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Oscar's 130th Birthday Celebration
Saturday July 12
The Oscar Hammerstein Museum & Theatre Education Center will host two concerts by two local performers in celebration of Oscar’s 130th Birthday! Museum visitors on our 10:00 or 12:00 tours will be treated to a performance by Doylestown native Meredith Beck, and visitors on our 1:00 and 3:00 tours will hear songs from area performer Keith Spencer. Saturday’s performances are sponsored by On Demand Programs and Events. Tickets are $35.
Meredith Beck is a multi-hyphenate artist who finds joy
in all aspects of theater; whether that's on stage as a
performer and concert singer, writing, directing or even
occasionally stage managing. She has worked with Bristol
Riverside Theatre, Cape May Stage, Merry-Go-Round,
Bucks County Playhouse, Media, Hedgerow, Bucks
County Center for the Performing Arts and 11th Hour
Theatre among others. Recent on-stage credits include:
Ann-Margaret in Elvis! A Musical Revolution at Walnut
Street Theater, Ursula March in Sweet Charity at
Montgomery Theater, and Mary Martin in her touring
2-person show Merman & Martin; Together Off-Broadway!
enjoying runs at Act 2 Playhouse, Gretna, Montgomery,
and as the premiere grant recipient for the Philadelphia
Women's Theater Festival. Other favorite roles include Nellie in South Pacific, Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music, Sally Bowles in Cabaret & Martha Jefferson in 1776. She is a Philadelphia Barrymore Award winner for her role of Alice Russell in LIZZIE with 11th Hr Theater. In addition to her theater work, Meredith can often be found performing on vocals, flute, autoharp and her spoons with her irish band The Galway Girls. She serves on National Council for Actors Equity and is a graduate of Ithaca College's prestigious BFA program. @meredithashleybeck
Keith Spencer has pursued his love of stage and concert
performance nationally and in many Philadelphia-local
professional venues. National tour highlights include the
Broadway Tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Music of the
Night with Betty Buckley and Melissa Manchester.
Favorite roles include Coalhouse Walker, Jr. (Ragtime);
Joe (Show Boat); The Abolitionist (For the Glory: The Civil
War Musical); Leading Player (Pippin); Sky Masterson
(Guys and Dolls); Billy (Carousel), and Audrey II (The Little
Shop of Horrors). Recent performance highlights include
featured soloist with the Capital Philharmonic of New
Jersey in a concert version of Porgy and Bess. Over the
past decade, Mr. Spencer’s production company, Enspire
Productions, has produced culturally relevant concert
programming for corporations and schools and raised funds for student education and community organizations. Keith’s current focus is a series of concert works celebrating the African American experience and notable Black performing artists. For more information, visit keithspencer.com.
Sunday July 13
New York City-based cabaret icon Meg Flather will perform at the Oscar Hammerstein Museum & Theatre Education Center (70 East Road, Doylestown) on Sunday July 13 in celebration of Oscar’s 130th Birthday weekend. Museum visitors will experience a special performance plus take a tour of Oscar’s home at Highland Farm at 12:00, 2:00, 3:00, or 5:00 pm. Sunday's performances are sponsored by Eiseman Exterior Experts. Tickets $35.
Meg Flather explores the iconic Rodgers & Hammerstein
Songbook through the lens of a contemporary female
singer/songwriter in her 50s. A few years ago, Meg began
to revisit this beloved music from her youth and was struck
by how relevant their compositions are in the 21 st century.
“Rodgers & Hammerstein were precursors in tackling
discrimination and domestic violence, and questioning the
fairness of the American Dream,” Meg observes. “They told
true war stories and took us all over the world, including
writing a show featuring the first all-Asian Broadway cast
in Flower Drum Song. They created strong female
characters, vulnerable male characters, and did all of this
against a backdrop of such respect for the environment.”
Rehearsing the piece while the world battled Covid-19 only
deepened Meg’s thesis: “They tell our story today.” Meg
Flather’s recent collection of performing honors began in 2015 with the Hanson Award from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC). She followed that by winning the 2016 MAC Award for Best Original Song, and the 2017 MAC and Bistro Awards for Female Vocalist of the Year. In 2018, Meg made her debut in the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Annual Cabaret Convention at Lincoln Center (she’ll be returning to that Convention in 2022 on October 28). In 2019, she received her fourth MAC Award for Special Production for Meg Flather Songs: A Cabaret Sisterhood, which featured 27 of her fellow women vocalists singing 14 of Meg’s original songs. During the pandemic, Meg completed her 8th album, Reaching Higher, and the song “Inside” won the 2021 BroadwayWorld.com Cabaret award for Best Original Song and was nominated for a MAC Award. For her performance of RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN 2021+, Meg also received a MAC Award nomination for Major Female Artist of the Year.
