[Capdist-announce] The Singing Anchors Valentine's Day Show

[Jay Kerr]

Thanks for your help with this new venture. Jerry, Jess, and Benita are all available for phone interviews.



The anchors in rehearsal at Guilderland Library.


The Singing Anchors: Benita Zahn, Jerry Gretzinger, Jessica Layton.

FORT SALEM AND MAZZONE
PLAN NEW PERFORMANCE PROJECT

SALEM, NEW YORK — Fort Salem Theater and Mazzone Hospitality announce a new collaboration to bring up-scale musical events to the Clifton Park Hilton Garden Inn. On Friday, February 12, at 6 P.M., the Mazzone will host a four-course dinner and present Jerry Gretzinger, Jessica Layton, and Benita Zahn in The Singing Anchors’ Valentine’s Day Show,  as originally produced at Fort Salem Theater.

The Singing Anchors were formed for a one-time-only cabaret at Washington County’s Fort Salem Theater in November, 2009. WNYT news anchor Benita Zahn had been performing in musicals and cabarets at the Salem venue since new ownership renovated the legendary summer stock house in 2007. Ms. Zahn had appeared at a Albany Red Cross benefit with her co-worker Jessica Layton and CBS6 anchor Jerry Gretzinger, and invited them to join her in Salem for an evening of song. The trio clicked, and, musical directed and accompanied by Fort Salem’s artistic director Jay Kerr, The Singing Anchors easily and quickly became the Capital Region’s most requested musical attraction.

Benita Zahn has been broadcasting in Albany for over thirty years, garnering Emmy nominations as her station’s health reporter and easily most recognizable news anchor. She holds a doctorate in Bioethics and, when not singing, acting, or anchoring, produces and hosts HealthLink on WMHT.  

Miss Layton has reported from Haiti to Hollywood, most recently the logical choice to follow the exploits of Sawyer Fredericks on NBC’s The Voice. She and CBS sportscaster Andrew Catalon are the proud parents of an eighteen-month-old son. 

Gretzinger came to Albany television from stints in Providence and Springfield (MA) to co-anchor with Liz Bishop for four years, until 2014, when he took a post as vice president for Strategic Communications and Public Relations at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

From time to time, the group performs on the road at venues throughout the Capital Region, including MacHaydn Theatre, Saratoga City Center for First Night, and Vapor at the Racino. They are repeat guests for the Clifton Park-Halfmoon and Guilderland Library performance series, and have headlined at benefits for Our Brother’s Keeper, the Lansingburgh Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs, the Watervliet Public Library, St. Mary’s School (Hoosick Falls), and the Schenectady ARC.

Fort Salem Theater occupies two buildings, built in 1832 and 1886, on the site of a revolutionary war battle, in the center of the historic section of the southern Washington County town. Since 2007, the theater has produced original performances, including The Anchors, which have gone on to have Life After Salem, in Manhattan cabarets, off-Broadway, and in the Capital Region. 

“We’ve had several summer seasons of Farm-to-Table Dinner Theater events with Salem’s Gardenworks Farm,” noted Fort Salem’s Kerr. “We’re looking forward to a great relationship with the folks at Mazzone.” To that end, Mazzone Hospitality will host another Salem production at the Clifton Park Hilton Garden Inn, Sinatra 101: The Man, the Myth, and the Music, starring Jerry Gretzinger, on Friday, April 15, 2016.

The Singing Anchors’ Valentine’s Day Show at the Clifton Park Hilton Garden Inn will begin at 6 PM. Tickets for the dinner and show, with complimentary beer and wine during the hors d’oeuvres course, are available online at mazzonehospitality.com <http://mazzonehospitality.com/> or by calling 518-690-0293.

Jay Kerr
jay at fortsalemtheater.com
518.854-9200
Text: 212.582.5118

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