John McDaniel bringing stars to P-town this summer with Broadway series
Grammy and Emmyaward winning-artist John McDaniel will produce a series of performances featuring Broadway stars in Provincetown this summer.
Tony Award winner Betty Buckley opens and co-headlines “John McDaniel’s Broadway Series” at Provincetown Town Hall on June
23. Her co-headliner, “Glee” alum Darren Criss, performs with McDaniel on July 21. The programming, presented in partnership with Post Office Cafe and Cabaret and
Tin Pan Alley, will also include five additional Broadway stars, with dates sprinkled throughout the summer.
“I’m so fortunate to have an opportunity to create this series in Provincetown, which is one of the
nd most magical places on earth,” McDaniel said in a phone interview Friday. Each show is expected to run between an hour to 75 minutes without an intermission.
“Each performer is so uniquely different,” he added. “My favorite part about this is I get to choose people who I love to be with and people who emanate love. It’s going to be a great time.”
Tony-nominated actress Kate Baldwin makes her Provincetown debut on June 28 and 29 at the Post Office Cafe and Cabaret; Max Clayton, fresh from his turn as Fred Casely in “Chicago,” performs on July 6; Alice Ripley, a Tony-winning actress known for her role in “Next to Normal,” appears on July 19 and 20; Nicholas Rodriguez rounds out July with two performances on the 26 and 27; actress and singer Liz Callaway closes out the series with performances on Aug. 30 and 31.
Two more Broadway performers not associated with the series will appear in Provincetown this summer. James Jackson Jr., a Bostonborn, Obie Award-winning actor, is slated to perform on Aug. 2, 3, and 4, and on Oct. 11 and 12; and Lee Roy Reams, a Tony-nominated actor, comes to the Cape on Sept. 2.
McDaniel has previously worked with each performer in his lineup. He met Ripley during his 6½-year stint as the bandleader on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” and Clinton on a Broadway Cruise put on by Playbill Travel from Brussels to Amsterdam. The other actors included in his series are friends he’s “picked up” throughout his career, particularly during his 25-year stint in New York.
“It’s what I’ve fallen into and what I love to do,” he said. “Playing piano for these brilliant artists gives me so much creative juju.”
This summer marks McDaniel’s first curated series venture into Provincetown. He said he’s been “in love” with the tip of the Cape since he visited three years ago with Melissa Manchester and was “blown away by the beautiful galleries and restaurants and shopping and and shows where drag queens mingle with nuns.”
It was on this trip that he met the staff at the Post Office Cafe and Cabaret. They approached him with the idea for the series a few months ago, hoping he would curate and perform alongside the stars, McDaniel explained, adding, “I was just over the moon excited.”
“It’s like anything goes in Provincetown,” he said. “Everyone can be made to feel themselves and to feel strong and beautiful.”
“John McDaniel’s Broadway Series” opens at Provincetown Town Hall with Betty Buckley on June 23 and closes with Liz Callaway on
Aug. 30 and 31. Tickets are available on postofficecafe.net or call 508487-0008.