LAUGHTER AT THE HAPPY HOUR: Spring Fever
Featuring pianist R. MAcKenzie Lewis & SInger David Moan
Thursday, May 20th @ 5:30 PM EST
Spring is in the air and that can mean only one thing: allergies. Well, that and blossoming love, both young and old. Award-winning arranger and composer R. MacKenzie Lewis is joined by award-winning actor and singer David Moan. These artists will explore, dissect and laugh at the many sides of relationships, and the crazy things we do for love with songs by John Mulaney, Tom Lehrer, Cole Porter, Flight of the Concords, and more – a perfect happy hour cabaret collaboration!
David Moan has spent the bulk of his career in Southeast Michigan using versatility and a short attention span to do a little bit of everything theatrical. David primarily splits his energies riding the line between musical theatre and opera with performances at some of SE Michigan’s most recognized theaters. Noteworthy performances include John Wilkes Booth in Assassins (Wilde Award Winning) and Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd (Wilde Award Nominee) at Encore Musical Theatre Company, Martin in Candide and Edward G. Robinson/Calaveras in Frida with The Michigan Opera Theatre, God/Himself in An Act Of God at the DIO, and Ash in Evil Dead: The Musical (Wilde Award Nominated) with The Ringwald. David is also one half of the musical comedy improv duo Torch Song, where he and Jeremy St. Martin recreate your favorite musicals with less people and less talent and has functioned as emcee from places like the First Lego League qualifying event to theatre fundraisers, and even weddings. When not onstage, David is instructor of Diction and Theatre at Manchester University, improv coach for Dexter High School, and teaching private lessons in voice and improv. Also, because he has been locked in a basement for the past year, you can find David at twitch.tv/davidmmoan where he plays Batman video games, makes up silly songs, and attempts to stay relevant in 2021.
R. MacKenzie Lewis has been an arranger, composer, pianist, and music director in South East Michigan for nearly two decades. In addition to being the band leader with Ann Arbor’s own band Accidentally Hip, Lewis is the composer and music director for Eastern Michigan University’s School of Communication, Media, and Theatre Arts and a lecturer and accompanist with the School of Music and Dance. Some favorite theatre projects outside of university life include music directing and orchestrating the national tour and Off-Broadway premiere of The Berenstain Bears LIVE! in Family Matters, the Musical; Gypsy at the Hangar Theatre in New York (Broadway World Award for Best Music Direction); A Little Night Music at the Performance Network (Wilde Award for Best Music Direction); Legally Blonde at MSU (Pulsar Award for Best Music Direction); Irrational (Composer, Wilde Award for Best New Script); and Romance in Hard Times with William Finn at the Barrington Stage Co. He also composed music for Wings of Ikarus, Jason Invisible, and Mockingbird (two Helen Hayes nominations), all of which were commissioned and premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.. Lewis has also composed the musicals: Video Games: The Rock Opera, Treasure Island, Pinocchio, A Very British Christmas, Sugar Plum Panto, The Elves and the Schumackers, DJ Whittington – A Hip-Hop Panto, and Soaring on Black Wings, a world premiere with Ben Vereen.
