This week on Finding Your Bliss, Life Coach and Bliss Expert Judy Librach is joined by American theatre, television, and film actor Lee Summers, who is also a talented singer, librettist, composer, director, and theatre producer.

Lee Summers has performed numerous roles for daytime and primetime TV, including Blue Bloods, Boardwalk Empire, New York Undercover, and Law and Order, and appeared in films such as Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee. As a musical theatre performer, Summers made his Broadway debut in the original Dreamgirls, alongside castmates Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine, and others. He reprised his Broadway role for the Dreamgirls 20th Anniversary concert alongside Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, Heather Headley and others. Summers has also appeared in numerous Off-Broadway productions, including On Kentucky Avenue, for which he was nominated for the 2018 AUDELCO award for “Best Supporting Actor.” Summers has also toured the US and Europe and has also performed at Carnegie Hall – and as well, he was awarded New York’s Bistro Award for his one-man show, Winds of Change.

A two-time AUDELCO Award winner, Summers also produced, conceived, co-wrote, and co-composed Off Broadway’s From My Hometown: A Celebration of the American Dream in Classic R&B, which ran for two years, receiving eight AUDELCO nominations. Summers won his first AUDELCO award for “Best Director of a Musical” for On Kentucky Avenue in 2018 - and his second AUDELCO in 2022 for his direction of Ella, First Lady of Song, for which he is also the librettist. Both productions won “Best Musical” of the year. Most recently in 2023, Summers won a Broadway World Regional Award for “Best Director of a Musical” for Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical for Hawaii Performing Arts Festival. Summers’ works have also been licensed and produced in New York and in theatres nationwide.

Summers is also known for his long-running “Just A Piano” Concert Series, which has presented concerts benefiting charitable causes such as The Actor’s Fund and BC/EFA, along with numerous star-studded concerts, featuring artists such as Jenifer Lewis, Lillias White, and Melba Moore, and many others. In support of the environment, Summers has also worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council, presenting fundraisers, such as the “NRDC Night of Comedy” featuring Seth Meyers, Hasan Minhaj, Tiffany Haddish, and others.

As an educator, Summers has served as adjunct faculty and/or instructor for several colleges and universities, including Motlow College, Lehman College, NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and as guest artist lecturer at Tennessee State University, SUNY colleges, John Jay College, Marymount College, and others.

Summers currently serves as adjunct faculty at NYU/Steinhardt’s Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions. He is an alum of Tennessee State University and holds a BA from SUNY Empire State College and an MFA from NYU Tisch. Member: AEA, SAG/AFTRA, SDC, DG.

Click on this link to hear Lee Summers sing his song "From My Hometown" on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/lee-summers-832007661/from-my-hometown-music-lyrics-and-performed-by-leesummers-c1995?si=e1c6cadd036b48cb8e0bacb0dbbdabfe&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Also on the program, we have talented singer and musical theatre performer Lily Librach!

Lily Librach is a singer, actor, dancer, creator, and adjunct professor of voice at NYU. By 2024, she will hold her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance: Musical Theatre, and Advanced Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy from New York University. She graduated from Sheridan College’s Musical Theatre undergraduate program in 2022. There, she starred as Lillian Holiday in Weill and Brecht’s Happy End. Lily was named a top 10 finalist of Mirvish’s worldwide Show Tune Idol Competition and has been featured in City Life Magazine. She recently performed in "Til Then" with Eclipse Theatre Company, a new ...