The Lullaby of broadway
The 42nd anniversary of 42nd Street
& the legacy of gower champion
A Conversation featuring
Karin Baker & Lee Roy Reams
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2022 | 7:00PM
Theatre at St. Jeans | 150 E. 76th St. | New York, NY 10034
LEE ROY REAMS has been hailed by The New York Times as “Broadway’s song & dance man nonpareil” for his leading roles in The Producers (Carbonell, Helen Hayes, and Las Vegas Life Awards), 42nd Street (Tony and Drama Desk Nominations), Beauty and the Beast, La Cage aux Folles, Hello, Dolly!, An Evening with Jerry Herman, Applause, Lorelei, Oklahoma!, and Sweet Charity. On Broadway, he directed the last revival of Carol Channing’s Hello, Dolly! and An Evening with Jerry Herman. His TV, concert, and cabaret appearances have taken him around the world and to the White House before four U.S. Presidents (Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton). Most recently, he played to another sold out house at 54 Below and made history as the first American male to star as Dolly in an Equity production of Hello, Dolly! at the Wick Theatre, where he also starred in La Cage aux Folles. He’s a board member of the Chita Rivera Awards and received the Friars Club Thespian of the Year Award. He also is the proud recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater, CCM/University of Cincinnati.
KARIN BAKER danced with Cincinnati Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Pacific Ballet, as well as on “The Carol Burnett Show” and as a reconstructionist for the American Dance Machine. For 16 years, she was Head of Upper School Musical Theatre at the Trinity School. Broadway: George M!, Coco, Different Times (dance assistant), Goodtime Charley (dance assistant), 42nd Street (dance assistant to Gower Champion; also London and two national companies), Me and My Girl (assistant choreographer to Gillian Gregory).
In Mexico City, she has choreographed productions of No, No, Nanette, Kismet, Mame, Pippin, The Magic Show (also in South Africa), Dracula (also in Spain), and Annie Get Your Gun. Writer: Last of the Red Hot Mamas: The Life of Sophie Tucker (with Tony Parise), Peg o’ My Heart (winner Best Musical at the International Theatre Festival, with a reading at The York), The Melody Lingers On (based on Mary Ellin Barrett's book Irving Berlin: A Daughter's Memoir; presented throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Netherlands); her newest work, Over There, is licensed by Miracle or 2 Productions.
GOWER CHAMPION was the director and choreographer for Lend an Ear, Bye Bye Birdie, Carnival, Hello, Dolly!, I Do! I Do!, The Happy Time, Sugar, Irene, Mack and Mabel, and, of course, 42nd Street.