Ocean City Pops To Honor Legendary Songwriters/Knights Sept. 6

OCEAN CITY, NJ — The Ocean City Pops will celebrate three knights who happen to be three of the most successful songwriters of all time in a special show on Wednesday night, Sept. 6, city officials announced this week.

“Music of the Knights” will honor the legendary careers of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney at the Ocean City Music Pier, Moorlyn Terrace and Boardwalk, 7:30 p.m.

The show will feature songs such as “Memory,” “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” “Don’t cry for Me Argentina,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Circle of Life,” “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” “Your Song,” “Don’t Let the Sun go Down on Me,” “Yesterday,” “Hey Jude” and many more.

Tickets are $25/$20. To purchase tickets, visit oceancityvacation.com/boxoffice, stop by the Ocean City Music Pier Box Office or call 609-399-6111.

The following performers will take part in the show, with bios provided by Ocean City Public Information Officer Doug Bergen:

John Boswell has served as musical director for Judy Collins, Andy Williams and Bob Newhart as well as the concert tours of “Cinema Toast,””That’s Life: A Toast to Sinatra,””Blockbuster Today,” “Three Men and a Baby Grand,” “Blockbuster Broadway!” and “The Spy Who Loved Me” starring Sheena Easton. John played the role of “Moose” in the national tour of Crazy For You.

Broadway/Off-Broadway credits include “Crazy For You,” “The Secret Garden,” “Back To Bacharach And David,” and “The Kathy And Mo Show: Parallel Lives.” Most recently, Boswell composed music for the HBO special “Kathy And Mo: The Dark Side.” He has six CDs of original music on Hearts Of Space Records, including “The Painter,” “Kindred Spirits,” “Count Me In,” “Festival of the Heart,” “Trust” and “Love.”

Scott Coulter is one of New York’s most honored vocalists. For his work in cabaret, Scott has received five MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs), five Bistro Awards and two Nightlife Awards for Outstanding Vocalist. He has performed at most of NYC’s top rooms including Birdland, 54 Below, The Oak Room at the Algonquin, and Feinstein’s at The Regency, where he spent a record-setting eight months performing the revue “11 O’Clock Numbers at 11 O’Clock.” He also co-created directed and musically arranged the revue.

His self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by Theatre Mania and Cabaret Scenes magazines. Coulter was director and star of “A Christmas Carol: The Symphonic Concert” in its world premiere with the Baltimore Symphony and reprised his performance in the Emmy-nominated PBS production, which premiered in December 2013.

Since 1997, he has performed around the country with award-winning songwriting duo Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich in their many revues. While singing with Goldrich and Heisler, he was discovered by Oscar and Grammy winning composer Stephen Schwartz who then invited him to join the revue “Stephen Schwartz & Friends.” That revue (starring Schwartz and Coulter along with Liz Callaway and Tony Award-winner Debbie Gravitte) has been performed all over the world since 1999. Schwartz has said, “One of the greatest things that can happen to a composer is to have his music interpreted by Scott Coulter.”

Coulter regularly performs in concert, both as a solo artist and with a variety of legendary performers including Stephen Schwartz, Tony-winner Ben Vereen and Grammy-winner Sheena Easton and has performed with symphonies all over the world including San Francisco, Baltimore, Seattle, Phoenix, Winnipeg, St. Louis and Calgary.

As a director, his credits include many shows for The Town Hall in NY (Broadway By The Year, Broadway’s Rising Stars, Broadway Originals, Broadway Unplugged) and BBTY for The Berkshire Theatre Festival and Broadway by the Bay. Along with Michael Kerker and ASCAP, he’s produced and directed several installments of Michael Feinstein’s “Standard Time” at Carnegie Hall. He is creator, arranger and director of several touring shows, including “Cinema Toast,” “Southern Comfort,” “Broadway’s Elite,” “That’s Life: A Toast To Sinatra,” “You’ve Got A Friend: Carole King, Neil Sedaka and the Music of the Brill Building, Blockbuster Broadway!” and his critically acclaimed solo show, “The Fella Sings Ella,” which honors the life of the legendary Ella Fitzgerald.

