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John McDaniel

    THEATER

    How Sondheim and Burnett Got Darren Criss to Provincetown

    The songwriter and star of Glee makes his local debut in Broadway-centric concert

    By

    Provincetown hasn’t been compared to The Godfather or Star Wars very often, but those are the examples actor and singer Darren Criss names in acknowledging that his July 21 town hall appearance will be his first visit here.

    Darren Criss will perform a Broadway-centric concert on July 21 at Provincetown Town Hall. (Photo by Tony Moux)

    “Provincetown is like that movie that you haven’t seen but you don’t want your friends to know you haven’t seen, so you don’t incur their wrath and ridicule and disbelief,” he says, noting that several of his good pals visit often. “I don’t bring up that I haven’t been there because my friends will give me crap. I haven’t avoided it — I’ve really wanted to go. Finally, the stars aligned quite nicely.”

    Maybe the stars had a little help from Carol Burnett.

    Host and accompanist John McDaniel, a Grammy and Emmy award-winning musician, says he invited Criss to be part of his summer Broadway series here after Criss performed on 2023’s Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Love + Laughter TV birthday special. McDaniel was the music director.

    Criss’s best-known roles are his breakout portrayal of Blaine for five seasons (2010 to 2015) on Glee in a milestone-for-mainstream-TV gay romance with Chris Colfer’s Kurt, and his 2018 Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning turn as spree killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. (Both roles came thanks to producer and Provincetown part-timer Ryan Murphy.)

    In addition to acting and singing — including Glee’s “Teenage Dream” cover that climbed the Billboard charts — Criss is a songwriter. He first won notice for co-writing and starring in 2009’s A Very Potter Musical parody for the Chicago-based StarKid Productions, which he co-founded. Criss’s A Very Darren Crissmas generated national holiday tours.

    Shortly after Criss wrote the opening number for the 2022 Tony Awards, his friend Paul Miller, director of the Burnett tribute, asked him to refashion Stephen Sondheim’s “Side by Side” from Company into an homage to Burnett’s famous duets with celebrity guest stars.

    In what he called “one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to be a part of,” Criss performed “Burnett’s Duets” for the star-studded birthday-party special with Broadway’s Sutton Foster. That came after he meticulously dissected Sondheim’s music to fit new lyrics and fine-tuned the arrangement with McDaniel.

    “When I was doing this,” Criss says, “in my mind, I was going, ‘What would the ghost of Sondheim be OK with?’ ”

    Criss performed in a July 4th PBS special, A Capitol Fourth, from Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kristina Bumphrey)

    More Broadway music will be on Criss’s mind in Provincetown for what he says will be an unusual program because it likely won’t include original work or him playing guitar or piano; McDaniel will accompany him. Criss prides himself on not performing the same live show twice and plans to include Broadway songs he’s not yet sung in public.

    That said, he recognizes fans might want to hear something connected to his own Broadway star turns. Those include — besides the nonmusical American Buffalo in 2022 — How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2012 and 2015’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Plus, earlier this year, Criss starred in off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors.

    In September, he’ll originate a Broadway role for the first time, headlining Will Aronson and Hue Park’s musical Maybe Happy Ending. Criss plays an outdated, retired robot in futuristic Seoul who explores the nature of love with another retired robot (Helen J. Shen). To try to help boost its U.S. profile, Criss is also a producer of the musical, which has been a hit in Korea, China, and Japan. Its Broadway debut will be directed by Michael Arden (2023 Tony Award for Parade, Spring Awakening), a longtime Criss friend who directed the English-language debut in 2020 in Atlanta.

    Criss is excited but nervous about the piece; he says it’s intimate and epic at once. “There’s an excitement about the uniqueness and specialness of this show that I’ve never encountered before,” he says. “So that’s either going to crash and burn and blow up in our faces or catch on. I don’t know, but the prospect is very thrilling.”

    Criss, who is straight, made headlines this spring for comments at a Chicago expo about being “culturally queer” because of his admiration for the LGBTQ community. “The things in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from, and be inspired by are 100 percent queer,” he said then, later adding that “it was in queer communities that I’ve found people that I idolize, that I want to learn something from.”

    “That had to be the slowest news day ever,” Criss says about his comments getting attention — especially because he’s talked many times before about similar things, including how much it meant to be part of Glee’s Blaine-Kurt relationship story.

    Beyond Provincetown and Broadway, in August Criss’s voice will be heard in an unusual spot: on season 10 of Netflix’s Gabby’s Dollhouse, a children’s show, as the new Marty the Party Cat, magical host of the Party Room. It’s a voice role Criss says was planned long before his two-year-old daughter and seven-week-old son were born to him and his wife.

    Marty is described by Netflix as a lovable, “exuberant goofball” who has a big heart and the ability to laugh at himself.

    “He’s a fun guy,” Criss says. “I’m aspirationally Marty the Party Cat.”

