Broadway In The Islands
Join us for an evening with real broadway actors singing songs and telling stories from the roles they have performed.
Broadway in the Islands 2025!
Book yourself a magical evening, some of Broadway’s leading stars are heading up to the Champlain Islands for a special outdoor concert event. Vermonter Merritt David Janes who performs regularly on Broadway and in national tours will bring his friends for “Broadway In The Islands” on Monday, June 30th at 6:00 PM and Festa Dell’ Opera Monday July 28th at 6:00 PM.
Enjoy your favorite songs from unforgettable shows. The singers, accompanied by a live band, will perform songs intermingled with stories about their professional journeys. The event will be an intimate look at some of the most legendary musicals and life as a Broadway performer.
Broadway in the Islands will be performing on the Vineyard Lawn. Bring blankets and chairs for lawn seating. This event is rain or shine and will move into the vineyard tent in the event of inclement weather.
MEET SOME OF THE CAST
Merritt David Janes
Janes first toured nationally in 2007 with The Wedding Singer and starred as Robbie Hart.[1] He then played Sweeney Todd in the second national tour of John Doyle’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.[2] In 2010, Janes joined a national tour of Beauty and the Beast as Lumiere and stayed with the tour company for over a year.[3] In 2011, he played the role of Lord Farquaad in a national tour of Shrek the Musical.[4]
Janes played the role of Agent Carl Hanratty in the first national tour of Catch Me If You Can from October 2012[5] to June 2013.[6] He then toured with the North American touring company of The Phantom of the Opera that began in November 2013.[7]
Janes appeared in the ensemble of the original Broadway cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock and joined the first national tour of that musical, eventually playing Dewey.[8] He has played Principal Strickland and Mayor Red Thomas in the Broadway production of Back to the Future: The Musical beginning in June 2023.[9]
Katie Travis
KATIE TRAVIS is an award winning singer/actor who played Christine Daae over 700 times in The Phantom of The Opera throughout North America. Broadway: The Phantom of the Opera Regional: Cosette in Les Miserables at The MUNY, Fireside Theater, Liederkrantz Opera Theater. NYC Reading: Edme in Cheri with Natalie Dessay and Vanessa Williams. Katie has recently performed concerts with the Saginaw, Midland, El Paso and Mt Rainier Symphonies. She is a winner of the Lys Symonette award in the Lotte Lenya Competition and is currently an Adjunct Voice Professor in the School of Theater at Penn State University.
Matt Cusack
Matt Cusack is a Broadway musician and actor, songwriter, arranger and producer. You can see him regularly perform with the Broadway bluegrass band known as The Playbillies of which he is a founding member. His bass playing can be seen and heard on the show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He regularly works as a producer and arranger for theatre, podcasts, and audio books. Broadway: One Man Two Guvnors; Bandstand. Off-Broadway: The Robber Bridegroom; Desperate Measures. National Tours and Regional: Sweeney Todd, Million Dollar Quartet, Buddy Holly Story, Beauty and the Beast. See and hear more at mattcusackmusic.com.
Liz Shivener
National Tours: DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Belle), SHREK THE MUSICAL (Fiona), LES MISERABLES (Swing, Fantine u/s) New York: THE UNDERCLASSMAN at The Duke, EINSTEIN’S DREAMS at 59E59. Regional: GHOST (New Premiere, Molly), DISGRACED (Emily), THE WIZARD OF OZ (Dorothy), MANN AND WIFE (World Premiere), MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Regional Premiere, Greta), COMPANY (Amy), CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION (Lauren). Television: The Blacklist, NBC; Opiod Docudrama, HBO. Owner of itolerateny.com.
Cooper Grodin
Cooper Grodin is an actor, singer, musician, composer and a big fan of all things Merrit David Janes. Born and raised in New York City, he received his Masters Degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Title role in Phantom Of The Opera National Tour, Les Miserables National Tour, The Bands Visit Lab directed by Hal Prince, Shakespeare In The Parks Into The Woods, Annie at Paper Mill Playhouse, Carbonell nominated Best Actor in the Carbonell winning Best Musical Sunday In The Park With George, Drama Desk Nominated The Golden Land, Henry Award winning Best Musical Oklahoma! at the Denver Performing Arts Center, NBC’s The Blacklist, ABC’s Deception. Cooper’s Original album “It’s The Little Things” is available on iTunes. @CooperGrodinOfficial
Jelani Remy
Jelani Remy: is currently starring as Goldie Wilson/ Marvin Berry in Back To The Future at The Winter Garden Theater! He is a Montclair State University alumni who made his Broadway debut playing the role of Simba in Disneys The Lion King! He also starred as Eddie Kendricks in Aint Too Proud The Life and Times of the Temptations.
Off Broadway and regional credits include Smokey Joes Cafe, Cabaret, Oscar Micheaux Suite, In the Trenches, Love Around The Block and stage productions of Disneys High School Musical 1 & 2!
