Stars in the Alley

On May 20th, Shubert Alley in Times Square was the place to be as stars from thirty Broadway shows performed songs from their shows in a free concert as a warmup for the 2014 Tony Awards, which will take place on June 8th.

Norm Lewis, the first African-American man to play the phantom in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway hosted the show, and he was coerced by his costar Sierra Boggess into giving the appreciative crowd a taste of the iconic "Music of the Night" song before joking that if we wanted to hear the entire song, we'd have to come see the show.

Norm Lewis, the host

The show opened with Andy Karl, the star of Rocky, singing "Fight From the Heart." I haven't seen this show, and his performance made me put it on my must-see list. Karl is nominated for Best Actor in a Musical.

Andy Karl from Rocky

Another new show I haven't seen, Bullets Over Broadway, based on the Woody Allen movie, was represented by Brooks Ashmanskas and Helene York doing a humorous dance routine while singing "Let's Misbehave." The crowd got a kick out them. 

Bullets Over Broadway

Tony nominated Adriane Lenox from After Midnight had the crowd eating out of her hand as she performed "Don't Advertise Your Man." I saw her perform this in the show, and it is a audience-pleaser. 

Adriane Lenox

From the multi-nominated A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder, Tony nominated for Best Actor in a Musical Bryce Pinkham sang "Foolish to Think."

Bryce Pinkham

Joshua Henry is nominated as Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for his role in the revival of Violet, and he amazed the crowd with his rendition of "Let It Sing." He is fantastic in the show.

Joshua Henry

Another Best Revival of a Musical is Les Miserables, and Nikki M. James, a Tony winner for The Book Of Mormon, sang "On My Own".

Nikki M. James

Lena Hall is nominated for Best Featured Performance by an Actress in a Musical for her role in the revival of Hedwig and The Angry Inch. She tore the roof off of the place with "Tear Me Down."

Lena Hall

Kelli O'Hara is Tony nominated for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Francesca in the now closed The Bridges of Madison County. I still don't understand that- it has the best score I have heard in years (Norm Lewis agrees) and the performances are all wonderful. I wish it had had more time to grow, it is one of my favorites. O'Hara sang "To Build A Home" and the crowd loved it. Sigh.

Some of the other performances that were fan favorites include Teshi Thomas, who belted "The Circle of Life" from The Lion King.

Teshi Thomas

The guys from Newsies have a big fan base of young ladies as they sang "Seize The Day."

Newsies

And Judy McClane crushed it with "The Winner Takes It All" from Mamma Mia.

Mamma Mia

The show that I send everyone to see, Once, brought their entire cast to sing "When Your Mind's Made Up."

Once

Stars in the Alley was two hours of the best performers giving their all; it really put us all in the mood for the Tony Awards and it was free. That is why I love New York.