Elgin native Daryl Nitz celebrates Elgin Pride Day at The Hemmens with Nitz & Friends Show June 7
Chicago’s After Dark Award-winning entertainer Daryl Nitz will be celebrating Elgin Pride Day with the Daryl Nitz & Friends show at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 7.
He is bringing his own brand of musical entertainment to the Theatre in the Round in the lower level of the Hemmens, 45 Symphony Way in Elgin.
Tickets, which are $20-$25, and are available in advance at elginil.gov/2538/Hemmens-Cultural-Center or by phone at (847) 931- 5900. Tickets are also available at the door 90 minutes before show.
Performing songs from Broadway, pop, jazz, and blues, Nitz combines requests, audience participation and standup comedy.
Add in his many vocal impressions that include Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Carol Channing, Billie Holiday and even Edith Bunker, his spontaneous, zany antics makes for one wild entertainment experience.
Andrew Blenderman will be wearing multiple fabulous hats for this show as he will be serving as pianist, singing and musical directing this special concert that will feature special guests Judy McLaughlin Rossignuolo-Rice, Bernard Rice, Jill Herrera, and Mark Grayson joining in the merriment.
Nitz has strong ties to the Elgin community. From his birth at the old Sherman Hospital, to attending Gifford Elementary School, then going onto Abbot Jr. High, where he was class president in 1979. Graduating Larkin High in 1982, where he was also class president, Nitz performed in their production of “Carousel.” He attended Elgin Community College and began singing at Emmanuel Baptist Church on St. Charles Street.
A master showman, Nitz has been featured in New Yorks’ Cabaret Magazine, WGN TV, NBC 5 Chicago, and WGN Radio. He has performed at the Park West, Le Piano, the Royal George, Steppenwolf Theatre, Naperville’s Crossroads Theater, Set ‘Em Up Joe’s, Puszch Studios and The Mercury Theater. He was also a featured performer at the first Chicago Cabaret Convention in 2002.
His one-man shows have been performed to critical and audience acclaim and his “Jazz Legends Live” was named “One of the Ten Best of the Year” by Cabaret Scenes and After Dark Chicago. Nitz has also produced, directed and scripted successful cabaret shows for many of Chicago’s top musical performers, as well as the SRO theatrical production of “Explicit Lyrics,” which has played at the Artistic Home Chicago and Bailiwick Theatre.