The San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas, bringing great music to our beloved SF for 105 years. Come join us! http://sfsymphony.org
Last night at The Edge bar’s “Musical Mondays” in the Castro District of San Francisco, the very charming Cheyenne Jackson led the packed house (including one lucky lady) in a rousing sing-a-long of “Suddenly Seymour” from the musical Little Shop of Horrors. He also sang “Falling Slowly” from Once.
Come see him live this Thursday and Friday at 7:30 pm at Davies Symphony Hall. Experience songs from Casablanca, Goldfinger, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Moulin Rouge, and more. Plus, the Orchestra, led by director of summer concerts Edwin Outwater, performs famous overtures from Gypsy and Funny Girl.
Cheyenne will be joined on stage by special guest vocalists Tony Award-winning Broadway actress Faith Prince, star of Guys and Dolls, and Australia’s most glamorous diva and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Courtney Act.
#SymphonySummer starts July 2 at Davies Symphony Hall! We are so excited about this summer’s concert line-up with new Director of Summer Concerts Edwin Outwater, and hope you’ll join us at least once with your friends and family: http://sfsymphony.org/summer
Come visit our booth at San Francisco Pride this Saturday, 6/28!
We’ll be in front of Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Grove Street:
Our Cheyenne Jackson Photo Contest is super simple:
VISIT US at SF Pride in Civic Center Plaza–Saturday, June 28 only–and take a selfie of yourself with our “handheld Cheyenne Jackson” photo (yes, you get to hold Cheyenne in your hand), and you could win a chance to take, well, a real selfie with Cheyenne at his concert on Thursday, July 24.
POSTyour photo (selfie with “Cheyenne”) from our booth on Twitter or Instagram using #CHEYENNESF
We’ll select the winners on Monday, June 30 at Noon and announce on Facebook,Instagram, and Twitter. Be sure to FOLLOW US to see if your entry is chosen!
Happy Pride, everyone! Hope to see you at Davies Symphony Hall for #SymphonySummer!
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There’s a certain something about TV and Broadway star Cheyenne Jackson that makes him alluring. Just ask Tina Fey, who, after seeing him in a production of “Damn Yankees,” waltzed up to Jackson and said, “Hi, I love your timing and your big midwestern face,” and immediately offered him the role of hunky-dory Canadian Danny on her hit TV show 30 Rock.
Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony released a new live recording of the first-ever concert performances of Leonard Bernstein’s complete score for the musical West Side Storyfeaturing a stellar Broadway cast including Cheyenne Jackson and Alexandra Silber, and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, on June 10, 2014. This collector’s edition two-disc set available from the SFS Media label includes a 100-page booklet featuring a new interview with MTT, notes from Rita Moreno and Jamie Bernstein, as well as a West Side Story historical timeline, archival photographs, complete lyrics, and rehearsal and performance photos.
Wonderful summer memories from the lovely Courtney Act, chronicling her week here with us last July as part of Music from the Movies with Cheyenne Jackson, Faith Prince, Edwin Outwater, and the Orchestra. Thanks, Courtney! Hope to see you back in SF soon.
Australia’s most glamorous diva and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Courtney Act dishes on her coming concerts with Cheyenne Jackson, Faith Prince, and the San Francisco Symphony July 24-25, 2014. http://bit.ly/CheyenneSFS
“this is an exciting time to be alive, as a gay man and as a human being.”
Cheyenne Jackson has already sold out Carnegie Hall twice, so when he returns to San Francisco in July it’s with a strong wind at his back. Bay Area Broadway fans sealed their bond with him last June, when he garnered raves and broke hearts as Tony in the San Francisco Symphony’s West Side Story. He’s back this summer, celebrating the leading men and women of Hollywood musicals in a show he calls Hello Gorgeous! (Remember the source of that phrase? Funny Girl: Barbra Streisand, aka Fanny Brice, utters it when she spots herself in a mirror.)
Something to get out of the way: Cheyenne is the name he was born with, courtesy of his father, who loved the TV Western series Cheyenne. “It’s taken a while to embrace my name.” (His older brothers are John and Chris.) “I did not like [it] as a little kid. I thought it was too weird.” It was one-of-a-kind in the small town where he grew up, on the Idaho-Washington border.
