Discovering Broadway’s concert of “Five Points” will feature a Tony Award winner along with a very familiar face.
Jessie Mueller, who won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her performance as Carole King in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” will perform with Carmel resident Josh Kaufman, the winner of the sixth season of “The Voice.” Mueller will sing the role of Rona while Kaufman portrays P.T. Barnum.
The concert is set for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at Madame Walker Legacy Center in Indianapolis.
A writers’ retreat, hosted by Discovering Broadway, was held in Carmel for “Five Points” in October 2022. The concert is the next step in moving the musical toward a Broadway production.
“‘Five Points’ is a special story of two men from different cultures fighting for the same American dream in a divided country after the Civil War,” Discovering Broadway chief executive officer and founder Joel Kirk said. “It explores race, fatherhood, and the art made in cultural tension. This is a world-class cast and creative team.”
The concert also features David Owens, who graduated with Kirk from Carmel High School in 2012. Kirk and Owens were in the Ambassadors, the school’s mixed show choir.
“We taught theater classes together and even wrote a musical together,” Kirk said. “In 2015, David interned at Madison Square Garden while I interned at a theater company in Manhattan. A few years later, David was on NBC’s ‘The Voice’ on Kelly Clarkson’s team. The authors of ‘Five Points’ saw David’s performance on ‘The Voice,’ and when we began casting local Hoosiers, they asked him to audition for Cornelius. It is surreal to collaborate with a friend you have known for 12 years.
“I cannot wait for people to hear David sing this gorgeous music in February.”
Kirk said the concert will be special for several reasons.
“We have actors flying out from New York City and Los Angeles, writers traveling from Minneapolis and Brooklyn, local actors rehearsing in town, and the drummer is flying from Los Angeles,” Kirk said. “Multiple rehearsals will be going on simultaneously in different cities as we have local professional actors and cast members based in New York City.
“What I love about Discovering Broadway is it honors the traditions of Indiana. We are the Crossroads of America, a hospitable place where artists from all over the world can gather and create something special.”
For more, discoveringbroadway.org.
