Broadway Barkada is presenting a tribute concert to the Tony Award-winning songwriting team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty titled “Make Them Hear You: The Songs of Ahrens & Flaherty” on Sunday, July 24, 7 p.m. at the Cutting Room (44 East 32nd St., between Park and Madison). For tickets (Starting at $30), click here.
Helmed by Broadway Barkada co-founder Billy Bustamante, “Make Them Hear You: The Songs of Ahrens & Flaherty” will feature musical direction and arrangements by Steven Cuevas. The scheduled performers include Alan Ariano, Emily Borromeo, Liz Casasola, Chris Ignacio, Brian Jose, and Gillian Munsayac, together with Belinda Allyn, Eric Badique, Leann Cabrera, Michael Cruz, Audri Dalio, Jim Diego, Maria T Eberline, Kathrina Feigh, Mark Andrew Garner, Angelica-Lee Aspiras-Liristis, Sacha Iskra, Joanne Javien, Loresa Lanceta, Jonelle Margallo, Jay Paranada, Romney Piamonte, Tony Romero, Adrienne Tang, Isabelle Van Vleet; and ALADDIN’s Adam Jacobs, Don Darryl Rivera, and Joshua Dela Cruz.
In addition, expect a special reunion number by the original cast of Off Broadway’s Imelda, A New Musical.
Broadway Barkada [barkada means “a group of close friends” in Filipino], co-founded by Liz Casasola, Billy Bustamante, Brian Jose, is a collective of Filipino artists with professional credits in the performing arts, using their talents to raise funds and awareness for various organizations at home in the US as well as in the Philippines.
Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty won the Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards and received two Grammy nominations for their score of the Broadway musical Ragtime. For the songs and score of Twentieth Century Fox’s animated feature film Anastasia, they garnered two Academy Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. They are recipients of the 2014 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2015 were inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.
Their other works include: Seussical, Dessa Rose, Once On This Island, A Man of No Importance, and Rocky.
Part of the proceeds will benefit Advancement for Rural Kids (ARK), which provides education and health services to pre-K, elementary, and high school children in various impoverished rural communities in developing countries such as the Philippines, and Broadway Barkada’s first production of a full length musical.
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Lia Chang_photo by Garth Kravits
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia is also an internationally published and exhibited photographer, a multi-platform journalist, and a publicist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and Hide and Seek. She is profiled in Examiner.com, Jade Magazine and Playbill.com.
