This October, a Saturday Night Live alum is headlining a Northern Michigan event! If you don’t recognize her from SNL, you probably know her from the big screen, Broadway, or the time she spent at Interlochen Arts Camp in her youth. You won’t want to miss Ana Gasteyer’s performance when she returns to Interlochen as part of their fall and winter schedule. This entertainer’s show is suspected to be filled with music and some laughter. Want to learn more about what you can expect? Here’s the 4-1-1 on Ana Gasteyer from Ross Boissoneau.


When SNL alum Ana Gasteyer performs at the Interlochen Center for the Arts on October 16, be forewarned: This is not a comedy show. “I’m a trained musician. This is a vocal show,” said Gasteyer from the West Coast, where she was in the midst of the tour. Okay, there will undoubtedly be a few wisecracks. “It’s a ridiculous music show,” she continued. “It’s not gonna be an earnest and serious music show.”

That’s more like it. Gasteyer is, after all, most famous for her six-year run on Saturday Night Live. There she brought to life such characters as music teacher Bobby Mohan-Culp (alongside Will Ferrell), fast-talking MTV VJ Kincaid, and Margaret Jo McCullen, co-host of the fictitious NPR radio show Delicious Dish. She also portrayed Martha Stewart (often topless), Celine Dion, Joan Rivers, and Kathy Griffin.

Since leaving the show in 2002, she’s taken on the role of Elphaba in Wicked on- and off-Broadway, as well as numerous other musicals. She’s been seen on the big screen as Lindsay Lohan’s mother in Mean Girls, on the Showtime movie musical Reefer Madness, as Larry David’s girlfriend in Curb Your Enthusiasm, and as Sheila Shay opposite fellow SNL performer Chris Parnell in Suburgatory.

Last year Gasteyer released her first recording, I’m Hip, a swinging recording harkening back to decades gone by. Gasteyer says her stage show brings back the lounge style of the late-50s to mid-60s, when performers were expected to both sing and be funny. “The choice of material when I put together an act is what makes me happy and makes me laugh. Of course, there’s a serious number or two,” she said.

Gasteyer said she loves to sing opposite a horn section – “I have a big voice” – but this tour she will be performing with a quintet.

Gasteyer was always enamored with performing. A theater and voice major at Northwestern, she moved to Los Angeles after graduating and gained a spot with the improvisational comedy troupe the Groundlings. “I don’t know what I intended to do. I thought straight-up stage.” Yet at the same time, “I loved comedy.”

So she’s done it all, from sketch comedy to movie musicals, sitcoms to Broadway, and now a vocal release and tour. “It’s a pretty old-fashioned setup,” said Gasteyer. “It’s a musical night. Hopefully people know what they’re getting.”

Artist

Ana Gasteyer

Style

Swing, big band, jazz/pop

Influences and Inspirations

Lily Tomlin, Bob Newhart, Kathleen Battle, Robert Prosky

Quotes

Ana’s heroes are those fun-loving dames who downed a cocktail, donned a dress and fronted a band of dapper gents in sharp suits wielding shiny horns – think Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire as she captures Gary Cooper’s heart. And then breaks it.” – Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network

For aspiring performers: “Look for the positive sign posts. It’s a really fun way to make a living.” – Ana Gasteyer

Venue

Corson Auditorium, Interlochen Center for the Arts

Date & Time

October 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Ticket Information

Tickets are $34 and can be purchased at Tickets.Interlochen.org

For More on Ana

AnaGasteyer.com


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