His concert creation, “The King: The Music of Elvis” premiered with the Calgary Philharmonic and is currently playing symphony halls across America and Canada. He recently wrote the book for the new musical “Got to be There” which celebrates the life and music of songwriter Elliot Willensky. Coulter is founder/owner of Spot-On Entertainment. He’s a resident director of programming at 54 Below (Broadway’s Supper Club) in NYC and is a graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Blaine Krauss made his Broadway debut in the smash hit "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812" after traveling the world as 'Simba' in "The Lion King" and starring in the Radio City Summer Spectacular. He performs with symphonies around the globe and is a regular performer at Feinstein's/54 Below. His talents led him in 2011 to be a feature performer for the largest Commemoration of 9/11 outside of the U.S at the Trocadero in Paris, France. In 2010 he was selected to be 1 of 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts by the White House and Presidential Scholar Commission.

This venture led to having met President Barack Obama and concluded with a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. He was selected to be the Feature Vocalist at the 2010 July 4th Celebration at the US National Archives; was a selected participant at the International Fringe Festival in Edinburgh Scotland. His theatrical credits include “Godspell” and “Spelling Bee” at the West Virginia Public Theatre, “Evita,” “Into the Woods,” “Civil War,” “Make Me A Song,” “Chess” and Jean Valjean in CCM's “Les Miserables.”

Kelli Rabke got her “big break” playing the role of Dorothy in Paper Mill Playhouse’s acclaimed production of “The Wizard of Oz.” Shortly thereafter, she was handpicked by Andrew Lloyd Webber to play the lead role of the Narrator in the Broadway revival of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” (US Cast Recording).

Following that, she played her dream role: Eponine in “Les Miserables” on Broadway. She went on to perform in regional theaters across the country in such roles as Mabel in “Mack and Mabel,” Christine in “Phantom,” and back to Paper Mill Playhouse in Stephen Schwartz’s “Children of Eden” as Yonah (American Premiere Recording). She is one of the only Broadway stars to originate a role in both a Stephen Schwartz and an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical — a distinction for which she is incredibly honored.

She has been seen and heard in tons of TV commercials and voice-overs, and was the voice of several animated characters, including Kat in the Discovery Kids series “Kenny The Shark.” She also played the recurring role of Bernadette on “The Young and the Restless.”

Rabke left the bright lights of the stage for a few years and turned her attention to her family. Her proudest accomplishments to date are her son, Joseph, and daughter, Abigale. A new chapter in her career began when joining the board of the BergenPAC in Englewood. There, she developed the Kidz Cabaret series, the Beyond Music program of instrumental lessons, and her personal favorite: Music Speaks, an early childhood music education class for infants through 4 years old.

She has sung on numerous CDs for Music Speaks (including a duet with her son!) and is so excited to see the new Performing Arts School at BergenPAC opening this fall. Kelli also served as producer and creative director for “Beyond the Storm” – a Hurricane Sandy relief concert which raised money for local towns hard hit by the storm.

Rabke was thrilled to return to the NYC stage at the beautiful and historic Town Hall where she has been seen in numerous concerts including “Broadway Originals” and “Broadway Unplugged.” Recently, she was the headliner for the “Broadway on the Boardwalk” concert in Ocean City, and performed at “Broadway Ballyhoo” at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. Her solo cabaret debut,”No Place Like Home” has it’s NYC premier at 54 Below in June. Her concert work has taken her all over the world and she couldn’t be happier.

Lorinda Lisitza is an award-winning singer/actress originally from Porcupine Plain, Saskatchewan. In New York she has performed Off-Broadway as a member of the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre where she starred as "Mother Courage" to rave reviews and has appeared in several installments of The York Theatre's "Musicals in Mufti" series.

As a vocalist she has been a part of The Town Hall's historic "Broadway by the Year" series and is a founding member of the Joe Iconis Family with whom she regularly performs in cabarets and nightclubs throughout NYC for a devoted cult following.

She has won three MAC Awards, a Bistro Award and a Nightlife Award for her work in cabaret and received the prestigious Patrick Lee Independent Theater Blogger Award for her one woman show, “Triumphant Baby!,” written by Joe Iconis and Robert Maddock. As a singer-songwriter she is half of the award-winning duo, The Ted and Lo Show, with Ted Stafford. Lorinda has appeared on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," plays a mean harmonica and is an avid Texas Hold'em player.

Images provided by Ocean City Public Information Officer Doug Bergen

Main image is a Patch file photo