Craig Rubano Performs!

The preeminent singer visits the Coffee House at the Pub in the 3 West for an intimate performance, accompanied by Beth Ertz

Please join the Coffee House at 3 West, in the Pub on the Second Floor for a very special performance featuring Craig Rubano and Beth Ertz. All guests to the Pub must spend a minimum of $25 on food and/or drink. (Cover & Minimum).

Craig Rubano has followed his voice: from a multilingual childhood in South America to world travels with The Whiffenpoofs, from Broadway as Marius Pontmercy in Les Misérables to concert stages across the globe, and from recording studios to the pulpit as a minister. Other theater: The Scarlet Pimpernel, I and II (Broadway original casts); Animal Crackers (Goodspeed). Recordings and shows: Finishing the Act: Act One Finales from Broadway, Change Partners: Life’s a Dance, and The Night They Invented Champagne: Operetta and Its Musical Legacy; Stepping into Love: Harold Arlen in the Thirties, At Long Last Love: The Music & Lyrics of Cole Porter, and A Birthday Party for Sir Noël Coward. Craig made a heralded return to the stage in 2024–25 with Take the Moment at The Laurie Beechman Theatre (Beth Ertz, musical director; Jeff Harnar, director), adding a second Back Stage Bistro award to his Palm Springs Desert Star and four MAC awards for performance. Craig is a graduate of Yale College (A.B.), Columbia University (M.A.), and Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div., Th.M., Ph.D.).

As a young pianist, Beth Ertz loved accompanying musical family and friends in local musicals, beginning a lifelong love of Broadway. When studying classical accompanying at the University of Southern California, at night she played in seedy night clubs, much to the dismay of her strictly classical professors. Mentored by composers and arrangers Johnny Mandel, Henry Mancini and Nelson Riddle, she caught the attention of film composer Elmer Bernstein. Beth’s Hollywood career began as orchestrator for Mr. Bernstein for comedies (Animal House, Airplane, Trading Places) and tender stories such as The Chosen and later some quirky films with Danny Elfman. She sees film composition as another form of accompanying, just with a bigger “piano”…the orchestra. Diverse arranging assignments have included Barbra Streisand, Willie Nelson, Placido Domingo, Stevie Wonder, producer David Foster, Pops orchestras, and the Academy Awards Show. In NYC, Beth has musically directed events at The Town Hall, Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, the York and tributes for Encompass New Opera Theatre honoring Chita Rivera, Danny Burstein, Sheldon Harnick, Marvin Hamlisch, Alan Menken and many others. As an accompanist, Beth has loved playing with Bette Midler, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kristin Chenoweth, Melissa Manchester, Karen Ziemba, Brian Stokes Mitchell and various dance companies. But there’s no one she enjoys collaborating with more than Craig Rubano, full of surprises, dipping into the classical realm, Cole Porter, modern musicals…all with his beautiful voice, heart, and soul.