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Capathia Jenkins returns to Amp stage with showtune favorites “From Brooklyn to Broadway”

Any time she takes to the stage, Capathia Jenkins hopes to bring her audience on a journey.

Capathia Jenkins

The musical escapade she has planned for Chautauquans is a personal one,drawing upon her life and experiences leading up to the career she has now.

This road trip of song, “From Brooklyn to Broadway,” will take place at 8:15 p.m. Monday, July 30, in the Amphitheater.

This is not the first time Jenkins brings soulful classics alive to the Amp stage; she performed last year on July 4 as a soloist alongside Stuart Chafetz and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra during the annual Independence Day Pops Celebration.

“Singing with the symphony and Stuart Chafetz last year for 4th of July in the Amphitheater was a blast,” Jenkins said. “I loved the audience and the general warmth of the people.”

Jenkins is a Broadway regular. Her most recent role was Medda Larkin in Disney’s Newsies. For her Broadway debut, she starred as Harriet Jackson in The Civil War.

She has also frequently accompanied world-renowned orchestras, including the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Cincinnati Pops, National Symphony and ClevelandOrchestra.

Off Broadway, she has been seen in Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore and (mis)Understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story.

A Brooklyn native, Jenkins said her set for this evening will showcase her career, both before and after Broadway, and her experiences as a performer.

The setlist includes excerpts from five Broadway roles she has brought to life, as well as some showtune favorites, such as “Over the Rainbow,” “Feeling Good,” “Stormy Monday,” “Home” and “All that Jazz.”

The evening will feature songs familiar to many Chautauquans, which Jenkins said was intentional: she designed the evening around these popular hits, interspersing her life story in between songs.

She hopes hearing these tried-and-true favorites, but in the context of her life, will make the “music fall on (audience’s) ears in a new way.”

According to her website, Jenkins has a long history “grappling” with her two passions: singing and acting. Despite her strong love for both, she has weighed them equally in her career, managing to do both — and love both.

Monday’s performance on July 30, too, will highlight the role of music and theater in Jenkins’ life, as a celebration of two.

“I am so excited to return, this time with my own show,” she said, “and spend an intimate evening with Chautauqua sharing stories about my life from Brooklyn to Broadway.”

Tags : AmphitheaterCapathia JenkinsFrom Brooklyn to Broadway
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The author Emma Francois

Emma Francois is the literary arts reporter and a returning Daily staffer. She attends Georgetown University, studying English, art history and studio art. When she isn’t laughing at her own jokes, she is the highest-pitched voice on the fashion and politics podcast, “Stripped.” Ask her about feminism in the Avengers, backyard birding and her love for bike baskets.