Make some noise! Cheeyang Ng is up next for Playbill's Songwriter Series, which launched in July with a soulful performance by Troy Anthony and last featured Jaime Jarrett's transgender superhero musical Wonder Boy. Presented by City National Bank, the series is dedicated to spotlighting emerging composers and will feature a new video every month.
Ng visited Playbill to perform select tracks from their two original musicals Eastbound and MĀYĀ. The first show is a bilingual musical about Chinese-American adoptee Calvin reuniting with distant relatives in China under intense circumstances: Calvin needs a bone morrow transplant. The latter, MĀYĀ, follows Maya Mehta who finds herself at crossroads during the Salt March, a nonviolent protest in 1930.
Featured songs in the video below include "How to Say Goodbye," "Tradition," "There Will Come A Day," and "The Banyan Tree." Ng is accompanied by vocalists Kennedy Kanagawa (who you might recognize from Broadway's Into the Woods) and Kuhoo Verma. Cynthia Meng is playing the Playbill piano, provided by the nonprofit Sing for Hope, and Noah Hadland is the percussionist.
"I'm very excited to be at Playbill's Songwriter Series. I was born and raised in Singapore and I write at the intersection of queer, Asian, and immigrant stories. I'm a composer, book writer, and playwright," says Ng.
Watch Cheeyang Ng's full performance below.
In addition to playing the most popular cow on the Main Stem, Kanagawa's credits include performing at the Village Theater, Portland Stage, and the Utah Shakespeare Festival. NYC based artist Verma stars as the lead of Hulu’s Plan B, which is currently streaming, and will appear in Murder Mystery 2 on Netflix. They previously starred in Signature Theatre's Octet, which won a Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble.
Most recently, Hadland appeared in the Broadway national tour of Waitress and is Tokyo-bound with a limited engagement of A Chorus Line. Music director and pianist Meng appeared on Broadway in the 2020 revival of Company and Hadestown.
City National Bank is a proud sponsor of Playbill’s Songwriter Series. As the leading bank to Broadway, City National supports diverse talent on the stage and works behind the scenes to provide a full suite of financial products to fit their needs. Proudly serving the theatre community for over 65 years, see how they make it their business to be personal at cnb.com
Sing for Hope harnesses the power of the arts to create a better world. Our creative programs bring hope, healing, and connection to millions of people in hospitals, schools, care facilities, refugee camps, transit hubs, and community spaces worldwide. A non-profit organization founded in New York City in response to the events of 9/11, Sing for Hope partners with hundreds of community-based organizations, mobilizes thousands of artists in creative service, and produces artist-created Sing for Hope Pianos across the US and around the world. The official Cultural Partner of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Sing for Hope champions art for all because we believe the arts have an unmatched capacity to uplift, unite, and heal. Learn more at singforhope.org.
