BEWITCHING BROADWAY

MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Friday, October 28, 2022 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, October 29, 2022 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, October 30, 2022 at 2:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Michelle Merrill, conductor

Jessica Hendy, vocalist

Alex Getlin, vocalist

Anthony Murphy, vocalist

John Boswell, piano

PROGRAM TO BE ANNOUNCED FROM STAGE.

This weekend’s media sponsor is WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO. The length of this concert is approximately 2 hours. All programs are subject to change.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra can be heard on Telarc, Koss Classics, Pro Arte, AVIE, and Vox/Turnabout recordings. MSO Classics recordings (digital only) available on iTunes and at mso.org. MSO Binaural recordings (digital only) available at mso.org.

Guest Artist Biographies

MICHELLE MERRILL

MICHELLE MERRILL

Michelle Merrill has been inspiring audiences throughout the country with her sharply detailed and vibrant performances. A passionate and dynamic artist, she served four years as the assistant and then associate conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where she also carried the title of Phillip and Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador. In addition to her growing guest conducting schedule, Merrill currently serves as the music director of the Coastal Symphony of Georgia.

Merrill’s most recent and upcoming engagements include the National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony, Symphoria (Syracuse), Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and the Round Top Music Festival Institute.

Merrill is a proud recipient of a 2016 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award as well as the prestigious 2013 Ansbacher Conducting Fellowship as awarded by members of the Vienna Philharmonic and the American Austrian Foundation, which enabled her to be in residence at the world-renowned Salzburg Festival. Born in Dallas, TX, she studied conducting with Dr. Paul C. Phillips at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, where she holds a Master of Music degree in conducting and a Bachelor of Music in performance.

JESSICA HENDY

JESSICA HENDY

Jessica Hendy is widely recognized as one of Broadway’s best belters. She played the role of Grizabella in Cats in both the original Broadway run and the 2016 revival cast, becoming the only person in history to have appeared in both Broadway incarnations of that smash hit musical. Other Broadway credits include Aida (Amneris) and Amour. She has toured Nationally and in Canada in Cats (Grizabella) and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Narrator). Her one-woman play, Walking With Bubbles, had its world premiere in New York City earlier this year. She received rave reviews for her one-woman cabaret, A Life to Call Your Own, and a Bistro Award for the revue Get Your Tickets Now. NYC Pre-Broadway workshops include Dance of the Vampires, Aida, and The Molly Maguires. She played Diana Goodman in the regional premier of the Pulitzer Prize winning musical Next to Normal, at The Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. She has had the pleasure to work at many theatres around the country including Pittsburgh CLO and North Shore Music Theatre in Miss Saigon (Ellen), and Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center in Songs for a New World with Jason Robert Brown. Hendy’s performance as Jeanne in The Great American Trailer Park Musical at The Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati earned her an ACCLAIM Award for Best Actress. She regularly appears with symphonic orchestras around the world in a variety of concerts including “Music of the Knights,” “Rock ‘N Radio,” and “Blockbuster Broadway!” Hendy is a proud graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

ALEX GETLIN

ALEX GETLIN

Alex Getlin is a New York-based singer and actress whose voice can “melt stone” (Ben Brantley, The New York Times). She made her Carnegie Hall debut with Michael Feinstein in “Hooray for Hollywood,” as part of his Standard Time series. A native New Yorker, she performs around the country in concert tributes to Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, and Adele (to name a few) with Spot-On Entertainment’s “Bette Babs & Beyond,” “Music of the Knights,” “A Star is Born: The Concert,” and more. She has appeared Off-Broadway in the company of Anything Can Happen in the Theatre – The Songs of Maury Yeston, after being hand-picked by Yeston to interpret his music, and is featured on the show’s cast album. In June 2017, Getlin made her symphonic debut with the Pasadena Pops under the baton of Michael Feinstein in “Broadway: The Golden Age,” where she starred alongside Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey. In 2016, after graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in theater, Getlin was a featured soloist in Broadway Rising Stars at Town Hall. She made her professional singing debut at 17 in a solo cabaret show at The Regency Hotel in New York, presented by Mr. Feinstein and directed by Scott Coulter. The New York Times called her “a confident, engaging young singer with a big voice,” and Broadway World hailed her as “a new and rare talent on the entertainment scene.” Television credits include CBS’s Shades of Blue and Netflix’s The Break with Michele Wolf.

ANTHONY MURPHY

ANTHONY MURPHY

Anthony Murphy is a singer, actor, director, and choreographer who has graced international stages. Murphy studied directing and choreography at Otterbein University, and while there, he trained vocally under world-renowned opera tenor Brian Cheney.

In 2017, he originated the role of the Genie in the Broadway U.S. National Tour of Disney’s Aladdin: The Musical. Later he moved to the Australian company of Aladdin. While in Australia, he premiered his sold-out solo cabaret Introducing: Anthony Murphy at the historic Doo Bop Jazz Bar in Brisbane, Australia.

Murphy was last seen on Broadway as Paul Burrell in Diana: The Musical. This summer, he was part of the world premiere production of The Devil Wears Prada written by Elton John and Shania Taub.

Murphy continues to captivate audiences around the world with his soulful and dynamic voice, coupled with his electrifying and joyous performing style, leaving audiences feeling at home and overjoyed.

JOHN BOSWELL

JOHN BOSWELL

Pianist John Boswell has served as musical director for Judy Collins, Andy Williams, Bob Newhart, Scott Coulter, Maude Maggart, Faith Prince, Carmen Cusack, Babbie Green, Jason Graae, and a host of other fine talents. Boswell played the role of Moose in the national tour of Crazy for You and has appeared on The Tonight Show, Today Show, CBS This Morning, Regis and Kathie Lee, General Hospital and was the piano-playing hands of Nancy McKeon on the sit-com The Facts of Life. Recent concerts with orchestras have included “Jerry Herman: The Broadway Legacy Concert,” “Blockbuster Broadway!”, “Sheena Easton and Scott Coulter: The Spy Who Loved Me,” and “Music of the Knights.” Boswell has been heard singing in the shows Three Men and a Baby…Grand, Cinema Toast, Broadway Today, Wiseguys, and the New York cult hit Cashino. Broadway/Off-Broadway credits include Crazy for You, The Secret Garden, LIZA! Steppin’ Out at Radio City Music Hall, Back to Bacharach and David and The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives. His monthly concerts in 2017 at The Gardenia in Los Angeles were crowd pleasers. Boswell has eight CDs of original piano music and a ninth on the way. While a student at UCLA, he received the Frank Sinatra Award for popular instrumentalists