J. Robert Spencer brings his show, “7,000 Miles to Broadway,” to the Golden Belt Community Concert Association for its final concert of the season. The concert is set for Friday May 3, at 7 p.m. in the Great Bend Municipal Auditorium, Lakin and Stone. Doors open at 6:15 p.m.
This GBCCA event is open to association members. No single concert tickets are available. Because the association encourages young people’s interest and education in music and the performing arts, full-time students are admitted for a $5 donation at the door.
Well-recognized as a Broadway artist, Spencer was the original performer to play Nick Massi in the award-winning show, “Jersey Boys,” from 2005-2008. In 2009, he played the original role of Dan Goodman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical, “Next to Normal,” and for his part in it, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
A 1991 cum laude graduate of Shenandoah University’s Music Theatre Program, in Winchester, Va., Spencer received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the university in 2009.
On his Community Concert tour, he shares hilarious stories of growing up in Texas and taking family road trips that led to his years on Broadway. From Willie Nelson’s country twang to the smooth crooning of Frank Sinatra, and the pop favorites of Frankie Valli, he entertains his audiences with a variety of classic country, rock, and Broadway hits.
Songs may include “Johnnie B. Goode,” The Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers,” “Somewhere” from West Side Story,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “Wichita Lineman,” Merle Haggard’s “Mamma Tried,” and many others.
Spencer has many more accolades. He was nominated for a Midwest Emmy Award for Best On-Camera Performance by a Leading Actor for his work on the Sony and PBS Concert production of “Handel’s Messiah Rocks” with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops.
He earned the Award for Excellence in Outstanding Individual Performance as Abraham Lincoln in the 2014 New York Musical Festival production, “Bayonets of Angst,” a bluegrass musical comedy about the Civil War.
Spencer formed the group The Midtown Men – Four Original Stars of Broadway’s “Jersey Boys” in 2011. He has performed with the group in more than 700 concerts in this country and worldwide. The group has recorded several CDs and a Christmas single. The Midtown Men have recently filmed their concert and a documentary for PBS. In 2019, Spencer released a solo single, “Waiting on Christmas,” a modern classic.
He has done television performances in “Law and Order,” “Law and Order SVU,” “All My Children,” and “Girls Behaving Badly,” and he has played in several movies.
For more information about the concert association, visit www.goldenbeltcca.org and “Like” Golden Belt Community Concert Association on Facebook.