Broadway Besties
Originally broadcast on CHQ Assembly at 4 p.m. EDT Friday, August 7, 2020.
Join us for some favorite Broadway tunes --- “belted” from NYC to Chautauqua and wherever you are! These Broadway besties are ready to share songs and stories that will delight and surprise.
Laura Osnes made her film debut last summer in the Hallmark original movie In The Key Of Love and will return to the network this December in A Homecoming For The Holidays. She was last seen on Broadway starring in the Tony Award-winning musical Bandstand (Drama Desk, Drama League nominations). Other Broadway credits include Cinderella in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Drama Desk Award; Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Astaire Award nominations), Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (Tony Award nomination), Hope Harcourt in Anything Goes (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire nominations), Nellie Forbush in Lincoln Center Theater’s South Pacific, and Sandy in Grease. Her many concerts and cabarets include performing with Michael Feinstein, the New York Philharmonic, New York Pops, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Boston Pops, National Symphony Orchestra, as well as appearing in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, The Café Carlyle, Lincoln Center, and The Kennedy Center. Benjamin Rauhala was the Associate Music Director for the world premiere of The Secret Life of Bees at the Atlantic Theater, directed by Sam Gold, with music by Duncan Sheik. He worked on the music team for both Bartlett Sher's Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof and the Broadway production of Duncan Sheik's American Psycho during the 2016 season. He has toured the world as the music director for Jeremy Jordan, the Tony-nominated star of Broadway's Newsies and The CW's Supergirl. He also tours with Tony-nominee Ariana DeBose, Nashville star Kyle Dean Massey, Hercules star Krysta Rodriguez, Jagged Little Pill standout Derek Klena and with Next to Normal Tony-nominee Jennifer Damiano. He previously served as music director for Hit List, the meta-musical from the NBC television show SMASH and is an Original Programming Producer at Feinstein's 54 Below, where he has curated dozens of sold-out concerts, including the Broadway Princess Party series with Tony-nominee Laura Osnes.
Cocktails, Concerts & Conversations is the CHQ Assembly performing arts series intended to connect people through music, theater and dance. Mondays will feature Opera artists and be hosted by Chautauqua Opera Company General and Artistic Director Steven Osgood; Tuesdays will feature Chautauqua Dance and be hosted by Artistic Advisor Sasha Janes; Wednesdays will feature Theater artists and be hosted by Chautauqua Theater Company Artistic Director Andrew Borba; Thursdays will feature soloists in recital and be hosted by Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra Music Director Rossen Milanov, and Fridays will feature popular entertainment artists and be hosted by Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts Deborah Sunya Moore. We hope this panoply of performances will lift your spirits and invite you to bring those spirits (ones that fill both your heart and your glass) to join us at 5:00 p.m. on most weekdays through the summer. Be it with cocktail or mocktail, come for conversation. Every artist on this series is eager to welcome you into the conversation — see you there!
About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.