes. He's had hits (um, Cats is BACK), he's had misses (The Woman in White) he's blazed trails (JC Superstar is arguably the first and finest rock musical) and has written a masterpiece of a score or two along the way (Evita, and anyone remember Aspects of Love? Divine). We're celebrating the kitties' return with a Broadway Sessions stroll down memory lane with the Lord. Let the memories live again…

I remember the first time I heard Songs For a New World. Mind. Blown. Melodic like Andrew Lloyd Webber, cerebral like Sondheim. Perfect. Of course now, Jason Robert Brown is a living legend and one of the most prolific theatre composers in history.

To be honest, I've been feeling a little HOMEsick this week. Missing our Thursday nights together at our beautiful HOME, The Laurie Beechman Theatre. Well, who says you can't go HOME... let's bring it on HOME with some of our favorite friends singing one of our favorite musical theatre classics- HOME from The Wiz. (Are you getting a 'home' theme here?)

Broadway's biggest hit said goodbye to some of it's biggest hitters this week. Hamilton bid adieu to Tony-winning star and writer Lin Manuel Miranda, Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr, Tony nominee Phillipa Soo and 'The Bullet' herself, Ariana DeBose. That's a big change for the blockbuster and has, doubtless, left several Hamilton devotees heartbroken. We figured it'd be fitting to take a look back at some Sessions performances from the Tony-winning score that has wiggled its way into our heads and playlists and won't let go (nor do we want it to). Featuring The Color Purple's Akron Watson, Elf's Paul Ianiello, Avenue Q's Imari Hardon, country-fried acoustic trio Siren, new comer Ellis Dawson and Hamilton's own Angelia standby- Alysha Deslorieux.

Broadway Sessions turned up the heat this last week with our final All Open Mic Party of the summer. Performers came ready to rock with every thing from burlesque performances to introspective tear jerkers. Enjoy some of the performances below and make sure you're in the room when we get our open mic on in September.

8 was great this last Thursday at Broadway Sessions! Not only did we celebrate 8 years of weekly shows but we celebrated host Ben Cameron's (that's me) 38TH birthday. Some of Sessions' most memorable guests returned to share music, stories and surprise our host (once again, that's me). Performances ranged from sentimental to insane, just the way we like it! Check it out here.

The Tony Awards aired last night on CBS (yeah yeah yeah, we know you know). The show was lovely and came at just the right moment, given all the horrific things happening in our world. We, at Broadway Sessions, got to celebrating last Thursday night as we welcomed Tony Award winner Daisy Eagan. We also celebrated the show that were "snubbed" with fabulous performances from Disaster's Olivia Phillip and Bway vet and Tuck Everlasting cast member Heather Parcells. Lion King and Ragtime vet DeMone Seraphin was also on hand to the delight of the fun loving crowd. "Rising Stars" Erin Christine Walsh, Julia Rose Hines and Daniel Joseph Baker knocked it out of the park. Enjoy the insanity here.

Cast members from the Tony-nominated revival of The Color Purple made their way to The Laurie Beechman Theatre on Thursday evening for Broadway Sessions. It became clear pretty darn quick that we were no longer in a theater- we were at CHURCH! These cats can sing like nobody's business. And that's just what they did. They SANG!!! Cast members Rema Webb, Antoine L. Smith, J. Daughtry, Adrianna Hicks, Bre Jackson, Phoenix Best, Akron Watson and Carla R. Stewart were greeted with standing ovation after standing ovation. The cast also shared insights into their audition experiences, told us their favorite 'audience reactions', played a round of 'The Color Purple Pyramid' and joined their voices together for an unforgettable group performance of the show's 11 o'clock number, 'I'm Here.'