Club Dinner: Paul Oakley Stovall and Brad Simmons Sing "The Next Best Thing to Love"
February 23, 2012 at 6:00AM
Monroe House
Two years ago composer-singer-actor Paul Oakley Stovall and his collaborator in music Brad Simmons wowed Arts Club members on the gallery stage—and encored with a impromptu after-dinner songfest at the second-floor Steinway. Whether in jazzy standards or his own compositions, Stovall’s terrific voice, commanding presence, and emotional directness made a strong impression.
Stovall and Simmons return with a new program, The Next Best Thing to Love, a collection of songs that explore yearning, hope, and resolve, and their second Arts Club visit promises to be equally memorable.
As an actor, Paul Oakley Stovall appeared with Steppenwolf Theatre and other Chicago companies, and at New York’s Lincoln Center and Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater. Film work includes Shortbus directed by John Cameron Mitchell and Robert Altman’s The Company. His musical, Clear, was developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Music Theatre Conference and has been performed in Chicago and New York. In June, Stovall’s play Immediate Family will be produced in Chicago at the Goodman's Owen Theatre.
Brad Simmons is a singer, pianist, musical director, and vocal coach and has served as the music director of the O’Neill Theater Center’s Cabaret and Performance Conference. Most recently he was the musical director of the new musical Lysistrata Jones, which moved from a critically hailed off-Broadway run in the summer of 2011 to Broadway that fall.
6:30 pm Cocktails
7:30 pm Program
8:30 pm Dinner
Dress Business
Cost $40 plus $10 program fee
Hear Paul Oakley Stovall sing "That's Life” at Joe’s Pub at New York’s Public Theater.