Broadway Cabaret Benefit Concert – June 22

Thomas Alderson & Friends in Concert 

While show tunes don’t normally mix with hymns, you will be able to hear songs from popular Broadway musicals at Huron Shores United Church in Grand Bend, coming up on Wednesday, June 22^nd.

A Broadway Cabaret Benefit Concert is planned for 7:30 that evening with actor/singer/dancer Thomas Alderson.  “I grew up here, so it’s always great to come back,” Thomas says. “When my parents said the church needs money for renovations, I said I might be able to help.” The red-brick church, distinctive on Grand Bend’s Main Street, is in need of updates and an addition, so Thomas offered to put on a concert with all proceeds going to the church.  Having just come off a year-long run with the hit musical Kinky Boots, produced by Mirvish in Toronto, Thomas said he has time for the concert now.

Thomas attended Bosanquet Central School near Thedford, later graduating from the musical theatre program at Beal Secondary School in London.  “I always knew this is what I wanted to do,” Thomas explains, “I was lucky to do shows with Theatre Sarnia and Bluewater Musicals in Sarnia when I was young.  I was a newsboy in Gypsy and Baby John in West Side Story at the Imperial Theatre.”  Later he appeared in four High School Projects at London’s Grand Theatre – The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma and The Sound of Music.  “My first time on a professional stage, I was 12 and I played Louis in The King and I at Huron Country Playhouse,” Thomas says.

He has gone on to do many shows on that stage and other Drayton Entertainment venues. “One of my favourite roles was Mordred in Camelot at Huron Country Playhouse.  Then I went with it on a North American tour; we performed in 88 cities in the US and Canada.”  He adds that he also loved being in Spamalot where he played seven different roles. He has appeared on stage in Calgary, Winnipeg and Halifax, as well.  He played David Martin in the movie Stage Fright with Meat Loaf and Minnie Driver, and he is part of the band SoundCheck on the PBS/TVO show Odd Squad.

For the Grand Bend concert, he is bringing three friends.  “I am so excited to have these amazing, talented singers with me,” he explains.  Lili Connor starred as Mama Cass in “Dream a Little Dream – the Nearly True Story of the Mamas and the Papas”, a big hit at the Grand Theatre in London.  This past winter, she was on the CBC-TV show Schitt’s Creek and CTV’s Saving Hope. Lili continues as part of the cast of the new musical Belles Soeurs, which recently ran in Montreal and Ottawa and moves to Charlottetown this September, with future locations to be determined.

“Julia McLellan is getting rave reviews as Val in A Chorus Line at the Stratford Festival right now,” Thomas says.  He is thrilled she has a night free to join him in Grand Bend. Prior to that, Julia was a swing in Kinky Boots and she starred in Footloose at St. Jacobs Country Playhouse.

Stacey Kay is a recording artist who performs solo with her band, and she is also part of the five person a cappella group Eh440 that tours extensively in Canada, the US and Europe.  Last summer she was a runner up on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. Next, she will be in Canadian Legends at Huron Country Playhouse.

All four singers are graduates of Sheridan College’s Musical Theatre Program in Oakville.  The well-respected program receives hundreds of applications each year, and only about 100 potential students are invited to audition.  Of those, only 40 are selected for the much-coveted classes.

A free will offering will be accepted at this concert, with 100% of donations going to Huron Shores United Church Building and Renovation Fund.

If you go —

Wednesday, June 22, 7:30 p.m.  

Broadway Cabaret Benefit Concert

With Thomas Alderson plus Lili Connor, Julia McLellan & Stacey Kay

Huron Shores United Church, 25 Main St. W., Grand Bend

Free Will Offering – Pay What You Can