Because I Can, Sir! is a one-woman musical comedy about Susan Braden’s battle with cholangiocarcinoma, a very rare form of cancer, with her high-spirited arsenal of music, comedy, chemotherapy, and faith. All songs are written and performed by Susan Braden, who has performed Because I Can, Sir! in Richmond and Roanoke, VA; New York City, NY; Alexandria, LA; Salt Lake City, UT; Little Rock, AR; West Palm Beach, FL; and coming soon: your city too!

Susan Braden is a wife, mother, and grandmother (aka “GiGi”). She is a composer, arranger, soprano concert artist, voice teacher, pianist,  jingle singer, and actor. Susan has performed, recorded and music directed in Arkansas, Louisiana, Houston,TX, Memphis,TN, Virginia, Los Angeles, CA, and New York City.

Recent New York and national credits: performed in From Broadway With Love benefit in New York City, directed her own Bee a Friend children’s musical at Metro in NYC, Music Director/Arranger/Pianist for The Ziegfeld Club – An Autumnal Frolic at the Lincoln Center in NY, 2014; and her Musical, What He Knew About Women – the Music of Cy Coleman was produced as the national winner of the Hormel  Festival of New Plays and Musicals, at the Phoenix Theatre, March 2013.

In 2016, Susan was honored to perform songs from 3 new works by Richmond writers for the Dramatist Guild workshop with Steven Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, etc.) at the Kennedy Center in DC. This past season (2018), she was the winner of the Richmond Theatre Critic’s Circle Award for Best Musical Director for her work with Preludes, the Regional premiere of Dave Malloy’s (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet..) new musical about Serge Rachmaninoff at the Firehouse Theatre in Richmond. Currently, she is traveling (between chemo treatments), performing her one-woman show all over the US, sharing her current battle with cholangiocarcinoma in her humorous, yet touching musical, “Because I Can, Sir!- A Metastatic Musical Comedy”.

Susan teaches voice workshops, and guest directs church choirs in the Mid-Atlantic region. Currently, she maintains a Music Studio for private voice lessons and acting coaching for adults, college and high school students in Richmond, Virginia.  Honored to have served on the Virginia Board of Directors for the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Inc., Susan leads workshops in Music Theatre, Sightsinging, and Audition techniques for NATS conferences and for other regional schools and private studios. Susan also serves as a Patient Advocate and a Research Advocate for the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation.

For booking of Because I Can, Sir! please email Susan at susanbradenmusic@gmail.com.