Tony Award-winning actress and singer Cady Huffman and jazz and Broadway bass player Mary Ann McSweeney will appear in Just Play on Thursday, August 31 at 8:30 PM at Birdland Theater.
The two are veteran performers who love playing music. Just Play explains their need to come together and perform together during the pandemic, and what they discovered along the way. Combining voice with bass, and whatever else strikes their fancy, the duo will pirouette from Peggy Lee to Jimi Hendrix, with a promise that nothing is off-limits.
Huffman started playing the euphonium in third grade, eventually putting it aside in favor of high kicks and belting out show tunes. In recent years she has taught herself the ukulele, couching the high kicks and refining her vocals to include her softer side, influenced by Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and Blossom Dearie. Huffman won the 2001 Tony Award as “Best Featured Actress in a Musical” for playing “Ulla” in The Producers on Broadway.
McSweeney has played bass with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Joanne Brackeen, Lee Konitz, Gil Goldstein and Bucky Pizzarelli. She has also played for famous conductors, Leonard Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin and John Williams. As a freelance bassist she has played 45 different Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. She continues to compose and arrange music for her Urban Fado Project and is looking forward to recording her Urban Fado Project II.
There is a $40 music charge and a $20 food and beverage minimum. For reservations, please call (212) 581-3080 or visit www.BirdlandJazz.com.
Birdland is located at 315 West 44th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) in Manhattan.
