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| Lyrics & Lyricists: The 1959 Broadway Songbook |
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Featuring the lyrics of: Marshall Barer, Billy Barnes, Rich Besoyan, Marc Blitzstein, Betty Comden, Dorothy Fields, Michael Flanders, Joan Ford, Robert Goldman, Adolph Green, Oscar Hammerstein II, E.Y. Harburg, Sheldon Harnick, Joan Kerr, Walter Kerr, Fran Landesman, Alan Jay Lerner, Johnny Mercer, Bob Merrill, Glenn Paxton, Harold Rome, Stephen Sondheim, George Weiss, Meredith Wilson
Ticket Information:
Saturday, May 3, 8pm
Sunday, May 4, 3pm & 8pm
Monday, May 5, 2pm & 8pm
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Program Notes |
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Meet the Artists |
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| Program Notes |
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Look at the list of Broadway musicals running in 1959. Blink, and look at it again. Whether it's to appreciate the role call of songwriters at work in that single calendar year, or the array of stars bringing that work to life, or the seemingly impossible list of wonderful shows - and not one of them a revival - one cannot help but be astonished. It's a breathtaking barometer of the level of genius at work within a single season.
1959. The hula-hoop was new, the Barbie Doll was new and I was new. Having loved Broadway music for as long as I can remember, I became curious to see which musicals shared my birth year. When I discovered more than 20 musicals were playing in 1959, some new, some still running from previous seasons, my imagination took flight.
Together with Alex Rybeck and Sara Louise Lazarus, I set about creating a musical collage, one that might highlight the delicious diversity and colors of the collective Broadway songbooks of 1959. I also aspired to pay homage to the very structure of the classic 1950s Broadway musical, to map our musical trajectory around the traditional "boy meets girl" plot line, formatted with the hallmarks of the musical comedy "Overture," "Intermission," "Entr'acte" and "Curtain Call."
Since my very first outing with "The 1959 Broadway Songbook," as my debut engagement at The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel in 1991, I had a dream to expand the show, to add the voices that would allow me to best evoke the magic that these cast albums have long conjured for me. Lyrics & Lyricists™ has presented me with that opportunity in an ideal setting, one where the very mission statement is to celebrate the writers of the American popular songbook. In that context, I invite you again to glance at the roster of songwriting talents represented in "The 1959 Broadway Songbook." It was a remarkable constellation of talents, one whose glow still illuminates us today, almost 50 years later.
It is in that very spirit that I welcome you to the 92nd Street Y's Lyrics & Lyricists™, and ask you to imagine the year is 1959 and that we are in a Broadway theater somewhere along Manhattan's Great White Way at the apex of the Golden Age of Broadway. "Curtain Up!"
—Jeff Harnar
Broadway Musicals of 1959:
At The Drop of a Hat: music by Donald Swann; lyrics by Michael Flanders & Sydney Carter
Bells Are Ringing: music by Jule Styne; lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Billy Barnes Revue: music and lyrics by Billy Barnes
Destry Rides Again: music and lyrics by Harold Rome
Fiorello!: music by Jerry Bock; lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
First Impressions: music and lyrics by Robert Goldman, Glenn Paxton & George Weiss
Flower Drum Song: music by Richard Rodgers; lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Goldilocks: music by Leroy Anderson; lyrics by Joan Ford, Walter Kerr & Jean Kerr
Gypsy: music by Jule Styne; lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Jamaica: music by Harold Arlen; lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
Juno: music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein
Little Mary Sunshine: music and lyrics by Rick Besoyan
The Music Man: music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson
My Fair Lady: music by Frederick Loewe; lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
The Nervous Set: music by Tommy Wolf; lyrics by Fran Landesman
Once Upon a Mattress: music by Mary Rodgers; lyrics by Marshall Barer
Redhead: music by Albert Haque; lyrics by Dorothy Fields
Saratoga: music by Harold Arlen; lyrics by Johnny Mercer
The Sound of Music: music by Richard Rodgers; lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Take Me Along: music and lyrics by Bob Merrill
West Side Story: music by Leonard Bernstein; lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Program subject to change.
Steinway Piano
The Lyrics & Lyricists™ series is partially underwritten by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.
"The 1959 Broadway Songbook" performances are underwritten by Gilda and Henry Block and Kenneth Kolker. |
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| Meet the Artists |
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| Jeff Harnar |
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 Jeff Harnar is making his eleventh appearance at Lyrics & Lyricists™ and his debut as artistic director and host. He is an award-winning New York cabaret and recording artist who made his first appearance at The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel in 1991 with "The 1959 Broadway Songbook." The show has since been broadcast on PBS, recorded for CD on Original Cast Records and been presented in major engagements nationwide, including Chicago, San Francisco, Hollywood, Palm Beach, Washington, D.C., St. Louis and Dallas. This March, the show had its West End London debut at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Harnar's other New York cabaret engagements include Feinstein's at The Regency, The Firebird Cafe, The Ballroom and Rainbow & Stars. His Carnegie Hall appearances include both the Cole Porter and Noël Coward Centennial Galas, a solo concert at Weill Recital Hall and most recently as Michael Feinstein's special guest in his Jule Styne tribute.
