The Ben Vereen Awards San Diego Competition recognizes the very best of high school musical theatre talent in San Diego County in collaboration with the National High School Musical Theatre Awards (NHSMTA).  In 2015, the Ben Vereen Awards inaugurated the Wellness Through the Arts Essay/Video Contest, using the performing arts as a foundation for a healthier lifestyle to focus on key topics of obesity, diabetes, low self-esteem, and bullying.  Winning entries became the raw material for a musical theatre collaboration performed at the annual awards ceremony.

This year, the Ben Vereen Awards has commissioned Bradley J. Behrmann as composer for the 2016 Wellness Through the Arts.  In collaboration with Jamie Gilchrist and Kikau Alvaro, Behrmann will be creating a new piece of musical theatre called “My Best Day.”

The Ben Vereen Awards will be held May 29, 2016 at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego, CA.

To celebrate the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson’s Rain, The Old Globe will host Pushing the Envelope, a cabaret-style evening of songs produced in collaboration with the Musical Theatre MFA Program at San Diego State University on April 4, 2016. Pushing the Envelope explores the lineage of great musical theatre writers whose risk-taking songs and provocative subject matter set the stage for work like Rain. This hour-long evening intersperses live performance and historical tidbits delving into these influential moments from musical theatre past and present. Pushing the Envelope includes music by writers like Rodgers and Hammerstein, William Finn, Stephen Sondheim, Jeanine Tesori, and, of course, Michael John LaChiusa, performed by students of one of the most highly acclaimed musical theatre graduate programs in the nation.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the Old Globe website here.

Thank you to Dean Joyce Gattas and the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts for the write-up regarding my presentation at the MTEA conference this past June.  Read full story here.

Read my full research on ‘Reclaiming the Top Forty:  Broadway’s Relationship With Popular Music’ here.

“Hey, nerds!”  This is the standard greeting for the MFAs at SDSU.  It is also the battle cry for our cheeky web series which is now released in its entirety.

Our professor Rob wrote a component into the second semester of History of Musical Theatre that involved creating and posting some of our findings on the internet.  Basically, the goal was to share the riches of the SDSU Musical Theatre Archive with the world.  So, the MFA’s, being A+ students…went a little A+ on this project.  Not satisfied with some chintzy iPhone video, we created a new series called “MUSICAL THEATRE NERD ALERT.”

Over the course of this past year, our class studied dozens of composers.  Some fell into specific categories:  we studied virtuosos like Gershwin and Hamlisch; we studied musicologists like Yeston and Tesori; and we studied tunesmiths like Berlin and Arlen.  The tunesmiths were a remarkable breed in that they were able to dip into a seemingly bottomless pool of melodies and continually draw forth something fresh.  King among them was Jule Styne.  Serving as your host and guide through the life and music of Jule Styne:  yours truly, Bradley J.

Feel like some more nerdiness?  Check out the whole series.

Thanks in part to winning the President’s Award for the Creative Arts at the Student Research Symposium at SDSU in March 2015, my research has been accepted to the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance Conference in June.  I will be presenting my paper–Reclaiming the ‘Top Forty’:  Broadway’s Relationship with Popular Music–at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth.

Find more conference details here.

It’s a Broadway musical romp through Florida’s most exclusive down-home trailer park – Armadillo Acres.  Jam-packed with quirky characters, big hair, road kill, and raucous fun, this delightfully trashy, double-wide comedy will leave you doubled over with laughter.  Runs April 24-May 3.

Details including ticket information here.

Check out official blog of The Great American Trailer Park Musical at SDSU for lots of juicy details from this production, all worthy of Jerry Springer.