{"id":445688,"date":"2025-12-14T03:49:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T03:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/445688\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T03:49:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T03:49:35","slug":"ben-platt-duets-with-josh-groban-covers-addison-rae-at-l-a-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/445688\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Platt Duets With Josh Groban, Covers Addison Rae at L.A. Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBen Platt<\/a> is happy to be home.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Los Angeles native kicked off a 10-night residency at Center Theater Group\u2019s Ahmanson Theatre Friday night in front of a sold-out crowd that welcomed him back with a handful of standing ovations. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s so nice to be here for many reasons,\u201d the Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning<\/a> performer said in opening the show. \u201cThe first is that I haven\u2019t had a concert of my own in a year and a half, and I\u2019ve been really so desperate and hungry to get on stage. So, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do that. It feels so nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe other reason, he explained, is that his Ahmanson run marks a return to a stage he knows well. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I was a wee child \u2014 I grew up here in L.A. and was born in Los Angeles; I\u2019m sorry that I deserted to New York, but I have a place here so it still counts \u2014 and when I was a kid and first getting into the business, two of my very first gigs were right here on this very stage,\u201d Platt said. \u201cWhen I was, I think, 10 years old, I was in a musical called Caroline, or Change, which is a beautiful show where I played kind of an effeminate, sad child. Then I did a play called Dead End a few years later when I was 14 where I played an effeminate sad child. And now I\u2019m an effeminate, medium sad adult, so I\u2019m so thrilled to come back full circle. Thank you to Center Theater Group and the Ahmanson for letting me come back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen CTG announced the two week long Ben Platt: Live at the Ahmanson, it was promised that Platt would share the stage with \u201ca star-studded set of special guests\u201d while performing some of his greatest hits and \u201ctimeless Broadway favorites.\u201d He did just that by covering some of his standout tracks from albums like Sing to Me Instead, Reverie and Honeymind while performing Broadway hits like Cabaret\u2019s \u201cMaybe This Time,\u201d originally performed by Liza Minnelli, who Platt praised as \u201cprobably the world\u2019s best nepo baby<\/a>, she gives us an amazing name.\u201d (He called her mother, Judy Garland, his idol and credited her for inspiring the Ahmanson run and the East Coast residency that preceded it at New York\u2019s The Palace Theatre.)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThis has just been kind of a horrific year all around for everybody in the country,\u201d Platt said at the top of the show. \u201cFor two hours, everybody just relax, enjoy yourself, take a load off and let\u2019s just enjoy some music and have a nice time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Makela Yepez\/Courtesy of CTG<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the subject of those special guests, Platt came through on the promise by delivering Josh Groban<\/a> to the stage in what marked the latter\u2019s Ahmanson debut. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have always admired him, and we have kind of danced around each other our whole lives. We have been on Broadway at the same time. We have been nominated for Tonys together. We have always kind of been in orbit and he\u2019s just always been the most wonderful person and we\u2019ve never ever had the opportunity to sing together ever,\u201d Platt said before bringing Groban out, praising him as the \u201cGOAT\u201d and someone with the \u201cgreatest cords and voice\u201d of all time.<\/p>\n

\n\tGroban walked onto the stage to a rousing applause and he promptly returned the compliments. \u201cYou have a pathos and a voice and a talent that is so singular. It\u2019s been so fun to watch your meteoric rise and the way your heart touches so many millions,\u201d Groban said, noting that they are both \u201cL.A. kids\u201d \u2014 Platt went to Harvard Westlake while Groban attended Windward School \u2014\u00a0who grew up inspired by local theater. As such, they teamed for \u201cWhat I Did For Love\u201d from A Chorus Line, which they dedicated to \u201call the amazing theater teachers and all of the people who allowed us to get the bug,\u201d Groban said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGroban and Platt<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Makela Yepez\/Courtesy of CTG<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGroban and Platt<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Makela Yepez\/Courtesy of CTG<\/p>\n

\n\tGroban wasn\u2019t the only surprise.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen we did the show at The Palace, it was tied to my record Honeymind, which was wonderful because I got to sing all the songs from Honeymind, but for this show, I was able to infuse all the different classics that I love and sing songs I\u2019ve always wanted to sing from the great American songbook,\u201d Platt explained. \u201cAnd here\u2019s another one of those\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe next song: The viral hit \u201cDiet Pepsi\u201d from best new artist Grammy nominee<\/a> Addison Rae.<\/p>\n

\n\tPlatt\u2019s concert also saw him perform \u201cReverie\u201d from Dear Evan Hansen; Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cYo\u00fc and I;\u201d Garland\u2019s \u201cThe Boy Next Door;\u201d \u201cAndrew;\u201d \u201cRain;\u201d \u201cI Want to Love You But I Don\u2019t;\u201d \u201cEase My Mind;\u201d \u201cGrow As We Go;\u201d \u201cRiver\u201d by Joni Mitchell; and \u201cVienna\u201d by Billy Joel, the latter two which he performed on Ryan Murphy\u2019s The Politician. He closed the show with a rendition of \u201cOver the Rainbow\u201d during an encore. Right before that he sang \u201cBefore I Knew You,\u201d a song he wrote in honor of husband Noah Galvin.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBeing an artist is incredibly difficult, and there\u2019s just huge swaths of time that you don\u2019t get to do this beautiful stuff. It\u2019s very up and down. I don\u2019t know how I would ever survive without the partnership that I am privileged to experience with Noah,\u201d Platt said. \u201cHe\u2019s an extraordinary person and artist on his own. A lot of the songs I write are about him and for him, and I just want to finish with my favorite of those love songs because truly the way I\u2019m able to push myself out onto the stage is because of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBen Platt: Live at the Ahmanson runs through Dec. 21.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCTG\u2019s Meghan Pressman and Snehal Desai<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Ryan Miller \/ Capture Imaging \/ Courtesy of CTG<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGroban and Platt<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Makela Yepez\/Courtesy of CTG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Platt is happy to be home. The Los Angeles native kicked off a 10-night residency at Center…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":445689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[157166,1582,276,161451,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-445688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ben-platt","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-josh-groban","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115715885062727721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}