    Broadway ‘Dream’

    The event: Darren Criss in performance with John McDaniel
    The time: Sunday, July 21, 8:30 p.m.
    The place: Provincetown Town Hall, 260 Commercial St.
    The cost: $65-$125 plus service fees at postofficecafe.net

    CABARET

    Kate Baldwin’s Close Calls

    The Broadway star kicks off John McDaniel’s Post Office series with an intimate show

    By

    Musician John McDaniel first accompanied two-time Tony nominee Kate Baldwin last year on an Alaska cruise. Now he’s the force behind her Provincetown debut this weekend in a show titled Sing Pretty, Don’t Fall Down. Baldwin will be the first of seven Broadway stars McDaniel brings to town this summer.

    Tony nominee Kate Baldwin will make her Provincetown debut with two cabaret shows at the Post Office Café and Cabaret. (Photo courtesy Kate Baldwin)

    Their partnership began because Baldwin’s 13-year-old son had wanted to visit Alaska for years. So, she asked to be one of the performers on a cruise organized by Playbill Travel, brought her family, and was part of the entertainment. She sang with McDaniel, who accompanies stars on a few such cruises each year. They hit it off.

    When McDaniel invited her to work together in Provincetown, the answer was obvious: “He plays so beautifully, he likes my repertoire, and I love singing with him,” she says. Likewise, McDaniel calls Baldwin one of his new favorites. “We have the best time,” he says. “She’s so lovely, so charming and disarming, and funnier than I think people know.”

    Those traits may become evident in the stories Baldwin plans to tell between songs. “The songs are wonderful,” she says, “but when I go see somebody who has built a career in theater, I know there are good stories about being behind the scenes, and what really happens, and the near misses and close calls, so I try to tell those stories.”

    Fans of musical theater might know Baldwin from roles like Irene Molloy in the 2017 Hello, Dolly! revival or Sharon McLonergan in Finian’s Rainbow (2009), where she first got widespread notice. Ask younger fans, and they’ll likely know Baldwin from Big Fish (2013). Baldwin says that, though the adaptation had just 98 Broadway performances, it’s become a favorite in high school and college theaters.

    “I hear from a student every month or so on Instagram or Facebook saying, ‘My school is doing Big Fish. We love it so much. I’m playing your part. Do you have any pointers? Can you send us a video?’ ” Baldwin says with a laugh. “People under 30 love that show.”

    The isolation caused by the pandemic increased Baldwin’s appreciation for chances to communicate with fans, especially younger ones. “I feel like theater and music belong to everybody, and if I can help foster students’ appreciation and understanding of a song or show, I want to encourage their enthusiasm,” she says. “Even if they don’t become an actor, they become a theater lover and audience member, somebody who seeks to understand a little more about the human condition through telling stories.”

    As for McDaniel, he’s a Grammy- and Emmy-winning music director, composer, director, orchestrator, and producer. He worked as music director for The Rosie O’Donnell Show and last year’s Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Love + Laughter birthday special.

    In 2014, he first played Provincetown in Four Girls Four at the Crown & Anchor with Andrea McArdle, Faith Prince, Donna McKechnie, and Maureen McGovern. He accompanied Shirley Jones there the next year. He came back in 2021 to play for Melissa Manchester at the Post Office Café, then was invited to return in 2022 with a series of concerts featuring three Broadway stars.

    This year’s new series expands that idea into the summer season and beyond that venue: two of McDaniel’s Broadway-star shows are at Provincetown Town Hall, including a July 21 concert with Darren Criss of Glee fame.

    “I couldn’t be more excited to spend some time in Provincetown; it’s a unique and beautiful place,” says McDaniel, noting that the stars he works with feel the same way. “It’s a very easy ask. People quite quickly say, ‘I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll learn a new show.’ ”

    John McDaniel, a Grammy- and Emmy-winning music director and producer, hosts and accompanies seven Broadway stars this summer in Provincetown. (Photo by Steve Ullathorne)

    Baldwin’s shows will be a mix of Broadway hits and songs she simply likes to sing. She has a wide repertoire; her many concert appearances include Follies this month at Carnegie Hall and recent showcases of music by Leonard Bernstein, Maltby & Shire, and Sheldon Harnick. She starred in A Little Night Music in New Jersey in March and will star in The Prom in Connecticut in July.

    While she admits to being “a sad-song, ballad kind of gal,” Baldwin tries to mix in a lot of up-tempo numbers because she wants audiences to have a good time. She’s excited about the intimacy of the 98-seat venue at the Post Office. “I like to make it spontaneous and about us all being together as opposed to ‘Here’s what it’s like on Broadway,’ ” she says.

    McDaniel also loves what he does, both playing the music and being with audiences. While he’s happy to be readying a Nat King Cole musical for a New York production next spring, the one-on-one relationship with performers in concert is special.

    “I love supporting an artist,” he says. “When I’m sitting at the keyboard, I love being the full orchestra for them.”

    One on One

    The event: Kate Baldwin in concert with John McDaniel
    The time: Friday, June 28 and Saturday, June 29 at 6:30 p.m.
    The place: Post Office Café and Cabaret, 303 Commercial St., Provincetown
    The cost: $65 at postofficecafe.net

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