Legacy Theatre Announces 2025 Sunday Broadway Concert Series, Featuring Norbert Leo Butz, Donna McKechnie, J. Harrison Ghee and more!

Branford’s Legacy Theatre is thrilled to pull back the curtain on the 2025 Sunday Broadway Concert Series lineup for the historic theatre’s 5th anniversary season. Featuring Tony, Grammy, Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and MAC Award nominees and winners, the biggest stars of the stage are set to take Stony Creek by storm in 2025 with Grammy and Emmy award-winning music director, John McDaniel, at the helm. The 2025 series includes J. Harrison Ghee (February 16), Bonnie Milligan (March 2), Norbert Leo Butz (March 30), Euan Morton (April 13), Nicholas Rodriguez (July 13), Donna McKechnie (September 7), and Karen Mason (October 26). Subscriptions for the 2025 Sunday Broadway Concert Series are on sale now and can be purchased through the Box Office (203.315.1901) or Legacy’s website, LegacyTheatreCT.org. Single tickets will be available for purchase beginning in January of 2025. The 2025 Sunday Broadway Concert Series is once again generously supported by Jana and Tom Shea. 

“I have known John McDaniel for 25 years and I am very excited that he will be returning for each and every Sunday Broadway Concert in 2025!” said Legacy Theatre Associate Artistic Director Colin Sheehan. “I am thrilled with how much he loves our intimate theatre in Branford and has become a part of our family. Every year I think, is this real life? The fact that I am a part of bringing Broadway to Branford at Legacy Theatre for the fifth season is incredible! I mean, I get to work and become friendly with some of my childhood idols. I will always be a musical theatre loving kid at heart and this year’s lineup has me so incredibly excited for all of the talent coming our way. Grab your tickets now because these stars are only here for one performance each and you won’t want to miss a single one!” 

John McDaniel (Music Director) is a Grammy and Emmy Award-winning Music Director, Composer, Director, Arranger, Orchestrator, and Producer and is an Artistic Director at the Tony Award-winning Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Most recently, John music directed and orchestrated Carol Burnett’s 90th Birthday Special on NBC. John participated in a live Playbill concert event in Times Square welcoming back Broadway, featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jessica Vosk and Chuck Schumer. McDaniel produced and directed a virtual concert of Sticks & Stones, for which he is also the composer, starring Audra McDonald & Javier Muñoz. He is also a camp director of Kristin Chenoweth’s Broadway Boot Camp. John directed Into The Woods and Hair in Concert at the historic Patchogue Theater, Sondheim Originals at 54 Below, and Piano Men at Birdland. Broadway music credits include Bonnie and Clyde (Drama Desk Nomination, Best Orchestrations), Catch Me If You Can, Brooklyn (Producer and Orchestrator), Annie Get Your Gun (Grammy Award), Taboo, Chicago, Grease, Patti LuPone on Broadway and Company – the Original Cast in Concert at Lincoln Center. On Television: The Rosie O’Donnell Show (two Emmy Awards and eight nominations). John has collaborated with Cab Calloway, Shirley MacLaine, George Burns, Joel Grey, Carol Burnett, Betty Buckley, Bette Midler, Shirley Jones, and Katy Perry and has guest conducted at 15 Symphony Orchestras across America, including five concerts with his hometown St. Louis Symphony. John received a BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University. 

J. Harrison Ghee (February 16, 2025) is perhaps best known for their Tony award-winning performance as “Daphne/Jerry” in Broadway’s Some Like It Hot, for which they won the 2023 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, making history as the first non-binary actor to be nominated and win in this category. This role also garnered them Grammy, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, as well as Drama League and Chita Rivera Award nominations. Most recently J. starred in the world premiere of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Ghee was selected by Billy Porter to star as “Robyn/Kevin” on the hit FOX series Accused, and previously played the series regular of “Kwame” on Netflix’s Raising Dion. On Broadway, they starred as “Lola” in Kinky Boots, created the role of “Andre Mayhem” in Mrs. Doubtfire, and have dazzled audiences in roles such as “Velma Kelly” in Chicago and “Johnny Hooker” in The Sting, opposite Harry Connick, Jr. Ghee hopes that something they do or say reaches the heart of at least one person to inspire them to dream big and go full-out for those dreams. 

