Before Broadway performer Alexander Gemignani heads out for a long day’s work rehearsing New York’s Roundabout production of “The People in the Picture,” he takes time to chat. He is eager to talk about his upcoming performance Friday in Washington. As part of Broadway legend, Barbara Cook’s “Spotlight” series at the Kennedy Center, the singer, actor and son of conductor and director, Paul Gemignani, presents his one-man cabaret show, “All at Once.”
| On Stage |
| Barbara Cook’s “Spotlight” Alexander Gemignani “All at Once” |
| Where: Kennedy Center Terrace Theatre |
| When: Friday at 7:30 p.m. |
| Info: $45, kennedy-center.org |
“I’m thrilled to come down to D.C. to do this show,” said the veteran star of “Les Miserables” and featured performer in such Broadway shows as “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Sweeney Todd. “I’m so grateful to Barbara for asking me. I think its going to be really fun.”
Together with pianist, Tedd Firth, bass player, Matt Aronoff and drummer Larry Lelli — a group he says are “extremely accomplished musicians and add so much to the evening” — Gemignani gives a taste of his Kennedy Center cabaret.
“The program will have a lot of different and eclectic songs,” he continued. “I would say primarily jazz and musical theater and there [are] certainly several tunes people will recognize.”
He will banter informally between tunes, a classic way to draw in the audience by way of developing a comfortable familiarity with them.
“The challenge, typically, in this medium is to make everybody feel like your pal, like you’re having a beer with them, but at the same time, you’re singing,” he said.
The name of the show, “All At Once,” was inspired from a little known song of Rodgers and Hammerstein called “All at Once You Love Her.” In addition to the pop and rock songs he will sing, the middle of the performance, called “The Show Medley” will feature snippets of songs from all of the shows Gemignani has been part of on New York stages.
