About the Event

The Seth Rudetsky Broadway Concert Series brings the biggest Broadway stars to the Virginia G. Piper Theater stage for an intimate concert and conversation featuring popular hits of the theatre and candid stories.   

Ramin Karimloo is an Olivier and Tony Award® nominee who is currently starring as Nicky Arnstein in the Broadway production of Funny Girl. He made his name in some of the West End’s most enduring productions, most notably Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables. Karimloo originated the role of the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies in 2010 before making his Broadway debut in the 2014 revival of Les Misérables. He was nominated for a Tony® for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Valjean. Over the next couple of years, he performed in the world premiere of The Prince of Broadway, directed by the late Hal Prince, played Che in Evita (Vancouver and Japan) Tom in the U.K. premier of Murder Ballad (London), Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar (Japan) and Anatoly in Chess (Kennedy Center and Japan). Karimloo also originated the role of Gleb Vaganov in the Broadway premiere of Anastasia. 

Seth Rudetsky is the afternoon host on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio’s On Broadway and the host of Seth Speaks on Sirius/XM Stars. As an author, he penned My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan and the sequel The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek (Random House), as well as three volumes of Seth’s Broadway Diary, featuring inside scoop and hilarious stories from all the stars he’s worked with. He co-wrote and co-starred in Disaster! (The New York Times “critics pick”), which also premiered to rave reviews in London. In June 2016, he and his husband, James Wesley, co-produced a recording of “What the World Needs Now” with stars like Idina Menzel, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Carole King, and Audra McDonald. The recording went to #1 on iTunes and raised more than $100,000 for victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Rudetsky and Wesley’s foundation Your Kids Our Kids presented Concert for America—a nationwide series featuring stars like Barry Manilow, Keala Settle, Stephanie Mills, Vanessa Williams, Billy Porter, Randy Rainbow, and Audra McDonald that raised money for five nonprofits. They also present Voices for The Voiceless, a yearly star-studded concert for You Gotta Believe that helps older foster children find families, even if they’ve aged out of the system. SiriusXM/Pandora also carries Rudetsky’s first podcast series, Seth Rudetsky’s Back To School, where he interviews stars about the ups and (hilarious) downs of their high school years. The first two seasons include Tina Fey, Bowen Yang, Allison Janney, Vanessa Willams, and many more. When Broadway shut down, Rudetsky and Wesley started hosting and producing Stars in the House, a twice-daily livestream that has featured many Broadway stars as well as reunions of television show casts from The West Wing, Scandal, Frasier, and E.R., raising more than $1 million for The Actors Fund. They also joined Marlo Thomas and co-produced new versions of “Free to Be You and Me” with Sara Bareilles and “Sisters and Brothers” with the Broadway Inspirational Voices, donating profits to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Find out more about Rudetsky, and watch his signature “deconstructions,” at SethRudetsky.com.