Spirit of Broadway comes to Sanibel in special concert
The Sanibel Community Church will bring the “Spirit of Broadway” to the island through a special concert benefiting a local cause Friends In Service Here. At the end of January, the non-profit organization dedicated to helping those in need will celebrate its 30th year of “neighbor helping neighbors.”
F.I.S.H. and Sanibel Community Church share a common interest serving those in need. During the church’s Spirit of Broadway concert featuring America’s Tenor Steve Amerson and Broadway’s Laurie Gayle Stephenson an offering will be collected and donated to the organization.
“The common goal with FISH of serving others is the main goal,” said Lee Southard, an organizer of the concert. “What other goal could be better than helping FISH with that mission and serve our community with a great concert?”
Part of Sanibel Community Church’s community outreach series, Spirit of Broadway will showcase the voice talent of Amerson, who has been a featured soloist with scores of orchestras and performed in historic American venues such as Carnegie Hall. His voice has been heard in more than 160 feature films as well as the Academy Awards and in television commercials for some of the country’s biggest corporations.
“From the outset our main goal was an outreach to the community, a gift if you will,” said Southard about combining the Spirit of Broadway with helping FISH. “But it’s not a gift unless someone receives it. So in our planning, we thought the concert would attract more of the community if we made a community organization the beneficiary.”
Stephenson’s Broadway debut was in the Tony Award-winning The Secret Garden in which she played the role of Lily. For two years she starred as Christine Daae in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. She has toured the United States singing opposite Michael Crawford and at the Palladium in London with The Royal Philharmonic.
In duet and solo, some of Broadway’s best-loved music will be presented in this special concert for a magical and spiritually uplifting evening that has an ultimate goal of helping those in need.
“For us to support FISH through this concert reinforces that interest and rounds out our interest in serving,” said Southard. “And on top of it all will be a concert of such quality that people attending on Feb. 26 are not likely to forget. They too will have been served.”
The concert will be at 6 p.m. Feb. 26 in the fellowship hall at Sanibel Community Church, 1740 Periwinkle Way. It is a ticketed event, but there is no charge for them. Tickets can be picked up between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday at The Carpenter’s Shop on the Sanibel Community Church campus. Seating in the fellowship hall is limited to the first 450 tickets. Overflow will be accommodated in the historic sanctuary via video feed.