Straight out of New York City, coming at you in our very own Cabell Hall, live on a Saturday night ... it's Jessica Ann Leshnower, one Broadway baby you do not want to miss. Leshnower's performance at the University on February 3rd is a one-time deal. Never before has this show been put on, and it is doubtful that it will be performed again.
Leshnower, while in her final year at New York University, is currently teetering on the brink of stardom, ready and willing to take the plunge. She is in the process of banging on the doors of every Broadway show in town. Once she's in (and she will be in), it's unlikely that she'll return to Charlottesville, so grab this chance while you can.
Especially for the University, Leshnower has prepared a show entitled "Broadway Baby: A Musical/Theatre Review of Broadway's Best." Not only will she be belting out (literally: her vocal type is "belter") a few hours of tunes and dancing her feet to exhaustion, she will be dramatizing her own personal story.
Broadway revues work a little differently than typical Broadway shows. In revues, songs are spliced from different shows and recombined to build a particular theme or storyline. Leshnower's "Broadway Baby" will use songs from "Annie," "Les Miserables" and about 10 other shows to form a story about a star-to-be. With self-written segues between songs, the show obviously is personally relevant for Leshnower.
Accompanying this up and coming performer on several songs will be the incredible Phil Hall. A long list of Broadway superstars have worked with Hall, including tap-dancing extraordinaire Gregory Hines and Golden Girl Bea Arthur. Hall reigns as the most talented and influential vocal coach in Broadway. He selects three students at a time, and Jessica Ann Leshnower is one of those lucky few.
Right now, Leshnower is most likely at some kind of audition. Trying to make it on Broadway is a daunting aspiration (to say the least), but Leshnower has both the talent and the determination. Already, she has scored a scene with Drew Barrymore in the forthcoming movie "Riding in Cars with Boys." Leshnower works this hard not simply to become a Broadway staple, but to become "the best performer, period." She says, "the goal is not to be the next anyone, but to actually be a Barbra Streisand, to make that name for yourself without the comparisons."
"Broadway Baby" tells the story of her path to impending stardom. Benjamin Levy, the show's organizer and an old friend of Leshnower's, cannot wait to see what she has come up with. "She's an incredibly creative person; I'm excited not only about her singing, but her dancing and the segues, and just the whole show."
Sponsored by the Jewish Concert Series, First Year Players, and Spectrum Theatre, among others, "Broadway Baby" is being presented at the University for two main reasons. "We are trying to create an alternative form of entertainment away from Rugby Road, especially for first-year students," Levy said. He added that the show will give students the chance to "academically explore musicals written by mostly Jewish composers."
Leshnower, who is Jewish, has been rehearsing for three months now and sums it up with "you laugh, you cry, there's happy and sad in it," just as there are happy and sad aspects in the endless auditions and vocal lessons.
The show will start off with "NYC" from the ever-popular "Annie." This opening number includes the following lyrics: "N.Y.C. / I give you fair warning / Up there in lights I'll be." Here's my fair warning: See her now, for $5 in Old Cabell Hall, before she dashes away to gobble up the Big Apple.
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