Jessica Vosk To Lead GET HAPPY: A JUDY GARLAND CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION At Carnegie Hall

Vosk will be joined by special guest Andy Karl in an evening directed by Tony Award-nominee Michael Arden.

By: Nov. 29, 2022
Jessica Vosk To Lead GET HAPPY: A JUDY GARLAND CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION At Carnegie Hall
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On Monday, December 12 at 8:00 p.m., Carnegie Hall presents Get Happy: A Judy Garland Centennial Celebration featuring Broadway stars Jessica Vosk alongside Andy Karl. Written by Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins, and directed by Michael Arden with Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Get Happy celebrates the life and artistry of the legendary Judy Garland.

Garland's Carnegie Hall debut on April 23, 1961 has become one of the most storied evenings in the Hall's history, with the live recording made that night going on to win five Grammy Awards, making Garland the first solo woman to win the coveted Album of the Year.

On the heels of her sold-out Carnegie Hall concert last season, Jessica Vosk brings Garland's unforgettable songbook back to life at the Hall, accompanied by an orchestra alongside rare performance footage of Garland herself in this one-night-only celebration of an artist whose legacy continues to inspire fans around the world. Vosk's frequent collaborator, Zac Posen, will be designing original looks for the concert, as an homage to Judy.

Judy Garland had been in show business for almost 40 years when she finally made her Carnegie Hall debut, an evening that attracted an audience including showbiz royalty Richard Burton and Marilyn Monroe. Toward the end of the program, Garland brought out her three children: Liza Minnelli, and Lorna and Joey Luft. The live album-Judy at Carnegie Hall-released a few months after the concert, spent 73 weeks on the Billboard charts.

In a recent interview about the project, Vosk offered, "Judy had this thing where she made everybody in the audience feel like she had them in her living room. That's what I'm trying to do with this particular performance-give the impression of being at a Judy Garland show without taking anything away from the boss on screen behind me ... Innovators like Judy Garland are why we artists feel like we can push boundaries today. Without them, we wouldn't be here." To read more, click here.

Jessica Vosk is a celebrated singer and actress known for stirring roles on the musical theater and concert stage. Vosk made her Carnegie Hall debut in November 2021 in a sold-out solo show titled "My Golden Age." Since that event, she's toured her concert around the US this, as well as debuted to stunning reviews at London's Cadogan Hall this July. This year she joined the Atlantic Theatre Company's production of Sarah Silverman's The Bedwetter. Other roles include the Narrator in the 50th anniversary of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Lincoln Center, reprising the role this year at the MUNY. She created the role of Aunt Val in the world premiere of Becoming Nancy, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. Vosk finished an acclaimed run as Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway, having played the role for two years. Vosk starred in New York City Ballet's Jerome Robbins tribute Something to Dance About, directed by Warren Carlyle, and re-created the role of Fruma Sarah in the most recent Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. Other Broadway credits include Finding Neverland and The Bridges of Madison County. She starred as Anita in West Side Story with the San Francisco Symphony; the recording of the concert was nominated for a Grammy. Her debut, Billboard-charting solo album Wild and Free was released in 2018 and was followed by 2020's A Very Coco Christmas. Jessica had an unconventional journey to Broadway, starting her career on Wall Street before taking the leap of faith to pursue her dreams. Her story has been profiled on ABC's "20/20" and on NBC's "Nightly News with Lester Holt."

Andy Karl is an Olivier Award winning American stage, TV, and film actor who moved to New York City at a young age to pursue acting. Karl's wide variety of stage roles include, Kyle the UPS Guy in Legally Blonde The Musical, Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys, Rocky Balboa in Rocky The Musical (Tony nomination), Bruce Granit in On The Twentieth Century (Tony nomination), and Phil Connors in Groundhog Day (Olivier Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Tony and Drama Desk nominations). Other theatre includes Wicked, 9 to 5, The Wedding Singer, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Altar Boyz. On television, Karl is perhaps most well-known for his role as Sgt. Mike Dodds in Season 17 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Karl met his wife Orfeh while they were both appearing in Saturday Night Fever on Broadway, and the couple married in 2001. They have appeared on stage together many times including the popular Legally Blonde, The Musical. They made their American Songbook concert debut at Lincoln Center in 2016, and in 2017 released an album of their acclaimed show "Legally Bound-Live at Feinstein's/54 Below."

Mary-Mitchell Campbell is a conductor, music director, orchestrator, composer, and arranger. She has served as the Music Director for many Broadway shows including Mean Girls, The Prom, My Love Letter to Broadway with Kristin Chenoweth, Tuck Everlasting, Finding Neverland, Big Fish, The Addams Family, Company, and Sweeney Todd. She also music directed Stephen Sondheim's last musical Road Show at the Public Theater. She won a Drama Desk for Best Orchestrations for the 2006 revival of Company starring Raul Esparza and was nominated for Best Orchestrations for her work on the Off-Broadway productions of Allegro and Hello Again. She has a very active concert career and performs frequently with Kristin Chenoweth, Gavin Creel, Jonathan Groff, Laura Benanti, and Raul Esparza.

