To say that Edward is ecstatic and humbled to be working with the Cancer Can Rock team is an understatement that only 2020 could muster. As a former aspiring pop/rock singer, Edward hung up his tight jeans, leather jackets, and earrings long ago; shortly after moving to NYC in that pursuit in 2005. His path took him down the road of musical theatre and he soon found himself starring in musicals domestically and internationally, as he has been for the last 14 years. Some of his most recent, and most favorite credits include Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (Anything Goes – Sharon Playhouse), Father (Ragtime – Park Playhouse), Bill Austin (Mamma Mia – Palace Theatre), Julian Marsh (42nd Street – Mill Mountain Theatre), Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf (Into The Woods – Theatre Workshop Nantucket), Adam Pontipee (Seven Bides – Derby Dinner Playhouse), Ted Hinton (Bonnie & Clyde – Derby Dinner Playhouse), Fred Graham (Kiss Me Kate – Show Palace Theatre). Edward is also the 2011 AEA Roger Sturtevant Award recipient granted to two artists through the actor’s union, Actors Equity, every year.
While performing the role of Corny Collins in an extended run of Hairspray in Reno, Nevada, Edward became alarmed at the rapid growth of a small lump under his arm that had swelled to the size of a large grapefruit. Upon his return to NYC he was shortly after diagnosed with Rare-Enlarged B-Cell Burkitt’s-like Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Four rounds of failed chemo, thirty days of radiation, countless biopsies, a stem-cell transplant, and two hospitals later he was declared “cancer free”.
From his time as a “professional cancer patient”, Edward has taken his experiences and turned them into therapeutic outreach mediums including a book he authored entitled “Cancer, Musical Theatre, & Other Chronic Illnesses” (see link below) which is now live as a podcast and interview series wherever you listen to podcasts. He is also the creator and a cast member of BariToned, a farcical concert trio of strapping, and tall baritones who sing and dance their way through mash-ups and medleys of Broadway’s leading ladies.
Edward is now dipping his toes back into the songwriter life, as inspired by his time with Jim Ebert and the rest of the Cancer Can Rock team. Forever grateful… and mindful that…
“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
