SCERA's 8th Annual A Night of Broadway Presents BEST OF THE WEST END

SCERA Center for the Arts is putting together its 8th annual A Night of Broadway show, and this year they are taking musical favorites from the West End of London and presenting a production that earned some top local performers a four-star rating this summer at the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

For four nights, Nov. 16-19, Broadway will go British with the "Best of the West End," and highlight Broadway music that also played to musical enthusiasts from across the pond.

Tickets for the 7 p.m. shows are $12 for adults and $10 for children age 3 to 11 and seniors 65 and older. They may be purchased at scera.org, by calling 801-225-ARTS, at the SCERA (745 S. State St., Orem), open 10am-6pm weekdays or at the box office 30 minutes prior to performance.

"For this year's Night of Broadway we decided our shows that played to sold out audiences in Europe would be a great way to spotlight talent that was wonderfully received abroad," says Shawn M. Mortensen, SCERA's Production & Programs Manager and one of the performers who went to Scotland. "The program of festival performances was more than an inch thick, and I'm thrilled that we drew such substantial audiences."

"It's kind of a big deal that we sold out," Mortensen says. "I guess word-of-mouth helped us get there, which is unusual for a group's first venture at the Fringe Festival."

The show was conceived by Cameron Cahoon who had attended the festival in past years and who contacted Mortensen about getting involved. As part of the cast, Cahoon will join Mortensen, along with Scott Sackett, Cole McClure and Kelsey Mariner.

The show highlights showtunes that have been popular on London and Broadway stages, including "Starlight Express," "LES MISERABLES," "Phantom of the Opera," "Drowsy Chaperone," "Into the Woods," "She Loves Me," "Little Women," "Into The Woods," "Spamalot" and "Shrek." The event will also include screen projections to go with each number.

"It's a really fun show," Mortensen says. "We recently offered it as a fundraiser for the Smile Train organization, a group that operates on cleft palates. "The audience there loved it."

Jerry Elison, whose nearly 70-year-career includes more than 30 years directing at SCERA, will add additional numbers on the Nov. 16 and 17shows from "Christmas Carol," "Brigadoon" and "Oklahoma" featuring special invited guests. Proceeds from Nov. 16 performance will support the Jerry Elison Scholarship Program and Elison will attend that evening. For Nov. 18 and 19, the Providence Hall High School Choir from Herriman, Utah, directed by Cameron Cahoon, will join the show, and perform a few numbers that were also featured from their tour to the Fringe Festival.

"This will certainly be a high-energy show featuring entertainers with impressive experience on their resumes," Mortensen says. "The show will be a musical celebration from the '40s to today, and I think the audience will love seeing it as much as we will love performing it."

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