Jelani is also a Papermill Playhouse Rising Star and Chita Rivera award recipient. IG @itsjelaniremy
Nathaniel Hackmann
Nathaniel Hackmann (he/him) has emerged as an actor/singer of international renown. He has been seen on stage in some of the most demanding roles and alongside many of the world’s greatest orchestras. He has portrayed Jean Valjean and Javert on Broadway in Les Misérables, as well as the titular roles in Jekyll and Hyde and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. For the internationally televised BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, he appeared as Curly with the John Wilson Orchestra in the acclaimed production of Oklahoma and portrayed Gaby in On The Town for Leonard Bernstein’s 100th Birthday Celebration. It is impossible to overstate the influence of Back to the Future in Hackmann’s formative years. Having memorized the films, line by line and shot by shot by wearing out the used VHS tapes he bought with his childhood lunch money at Blockbuster, it is an incredible honor to step into this iconic role and help tell this story for new generations! Following his recording as Steve in Paint Your Wagon, his Curly in Oklahoma will be available soon on all music streaming platforms, followed next year by his Billy Bigelow. Hackmann’s past favorite roles include both Gaston and the Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and Quasimodo in Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, and many of Frank Wildhorn’s and Stephen Sondheim’s antagonists. In the operatic repertoire, Hackmann is an alumnus of the prestigious Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera. He has also appeared with Virginia Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Opera Theater Saint Louis, San Francisco Lyric Opera, and others. On the concert stage, he has appeared with the John Wilson Orchestra, Sinfonia of London, Hong Kong Symphony, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Springfield Symphony, Midland Symphony Orchestra, Sun Valley Opera, Central Michigan Orchestra, Northern Arizona Symphony, and Northwest Indiana Symphony. Nathaniel Hackmann holds a Bachelor and Master of Music in vocal performance from Central Michigan University. Humble thanks to the creatives, God, A & PP, and Thomas F. Wilson.
Jacquelynne Fontaine-Isaac
Jacquelynne Fontaine-Isaac, soprano, has performed nationally and abroad in both Opera and Musical Theater. Most notably she was the Italian Opera Diva Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera National Tour for over 1,000 performances throughout the US and Canada. Favorite roles include: Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Tuscia Operafestival, Viterbo, Italy), Anna in The King & I (Opera North), Countess Charlotte in A Little Night Music (Indiana Rep), Violetta in La Traviata (Rogue and Tacoma Opera), Musetta (Los Angeles), and recently on tour with the Gulfshore Opera in “Opera meets Broadway”. As a concert soprano, she has performed live on KUSC Classical radio, at the Redlands Bowl with the Redlands Symphony, with the Rome Symphony, Virginia Chamber Orchestra, South Coast Symphony, Marina Del Rey Orchestra, Orchestra del’ Lazio in Italy, and at the Chautauqua Institution, among others.
A conductor and voice teacher, Jacquelynne works with singers of all ages in choirs and privately in the Washington DC area. She received a Masters in Music from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, completing two years of Doctoral study. She is a member of the Actor’s Equity union and SAG/AFTRA. Fun fact, she was Miss California 2006 and placed in the top ten at Miss America! She now lives in Maryland with her husband and baby girl. Say “hello” and get more info at www.jfontainestudio.com. Look for her debut album, “Songs to a Little One” with the label Tonsehen, this coming Spring! To hear a snippet and learn more, or to support the project, please visit www.jfontainestudio.com/album
Elisabeth Marshall
Soprano Elisabeth Marshall has been praised by OPERA NEWS for her “radiant” and “sensuous” recording of James Kallembach’s Four Romantic Songs on the Brooklyn Art Song Society’s 2015 debut studio album ‘New Voices’ (Roven Records). Ms. Marshall is in demand as a concert soloist in repertoire spanning early to modern music, with her Chicago Symphony Center debut in Handel’s Messiah (Apollo Chorus), Bach’s Mattäuspassion at the Oregon Bach Festival, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia with the Indianapolis Symphony, and Mozart’s Requiem at Rochester Cathedral (England), as well as Ola Gjeilo’s Dreamweaver with Albany Pro Musica, and regular performances of music by contemporary composers such as Libby Larsen, Scott Wheeler, and several world premieres of James Kallembach. Equally at home on the opera stage, she has been hailed for her “precision” and “technical skill” as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute in London, and has also been seen as Frasquita (Carmen), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Elisetta (Il matrimonio segreto), and Rosabella (The Most Happy Fella) opposite Timothy Noble. Ms. Marshall is an ensemble member of the Handel & Haydn Society, The Thirteen, Emmanuel Music (Boston), and previously of the Oregon Bach Festival, Bach Virtuosi Festival (Portland, ME), Lorelei Ensemble, St. Agnes Schola Cantorum (NYC), Carmel Bach Festival, and London Philharmonia Chorus, with conductors including Helmuth Rilling, Masaaki Suzuki, CBE Raymond Leppard, Harry Christophers, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. Ms. Marshall is a two-time winner of the Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Award in Art Song and Oratorio from The American Prize, and recipient of their Special Citation for “Outstanding Performance of Music before 1800”. Ms. Marshall was a Fulbright grant recipient to the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany, and holds a Doctorate in Music from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she studied with legendary operatic soprano Carol Vaness. She has previously held faculty appointments at the Ithaca College School of Music and University of Southern Maine Osher School of Music. Now based in the Chicago area, she maintains a private voice studio and also works as a freelance writer. www.elisabethmarshall.com