Broadway actor and vocalist Ben Jeffrey will draw from his extensive musical theatre repertoire in a Longwood University performance this Friday, March 25.
Jeffrey’s performance at 7 p.m. in Wygal’s Molnar Recital Hall will include songs from Carousel, Beauty and the Beast, Follies, The Secret Garden and Man of La Mancha. The event, sponsored by Longwood’s theatre program, is free and open to the community.
Since June 2010 Jeffrey has played Pumbaa in Disney’s The Lion King, the third-longest running show in Broadway history. He and Lacy Klinger, assistant professor of theatre at Longwood, have been friends since both attended graduate school at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.
"Ben is a natural-born teacher and an incredible talent," said Klinger. "This promises to be a wonderful evening of laughter, love, stories and song."
For some of his songs, Jeffrey will be joined by one or more members of Longwood’s music or theatre faculty, including Klinger, Dr. Christopher Swanson and Fran Coleman, with accompaniment by Terri Kidd.
Also during his visit, which is funded by Longwood’s Rosemary Sprague Cultural Enrichment Fund, Jeffrey will conduct an acting workshop for theatre majors and two workshops for theatre education students in which he will discuss the impact his theatre teachers had on his career choice.
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