Join us for a joyful evening of Stevie Wonder classics!
Featuring performances by Nona Hendryx, Catherine Russell, Morgan James, Ryan Shaw, Martha Redbone, Chrissi Poland, Everett Bradley and Rich Pagano, MD.
All proceeds support our free programs in creative expression and mindfulness for the cancer community and public elementary schools.
Theatre Within Artistic Director Joe Raiola on Stevie Wonder:
The first concert I ever attended, in March of 1971 when I was just 15, was Three Dog Night at Madison Square Garden.
The opening acts were a mostly forgotten hard rock band called Bloodrock and Stevie Wonder. With all due respect to the Three Dog Night guys, Stevie Wonder opening for them was akin to Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees.
At the time Stevie was just 20. It was still a year before his “classic period,” which started with the album Music of My Mind. However, the first decade of Stevie’s career, which included five #1 hits and six others in the top 5, was pretty damn classic too.
When I saw Stevie for the first time his new single was “We Can Work It Out,” which remains among the best Beatles covers ever. He played it that night. But what I remember most about Stevie’s set was that he blew the roof off the place with a virtuoso drum solo.
The following year I saw Stevie again at MSG when he was among the opening acts (with Roberta Flack and Sha Na Na) for John and Yoko at the One To One charity concert. Stevie performed “Superstition,” which had not yet been released, and joined John and Yoko onstage at the end for a rousing version of “Give Peace A Chance.”
Stevie’s trilogy of masterpiece albums, Inversions, Fufillingness' First Finale and Songs In The Key of Life, were released during my college years. There were no records I listened to more.
I also adored Stevie’s next album, the somewhat obscure and under-appreciated Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants. In fact, I saw Stevie perform the entire album at MSG in 1979.
The next year brought us Hotter Than July and along with it Stevie’s impactful activism to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday.
Steve Wonder is an American treasure.
Everyone at Theatre Within is thrilled to be honoring him with our 75th birthday concert celebration.