As a teenager, he worked at the local paper mill. “My job was to shovel wet paper into these big dryers for 12 hours a day.” Even while toiling three years at the Grizzly Drive-In Pizza and Ribs, he focused on a future. “My dream was just to entertain and to be an artist. I didn’t know how that was going to manifest. I like to draw. I love to sing. I love to act. I love to dance.” Step by step, he assembled the pieces. At 19, he came out to his family. Then he moved to Seattle, where he moonlighted as an actor. At 26 he moved to New York.
A superbly confident style, looks that inspire women and men alike to call him “dreamboat,” and a flawless singing voice that extends from solid lows to solar heights—all these placed him on Broadway’s A-list from the start. His first Broadway leading role earned him a 2005 Theatre World Award for outstanding debut. The following year, for his portrayal of Bay Area 9/11 hero Mark Bingham in the movie United 93, he captured an award from the Boston Society of Film Critics. He has been nominated for Drama League, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. TV viewers have seen him in Glee and 30 Rock, also in Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace biopic, Beyond the Candelabra, with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. His first solo album, 2013’s I’m Blue, Skies, is filled with songs he wrote and follows his collaborative album with Michael Feinstein, The Power of Two.
Anyone with so packed a calendar needs still, small points to help negotiate life’s pace. For Jackson, the simple pleasure of a pet provides that calm. “New York is so frantic. You can come home, and your dog is your solace.” He carries with him a permanent reminder of one of his dogs, Zora. In her final moments he cradled her, feeling her last heartbeat as she rested on his right arm—which, today, bears a tattooed Z in her memory.
West Side Story and the San Francisco Symphony proved an irresistible pairing for Jackson. “People love this show. It’s timeless. So to be able to do it with Michael Tilson Thomas and this orchestra—how could I not? It’s scary as hell, but you know: Suck it up. Do it.
“Working with Michael is a trip. Because he is so musically proficient and he’s so specific, and sensitive to every single phrase. I’ve sung these songs so many times, but this felt like the first time I’d ever done it.”
Last June, while on stage as Tony in the evening, Jackson spent one of his San Francisco mornings out on the street, serving as Grand Marshall of the Pride Parade. He is a vocal advocate for LGBT rights and an international ambassador for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research
As US society seems ever more inclusive, Jackson reflects that “this is an exciting time to be alive, as a gay man and as a human being.” Times evolve. Even his name, which he once thought a liability, has become a mark of distinction. His fans call themselves Cheyenne Tologists.
Broadway and television star Cheyenne Jackson performs songs from classic films with the San Francisco Symphony led by Edwin Outwater, 7:30 pm July 24 and 25. Davies Symphony Hall 415-864-6000 http://bit.ly/CheyenneSFS
Hear him now in West Side Story
After Cheyenne Jackson’s performance as Tony in the San Francisco Symphony’s West Side Story, his re-engagement was guaranteed. He returns to Davies Symphony Hall July 25 and 26, singing show-stoppers from the movies’ best-loved musicals. Joining him is film composer Ben Toth at the piano. Edwin Outwater conducts.
Those who can’t wait until July to hear Jackson will want to grab the new SFS Media recording of West Side Story, capturing those performances last June—the first by a symphony orchestra of all the show’s music, from cool to scorching. Release is scheduled for May 20 (via iTunes download) and June 10 (in a deluxe set of two Super Audio hybrid CDs, packaged with a 100-page booklet that includes an interview with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, historical notes, archival photos, and complete lyrics).
West Side Story, premiered in 1957, first came to disc with the original cast album. Composer Leonard Bernstein’s own 1984 “operatic” rendering generated both raves and dismay. For the first SFS performances and recording of the work, MTT aimed “to go with people who were singing actors. I wanted something you would recognize as part of a Broadway music theater production.” Besides Jackson, the cast is pure Broadway, including two rising stars, Alexandra Silber (as Maria) and Jessica Vosk (as Anita).
West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet updated, a tale of love crossing borders, with a score that’s part jazz, part Latin jazz, part show tune, part opera. Says Cheyenne Jackson: “It’s the best musical of all time. Period.”
Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony’s new live recording of the first-ever concert performances of Leonard Bernstein’s complete score for the musical West Side Storyavailable from iTunes.com/SFSymphony and can be ordered on disc from sfsymphony.org/store.
Last June’s season-ending performances of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony was a memorable occasion on several fronts - not merely a dynamic evening in Davies Symphony Hall but a bold claim for the musical brilliance of the score even in isolation from its theatrical trappings. To hear this recording is to marvel again at the rhythmic vivacity of Bernstein’s writing, his extraordinary range of reference, and the way he adapts the various strains of midcentury American music to his creative vision without weakening their essential character.
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