TV: Unexpressed: Evening of Songs from the Heart

The first show in Acting Up Stage's Dark Night Cabaret Series took place on February 2nd at the Berkeley Street Theatre in Toronto. Featuring Michael Hughes (with special guest and good friend Callandra Dendias) the show was a showcase of many Broadway hits and favourite songs of the pair, and a hit with the audience. According to the Canstage box office, roughly two hundred people came out to see the pair sing. Mitchell Marcus, artistic producer of Acting Up Stage, told the audience it was the largest they had ever had for a cabaret.

Michael Hughes has performed on stages across Canada, in Japan for Walt Disney Entertainment and in New York City. The singing actor was last seen as Dean Hyde in the sold-out, Canadian premiere of All Shook Up with Theatre North West. Prior to All Shook Up, Michael joined legendary producer, David Foster, on his highly successful, sold-out North American Tour, David Foster & Friends. Throughout the summer of 2009, he starred as Gilbert Blythe in the hit Canadian musical Anne and Gilbert on Prince Edward Island. Michael's award-winning, self-titled, debut album is currently in rotation on radio stations across Canada, including CBC Radio, where he was a featured artist. It is available for purchase at HMV, iTunes and through his website www.mickehughes.com.

London native, Callandra Dendias first wowed Toronto audiences when she took over the lead role of Sophie Sheridan in the smash hit mega-musical Mamma Mia! at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Since then she has performed numerous roles with Walt Disney Entertainment and showed off her big voice on television and movie screens across the country in a commercial for Nestle Smarties. Most recently, she was seen as Martha Cratchit in A Christmas Carol and as Diana Barry in Anne of Green Gables, both for the Grand Theatre.

Michael and Callandra were kind enough to share a video from the event with BWW, so that those who weren't able to get out and see the Cabaret first hand could at least get an idea what it was about. The pair tear up the stage with a heartfelt rendition of "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors. There is one more Dark Night evening still to come which is on Tuesday, February 16th, when Toronto up and comer Sara Farb performs her show "Sara Farb Does Ben Folds".