Tony-award winning Bonnie Milligan (March 2, 2025) is a certified star of stage and screen. After making her Broadway debut originating the role of Pamela in Head Over Heels, Bonnie has gone on to win a Theatre World Award, Lucille Lortel Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for her performances. Bonnie's theatre credits include: Titanic (New York City Center Encores!), Restoration Comedy (Flea Theater), Kinky Boots (National Tour), and Other World (Delaware Theatre Company.) On TV, Bonnie was recently seen on And Just Like That Season 2, and has appeared in Happy!, New Amsterdam, Chicago Fire, Escape at Dannemora, and recurring as Katherine Winterbottom on Search Party. Bonnie just finished her run as Debra in the critically acclaimed Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway, for which she won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress. Bonnie has also received the Actors' Equity Foundation Clarence Derwent Award for her performance. 

Norbert Leo Butz (March 30, 2025) is a two-time Tony Award winner for Best Actor in a Musical and is one of only nine actors ever to have won the award twice as lead actor. He first won for his work in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and won again for his work in Catch Me If You Can. He was additionally nominated for a Tony for his work in Thou Shalt Not and My Fair Lady. The star of 11 Broadway shows, he is also a five-time Drama Desk nominee and two-time winner, amongst other stage accolades. On television, Butz will next be seen starring on FX's Justified reboot and has previously starred on Hulu's The Girl from Plainville, David Zabel and Ridley Scott's Mercy Street on PBS, Bloodline on Netflix, as "Paddy Chayefsky" on Fosse/Verdon for F/X, and Debris for NBC. Films include Sean Penn's Flag Day, Peter Hedges' Dan in Real Life, Sony's Higher Ground, opposite and directed by Vera Farmiga, Craig Zisk's The English Teacher, Better Living Through Chemistry, opposite Sam Rockwell, 2020 Sundance pic Luce, directed by Julius Onah, and the recent indie comedy, Give or Take. He received a BFA from Webster University and an MFA from Alabama Shakespeare Theatre. 

Euan Morton (April 13, 2025), a native of Scotland, received an Olivier Award nomination for originating the role of Boy George in the musical Taboo. He moved to New York in 2003 to reprise the role on Broadway, earning Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Award nominations, as well as the Theatre World Award (for Outstanding Broadway Debut). He earned a 2006 Obie Award for his appearance in Measure For Pleasure at the Public Theatre. Most recently Euan was seen on Broadway in Hamilton playing King George. Euan was also seen on Broadway in Cyrano De Bergerac and Sondheim on Sondheim. His other stage appearances include title roles in: Tony Kushner's adaptation of Brundibár at the New Victory Theatre and Berkeley Rep; The Who's Tommy at the Bay Street Theatre; and Caligula for the inaugural season of the New York Musical Theatre Festival (2004 NYMF Award for Outstanding Individual Performance). Off-Broadway, Euan appeared opposite Alfred Molina in Howard Katz at the Roundabout Theatre. 

Nicholas Rodriguez (July 13, 2025) has had an extensive career on Broadway, film, and the concert stage and is a 2024 Grammy nominee. He was recently seen in the Tony award winning revival of Company on Broadway opposite Patti Lupone and Katrina Lenk and toured the U.S. as Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music directed by Jack O’Brien. Nicholas made his Broadway debut in Disney’s production of Tarzan. Off-Broadway he starred in The Toxic Avenger: The Musical, Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver, Death for Five Voices. He starred opposite Kathleen Turner in Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, where he also played??Billy Bigelow in Carousel (Helen Hayes Nomination), Sebastian in the World Premier of Destiny of Desire, Freddy in My Fair Lady (Helen Hayes nomination), Fabrizio in Light in the Piazza and was also seen as Curly in Oklahoma! for which he received a 2011 Helen Hayes Award for “Best Actor in a Musical” and was named “Top 10 Performers of 2010” by Hilton Als of The New Yorker. On the big screen, Rodriguez was seen in Sex and the City 2. He is also featured on the film’s soundtrack. He is perhaps best known for the role of Nick Chavez on ABC’s One Life to Live for which he received the GLAAD Media Award, the 2009 Visibility Award and, along with his co-stars, “Men of the Year.” Nicholas has been a soloist with many symphonies across the world including performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. His debut album, based on his one-man show of the same name, The First Time... is available on iTunes and atwww.psclassics.com. Nicholas serves as the Artistic Director for the Broadway Dreams Foundation. A native Texan, he holds a BM and MM in Vocal Performance from the University of Texas at Austin. In his concert, titled Sincerely, Sondheim, Nicholas Rodriguez recounts his time with Sondheim on the great composer’s final Broadway revival, Company. Pulling from the thousands of handwritten letters to and from fans and colleagues alike, Rodriguez weaves together stories from Sondheim’s own words and explores the fascinating relationships with the master’s legendary collaborators, and of course Nicholas’ own personal story. www.thenickrod.com 

