40 | APRIL 22 • 2021
J
osh Young, a Tony Award
nominee, often performs
in cabaret style on pres-
tigious stages. He sometimes
appears in cabaret shows with
his wife, Emily Padgett, also
with Broadway credits, and he
regularly teaches cabaret enter-
tainment at Oakland University
in Rochester.
Although the couple’s live
performances have been side-
lined during the pandemic,
Young and Padgett will be
onstage at the Berman Center
for the Performing Arts in West
Bloomfield, joined by pianist
Frank Pitts, to give the sense of a
live show although there will not
be a live audience.
The performance, hosted
by Cabaret 313, will be taped
and presented online at 8 p.m.
Friday, April 30.
“We’re doing an evening of
Andrew Lloyd Webber songs
with stories of how his music
has affected my career and my
life and how it has affected my
wife’s career as well.
“We go from my first inter-
action with Andrew Lloyd
Webber music, which was when
I was working at the Stratford
Festival in the musical Evita, and
move into the next year, when
the festival cast me in Jesus Christ
Superstar, which eventually
became my debut on Broadway.
Emily’s first big Webber show was
Cats, and she will be debuting a
medley of Cats songs.
”
Although neither appeared in
Webber’s Phantom of the Opera,
they will be presenting the song
“
All I Ask of You,
” which con-
tinues its popularity apart from
the production. Other Webber
shows providing plentiful materi-
al include School of Rock, Sunset
Boulevard and Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
“We talk a bit about back-
stage fun and insight,
” Young
explained about the kinds of
behind-the-scenes experiences of
a performance. “I was working for
Andrew and did well by him, but
he wouldn’t cast me in Phantom
of the Opera because they have
different height restrictions.
[Audiences] wouldn’t know about
the industry without these stories.
”
TEACHING CABARET
Young, who grew up in
Philadelphia and attended syn-
agogue services, graduated in
theater studies from Syracuse
University and soon toured with
Les Misérables, which brought
him to the Fisher Theatre.
Besides accepting Broadway
roles, Young has worked in
regional theaters including the
La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore
Center Stage and North Carolina
Theatre. He is the cofounder of
“Cutting-Edge Composers,
” a
concert series on broadwayworld.
com to spotlight young theater
songwriters.“If I appreciate music,
I want to sing it,
” Young said. “
All
the songs that we’ve chosen for
Cabaret 313 are songs that we
appreciate and enjoy performing.
”
Young, assistant professor
of theater at Oakland U. since
2019, uses his international stage
background to establish curricu-
lum as he teaches Advance Song
Analysis, Acting the Song and
Professional Practices as well
as Constructing the Cabaret:
Conception to Concert.
“Performing has brought ful-
fillment, but my long goal was
to settle down with a family,
”
said Young, 40, whose time in
Michigan has included celebrat-
ing the birth of two children, ages
2 years and 4 months. “Teaching
has given me stability.
“Because Oakland is a research
university, it gives me the ability to
still perform. We actually have to
keep working in our industry so
we have the best of both worlds.
”
Although the couple had to
cancel live performances with the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
and the Philadelphia Orchestra
because of pandemic closures,
they look forward to perform-
ing with the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra in March 2022,
when they will feature songs by
Rodgers and Hammerstein.
“We actually ended up being
one of the only universities that
taught in person,
” said Young,
who has traveled to Jerusalem to
portray Shlomo Carlebach in Soul
Doctor. “I used the Meadow Brook
Theatre’s loading dock, exhaust
fans and video and audio tech-
nology to have students tape live
while following COVID restric-
tions. Most universities did one-
on-one Zoom [programming].
”
As Young and Padgett present
their Webber programming, he
will be demonstrating a critical
lesson about cabaret.
“The most important thing is
that there’s some kind of through
line,
” he explained. “It doesn’t
have to be so much a story as
long as there’s some kind of
theme. Whatever connects the
songs also has to be engaging
with some kind of humor.
”
Details
The Josh Young and Emily
Padgett performance will
be shown online at 8 p.m.
Friday, April 30. To purchase
pay-what-you-can tickets, go
to Cabaret313.org and then
receive a private link to the
show. Suggested prices: $15-
$40.
ARTS&LIFE
MUSICAL THEATER
Musical couple stages Broadway
songs for digital viewers.
CABARET 313
SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Emily
Padgett and
Josh Young