Clockwise from top left: Young Broadway veterans Katie Boren, Miguel Cervantes, Jeff Kready and Kenita R. Miller offer up a four-course cabaret performance when Red Bank Flavour serves up some BROADWAY IN RED BANK at Two River Theater on April 16.Â
Last we heard from Red Bank Flavour, the promotional partnership was busily pounding the pavement to drum up interest in a Dine Downtown campaign for March. As April rounds the halfway point, however, the flavour of the month is not so much Broad Street as it is the bright lights and sensory stimulus of Broadway.
On the evening of Monday, April 16 — at a point in the drab foothills of the working week, when theaters are generally dark and restaurants largely devoid of lines — all eyes will be on Two River Theater, as more than a dozen of the borough’s favorite restaurateurs, caterers and vendors join forces for a night of tastes and talent that puts the show back in a showcase called Broadway in Red Bank.
Kicking off at 6 pm with a “flavorful food tasting” in the lobby of Two River’s Bridge Avenue space, the event is being touted by Sugarush co-owner Chris Paseka as “an important collaboration between Red Bank Flavour and the townÂ’s theaters, merging the arts and culinary communities to raise awareness of Red Bank as a thriving entertainment and cultural destination.”
The 90 minute “culinary extravaganza” will offer samplings of foodie fare from the Bistro at Red Bank, Boondocks Fishery, Dish, Cheese Cave, DannyÂ’s Grill and Wine Bar, Front Street Trattoria, GaetanoÂ’s, the Melting Pot, Readies Café, Siam Garden, Sugarush, Taste, Teak and Via45, with the possibility of more to come. It’s an appetizing prelude to an entertainment main course; a special musical cabaret performance that unfolds on the stage of the building’s Rechnitz Theater beginning at 7:30.
For this one-night-only performance, Two River Theater Company Artistic Director John Dias and his team have assembled a young cast of stars with some pretty formidable Broadway credits — among them Billy Elliott veteran Jeff Kready, who just wrapped an extended co-starring run in Two River’s In This House last weekend. He’s joined by another recent visitor to the Red Bank stage, Kenita R. Miller (the mama duck in Honk!, and Celie in The Color Purple), as well as Katie Boren and Miguel Cervantes, whose respective high profile projects include Lysistrata Jones and American Idiot.
“We know that artists love coming to Red Bank, partly because of the townÂ’s vibrancy,” explains Dias. “And weÂ’re glad to join with Red BankÂ’s culinary community to help promote that.”
Tickets for the April 16 event are priced at $75, $100, $150 and $200 and can be reserved at the theater’s online box office. All tickets include entry to the food tasting reception and show; the two upper pricing tiers also include an exclusive reception in the building’s Marion Huber Theater with hors d’ouevres and vodka/ champagne/ wine tastings, along with preferred seating and a post-show meet and greet with the artists. Proceeds from the evening will benefit Red Bank Flavour, Two River TheaterÂ’s Fund for New Work, and Count Basie Theatre.
Those whose appetites for “dinner and a show” are whetted by the Broadway in Red Bank event will be interested to know that the Two River Theater presentation of Maureen McGovern in Carry It On continues in the Rechnitz Auditorium for seven more performances between Wednesday, April 18 and Sunday, April 22. Over on the Basie boards, Red Bank’s own Phoenix Productions inaugurates a new season with a production of The Wizard of Oz, going up for two weekends beginning Friday, April 20 (and about which more to come in the pixelated pages of redbankgreen).
