Broadway stars Matthew Morrison and Laura Michelle Kelly will join the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square for “Music for a Summer Evening,” a concert held annually in conjunction with community-wide Pioneer Day celebrations. This special Broadway-themed concert will be held on Friday and Saturday, July 20 and 21, at 8:00 p.m. in the Conference Center and will be conducted by Mack Wilberg, music director of the Choir, and Ryan Murphy, associate music director.
It will be a reunion performance for Morrison and Kelly, who starred opposite each other in the Broadway musical Finding Neverland, where Morrison played the role of J. M. Barrie opposite Kelly, who appeared as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir president Ron Jarrett said, “Matthew Morrison and Laura Michelle Kelly are extraordinary performers who have a dynamic chemistry onstage that will delight our audiences. We know they will bring down the house when they perform with the Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square!”
Matthew Morrison is a versatile actor, singer and dancer who has been recognized for his work on stage and screen with Tony, Emmy, and Golden Globe Award nominations. He is most well-known to television audiences as Mr. Schuester in the musical comedy series Glee. In 2012, Morrison hosted and narrated the PBS special entitled “Oscar Hammerstein II—Out of My Dreams,” which focused on the Broadway producer’s life and career.
Laura Michelle Kelly is a Laurence Olivier Award-winning actress and singer for her star-making performance as Mary Poppins in the London stage production. Kelly has performed in numerous London and Broadway musical productions as well as on radio and TV and in concert appearances at Royal Albert Hall, Hampton Court Palace, the Royal Opera House and Buckingham Palace.
The Choir is also pleased to welcome back Oscar “Andy” Hammerstein III, grandson of the famed lyricist and music theater producer Oscar Hammerstein II, who will join the Choir and Orchestra as the narrator of this special concert focusing on the Broadway contributions of his family. In 2017, Hammerstein narrated the Choir and Orchestra’s much-loved “Music: It Runs in the Family” RootsTech concert. In addition to serving as the Hammerstein family historian, Hammerstein is also a painter, writer and lecturer.
Tickets for the concert are free and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Tuesday, June 5, 2018, at 10:00 a.m.mountain daylight time, through lds.org/events or by phone at 801-570-0080. Each patron may request four tickets, and admission is open to those ages eight and older. Patrons without tickets are encouraged to join the standby line by the flagpole on Temple Square for last-minute seating, which is often available.
Morrison and Kelly will also appear on the Sunday, July 22, Music and the Spoken Word broadcast. No tickets will be required for that event, which will be held in the Conference Center at 9:30 a.m. Patrons should be in their seats by 9:15 a.m.
The concert will be live streamed on mormontabernaclechoir.org at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 21. It will also be carried live over the Church satellite system and aired on BYU Television.
These summer concerts featuring music by the Choir and Orchestra have been a long-standing tradition. Recent guest artists have included Alex Boyé (2017), The King’s Singers (2016), Laura Osnes (2015), Santino Fontana (2014), Nathan Pacheco and Lindsey Stirling (2013), Katherine Jenkins (2012), and Linda Eder and Brian Stokes Mitchell (2011). Prior concerts have been filmed and later rebroadcast on BYU Television. The summer concert of 2012 with Katherine Jenkins won the Choir’s third Emmy® Award.