The Uncivil Ones is being featured on a presentation with Live & In Color on January 20th at 2:00 pm - come check out 25 minutes of our material sung by a spectacular group of artists and hear two other shows as well! It's free, it's 90 minutes and it's new musicals - what more could you want? Get your tickets here: https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/NzI3MTI=

X-MAS in Concert returns to New York for a two night engagement at The PIT December 20 at 8pm and December 21 at 10 pm. Get your tickets to see Charissa as Jean Grey here - https://thepit-nyc.com/events/x-mas-a-merry-mutant-musical-in-concert/.

Charissa Bertels & Ayumi Okada have received Special Mention in the 2019  Women in Arts & Media Coalition Collaboration Awards for their work on The Uncivil Ones.  ​

We had a wonderful first meeting of the Broadway Book Club - where we select a musical each month to get together and read/sing. Our inaugural musical was Sondheim's Company - what a doozie to start off with but we like a challenge! We had a great night full of wonderful performances, laughs, snacks and music. Can't wait for the next one! Check us out on Instagram @bwaybookclub!

Had a blast playing a spoiled pop star in "Maya's Mom" in a cast of three fierce women where essentially no men are even mentioned. Yay, Bechdel Test passing musicals!

Had a fantastic time collaborating with the creatives of the new musical, Hammer, as part of their thesis project presentation. I got to sing a beautiful heartbreaking song as the mom of the title character. It's a fascinating story about CTE - the disease many football players experience from repeated head trauma. I learned so much and came away with a new compassion for these men. 

Charissa Bertels and Ayumi Okada have received a Special Mention in the Women in Arts & Media Coalition Collaboration Awards for their work on The Uncivil Ones. They will be honored at the gala on March 30th. 

Featuring an all-star cast and written by Kleban Award-winner Christian Duhamel and Sarah Mucek, X-MAS: A Merry Mutant Holiday Spectacular sold out 5 shows at The Pocket Theatre in Seattle, December 7-10.

The Uncivil Ones closed the Emerging Artists Theatre's New Works Series for 2018 and we were overjoyed at the success of the reading, thanks to our stellar cast and the hard work of our team. We received wonderful feedback and we look forward to our new round of development. 

We had a fantastic week workshopping The Uncivil Ones with a talented group of performers in Seattle. After debuting Act I in New York in April we were ready to take on the full piece and continue to deep dive as we carve out this incredible story. This week was great preparation for our concert reading in New York in October. We will be presenting the piece as part of Emerging Artists Theatre's New Works Series on October 28 at 7 pm. Tickets are available at 

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3616605.

I had the great fortune of producing and starring in a workshop of X-MAS: A Merry Mutant Holiday Spectacular this week in Seattle. What a blast it was to play with these fantastically talented mutants! We are so excited to bring this production to The Pocket Theater December 7-9. 

Our song, Mary Ran, was chosen from over 100 submissions to be featured on a concert celebrating new musical theatre. We were so pleased to hear our song performed so beautifully by Brynn Williams, Grace Choi and Alana Cauthen, along with a 5-piece band led by Justin Ramos. 

We're taking this show on the road - next stop, Seattle! After a sold out concert run in New York City, X-MAS: A Merry Mutant Holiday Spectacular will play at The Pocket Theatre in Seattle December 7-9.  We've launched our Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for a writing workshop and the developmental production. ​Mutants, unite!

Merrimack Repertory celebrated their season gala by honoring Congresswoman Niki Tsongas and her decade long career advocating for the arts as a representative of Massachusetts. I had the great pleasure of singing two songs to fête her - You're The Top and Natural Woman. MRT raised a record-breaking $110,000 to support the theatre's educational programs for 6,000 youth in the Greater Merrimack Valley Region.

I was so honored to be nominated for an IRNE award and even more so to win for Best Solo Performance for My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend. We attended the ceremony in Boston and had a fantastic time catching up with our MRT compatriots and cheering on their multiple wins! 

Our team was so thrilled to present the first act of Mary Walker Wears What She Wants, thanks to the generous donation of space from The Dramatists Guild. We had a fantastic cast of women including Ebony Blake, Christiana Cole, Emma Jordan, Mary Liz McNamara, Kim Onah, Leenya Rideout, and April Lee Uzarski. My fantastic husband, James, even played drums! What a joy to share the beginning stages of development on this piece with a small group of our very savvy friends. 

