#derek klena daily admin

[derekklenadaily]

This year has been quite eventful, yet as fans, we found joy in numerous highlights, such as witnessing Derek's significant moments. His return to Broadway as Christian in 'Moulin Rouge' was particularly thrilling. Additionally, his involvement in various projects such as 'Pretty Little Liars: Summer School' and 'Private Princess Christmas', along with teaching at several musical theatre intensives, inspiring many theatre students. The official website for Derek premiered, and his private teaching lessons were available to all the musical theatre students and his fans. His solo concert performances sold out, and he participated in prestigious events like the 21st Century Broadway concerts at the Houston Symphony and Nova's Ball for charity, and made appearances with his closest friends at events. Furthermore, he joined Colton Ryan, George Salazar, and Jordan Dobson for Nick Blaemire and James Gardiner's 'Glory Days' Benefit Concert, engaged in a Q&A panel and performance with his 'Moulin Rouge' co-star Ashley Loren at the Museum of Broadway, and performed at Elsie Fest alongside the iconic Lizzy McAlpine and other Broadway talents.To top it off, he and Elycia welcomed another son, named Otto, making Dax a proud big brother!

I couldn’t be prouder of Derek! We all eagerly anticipate even brighter prospects ahead!

Wishing you all abundant blessings, joy, and love in the new year! Happy 2025! 🎉

Sincerely,

Dani

Derek Klena Daily Admin

[derekklenadaily]

By the way, I'm not going to post Derek's instagram post on any on Derek Klena Daily platforms because I don't want to share Derek and Elycia's litle boy on any social media platforms to ensure safety reasons.

-Dani

Derek Klena Daily admin

[derekklenadaily]

This year has been such a whirlwind for sure! There were still moments of joy to be had whenever we saw many wonderful accomplishments by Derek; making his two debuts at the iconic Carnegie Hall for New York Pops' 21st Century Broadway concert and The Kennedy Center for the production of 'Sunset Boulevard'. Returning to the Moulin Rouge on Broadway with Joanna 'Jojo' Levesque beside him for 15 weeks after (well deserved break) a hiatus, due to 'Sunset Boulevard' and spending time with family. Won a championship broadway softball game tournament (Go Rouge Away! ✊️) and even an award for Broadway.com's Best Replacement in 'Moulin Rouge'! He did several fun tiktoks and sudden appearances in lives along the way during his time in 'Moulin Rouge'. Derek and Elycia celebrated a great milestone within the family when their little boy Dax turned one, and went to see Dillon and the Broadway tour cast of Jagged Little Pill in support. He started teaching at IAMTNYC this past fall and was involved with a couple workshops such as Broadway Workshop, Broadway Evolved and Raffaele Productions this year. Also, he appeared/performed at several events such as Second Stage Theatre's Sapphire Anniversary Gala celebrating Sarah Paulson with Lindsay Mendez (Klendez reunion!), BYU Arts' For Heroes Proved: Veterans Day Celebration, 'The Neverland Ball' for Second Star Events, went to the opening night of 'Parade' and 'Here Lies Love' on Broadway, Jenn Freeman's 'Is It Thursday Yet?' in support. He was able to return to the production of the second season of 'Pretty Little Liars: Summer School' after SAG-AFTRA Strike was over. Then we heard new exciting announcements that were coming for the new year! First half of 'Pretty Little Liars: Summer School' will be premiering soon in the new year, 'Glory Days' Benefit Concert in February, new workshops to be set in the summer of 2024.

So excited and couldn't be any prouder of Derek! And thank you all so very much for supporting this blog for the past six years! Looking forward to much brighter things ahead in 2024!

I hope and wish many blessings, joyous and love to you all for the new year! Happy 2024!

Sincerely,

Dani

Derek Klena Daily admin

[derekklenadaily]

For some reason, tumblr isn't letting me to upload the recent video, I apologize for the inconvenience! I have it already up on instagram and twitter [x]!

[derekklenadaily]

[derekklenadaily]

On this day in 2017, Derek Klena Daily made its online debut, and honestly, we had no inkling of the incredible and wild journey that lay ahead!

