Leading Man and Musician to Wow at Winebrenner
Acclaimed stage and screen actor and musical star Cheyenne Jackson will be The University of Findlay’s Donnell Broadway Musical Theatre Guest Artist later this month.
“An Evening with Cheyenne Jackson, featuring Phil Reno” will be held at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25 in Winebrenner Theological Seminary’s TLB Auditorium. Admission for the community will cost $15 for adults, and $10 for senior citizens and students. Faculty, staff and students at UF will be admitted free. Tickets may be purchased through the Box Office at 419-434-5335 or by emailing boxoffice@findlay.edu.
The Spokane, Washington native’s first leading role on Broadway was in 2005 in the Elvis tribute, “All Shook Up,” which earned him a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. Since then, he has starred in Broadway hits such as “Damn Yankees,” “Xanadu” and “The Performers” with John Lithgow, Alicia Silverstone, Morgan Freeman and other critically lauded colleagues.
On the big screen, he portrayed Mark Bingham in the 2006 Academy Award-nominated “United 93,” and has appeared in “Price Check,” “The Green,” “Curiosity” and other films. Yet-to-be-released independent films that he has roles in include “Lucky Stiff,” “Mutual Friends” and “Beautiful Now.”
Jackson has also been featured in television series such as “30 Rock,” “Ugly Betty” and “Glee,” and has guest-starred in roles on series ranging from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” to “Law and Order.” In 2013 he starred as Billy Leatherwood in the Golden Globe Award-winning HBO biopic about Liberace, “Behind the Candelabra.”
Jackson began his music career as a backup singer for Vanessa Williams, Heather Headly and Liza Minnelli. He made his singing debut in 2009, and has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, teaming with Michael Feinstein on a nightclub act titled “The Power of Two,” and with the New York Pops on “Cheyenne Jackson’s Cocktail Hour: Music of the Mad Men Era.” He has released two singles from his album “I’m Blue, Skies.”
Jackson’s UF appearance will also feature Phil Reno, a prominent Broadway conductor and musical director, and pianist. Reno is originally from Tiffin and was featured in last year’s Donnell Broadway Concert series with Matt Cavenaugh.
Reno most recently conducted the hit Broadway production of “Elf the Musical” and the hit Broadway revival of the Burt Bacharach musical “Promises, Promises” starring Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes. This spring he will be serving as conductor, musical director, orchestrator and vocal arranger for the new Broadway musical “Something Rotten!”
Also on Broadway, Reno was the music director and vocal arranger for “The Drowsy Chaperone”; conducted “The Producers,” “Thou Shalt Not,” “Cats”; and was the music director and on-stage pianist for “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour” and “Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance.”
Reno’s nation tour credits include such hits as “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” starring Donny Osmond, the world premiere of “Music of the Night: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber,” “Sweet Charity,” and “Starlight Express.”
Since its inception in 2002, Reno has been the musical director and conductor of the successful “Broadway Under the Stars” concerts in New York City’s Central Park, televised by CBS.
Thomas (’70) and Kathleen Donnell established the Thomas and Kathleen Donnell Broadway Concert Series Endowment Fund in conjunction with the Give Voice to Your Values campaign. The Donnell Broadway Concert Series enables Broadway artists to visit campus each academic year in the fall, in addition to the annual spring performance. The series provides entertainment for students and community members in concert, as well as opportunities for UF musical theater students to learn from accomplished professionals in master classes.