Photos: JIM CARUSO'S CAST PARTY Launches Season 22

On Monday, July 7, Jim Caruso’s Cast Party launched it’s 22nd year at Birdland in the most unpredictable and joyfully musical way imaginable. Check out photos from the show.

The evening started with a surprise—one of the original Cast Party-ers, Max von Essen, dashed straight from the stage door of Chicago on Broadway and into Birdland, where he performed a song. It was a full-circle moment and the perfect way to begin another year of musical mayhem. The Cast Party Symphony Orchestra—Billy Stritch on piano, Steve Doyle on bass, and Rob Garcia on drums, made magic behind an eclectic parade of performers.

The lineup included everything from jazz greats to international stars, Broadway babies to bold newcomers. Among the guests: Mary Foster Conklin, Autumn Hurlbert, Olee Malbon, Bryce Morin of the off-Broadway hit Bear Grease, Matt Baker, Jessica Healey, Hope Johansen, Louis Solywoda, Algonzo, Marco Varisco, Ollice Spaulding, Aviram Amsalem, Lisa Lamothe, and Lizanne Veeneman, the leading lady of Phantom in Vienna. Yes, the stage was a United Nations of talent. Cast Party continues to be the place where showbiz meets spontaneity, and it takes place every Monday night at 9:30pm at Birdland in NYC.

Photo Credit: Kevin Alvey