Renée Elise Goldsberry, she of Tony Award -winning Hamilton fame, is coming back to Houston for a one-night-only performance on January 20 in which she’ll sing songs from top artists and Broadway shows while adding in some personal stories as well.
Backed by the band she put together in 2017 — a guitar, bass, piano, drums and three background singers — Goldsberry has taken what she calls her “evolving” act across the country. Broadway at the Hobby has brought her to Houston as part of its new Broadway series that is part of the expansion of programming it plans to offer in 2024.
Although she’ll be singing Broadway songs from shows like Hamilton, Rent and The Lion King, she’ll also present songs by artists such as Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan..
Asked why she got involved in this Broadway series, Goldsberry said, ” Broadway’s great. Broadway’s wonderful. Broadway is no longer one style of music. Which is great because we all don’t listen to one style of music anymore,” she said. “Our great musical writers are telling stories with so many different kinds of music that we love. Which really opens a love of Broadway to everyone.”
Goldsberry was raised in Houston and Detroit and believes Houston is as good a place as any — and better than many — in which to launch an artistic career. “I think someone from Houston has as great a shot if not greater at making it in entertainment or the arts than anyone else particularly because the arts culture is so rich in Houston.”
“My mother sent my brother and I to Houston international Theater School when I was 8 years old to keep us from sitting in the house in a hot Houston summer and I fell in love with music theater.”
Moving on to other types of performing on film and TV was not difficult, she said. “It all works together beautifully. I’m a story teller and I love to do that through song, I love to do it through scripted dramas and comedies in the theater on television in a concert hall. What’s special about my performance in Houston is I really can perform all of this music from shows I’ve been in and share personal stories about those experiences. It’s a gift to be able to demystify the road to Broadway.
“There are a lot of people that are dreaming big dreams. Starring on Broadway is definitely one and I like to share my journey so that it feels less elusive to other people.”
At the same time, she noted, it hasn’t always been an easy ride. “Any success I ever had was hard fought and it took a very long time to start working. There are many years of disillusionment and a lot of self doubt. Those are things that don’t necessarily go away and the beauty of having an audience is that you get to talk about the successes but put them in context and also share the failures and the challenges.”
Besides playing Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton — for which she earned a Tony Award, Grammy Award and a Drama Desk Award — she has been a regular cast member Marvel Studios’ She Hulk streaming series and in Tina Fey’s Emmy-nominated series, GIRLS5EVA.
“The beauty of having a varied career is that I have many different kinds of fans,” Goldsberry said. “I have fans that don’t like theater at all they just like action, sci-fi television shows. I have fans that don’t have any interest in one particular show because they don’t know it exists, they just love another. It’s always interesting to meet somebody that loved something that I was in because regardless of their knowledge of my entire body of work if they loved any one thing, then we have a lot in common.”
Goldsberry’s performance is scheduled for January 20 at 8 p.m. at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 800-982-2787 or visit thehobbycenter.org or broadwayatthehobbycenter.com. $44-$124.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
