2) A Broadway Hit Parade:
Oct. 26, 27 & 28

The second pops concert is a hit parade of Broadway tunes and a salute to Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Frank Loesser, who wrote such standards as Heart & Soul and Baby, It's Cold Outside, along with hundreds of songs for movies and musicals, including such shows as Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Most Happy Fellow. Conductor Richard Kaufman will share the stage with four seasoned Broadway vocalists: Emily Loesser, Debbie Gravitte, Don Stephenson and Ron Raines.

In addition to being the daughter of composer Frank Loesser and songtress Jo Sullivan, Emily Loesser's credits include performances on Broadway and off Broadway, as well as at Royal Festival Hall in London, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, New York City Opera and at numerous regional theaters. Her performances have covered a breadth of repertoire by George and Ira Gershwin, Frank Loesser, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin and Gerard Alessandrini, among others. Emily Loesser makes her TFO debut with these concerts.

Ron Raines is best known by television fans for his long-running role as Alan Spalding in CBS's popular daytime series Guiding Light. In addition to performing with over 50 symphony orchestras, he has also performed in four PBS broadcasts of Great Performances, including Evening at the Pops with the Boston Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart. Raines is very active as one of America's leading musical theater performers, which includes roles on Broadway and in various New York theater runs of such shows as Chicago, Showboat, Teddy and Alice, Olympus on the Mind, The Merry Widow, The Duchess of Gerolstein, One Touch of Venus, A Little Night Music and Oh Lady! Lady! Ron Raines performed recently with TFO on the 2006/07 season in the Pops concert "A Rodgers & Hammerstein Celebration."

For her critically acclaimed performance in Jerome Robbin's Broadway, Debbie Gravitte won a Tony Award and New York Showstopper Award, as well as a Drama Desk Nomination. She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of They're Playing Our Song and went on to appear in Perfectly Frank, Blues in the Night, Ain't Broadway Grand, Zorba the Greek and Les Miserables. One of her most recent performances was in the hit Broadway production of Chicago. In addition to performing regularly with various symphony orchestras, her television appearances include several PBS specials: The Boston Pops Sings Bernstein, Live from the Kennedy Center, Rodgers and Hart for Great Performances and Gershwin's 100th Birthday Celebration at Carnegie Hall. Debbie Gravitte last performed with TFO on the 2005/06 season in the Pops concert "Bravo Broadway."

Don Stephenson has been featured in a variety of Tony Award-winning shows on Broadway, including The Producers, Private Lives, Titanic and Parade. Also on Broadway, he played Bingo Little in By Jeeves and appeared as Frank Lippencott in the revival of Wonderful Town at Lincoln Center. He most recently starred on Broadway in Dracula where he created the role of Renfield. Stephenson has also appeared as an actor in such television shows as Another World, Now and Again, All My Children, As the World Turns and Law and Order. "A Broadway Hit Parade" marks Don Stephenson's debut with TFO.

Fri, Oct 26, 8 pm /PAC-CMH
Sat. Oct 27, 8 pm /MAH
Sun, Oct 28, 7:30 pm /REH