HILLSIDE, NJ — Two new shows have been added to Kean Stage’s spring 2023 season at Kean University’s Enlow Recital Hall in Hillside.
Cherish the Ladies, the long-running, Grammy-nominated, Irish-American supergroup, will perform on Friday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. Formed in New York City in 1985 to celebrate the rise of extraordinary women in what had been a male-dominated Irish music scene, Cherish the Ladies has toured the world, played the White House and the Olympics, and recorded 17 critically acclaimed albums. With the leadership of all-Ireland flute and whistle champion Joanie Madden, named by The Irish Voice newspaper as one of the Top 25 most influential Irish Americans of the past quarter century, these ladies create an evening that includes a spectacular blend of virtuoso instrumental talents, beautiful vocals, captivating arrangements and stunning Irish step dancing. Their continued success as one of the top Celtic groups in the world is due to the ensemble’s ability to take the best of Irish traditional music and dance and put it forth in an immensely entertaining show.
Tony Award–winning actress Ali Stroker returns to Enlow Recital Hall on Saturday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. She last performed a livestreamed concert in the venue in February 2021. Stroker won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Ado Annie in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” She’s a series regular in the Netflix series “Echoes” and she recently starred in the Lifetime holiday film “Christmas Ever After.” She made history as the first actor in a wheelchair to appear on Broadway in Deaf West’s acclaimed 2015 revival of “Spring Awakening.” Stroker recurred in the final season of Netflix’s “Ozark” and is in her second season recurring in Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.” She co-wrote the 2021 novel, “The Chance to Fly,” and she wrote the 2022 children’s book, “Ali and the Sea Stars.” This past summer, she was featured as Lady Anne in the Shakespeare in the Park production of “Richard III.” She has performed her cabaret act at New York’s The Green Room 42 and soloed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., as well as New York City’s Town Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall.
This concert joins the previously announced Step Afrika! on Sunday, Jan. 22; Canadian Brass on Saturday, Jan. 28; Los Lobos on Saturday, Feb. 18; and The Kingdom Choir on Saturday, March 11 for Kean Stage’s 2022-23 season. Additional shows will be announced at a later date.
Tickets for Cherish the Ladies and Ali Stroker can be purchased online at keanstage.com or by contacting the box office at 908-737-7469. The box office will be closed Friday, Dec. 23, through Monday, Jan. 2.
Photos Courtesy of Christina Hoffman