Broadway bros will take to the stage in two Fort Lauderdale concerts with the Symphony of the Americas, spotlighting show tunes from the Great White Way.
“Broadway Showstoppers! The Leading Men” will come to the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, May 11, and Tuesday, May 13, with four stars of the New York City stage performing songs from musicals such as “Dear Evan Hansen,” “The Last Five Years,” “Mack & Mabel,” “The Music Man” and more.
The four stars are:
- Jacob Gutierrez (“Aladdin”)
- Nic Rouleau (“The Book of Mormon”)
- Sean Bell (“Harmony”)
- Adam Hyndman (“Hadestown,” “Once on This Island,” “Aladdin”)
“It’s four really incredibly talented young guys who are actively on Broadway, actively in the scene, but they’re doing versions of songs that you won’t get to hear them do anywhere else,” says conductor Luke Frazier. “So it truly is a concert that you can’t find anywhere else. I want to make Symphony of the Americas its own very distinct thing that’s cool and fun.”
Frazier has that vision for the symphony because he is the new artistic and music director, starting his inaugural season in 2025-2026. For the current season — which concludes with “Broadway Showstoppers!” — he was the principal Pops conductor, appointed by outgoing director Pablo Mielgo.
The Washington, D.C., resident (he’s looking for digs in SoFlo as well) thinks this kind of concert performance will get music fans pumped up for the upcoming season.
“When people have the choice of whether to stay home and sit on their couch and watch them on YouTube or come out and see it live, you got to really incentivize coming and seeing it live,” Frazier says. “And my answer is, if we’re doing original orchestrations and new versions of things, then once you missed it, you missed it. And so you got to come out. You got to get the ticket. You got to be there in the room where it happens, as they say in ‘Hamilton’ …
“And not only one or two or three, but let’s go with four new leading men on Broadway [with] different types of voices, because I think all too often when folks go to a symphony concert, it’s kind of one-dimensional, especially in Pops programming.”
He also wanted to take the opportunity to showcase four of Broadway’s young leading men, who are in the prime of their careers, he says.
“I think all too often with when you say Broadway and you say leading men, you think the older generation. And I work with many of those legends all the time, and I admire them and adore them, and I’ve done a TV special of Broadway leading men that was mostly more-focused on the older generation, and that’s great,” he says. “But I kind of feel like South Florida is always a place where you can mix things up.”
Among Frazier’s personal favorite musical numbers are “Ya Got Trouble” from “The Music Man,” sung by Sean Bell, and “If I Didn’t Believe in You” from “The Last Five Years” by Jacob Gutierrez.
Of the latter, he says: “I cry, and we’ve done it before, and I’ve cried almost every time I conduct that.”
Adam Hyndman is doing the Barbara Cook version of “What’ll I do” with “Time Heals Everything,” he says, “which is just so beautiful. ‘What’ll I do,’ by the way, I learned it from the ‘The Golden Girls’ when Dorothy sang it on one of the episodes when she’s at The Rusty Anchor. I learned that … all those years ago as a kid watching ‘The Golden Girls,’ [and now] I get to do it with full orchestra and this Tony Award winner.”
If Frazier looks familiar, it may be because he is a frequent conductor on PBS, having appeared in more than 30 national broadcasts. He is founder and conductor of the American Pops Orchestra, which was named one of three orchestras in the United States to serve as an official Arts Envoy of the U.S. State Department.
“What I like about this concert is … I think many people just want to feel kind of a musical embrace, like something that feels good and familiar and warm and friendly,” he says. “That’s what this whole concert is. It’s just a whole concert of cake with icing, with extra icing and then another cake on top. You know, just lots of fun.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Broadway Showstoppers! The Leading Men,” presented by Symphony of the Americas
WHEN: 2 p.m. Sunday, May 11, and 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, May 13
WHERE: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Amaturo Theater, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
COST: $47.20-$106.20, with a limited number of $11.80 “Student Rush” tickets (for those younger than age 25 with a student ID) available at the box office beginning two hours before each performance
INFORMATION: 954-462-0222 (press 1); browardcenter.org or sota.org