She has conducted the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Nashville Symphony, and many other symphonies around the United States. She is joining the Encores series at City Center as the Music Director in 2023.

She is passionate about arts education and poverty reduction. She is the Founder and President of Arts Ignite (artsignite.org) which develops agency in young people through the arts. They enable young people to discover the joy and power of making art- to find their voices, tell their stories and transform their lives. She is a regular volunteer with Arts Ignite programs in the US, Africa, and India. She is originally from North Carolina and has been on the Juilliard, NYU, and Boston College faculties.

Michael Arden is a two-time Tony-nominated director for his revivals of Spring Awakening and Once On This Island (which won the 2018 Tony for Best Revival). His Broadway production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol starring Jefferson Mays is currently playing on Broadway at the Nederlander Theater, and his new production of PARADE just played New York City Center. He won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his production of Spring Awakening. Michael made his Broadway debut as an actor in Deaf West Theater and Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Big River. Other directing credits include Alien/Nation (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Conners (ABC), A Christmas Carol at the Geffen, Annie at The Hollywood Bowl, My Fair Lady at Bay Street Theater, The Pride and Merrily We Roll Along at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Los Angeles. Michael is an alum of The Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School. In addition to his work as a director, Michael is the founder and Artistic Director of The Forest of Arden, a diverse company of multi-disciplinary artists, designers, musicians, writers, stage managers, and filmmakers who strive to devise immersive, imaginative and provocative theatrical experiences with an emphasis on site-specific work and innovating technologies while serving communities and the people in them. Michael is thrilled to be working with the incredible Jessica Vosk to honor the legendary Judy Garland.

Robert Cary & Jonathan Tolins write for stage and screen both individually and as a team. Rob was the co-bookwriter of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (Broadway) and the co-author and co-lyricist of Flashdance (West End, US national tour, international productions). Rob co-authored the play Inventing Avi (Off-Broadway) and directed the feature films Ira & Abby, Save Me, and Anything but Love, for which he also co-wrote the screenplay. Jon's plays include Buyer & Cellar (Off-Broadway, top ten most produced plays in America 2016), The Twilight of the Golds (Broadway), The Last Sunday in June, If Memory Serves, and Secrets of the Trade (all Off-Broadway). Television credits include Schmigadoon, East New York, The Good Fight, BrainDead, Partners, The Academy Awards, The Tony Awards, and Queer as Folk. He co-wrote the films The Twilight of the Golds and Martian Child. Jon can be heard as a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Quiz. As a team, Rob and Jon wrote additional material for the Broadway revival of On the Town, 50 Years of Broadway at the Kennedy Center, A Concert for Ukraine (at Carnegie Hall), and they adapted Grease Live! and A Christmas Story Live! for Fox TV.

FIFTH SEASON (formerly Endeavor Content) is a global leader in the creation, production, and distribution of feature films and premium television series. Known for producing and distributing award-winning content that engages audiences and moves culture, the studio's film titles include the multi-Oscar-nominated The Lost Daughter from Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Bay's Ambulance, Destin Daniel Cretton's Just Mercy, the Book Club franchise, and recent Sundance Film Festival Audience Award winner Cha Cha Real Smooth. The studio produces premium TV series, including the 14 Emmy-nominated Severance, See and Truth Be Told for Apple TV+, Wolf Like Me for Peacock, Life & Beth, Nine Perfect Strangers, and McCartney 3, 2, 1 for Hulu, Tokyo Vice for HBO Max, and Scenes From A Marriage for HBO. FIFTH SEASON also handles global distribution for dozens of hit series in addition to its own studio productions, including Killing Eve, The Morning Show, Normal People, and The Night Manager.

Black Ink Presents is a creative and production agency that specializes in creating and producing concerts, live experiences and immersive events worldwide. Creating unforgettable experiences through film, live music, and creative design is Black Ink's core mission and why they are one of the industry leading companies in non-traditional entertainment. Black Ink Presents other live projects include: Rocketman: Live in Concert w/ Elton John and Taron Egerton, A celebration of music from the film Coco Live; (Filmed for Disney+) , The Nightmare Before Christmas Live w/ Danny Elfman and Billie Eilish, FrostFest LA featuring Love Actually in concert, Danny Elfman's Big Mess (Coachella and Hollywood Bowl), Brucefest: the definitive Bruce Campbell Film Festival, La La Land live in concert: a celebration of Hollywood.


Tickets, priced at $68-$150, are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.

For Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are Weil Music Institute and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.

In addition, for all Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit carnegiehall.org/discounts. Artists, programs, and prices are subject to change.

For the most up-to-date information about health and safety guidelines, please visit carnegiehall.org/SafetyChecklist.




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