Megan Hilty at Segerstrom Center for the Arts

BWW Review: Megan Hilty Brings Fun, Delightful Cabaret Set to OC's Segerstrom Center

Here's my understatement of the year so far: Broadway star Megan Hilty is one of the most delightful creatures that has ever graced a stage. This was wonderfully confirmed all throughout the Tony Award nominee's Segerstrom Center for the Arts Cabaret series solo debut, which recently opened to an enthusiastic, candlelit crowd Thursday night and continues for two more performances through November 16, 2019 at the Samueli Theater in Costa Mesa. Beautiful, quirky, bawdy, self-deprecating, and undeniably talented, Ms. Hilty was thoroughly engaging and entertaining during her nearly 80-minute acoustic set backed by musical director and principal pianist Matt Cusson and her bassist/guitarist husband, fellow Broadway performer Brian Gallagher.

BWW Review: Betty Buckley Returns with Jazzy New Cabaret Set at OC's Segerstrom Center

It's amazing to think that it has only been just six weeks since Tony Award winning stage and screen actress Betty Buckley ended her much-lauded 13-month-long engagement starring as the title role in the recent Broadway national tour production of HELLO DOLLY. During that brief stretch of time post-Dolly Levi, Ms. Buckley has been preparing to go back out on the road again, this time returning to her series of touring intimate one-woman concerts---no elaborate period costumes or scripted story dialogue this time, just her selection of favorite songs and her undeniable talent in its purest form. Luckily, Orange County is the first stop of her new show, which continues through October 19, 2019 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Samueli Theater in Costa Mesa, where the show serves as the 2019-2020 Season Opener for the Center's Cabaret Concert Series.

BWW Review: Aaron Lazar Presents BROADWAY TO HOLLYWOOD at OC's Segerstrom Center

If you were fortunate enough to be one of the many who caught the touring production of the Tony Award-winning musical DEAR EVAN HANSEN during its Southern California stops at L.A.'s Ahmanson Theatre or, more recently, at O.C.'s Segerstrom Center of the Arts this past January, then you, no doubt, would remember Broadway veteran Aaron Lazar, the handsome and very talented man tasked with the role of Larry Murphy, the distant but distraught father to a suicidal teenager. The role has earned him much-deserved universal praise, not only for such a thoughtful, searing acting performance but also for his obvious singing prowess. Those powerful pipes were on full display this past weekend, where Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center once again played host to Lazar, this time for a splendid solo cabaret set entitled BROADWAY TO HOLLYWOOD that entertained audiences for three nightly performances, April 11-13.