Rosemary Loar’s theatrical expertise was honed on Broadway and national tours. She was in the original casts of Sunset Boulevard, (starring Glenn Close) and Chess. The iconic revival production of You Can’t Take It With You, (starring Jason Robards), Cats, (critically acclaimed as Grizabella), Once Upon A Mattress, (starring Sarah Jessica Parker/understudy to Queen Aggravain), Encores (at Radio City) and 42nd Street (understudy Dorothy Brock). Off- Broadway in Radio Gals she originated the role of Gladys Fritts (a quirky flapper with a penchant for poetry, operatic singing) and was the winner of The Phoebe Award for Best Actress in a Musical in her portrayal of Ivyin Fair And Tender Ladies. Ms. Loar played Grandma Who in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas at the Pantages Theater in Los Angles and twice at Madison Square Garden Theater. Favorite regional roles include: Mama Rose, Gypsy, Vivian Bearing PhD., Wit, Carlotta. Phantom, Mame in Mame, Vi, Footloose, Ms Goldberg (William Finn’s In Trousers), Miss Shields A Christmas Story and Aoiffe Outside Mullingar.
Rosemary influences are eclectic. Her first five years in New York City were spent performing a critically acclaimed jazz cabaret act, where she wrote the arrangements and broke new ground in what was then, a very homogenous venue. She left cabaret to go the the bigger stages of Broadway but has since returned. She has sung at Birdland, The Iridium, The Metropolitan Room, The Laurie Beechman Theater, Don’t Tell Mama, Town Hall (Cabaret Convention), Symphony Space, Upstairs at Sardi’s, Hotel Pierre, in LA at the Gardenia and MBar, in Chicago at The Tambourine Room and every summer in Munich, Germany. She received the Hanson Award for continued excellence in Cabaret in March 2012.
Her cabaret show When Harry Met The Duke was given a rave by BroadwayWorld.com which said the show was "Out of this world" and "Loar.. has managed to come up with yet another variation, (on The Great American Songbook) and her erudite and accessibly sophisticated new show featuring wonderful jazz, pop, and Broadway songs from the 1930s-'50s goes down like a delicious vodka martini topped with a skewer of blue cheese-stuffed
olives." Most recently Loar had her Joe’s Pub Debut with her latest cabaret creation “STING*chronicity:v Loar doesn’t simply rearrange numbers; she re-contextualizes them, morphing into a series of characters that sing each song as it arises out of an imagined situation. This unique show is audacious, well calibrated, and juicy. You'll never listen to Sting the same" BroadwayWorld.com.
She was a headliner for the PBS special, New Years Eve with Guy Lombardo. Rosemary Clooney was rushed to the hospital and Rosemary Loar came to the rescue: with all the keys a fourth higher. As a concert performer she has appeared
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at: Carnegie Hall, (the day after she was married), 92nd Street “Y”, at Town Hall in Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, with the North Carolina Symphony, the Orlando Symphony and with the Peter Duchin and Nelson Riddle Orchestras. For eight consecutive years she performed the role of Christine in The Andrew Lloyd Webber Tribute internationally and in different venues.
As a commercial recording artist she can be heard on Sting’s soundtrack for the movie The Emperor’s New Groove, the cast albums of Chess and Sunset Boulevard and on the Listening Library series. Her debut CD of original music Alternative Torch was released in 1996, her second, Through Women’s Eyes was produced in 1997 to benefit Susan G. Komen Foundation. Water From The Moon released in 2003 is also the score of Rosemary’s original rock musical by the same name: produced by the Grammy award winning Joel Moss (soundtrack for Chicago). She produced and wrote all the vocal and string arrangements for her fifth CD Indigo and Iridescent Rosemary’s songs have been featured on NBC’s The Today Show, on The Lifetime Network, at Town Hall, Joe Franklin and Joan Hamburg shows, at the UN Fourth Conference for Women in Beijing and in the documentary Our Daughters, Our Future narrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The release of Rosemary's fourth CD, The Quando Swing punctuated her return to the jazz-cabaret scene in 2006 and features standards with a modern take. For Rosemary Loar, jazz is a smorgasbord, a feast of incredible tastes and textures. STING, STANG, STUNG, SWINGING THE MUSIC OF STING is a live recording of her critically acclaimed tribute to the pop icon Sting's music. "With her light-hearted and often amusing ways, she stings and swing and does other jazzy things with the man's outstanding repertoire. There's much to choose from and she's got the intelligence and wit to match his in an entirely different mood and mode." Finkle/Village Voice.
Ms. Loar has been the recipient of the ASCAPlus Award for Popular Music for the past 13 years. Rosemary played out with her rock band in the New York metro area for a decade and a half culminating in The Alternative Torch Series at Symphony Space (four rock/pop singer/songwriters, four Broadway divas, one great band), which she conceived and directed, played to enthusiastic crowds from 2004-2006.
Ms. Loar has written music and lyrics for two musicals (and co-wrote the libretto with Robert W. Atwood). Spoolie Girl was presented at the Midtown International Theater Festival. (Best of the Fest for outstanding music and lyrics) and in January 2016 Water From The Moon had a two week run at Urban Stages “Water for the Moon has a tuneful. rockin' score with sophisticated lyrics. The ballad Irish Lullaby is simply breathtaking.” David Zippel (Tony Award winning lyricist City Of Angels) ”Rosemary Loar songwriting mixes theatre, jazz and pop in a truly effective and original style" Stephen Flaherty (Tony award winning) composer of Ragtime.
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