Actor Andrew Rannells will perform showtunes at Carnegie Hall.
“The Book of Mormon” and “Girls” actor Andrew Rannells will be doing a concert at Carnegie Hall March 21, performing Broadway songs with Broadway veteran Stephanie J. Block. Steven Reineke, music director of The New York Pops, asked the two actors to choose the songs.
“That’s kind of like a dream come true, for a singer just to say ‘These are the songs I want to do,’” Rannells told us over coffee a couple weeks before the show.
Rannells had been friends with Stephanie J. Block for years, he said, but this is the first time they’ve had the opportunity to work together. The duo will perform songs — from shows like “Funny Girl,” “Into the Woods,” and “Wicked” — both together and individually. Surprisingly, there are no songs from “The Book of Mormon,” which Rannells starred in on Broadway.
“I’m disappointed about that,” he says. “I would’ve liked to, [but] the producers of ‘Book of Mormon’ didn’t want me to sing anything from the show.”
Something that’s not disappointing to Rannells? The fact that he’s been promoted to a series regular on “Girls.” He’ll start filming the fourth season in April with Lena Dunham and the rest of the cast.
“I’m so excited about this,” he said, a big smile on his face. In fact, the actor is in the process of moving back to New York so he can focus on the show full-time. He moved to L.A. to do “The New Normal,” which was canceled after one season.
On both TV shows Rannells has played gay characters, but that’s not something he’d sought out.
“It’s something that just happened,” he said.“I’ve been asked a lot if I think that I’ve been pigeon holed because I’m gay. I feel like I’ve been given the opportunity to play very different gay people. Just because they are gay doesn’t mean it’s all the same thing. I don’t seek it out, but I do seek out jobs that sort of allow me to show different and well-rounded people in general, complex people, and if they happen to be gay, that’s fine.”
If you go
The New York Pops’ “On Broadway”
March 21, 7.30 PM
Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Ave.
$34-$120, 212-247-7800
www.carnegiehall.org
