Lobby Cabaret
Great American Songbook, Featuring Christopher Ryan and Gary Powell
Monday, May 13th, 2024 / 7:00 pm
Join us as Christopher Ryan and Gary Powell play their way through their favorite songs from the Great American Songbook. Between Christopher’s vocals and Garys skill on the keys, this will be a joyous evening of classic songs performed as only old friends can.
CHRISTOPHER RYAN
Christopher is currently a faculty member in Musical Theatre and Dance at Northern Kentucky University. His experience as a professional performer and educator spans several decades, continents, countries and languages.
Shortly after finishing his MFA in Acting at Regent University, Christopher moved to Germany, where he worked for the next eleven years, in musical theatre, operetta, spoken word theatre, and opera.
Some highlights of his time in Europe were: directing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged for the Rover Rep theatre in Hamburg, touring the continent playing roles like: Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, Tom in The Glass Menagerie, and Anthony in Sweeney Todd, playing Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in German, choreographing the original German language production of Bridges of Madison County, and playing dream roles, like: Emcee in Cabaret, Caiaphas and Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, Mark in RENT, and the title character in Jekyll & Hyde.
In the Summers from 2011-2014, Christopher was the Director of Musical Theatre and the Dance and Combat instructor for the "International Performing Arts Institute“, where he, together with the other faculty, trained young, talented and promising American Opera and Musical Theatre students to prepare them to work in the international Theatre market. In the fall of 2016, Christopher finished recording his first album, Holy Night, an album of traditional Christmas songs, which was released in November of 2016. During his time in Vienna, Austria, in addition to playing in the company of the hit musical Sister Act, Christopher taught for several schools, including Performing Center of Austria, the premiere training facility for Musical Theatre pre-professionals in all of Austria. In 2019, as the demand for coaching, both private and in university masterclass settings, continued to grow, Christopher decided to make the move back to the US.
After relocating to the Tampa, FL area, in addition to coaching, Christopher was a company member with the Theatre for Young Audiences company: Creative Arts Theatre, and sang with various other companies from Busch Gardens to Opera Tampa.
GARY POWELL
Gary has been musically directing and staging shows for over 30 years in Texas, Chicago, New York City, and now Central Florida. Select standouts of Gary’s career include Sound of Music, Godspell, Brigadoon, South Pacific, and regionally Sweet Charity and Next to Normal at the Skokie Theatre. Gary currently serves as the resident Music Director for The Sharon® L. Morse Performing Arts Center.