Countless developments have taken place since then, with each platform (Tumblr, [X - should I refer to it as Twitter?], Blue Sky, and Instagram) has transformed over the years, the essence of our project has remained intact.

From the depths of our hearts, we express our profound gratitude; thank you all so very much for your support! The love, kindness, and encouragement we receive over the years from you are truly remarkable! We continue to thrive because of you! As Katey and Lar are currently on hiatus, they have kindly allowed me to take the reins as administrator for this blog over the past several years. I am immensly so very grateful to both for this opportunity to be part of such a wonderful team. It is a true honor, and I will commit myself to ensuring this blog remains vibrant and engaging for everyone. Here’s to more engaging posts, updates, and contents that will celebrate Derek and his journey in both his career and life for fans and theatre enthusiasts around the globe! Once again, thank you all so very much! Happy Seventh Anniversary to Derek Klena Daily! ❤️

- Dani

Derek Klena Daily Admin

[**photo credits to #jennyanderson **]

[derekklenadaily]

Who is in charge of this blog

Hi there! *waves* I'm Dani, I have been the admin for the Derek Klena Daily for few years now. Katey and Lar were the ones that came up with this blog back in 2017 but they are now on hiatus so they graciously let me take the helm of the blog. So, forgive me if it looks a bit askew at the moment, I've been trying to revamp and update it. If there's anything to ask, I'd be welcomed to answer any questions!

[derekklenadaily]

This year has been such a whirlwind, but as us fans, there were still moments of joy to be had whenever we saw important events, pictures, videos of Derek, including coming back to Broadway as Christian in 'Moulin Rouge', certain tv/film projects like 'Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin' and 'A Holiday Spectacular' and then he became parents with Elycia to a little boy named Dax!

So excited and couldn't be any prouder of @derek_klena ! All of us are looking forward to much brighter things ahead!

I hope and wish many blessings, joyous and love to you all for the new year! Happy 2023!

Sincerely,

Dani

Derek Klena Daily admin

[derekklenadaily]

My review of 'Moulin Rouge' will be up momentarily! Keep on the lookout for it on here! :)

[derekklenadaily]

If you noticed, the posts for the blog is currently lagging because I'm having a hard time posting them up (especially the videos and pics)! So sorry for the inconvenience. But you shall see the posts on twitter and instagram until it's fixed! -Dani

[derekklenadaily]

Check out Derek's wonderful "thank you" message, to one of the admins of the Derek Klena Daily. We'll do our best to keep this blog/twitter going for you and the fans. It's something to keep everyone informed and appreciate Derek's works whether it's stage, film or television :)

[derekklenadaily]

An updated version of our description! Congrats once again!

[derekklenadaily]

We just created an instagram account there as well just in case if tumblr or twitter gets a bit finicky with their website. This is where we will be uploading updates such as news, blog content such as gifs and videos! So come along and follow us! :)

[derekklenadaily]

making some gifs for our Tony Nominee! It should be up momentarily! :)

[derekklenadaily]

Apparently, there's no press/promotion pictures of Derek wearing Fiyero's infamous white pants and attire from "Dancing Through Life" number during "Wicked". :(

[derekklenadaily]

A review/synopsis of Derek’s Solo Debut Concert at Cafe Carlyle

Tuesday night on January 15th, I had the opportunity to go to see Derek's solo debut concert at Cafe Carlyle in New York City. The place was a bit small and quaint than Feinstein's 54 Below. We had to arrive by 7:00 and the show started a little bit after 8:30. Derek arrived in his gray suit attire with a purple weaved tie, and his hair slightly shortened than we have seen in Anastasia. He opened the show by singing 'Some Kind of Time' by Pasek and Paul's Off-Broadway Dogfight, then he greeted the audience, thanking us for coming. In a prelude before singing a beautiful mashup of "Go The Distance" (Disney's Hercules)/"Out There" (Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame) He told us about the memories of him growing up, watching a lot of Disney's films and singing their songs with his younger sister, Lauren and brother, Dillon. As he sang a mini mashup of  "Lady" by ‘Styx’ and "Come Home" by ‘One Republic’, he gave us an insight of his small, baby starting steps to his career; by doing regional shows in LA, battling back and forth whether to stay in baseball for UCLA or continue on to become a performer, getting the golden ticket in American Idol which he end up making it to Hollywood Week. 

