This Saturday brings one of the finest and most talented singers to the Niswonger Performing Arts Center.\u00a0 In a show called \u201cBroadway & Beyond,\u201d J. Mark McVey will be featured with Heartland Sings out of Fort Wayne, Indiana.<\/p>\n
J. Mark McVey is a singer who rose to international fame as Jean Valjean in the Broadway spectacular Les Miserables<\/em>.\u00a0As the leading actor in Les Miserables<\/em>, he won the Helen Hayes Award for \u201cOutstanding Actor\u201d while performing in D.C.\u00a0 He then moved on to be the first American singer to perform the role in London\u2019s West End (England\u2019s version of New York City\u2019s Broadway.)\u00a0Singing over 3,200 times as Jean Valjean, he also won the Ovation Award on the 25th anniversary tour of the smash Broadway hit at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n The list goes on and on with musical accomplishments for this singer.\u00a0He has performed at Carnegie Hall, with The Boston Pops, recorded with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and on and on.\u00a0But perhaps the biggest accomplishment in his life is that he is a Christian gentleman who speaks softly but sings with a big stick (if I may borrow from President Theodore Roosevelt.)\u00a0 I know this first hand.<\/p>\n J. Mark was appearing with Ernie Haase\u2019s Signature Sound when I first met him.\u00a0We had booked their show, \u201cInspiration of Broadway\u201d, three years ago.\u00a0J. Mark was the featured add-on singer to the show, and as nice as Ernie Haase and his fellow singers were, it was J. Mark who I really connected with.<\/p>\n His father drove up to our Niswonger show from his home in West Virginia. I met him in the lobby before the show and we began conversing.\u00a0I could tell he was a proud father.\u00a0He and a friend had just arrived in Van Wert that day and were looking forward to hearing his son sing with Signature Sound.\u00a0 I knew they had not had the chance to get anything to eat that day, so I invited him, his friend and J. Mark to eat with my wife and I after the show.<\/p>\n Sitting in Bob Evans Restaurant in Van Wert, J. Mark\u2019s father told me how he sings in a church choir. He was interested that I directed a church choir.\u00a0He then went further to state that I should ask J. Mark to sing at my church the next morning.\u00a0I said, \u201cDo you think he actually would?\u201d\u00a0He said, \u201cYou just tell him I said he should!\u201d\u00a0 hen J. Mark arrived at the restaurant, I gave him his father\u2019s order and he said, \u201cI would be honored to sing at your church.\u201d\u00a0Wow!<\/p>\n The next morning, he showed up at our church as I was warming up my choir downstairs and he volunteered to sing tenor in my choir.\u00a0 Well, no one ever turns down someone wanting to sing tenor, especially someone with J. Mark\u2019s credentials!\u00a0 It was a difficult piece we were singing that morning and I was a little shy on tenors.\u00a0 He pitch hit and fit right in.\u00a0 He\u2019s so good that he didn\u2019t actually stick out, but added much power and depth to our sound.<\/p>\n He also gave our soundman a thumb drive with an orchestral accompaniment to a piece that fit just perfectly with our pastor\u2019s sermon that morning.\u00a0 He also gave his testimony before singing.\u00a0 Needless to say, I was impressed and he made a huge impression on me and our entire church family.<\/p>\n This is the man we are bringing back to the Niswonger this Saturday night.\u00a0 I put him in contact with Robert Nance, the director of Heartland Sings out of Fort Wayne.\u00a0 This is a talented group of professional full-time singers and a chorus.\u00a0 Robert, J. Mark and I talked early on about what type of show we wanted to create and this Saturday, you will see the results of that conversation, the planning and the rehearsing in what we call Broadway & Beyond.<\/p>\n It will be filled with some of the most beloved Broadway songs that J. Mark has had the pleasure of singing all over the world as well as other treasured American songs.\u00a0That\u2019s the \u201cBeyond\u201d part of the show.\u00a0 It will all be backed up by a small orchestra and chorus.\u00a0The show Saturday night will be the world premiere performance.\u00a0 We are all hopeful it will be so well received that they can take it on tour later on.<\/p>\n One of the greatest pleasures of working a job like this is the wonderful people you meet in the world of music.\u00a0J. Mark is one of the nicest and most talented and yet giving people I have met in the industry.\u00a0 What a joy to bring him back to Van Wert and let him share his talents with you and Heartland Sings.<\/p>\n Tickets are just $20 to $35 and can be purchased at the Niswonger Box Office in advance or the night of the show.\u00a0This is part of the Community Concert Series sponsored by Okuley\/ Unverferth Dentistry with support by Central Insurance, E&R Trailer, Eaton Corporation, State Farm\u2019s Tisha Fast Agency, Taylor Auto Sales, and the Van Wert County Hospital.<\/p>\n Next year\u2019s Community Concert Series is now complete and we will be announcing the exciting line-up later this spring.\u00a0We are proud to offer world-class concerts which help you discover new artists who you may or may not know.\u00a0 This is the education part of our mission at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center.\u00a0I invite you to come this Saturday and discover the world-premiere of Broadway & Beyond!<\/p>\n FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This Saturday brings one of the finest and most talented singers to the Niswonger Performing Arts Center.\u00a0 In a show called \u201cBroadway & Beyond,\u201d J. Mark McVey will be featured with Heartland Sings out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. J. Mark McVey is a singer who rose to international fame as Jean Valjean in the Broadway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 04:56:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}