Charissa presented an evening of song with her collaborator, Ed Bell, composer of My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend at the London cabaret venue Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zedel. They shared several songs from the show as well as Broadway standards. 

I was so honored to perform "What A View" from My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend at the Kleban Award ceremony on Monday. It was such a joyous occasion to celebrate my best friend, Christian Duhamel, and his tremendous achievement. His family flew in for the ceremony and our director and producer were able to join us as well. I can't wait to see what Christian does next - congrats!

I had a fantastic time recording some new demos for Geoffrey Goldberg and Steve Sweeting for their new musical, Piece of Mind. You can hear me on the solo, "Where Do You Go?" and on the trio "Confusing". Check it out here. 

Christian Duhamel has been named the 2018 Kleban Prize recipient for most promising musical theater librettist for his work on My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend and we couldn't be prouder of him! 

Charissa produced a concert presentation of the original musical parody, X-MAS: A Merry Mutant Holiday Spectacular at The Duplex . Written by Sarah Mucek and Christian Duhamel, this hilarious piece starred an all-star cast and Charissa was delighted to play Jean Grey. 

I'm thrilled to announce that Ed Bell and I will present an evening of song at London's Brasserie Zedel. In this one-off concert at Crazy Coqs, we'll share a handful of numbers from My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend as well songs from other shows we've worked on and stories about how we got where we are today.

Apr. 26 - May 21

Conceived and performed by Charissa Bertels

Book & Lyrics by Christian Duhamel, Music & Lyrics by Edward Bell

Directed by Sean Daniels, Produced by Peilin Chou in association with MRT

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A concert celebrating contemporary composers creating new Christmas and holiday classics.

I created this Drunk If/Then parody with my tourmates to celebrate the end of a great adventure - what a blast! Enjoy! 

Ed Bell and I traveled to Lowell, MA to celebrate the upcoming season at Merrimack Repertory Theatre's Gala. What a fun night - silent and live auctions, artistic awards and performances from Benjamin Scheuer's THE LION and our own MY 80-YEAR-OLD BOYFRIEND. We had a fantastic time connecting with the team at MRT and getting their audience pumped for our show next year. We are looking forward to some upcoming workshops as we prepare for our world premiere!

I am so honored to be amongst the artists of the MRT Patriots Class of 2016. To be given an artistic home where I can workshop my ideas is truly a dream come true. Thank you to MRT's Artistic Director, Sean Daniels, for this amazing opportunity. I am so thrilled to be part of this family.

Had the great fortune to join a fabulous Broadway Chorus led by Rob Fisher on one of Garrison Keillor's last broadcasts for A Prairie Home Companion. It was a whirlwind weekend as I took a break from If/Then to fly to New York for 48 hours to rehearse and perform on the show. It was amazing to watch the fast-paced, smooth, ever-changing nature of the live broadcast. 

We are thrilled to finally be able to share the exciting news that our show will have its world premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre with Artistic Directer Sean Daniels at the helm and produced by Peilin Chou. The show runs April 26-May 21, 2017 in Lowell, Massachusetts, starring Charissa Bertels and featuring the work of Christian Duhamel & Edward Bell. 

The company of If/Then produced a benefit concert tonight for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. We were lucky enough to be invited to perform at Hard Rock Cafe St. Louis and had an absolute blast while raising money for a great cause! 

Come take a theatre dance master class on Tuesday from 10:00-11:30 am. We'll warmup, learn some material from If/Then and apply our storytelling techniques to an audition situation.

If/Then is off to a great start with a successful opening in Denver. My parents were able to join us for opening night and we met some very sweet alums of the Denver Broncos at the opening night party. Now we're off to Seattle for a week!

Charissa is thrilled to be part of the cast for the First National Tour of If/Then, starring Idina Menzel! She and her husband, James, will be hitting the road this year for the first time and they are so excited for this new adventure! 

We are so thrilled to have some new demos for our show as we move into the next phase of our development. We have two new tracks up on SoundCloud - "What A View" and "The Love Left Behind". Check them out at here on the Media Page or check out our website at www.my80yearoldboyfriend.com.