Last September, Derek married his longtime girlfriend Elycia who he met during the first week of college. He sang a mash up of Maroon 5′s “Sunday Morning”, "Your Song" by Elton John and "She's Got A Way" by Billy Joel to her. It was really sweet! Before singing "Goodbye" from Catch Me You Can, he told us the story where Marc Shaiman heard him sing this song and asking Derek to send a recording for as Aaron's standby before coming to Broadway. Went off to sing "Dreamer in Disguise" from Carrie the Musical. Apparently, Tony Winner and a great friend of Derek's Lindsay Mendez was supposed to come to the concert to sing "First Date/Last Night" from Dogfight with Derek but unfortunately, she couldn't make it due to an illness. But singing "Come Back" makes up for it though, because he hasn't sang that song in a while, probably since the CD release concert back in 2013. During that song, we could tell that his voice has become better and stronger over the years. Then he went off to talk about his Broadway debut in Wicked as Fiyero, doing the special tenth anniversary of it, and his life-long friendship with Lindsay who was Elphaba. He goes to sing "Dancing Through Life" from the show. A sudden memory comes up when Derek went up to the director, Joe Mantello on how he should have his haircut for the character Fiyero. Short, long, or blond? Joe replied, "Bieber, baby." It lead him to sing the Bieber medley, which was really great to watch him to sing that and having fun with it. After that, he talked about his run in Bridges of Madison County with Kelli O' Hara and Hunter Foster as his parents in the show, which couldn't be any better than that. He goes to sing Robert's solo piece which placed in Act Two in the show, "It All Fades Away". Next, he talked about having the opportunity to participate the Broadway's Prince's Party after the run of Anastasia in Hartford, Connecticut. Since he couldn't sing any songs from the show due to being out of town at the time, so he and his piano composer Benjamin Rauhala decided to put together a song called "A Prince In Their World" a parody of Ariel's "Part of Your World", which was absolutely terrific to see him sing that song again in front of me after watching the past performance on YouTube several times.

Onto Anastasia, he talked about how he grew up watching the animated film and the character "Dimitri" was one of his dream roles if it had the chance to come to Broadway. After accepting the role of Dmitry and then doing the run for two years (one in Hartford and then on Broadway), "I lived my dream being in Anastasia", he said. Before doing "My Petersburg", he clarified that in the film, Dimitri didn't really have his own songs, so he was really honored that Stephen Flahtery and Lynn Ahrens gave Derek a chance to sing about Dmitry and where he came from. And I got to say when he sang "My Petersburg", it was truly glorious because one; he was literally one of my dream-cast for the show and two; he did an AMAZING portrayal of the character Dimitri/Dmitry so incredibly well that I thought he came straight from the animated film to the stage.

One of the highlight/favorite parts of the concert was Derek giving such a small inspirational speech about how you may stumble in life, you have to grow and learn from certain experiences. And one of his most known quotes, "Seize every opportunity" is the most important part when going through an experience, because you never know where, when or what will lead you. Along side of doing projects in New York, he really enjoys teaching aspiring high school and college students at masterclasses and workshops, and be able to watch them learn and grow as performers. "You Learn" from Alanis Morrisette was the perfect way to conclude this. For the finale or encore; I should say, Derek sang songs from "Always Remember Us" from the recent film, A Star Is Born which was absolutely gorgeous and "You Will Be Back" from Hamilton the Musical which led him to ask the audience to sing with him and show off his silly side.

Overall, I really enjoyed the concert so much! It was enjoyable, funny, intimate and personal all at once as he shared with us audience about his life experiences and career. I'm so happy and honored to be his fan, really. Derek is definitely one of the kindest, hard-working performer that I know. I'm truly ecstatic where he goes from here with his journey with his life and career; whether it's Jagged Little Pill or his future projects ahead. If you want to see or follow more updates on Derek, you can follow him on social media: on instagram: @Derek__Klena, on twitter: @derekklena 

 And if you want to follow us to keep an update on his projects and career, we are on twitter and tumblr: @DerekKlenaDaily | tumblr.com/derekklenadaily

Sincerely, 

Dani 

 One of the admins of DerekKlenaDaily