TOM WOPAT & LYNN ROBERTS Celebrate Great American Songbook With Palm Beach Pops

Tom Wopat and Lynn Roberts To Celebrate Great American Songbook with The Palm Beach Pops

Bob Lappin & The Palm Beach Pops will kick-off opening night for their 20th concert season with the Great American Songbook Spectacular featuring, for the first time ever, television star Tom Wopat, direct from Broadway's hit, Catch Me If You Can, along with world-famous Big Bands songstress, Lynn Roberts. They will be performing your favorites from the Great American Songbook including songs by Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Judy Garland and more.  

Tom Wopat may be best known as the freewheeling Luke Duke on the TV series The Dukes of Hazzard. Wopat went on to perform in the Tony Award-winning City of Angels and Guys and Dolls, and received a Tony nomination for creating the role of Frank Butler in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun, opposite Bernadette Peters. In 2008, Wopat returned to Broadway as Tom Hurley in A Catered Affair with Faith Prince and Harvey Fierstein. Wopat has also become a successful recording artist with many albums to his credit, including A "Little Bit Closer," "Don't Look Back" and "Consider it Swung."

Those who have shared musical moments with Lynn Roberts are grateful that she has prevailed as one of the few stars to bridge the decades. Lynn started her exciting career with Charlie Spivak at the age of 15. Songbird Roberts spent one year with Charlie, a year with Vincent Lopez, five years with Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, ten years with Benny Goodman and four years with Harry James. Lynn is proud of her distinction of being the only girl singer to have sung with all the superstar band leaders. She also shared the spotlight with Sammy Kay for a year and a half, on the ABC-TV show "Music From Manhattan." Her career momentum led her to stellar performances throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Israel.

Michael Bennett featured her as "Marlene" in the Broadway production of "Ballroom." It was there that the critic Rex Reed said "Lynn Roberts sings like an angel, and the way she handles "Dreams," the evenings best song, is a thing of pure beauty. In recent years Lynn has performed with over 40 symphonies throughout the U.S. and Canada, featuring Lynn in major productions ranging from specials to Judy Garland, George Gershwin, Doris Day, Songs of World War II and tributes to Benny Goodman, Harry James, Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey.

Concerts for The Palm Beach Pops begin November 4 and 5 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, November 7 at the Eissey Campus Theatre at Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens and November 8, 9 and 10 at the Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Center at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Tickets start at just $29 and are available by calling 561-832-7677 or visiting www.palmbeachpops.org/songbook.  

The Great American Songbook Spectacular

· November 4th & 5th at 8pm - Kravis Center, West Palm Beach

Currently spending his time between New York and Florida, Beau was born to a theatrical family in Brooklyn. He studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and at HB Studios. He studied theater singing with Julia Sperratore and Helen Gallagher. Beau later taught drama at the Lincoln Center Square for the Arts. It was at this time Beau began working with the Theater Development Fund and helped found New York's famed HALF PRICE TICKET BOOTH. Early in his career, Beau was screen tested and contracted for Warner Brothers. He co-hosted, an early cable variety series on Manhattan's Teleprompter channel. At this time he directed the Johnny Specca musical, SEX IS..? at the Lincoln Center Library Theater. Beau has performed Off-Broadway in FAT FELL DOWN, The Comic Strip Theater's LITTLE LULU AND THE INVISIBLE INK and WILL THE REAL ZOOPERMAN PLEASE STAND UP. Around the country he has delighted audiences with his performances in ANYTHING GOES, THE APPLE TREE, GUYS & DOLLS, and HELLZAPOPPIN! He sang for New York audiences at such cabarets as The Duplex and Upstairs at the Downstairs. He has had numerous television appearances but is most proud to have been a winning contestant on the game shows JACKPOT and THE $20,000 PYRAMID.

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