NJSO and Paper Mill Playhouse present ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ in first of four-part video series
· Broadway veteran Rema Webb performs classic Rodgers and Hammerstein song with NJSO string quintet in first episode of collaboration
· Future performances to be released online through April 2021
· Series is sponsored by JCP&L/FirstEnergy Foundation and PNC Bank
NEWARK, NJ—In the first part of a collaboration between the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Paper Mill Playhouse, Broadway veteran Rema Webb and an NJSO string quintet give an at-home performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel tonight, January 5, at 7PM.
The performance video will be available on demand on the Orchestra’s YouTube and social media channels, as well as at njsymphony.org/papermill.
The NJSO quintet features violinists Bryan Hernandez-Luch and Héctor Falcón, violist David Blinn, cellist Sarah Seiver and Principal Bass Ha Young Jung.
Additional collaborative videos will air on February 9, March 2 and April 13 at 7PM.
The February 9 performance features Jacob Keith Watson singing “Out There” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame; the March 2 performance features “Tonight” from West Side Story sung by Belinda Allyn and Matt Doyle, and the April 13 performance features “Being Alive” from Company performed by Tally Sessions.
This four-part collaboration is part of NJSO Virtual 20–21, the Orchestra’s digital season. For more information, visit njsymphony.org/virtual.
‘YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE’
In collaboration with Paper Mill Playhouse
Tue, Jan 5, at 7 pm
Rema Webb, vocalist
Bryan Hernandez-Luch, violin
Héctor Falcón, violin
David Blinn, viola
Sarah Seiver, cello
Ha Young Jung, bass
“You’ll Never Walk Alone”
Written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II
Williamson Music Company
By arrangement with Concord
Series sponsored by JCP&L/First Energy Foundation and PNC Bank. Vocalist Biographies
Rema Webb is a 20-year Broadway veteran who made her Paper Mill debut last season in the world premiere of Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. In summer 2019 she was featured in the Public Theater/Disney Theatrical production of Hercules at the Delacorte Theater. Rema’s Broadway credits include Escape to Margaritaville, The Color Purple, Violet, The Lion King, The Book of Mormon, and Ragtime, and her Off Broadway and regional credits include Little Shop of Horrors, The Cradle Will Rock, The Colored Museum, and A New Brain, among others. She has appeared on television and film in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live!, First Born, Beloved, Sudden Death, and Murphy Brown. Rema debuted her critically acclaimed solo concert, Children Will Listen, at 54 Below and gave an encore performance at 42 West. With a mission to pass on her knowledge and inspire the next generation of young artists, Rema is the founder and executive director of On Broadway Performing Arts Training Program.
Jacob Keith Watson: Broadway/NYC: Carousel (Enoch Snow), Hello, Dolly!, Violet, Amélie, The Phantom of the Opera (Joseph Buquet/Monsieur Reyer), 1776 (Robert Livingston, Encores!), Mack & Mabel (Harry, Encores!). National Tour: Chicago (Amos Hart). Regional: Shrek the Musical (Shrek, Broadway at Music Circus-Sacramento), Benny & Joon (Waldo, Paper Mill Playhouse), As You Like It (Corin), Twelfth Night (Feste), A Christmas Carol (Marley’s Ghost), Pagliacci (Beppe), La Bohème (Rodolfo). Symphony performances: Featured soloist in New York, New York at the Kurt Weill Festival in Germany with Maestro James Holmes, Kurt Weill on Broadway at Symphony Space, among many others. JKW is a past winner of the Lotte Lenya Competition and the NATS National Music Theatre Competition. Follow JKW on Instagram: @JacobKeith_Watson
Belinda Allyn will be seen in Paper Mill Playhouse’s upcoming streaming production of Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein.
