Interview: Kate Baldwin of KATE BALDWIN & AARON LAZAR CELEBRATE BROADWAY & HOLLYWOOD at Axelrod Performing Arts Center

They’ve captured hearts in Hunter Foster’s “Bridges of Madison County” at Axelrod Performing Arts Center. Now, Kate Baldwin, a two-time Tony Award-nominated actress and singer, and major motion picture actor and singer Aaron Lazar are returning to the Deal, NJ stage tonight at 8 pm for a fundraising gala saluting Tinseltown and The Great White Way.

The pair will be backed by the American Pops Orchestra helmed by Luke Frazier consisting of a string, piano, bass, drums and guitar ensemble.

“The Bridges of Madison County was a meaningful production for Axelrod because it’s the first theater that I’d done after the pandemic… the first role that got me onstage,” said Baldwin by phone. “I was so grateful Axelrod had the capability to produce it.”

The Axelrod won’t be the first time Baldwin and Lazar have shared the stage. The longtime friends have performed at the prestigious Feinstein’s 54 Below in Manhattan engaging the crowd with witty banter in between impassioned duets. At the Axelrod, they will be crooning a setlist of their favorite tunes – a mix of musical theater punctuated with some pop songs from yesteryear and modern day, one of which is Lady Gaga’s poignant, spine-tingling Oscar-winning smash “Shallow” from A Star is Born.

Apart from engaging the audience tonight at Axelrod PAC with anecdotes about parenthood in between beautifully-sung odes to Hollywood and Broadway (Baldwin played the roles of Irene Molloy in Hello, Dolly! and Sharon McLonergan in Broadway’s revival of Finian’s Rainbow for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, in recent years). Lazar, with whom she starred in the Axelrod PAC’s staging of “Bridges,” who had roles in motion pictures from Margot Robbie’s debonair boyfriend in The Wolf of Wall Street to the Doctor Strange double in the epic Avengers: Endgame alongside his musical theater credits including Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm in A Little Night Music. 

The pair are looking forward to heading back to the Garden State where Lazar established his roots. Lazar graduated Cherry Hill High School West and Baldwin – who grew up in Milwaukee and lived in New York City – said she’s made New Jersey her home. The duo will show their green-heart emojis for the Garden State on the Axelrod stage tonight. 

“Aaron is from Cherry Hill. I have made the state of New Jersey my home,” she said. “We were talking about Bruce Springsteen and the idea of ‘coming home’ and what home means to you. ‘My Hometown’ by Bruce Springsteen. You’re My Home’ by Billy Joel. We talk a lot about our friendship of 20 years now… working together 20 years ago in a production called ‘Harmony’ coming to Broadway… Aaron and I did version of it in 2003… We’re celebrating friendship, theater and our experiences in Broadway and beyond.”

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