(Above) Two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz performs at MCC Theater's annual Miscast Gala at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Some of Broadway’s most luminous stars stepped out to support MCC Theater at its 2017 edition of the annual Miscast Gala on April 3. The event, held inside New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom, did as it does each year: allow stars of the stage to perform songs from roles in which they’d never be cast.
The event this year had an added significance, as it also marked MCC Theater’s 30th anniversary. The driving forces behind the theater company—artistic directors Robert LuPone, Bernie Telsey, and William Cantler along with executive director Blake West—were on hand to introduce the event. Additionally, the team later revealed that, through the ceremony alone, over $1 million had been raised towards MCC’s programming.
Among these programs is MCC’s Youth Company, which bestowed its 2017 alumni award upon Xavier Galva, who accepted the honor onstage at the gala.
“I was raised by an immigrant mother who sacrificed everything to give her four children a better life,” Galva said to cheers. “I decided to pursue a life in the theater…. Thank you, MCC, for welcoming me into a community that will make me more empathetic.”
Following the honors, attendees were at last treated to the main event. Tony winner Kelli O’Hara was the first performer of the evening, channeling Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka with “Pure Imagination” from “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” The classic film and Roald Dahl novel’s stage incarnation, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” is now in previews with Christian Borle.
O’Hara was one of several to perform songs from shows currently on the boards. Mandy Gonzales took on the anthemic “Waving Through a Window” from “Dear Evan Hansen,” and Tony-nominated Carmen Cusack got the evening’s biggest laughs as King George III from “Hamilton,” sporting a full king’s getup and British accent to boot.
(Above) Ben Platt performs at MCC Theater's annual Miscast Gala at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Jenn Colella, who currently stars in this season’s hit, “Come From Away,” channeled that feel-good show. “I wanted to choose something that was a celebration of keeping one’s own self-image positive,” the actor said while introducing “Everybody Says Don’t” from “Anyone Can Whistle.”
Ben Platt, making his Miscast debut, spoke of his love for Judy Garland and indulged that fondness with “The Man That Got Away.” Another Miscast first-timer was Jordan Fisher, fresh off a stint in “Hamilton,” singing “Ti Moune” from one of his self-professed favorite musicals, “Once on this Island.”
The evening was not light on showstoppers, which included Stephanie J. Block’s interpretation of “What is it About Her?” from Andrew Lippa’s “The Wild Party.” The song was originally performed by Brian d’Arcy James, who was on hand for a number of his own from “Nine.” Current “Hamilton” stars Gonzales and Brandon Victor Dixon took on “One Second and a Million Miles” from “The Bridges of Madison County,” a forlorn duet. They sang in gender-swapped roles, of course.
Most of the evening’s 11-person cast was enlisted for “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from “Dream Girls,” which saw Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz as the show’s scrappy protagonist, Effie. That role was originated on Broadway in 1981 by Jennifer Holliday, who watched the number seated a few feet away. Holliday herself then took center stage, thanking the group of performers before belting the triumphant “I Am What I Am” from “La Cage aux Folles.”
It was a fittingly full-circle end to an evening celebrating the achievements of MCC Theater—and the many more feats still to come.
Visit mcctheater.org for more information on the company’s programming efforts and its upcoming shows.
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