Singing with Purpose
On October 7, 9 and 10, ABC Daytime and the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center are teaming up to present an evening of soap opera stars and Broadway song. AMC’s Bobbie Eakes (Krystal), Natalie Hall (Colby) and Jamie Luner (Liza), along with GH’s Bradford Anderson (Spinelli) and Brandon Barash (Johnny), will perform the award-winning Kander & Ebb musical revue “The World Goes ‘Round.” Eakes, of course, is a noted songstress and member of the singing group Divas of Daytime; Hall, who has a strong musical theater background, starred in the national touring production of A Chorus Line. We spoke to both lasses about the project, below — and to purchase tickets, click here.
Reports Eakes, “This a greatest-hits type of revue and the music is absolutely wonderful. When they did it on Broadway, the cast was five or six, and we’re going to have five people doing it and I know it’s going to be a lot of fun. The more I listen to the songs, and realize how well the songs were assigned to the different people, I just think, ‘These voices are so perfectly suited for this material.’ I think it’s going to be a really great show. Right now,” she frowns, “I think a lot of charities are hurting because of the economy and government cutbacks, so now more than ever, they need our help. I don’t know that we’ll be able to raise as much money as we’ve been able to raise for Broadway Cares, but hopefully, we’ll build up to that. And I really have to hand it to Michael [Cohen, AMC’s Director of Publicity and the mastermind of the benefit] for seeing this to fruition, because he talked about this last year and we all said, ‘Oh, sounds great! Let’s do it!’ And by golly, he did. I’m really proud.”
Eakes says that compared to the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefits that she’s done, “This is more work! It’s not just picking one or two songs to rehearse like we do for those shows. This is an actual staged musical, so the rehearsal process is a lot more intense, and that’s on top of what we’re already doing over at ALL MY CHILDREN, where our new taping schedule is very demanding. But I’m up for the challenge and I think everyone else is, too! And I’m so glad that the guys from GH have signed on because they are going to be fabulous. And cute!” she winks.
Chimes in Hall, “There are a lot of talented people in the soap world, including the people on my show, and it’s such a good way to raise money and also to perform and show off our singing. The cause we’re supporting is amazing; I believe in it so much. I’m looking forward to it for so many reasons, and it’s going to be so fun working with Bobbie and Jamie in a different way. Kander & Ebb are an amazing writer and lyricist and when we had our meeting to figure out who was singing what, I just got more and more excited. I actually went to school for musical theater, so it’s sort of a fun thing for me because I studied all about them in school and now I get to do their music! I’m going to be singing some songs from Chicago, which is a wonderful musical that a lot of people know very well, and there are some great songs from Cabaret and other amazing shows. We get to do all the show-stoppers! We’ve got the three women from ALL MY CHILDREN and the two guys from GENERAL HOSPITAL, and we’ve got women power on our side! Not to brag, but in my mind, there’s no way they’re going to do better than us [laughs]!”
Conversation
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