Richard Marx & Puddles Pity Party added to Center Presents concert schedule

‘80s icon Richard Marx will appear on Feb. 17, 2024, at the Palladium in Carmel. (Photo provided)

A crooning clown and an ’80s pop/rock sensation are the two latest additions to the concert schedule at the Center for the Performing Arts.

Puddles Pity Party will make its Center debut at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 18 the Tarkington theater, with tickets at $40 and $55.

Richard Marx will return to the Palladium with a solo show at 8 p.m. Feb. 17, with tickets starting at $35.

Both performances will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 3, online at TheCenterPresents.org, by phone at (317) 843-3800, or in person at the Palladium’s Fifth Third Bank Box Office, 1 Carter Green, Carmel.

Puddles Pity Party, the 7-foot sad clown whose golden voice has been compared to such legends as Tom Jones and Freddie Mercury, has amassed nearly 900,000 YouTube subscribers with his interpretations of pop hits and rock classics. A quarterfinalist on Season 12 of America’s Got Talent, he has performed sold-out shows at venues including the Kennedy Center and London’s Soho Theatre, as well as a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Puddles’ one-of-a-kind “textured voice laced with melancholy” (New York Times) has been hailed as “operatic” (Boston Globe) and his show both “life-affirming” (Herald Scotland) and “hysterically funny” (LA Weekly).

Marx has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, making history as the only male artist to reach the Billboard Top 5 with his first seven singles, including “Hold on to the Nights,” “Don’t Mean Nothing,” “Satisfied” and “Right Here Waiting.” Overall, he has scored 14 No. 1 singles both as a performer and as a songwriter/producer, with at least one chart-topper in each of the past four decades. His most recent album is Songwriter, a collection of five pop songs, five rock songs, five country songs and five ballads, written in collaboration with artists including Keith Urban, Darius Rucker, Chris Daughtry and Burt Bacharach. His performance is part of the Center’s Katz, Sapper & Miller Pop/Rock Series.

Both performances are part of the 2023-2024 Center Presents Season, presented in partnership with Allied Solutions.