Music at Asbury Presents “God Bless Us, Everyone”

Back By Popular Demand: Holiday Tradition in its Third Annual Performance

MUSIC AT ASBURY FREE CONCERT SERIES

GOD BLESS US, EVERYONE

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2023 AT 4 P.M.

Tuckahoe, NY – Asbury-Crestwood United Methodist Church is delighted to present the third performance of its  popular free holiday program, “God Bless Us, Everyone,” part of the Music at Asbury series. The show is a staged reading of Dickens’ classic holiday story, A Christmas Carol, complemented with songs by Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens, Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard, and a selection of familiar Christmas carols for the audience to sing along. This is a 75-minute program with no intermission.

Directed and conceived by Mauro Contrastano, with Mary Thombs as music director, “God Bless Us, Everyone” stars Mauro Contrastano, Laura Leopard, Martin McGeachy, and J.T. O’Connor. Terence Flanagan will serve as the organist, with soloists Joseph Diaz, tenor; Katherine Logan, soprano; William Schaeffer, trumpet; Ruth Chiamulera, Jeannine Padula Goche, Michael Quigley, Carmela Sirico, and Gary Skidmore from Asbury Summer Theatre; the Asbury UMC Choir, and young people from the voice studio of Mary Thombs.

Mauro Contrastano (Creator, Director, Marley’s Ghost) is an accomplished musical theater actor and director, having performed in twenty-four productions and directing four musical revues for Asbury Summer Theatre from 1987 until 2007. Mauro has performed in productions with the St. Joseph’s Players in Bronxville, Town Hall Community Theatre in Eastchester, Four Star Players in Yonkers, New Rochelle Community Theatre, and has performed and directed for Actors Conservatory Theatre in Yonkers. Mauro is currently the director of theater programming at the Pelham Manor Club.

Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Laura Leopard’s (Ghost of Christmas Past) credits include An Ideal Husband at The Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, Quartett at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Amadeus at the Barter Theatre in Virginia, and Claire in Proof at Mill Mountain Theatre in Virginia. She is also a founding member of Gotham Radio Theatre, which performs classics from theatre, literature and the silver screen with actors and sound artists performing live in vintage radio style.

Martin McGeachy (Ghost of Christmas Present) boasts an extensive resume of appearances from Off Off Broadway to regional theater as well as film, television, and radio. In New York, he has appeared with the Gilbert & Sullivan Players, the 13^th Street Theatre, and Gotham Radio Theatre at Lincoln Center. Regional theater highlights include leading and featured roles at the Shakespeare Festival of Arkansas, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Circle Theatre in Nashville, Gateway Theatre in Belleville, IL, and Flat Rock (NC) Playhouse, among others.

J.T. O’Connor’s (Ghost of Christmas Future) television and film credits include The Gilded Age, Evil, FBI: Most Wanted, The Good Wife, Law and Order: SVU, Alpha House, One Life To Live, The Wolf Of Wall Street and Bridge of Spies. Theatre credits include the National Tour of Fiddler On The Roof w/ Theodore Bikel. Gypsy x/Joyce DeWitt, The Hound of the Baskervilles, High Spirits, A Christmas Carol, Uncle Vanya, Angel Street, Annie Get Your Gun, Wait Until Dark, Funny Girl, Moon Over Buffalo, and Kiss Me Kate. J.T. O’Connor is also a longtime cast member of the Gotham Radio Theatre group.

Mary Thombs, music director, has served as Minister of Music for Asbury United Methodist Church in Tuckahoe since 2006, where she directs both the adult and children’s choirs, plays the organ, and appears regularly as a soprano and violin soloist. She has been a member of the violin and voice faculties of the Riverarts Music Program in Hastings-on-Hudson since 1996 and served as head of the voice faculty at The Dwight Conservatory in NYC from 2005-2020.

Terence Flanagan currently serves as Director of Music and Fine Arts at the First Presbyterian Church of New Canaan, CT after serving for 11 years at the Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco, NY, three years at the First Congregational Church of Greenwich and for over 18 years at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Terry studied organ at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and The Juilliard School. Terry recently served as Dean of the Westchester County Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He sings with and accompanies Charis Chamber Voices.

Reservations are strongly suggested.  Reservations can be made online at www.musicatasbury.com or by calling the church office 914-779-3722 and leaving a message with name, phone number, email address, and number in your party

Music at Asbury was launched in November of 2014 by Lu Gmoser, founding producer of Asbury Summer Theatre, and Dr. Earl F. Groner.  As a program of Asbury-Crestwood United Methodist Church, Music at Asbury is designed to serve as a social service to the community, offering free performances by some of New York City and the Hudson Valley’s finest musical artists.

Program is made possible in part by a 2023 Arts Alive Grant from ArtsWestchester and an Art$Westchester Challenge Grant.

Asbury Church was founded December 10, 1771 and has worshiped as a congregation continuously in Tuckahoe for 250 years. The Rev. Jason Radmacher is pastor of Asbury Church and Mary Thombs is Minister of Music and Chair of Music at Asbury.

The church is located at 167 Scarsdale Road in Tuckahoe, 10707. It is fully accessible for those with disabilities and has ample parking available.

For more information, contact:

Mary Thombs, Chair, Music at Asbury

Maryet1@verizon.net; 917-533-5747