Kelli O’Hara, Aaron Lazar, Norm Lewis and More Set for New York Pops Season

Broadway veterans Kelli O’Hara, Aaron Lazar, Norm Lewis, Paulo Szot, Jennifer Laura Thompson and Julia Murney as well as Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane will join The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall for the 2012-13 season. The New York Pops and their guest stars will cover music ranging from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Stephen Schwartz to the music of crooner Sammy Cahn.

The season kicks off on October 12 when South Pacific stars O’Hara and Szot reunite to perform classic songs by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Joining O’Hara and Szot is Aaron Lazar who starred in the 2002 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!. The show will feature numbers from popular Rodgers and Hammerstein shows Carousel, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music.

Broadway also concludes the Pops season when Lewis, Murney and Thompson sing the songs of Stephen Schwartz on April 12. The program, The Wizard and I: The Musical Journey of Stephen Schwartz, will celebrate the composer’s 65th birthday and the 10th anniversary of his hit musical Wicked.

The New York Pops is the largest independent pops orchestra in the U.S., and the only professional symphonic orchestra in New York City specializing in popular music. Led by music director Steven Reineke, the orchestra performs an annual subscription series at Carnegie Hall. Pink Martini will accompany the Pops for their annual holiday show in December and MacFarlane takes the mic for a tribute concert of Sammy Cahn songs in March.