Donna McKechnie (September 7, 2025), who received a Tony Award for her performance in the original company of A Chorus Line, is regarded internationally as one of Broadway’s foremost singing and dancing leading ladies. Donna has starred in and choreographed productions in London’s West End, along with theatrical productions in Tokyo and Paris. Some of Ms. McKechnie’s Broadway credits include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Education of Hyman Kaplan, Sondheim: A Musical Tribute, (which she also choreographed), Promises, Promises, Company, On the Town, State Fair (Fred Astaire Award), The Visit, and Wicked. She has starred and/or choreographed numerous regional plays and musicals, including Follies, Mack and Mabel, Gypsy, The Glass Menagerie, Sweet Charity, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, and Guys and Dolls and can be seen in concert and with Symphony Orchestras as well as in TV Specials and dramatic series including Fame, Cheers, and Dark Shadows. She was featured in the film Every Little Step and played the Rose in the film The Little Prince. Ms. McKechnie’s memoir, TIME STEPS: My Musical Comedy Life, was published by Simon and Schuster. Donna was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2019. www.donnamckechnie.com 

Karen Mason (October 26, 2025) most recently played Mrs. Marsh on Ryan Murphy’s Halston on Netflix. On tour, was last seen as “Madame Giry” in the North American Premiere of Love Never Dies (Andrew Lloyd Webber’s epic sequel to The Phantom of the Opera). On Broadway, she starred as The Queen of Hearts in Wonderland and originated the role of Tanya in Mamma Mia! (2002 Drama Desk nomination as Best Actress). Her other leading roles include Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, on Broadway and in Los Angeles for three years; Velma von Tussel (Broadway company of Hairspray); “Monotony” singer, Mazeppa (Jerome Robbins’ Broadway). In regional theater, Karen starred in Chasing Rainbows (The PaperMill Playhouse), A Christmas Story as Miss Shields; White Christmas (St. Louis Muni Opera); Side by Side by Sondheim (Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida); Gypsy (Sundance Theatre in California); Company (Huntington Theatre in Boston). Off-Broadway, she won the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance in And The World Goes ‘Round. She is a 14-time MAC Award winner and was the recipient of the 2019 MAC Lifetime Achievement Award. She also won 3 Bistro Awards. Her 8 Recordings include the single, “It’s About Time,” written by Paul Rolnick and Shelly Markham; her 2009 MAC Award-winning Right Here/ Right Now, The Sweetest of Nights, When The Sun Comes Out, Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!, Better Days (featuring the 1998 Emmy Award-winning song “Hold Me”); and Not So Simply Broadway. Also, Wonderland (original cast); the film Jeffrey (Varese Sarabande); Wonderful Town (JAY Records); the cast album of And The World Goes Round (RCA Victor). www.karenmason.com 

The 2025 Season at Legacy Theatre will also include the recently announced Mainstage Season, featuring A Spoonful of Sherman, Long Days, Sweeney Todd, and Noises Off, a Family Series, special events, and more. Additional titles will be announced in the coming weeks via Legacy’s website, emails, and social channels. 

The Legacy Theatre is located in the village of Stony Creek in Branford, CT, at 128 Thimble Islands Road. The Legacy Theatre is committed to providing live theatre and related programming that is accessible to the widest possible audience. Full accessibility and accommodations details can be found on Legacy’s website or by calling the Box Office. 

For more information on upcoming productions, classes, community events, and sponsorship and partner opportunities, please email Kiersten@LegacyTheatreCT.org. 

The Legacy Theatre is a professional regional theatre company that enhances the Connecticut shoreline’s cultural scene, economy, educational opportunities, and quality of life through live theatre and related programs. This historic theatre in the Stony Creek village of Branford offers Mainstage Productions, Broadway Concerts, a Family Series, holiday performances, new works, classes, special events, and more to the town of Branford, the shoreline, and beyond. The Legacy strives to be a premiere Arts house and to ensure ongoing seasons of uplifting, inspiring, and challenging professional theatre, and theatre training, for all. With a dedicated staff and supportive volunteer base, Legacy Theatre enters their fifth season in Stony Creek in 2025. More information on Legacy Theatre can be found at www.legacytheatrect.org. @LegacyTheatreCT