Rutland, Vermont is a solid drive from most of upstate New York, and the Paramount Theatre is a genuinely good reason to make it. This is an 838-seat historic theater in downtown Rutland — the kind of room built for live performance and not ashamed of it. If you have been looking for an excuse to take a fall Tuesday road trip into the North Country, John Ondrasik just handed you one.
About Five For Fighting
Ondrasik has been performing as Five For Fighting since the late 1990s, and if you grew up in the 2000s, his songs are probably already in your memory whether you know it or not. “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” “100 Years,” “The Riddle” — piano-driven, built for a quiet room. Grammy-nominated and platinum-selling, he has accumulated over one billion streams and placed his music in more than 350 films and television productions, including The Blind Side, The Sopranos, and Hawaii Five-O.
This fall, Ondrasik pairs with four Broadway musicians for a deliberately intimate string quartet tour: violinists Katie Kresek — a Tony Award-winning concertmaster and co-orchestrator of Moulin Rouge! The Musical — and Melissa Tong, plus violist Chris Cardona and cellist Peter Sachon. The plan is to go behind the music, telling the stories behind the songs alongside deeper catalog cuts. Do not expect a hits-only evening.
Opening the night: folk rock duo Lace & Lee, NYU Tisch graduates with Celtic-tinged harmonies who have toured with Five For Fighting before. Their set brings what the press describes as “ethereal vocals and risky harmonies” — a smart warmup for a show built on mood and arrangement.
The Venue
The Paramount Theatre is a historic theater in downtown Rutland, VT with 838 seats — the kind of room where a string quartet sounds the way it is supposed to. Late September in the North Country means foliage season is starting to move, so budget extra time on the way in or out.
Doors open at 6:00 PM. Seating begins at 6:30. Show starts at 7:00 PM.
Tickets & Pricing
Tickets are on sale now at $40, $50, and $95 plus applicable taxes and fees. Note that complimentary vouchers are not valid for this performance.