She previously appeared as Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Maria in West Side Story, as well as in Benny & Joon. Other credits include Once Upon a One More Time (pre-Broadway, shut down by Covid), Allegiance (Broadway), understudy Imelda in Here Lies Love (Seattle Rep), Maria in West Side Story (Riverside Theatre), and Mrs. Claus in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (NYC). Graduate of Oklahoma City University. @belinda_allyn
Matt Doyle plays Jamie in the new Broadway revival of Company. He recently starred in the world premiere of the Huey Lewis musical The Heart of Rock & Roll at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. Matt’s Broadway credits include The Book of Mormon (Elder Price), War Horse (Billy Narracott), Spring Awakening (Hanschen), and Bye Bye Birdie (Hugo Peabody). National tour credits include Spring Awakening (Melchior). Off Broadway credits include Sweeney Todd, A Clockwork Orange, Brooklynite, and Jasper in Deadland. Regional credits include West Side Story at Paper Mill Playhouse, Jasper in Deadland at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, and Giant at Dallas Theater Center. Film and television credits include The Code (CBS), a recurring role on Gossip Girl (Jonathan), and Private Romeo (Glenn). Matt has performed at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops and continues to perform his sold-out solo show throughout New York City in addition to performing with symphonies across the country. Recordings include Bare (Peter). His album, Uncontrolled, is available on iTunes.
Tally Sessions: Broadway: Company, Anastasia, War Paint, Falsettos, School of Rock, Big Fish, The House of Blue Leaves, Paramour. Off Broadway: Giant, Queen of the Mist, Yank, Anyone Can Whistle, Hallelujah Baby!. Tours: South Pacific, Legally Blonde, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Tally recently starred as the Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Paper Mill Playhouse and as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music at the Asolo Repertory Theatre. Regional: The Old Globe, Goodspeed Opera House, Signature Theatre, the Kennedy Center, the Muny, Kansas City Rep, Olney Theatre, Cape Playhouse, and others. TV: Elementary and Falling Water.
Paper Mill Playhouse, recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is a nationally renowned not-for-profit theater under the direction of Mark S. Hoebee (Producing Artistic Director) and Michael Stotts (Managing Director). A beloved NJ arts institution since 1938, Paper Mill creates and produces groundbreaking new musicals and reimagined classics. Several productions have gone on to Broadway and launched national tours, including Disney’s Newsies, Les Misérables, Honeymoon in Vegas, A Bronx Tale and Bandstand. The theater is also the home of an award-winning center for musical theater education and artist training, with outreach programs that impact thousands of students each year. As one of the nation’s premier musical theaters, Paper Mill fosters a creative environment to advance the art form, educate students, develop future theater lovers, nurture inclusion and provide access for all. Paper Mill Playhouse programs are made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Paper Mill Playhouse is a member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the Council of Stock Theatres and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
Named “a vital, artistically significant musical organization” by The Wall Street Journal, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra embodies that vitality through its statewide presence and critically acclaimed performances, education partnerships and unparalleled access to music and the Orchestra’s superb musicians.
Music Director Xian Zhang—a “dynamic podium presence” The New York Times has praised for her “technical abilities, musicianship and maturity”—continues her acclaimed leadership of the NJSO. The Orchestra presents classical, pops and family programs, as well as outdoor summer concerts and special events. Embracing its legacy as a statewide orchestra, the NJSO is the resident orchestra of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and regularly performs at State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick, Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown and bergenPAC in Englewood. Partnerships with New Jersey arts organizations, universities and civic organizations remain a key element of the Orchestra’s statewide identity.
In addition to its lauded artistic programming, the NJSO presents a suite of education and community engagement programs that promote meaningful, lifelong engagement with live music. Programs include school-time Concerts for Young People and the NJSO Youth Orchestras family of student ensembles, led by José Luis Domínguez. NJSO musicians annually perform original chamber music programs at community events in a variety of settings statewide through the NJSO Community Partners program.
The Orchestra’s online hub for free NJSO Virtual 20–21 content is njsymphony.org/virtual.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s programs are made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, along with many other foundations, corporations and individual donors.