Harnar has just finished his second season as producer and host of "The American Songbook in London," which was a "critic's choice" for eight weeks in The Times London. Under this banner he has presented critically-acclaimed engagements for Andrea Marcovicci, Julie Wilson, Steve Ross, Karen Akers and Maude Maggart. He tours nationally with Shauna Hicks in their symphony "pops" concert, "I Got Rhythm: Mickey & Judy's Hollywood," which was recorded live last June at New York's Town Hall. He has also appeared in all 17 annual New York Cabaret Conventions, presented by Donald Smith and The Mabel Mercer Foundation at both Town Hall and Lincoln Center. Another personal career highlight was opening for the McGuire Sisters on their reunion tour.
Other television appearances include Remember: Songs of the Holidays (PBS) with KT Sullivan and as the singing host of Gershwin on Ice, starring Dorothy Hamill (A&E). His solo recordings include Dancing in the Dark (PS Classics), Sammy Cahn All the Way, Because of You: Fifties Gold and The 1959 Broadway Songbook. Harnar has won three Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) Awards and four Back Stage Bistro Awards. His website is www.jeffharnar.com. |
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| Alex Rybeck |
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 Alex Rybeck is well known as a pianist, arranger and composer on Broadway, in cabaret and on recordings. His Broadway credits include Merrily We Roll Along, Grand Hotel and Damn Yankees. Off-Broadway he has worked on the Public Theater's production of Wings; Flora the Red Menace, directed by Scott Ellis and choreographed by Susan Stroman; and Try to Remember: A Look Back at Off-Broadway, starring Rita Gardner; and he conducted the world premiere of What The World Needs Now at the Old Globe in San Diego. As a pianist-arranger, he has performed and/or recorded with many stars, including Michael Feinstein, Tommy Tune, Faith Prince, Marni Nixon, Roberta Peters, Julie Wilson and Karen Mason. His collaboration with the legendary Kitty Carlisle Hart was preserved on PBS' Great Performances ("My Broadway Memories"). Rybeck's CDs include Sibling Revelry (Liz and Ann Hampton Callaway), Souvenir (Anna Bergman) and Leading Men Don't Dance. Additionally, he has been musical director for every solo album made by Liz Callaway and Jeff Harnar.
Winner of a 2005 Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) Award for Musical Direction, Rybeck has worked in many of New York's premiere musical venues, including Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, Feinstein's, the Café Carlyle and the Russian Tea Room. As a composer, his songs include "What a Funny Boy He Is," recorded by Nancy LaMott. Co-creator of "The 1959 Broadway Songbook" with Jeff Harnar and Sara Louise Lazarus, Rybeck was last seen in Lyrics & Lyricists™ in 2005 alongside Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks in "Serenade in Blue: The Lyrics of Mack Gordon." A graduate of Oberlin College, he received a Masters degree at NYU where he studied with Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. He is a member of ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild. |
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| Paul Greenwood |
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 Paul Greenwood has distinguished himself in the New York cabaret community as pianist, arranger, and singer. He began his New York career at age 19, as resident pianist at the legendary nightclub The Improvisation. He made his solo cabaret debut at Eighty-Eights in Greenwich Village to critical acclaim. Since then he has performed in numerous clubs and cabarets, including The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel and Feinstein's at The Regency. Off-Broadway, he starred in the original production of Our Sinatra. He appeared in Tallulah Tonight at The American Place Theatre, as well as with Mary Cleere Haran at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Recently, he performed at the Metropolitan Room in the musical revue Why Lee? Greenwood has accompanied countless performers in concert and cabaret, including George Burns, Elly Stone, Art Garfunkel, Ann Hampton Callaway, Nancy Lamott and Sylvia McNair. Most recently, he appeared with Penny Fuller at Theatre East 59 and with Anna Bergman at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia. Other appearances include performances at Radio City Music Hall, Wolf Trap and Lincoln Center. Greenwood is a recipient of a Back Stage Bistro Award, a Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) Award and a Leonardo DaVinci Award, given by the Beaux Arts Society. |
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| Sarah Uriarte Berry |
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 Sarah Uriarte Berry was most recently seen on Broadway as Franca in The Light in the Piazza, for which she received Drama Desk and Outer Critics nominations. Her other Broadway credits are Nicola in Taboo, Belle in Beauty and the Beast and Eponine in Les Misérables. In New York, she played the title role in New York City Opera's production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella and was in the City Center Encores! productions of The Boys from Syracuse and Tenderloin. She has toured nationally with productions of Carousel as Julie (Dramalogue Award, Ovation nomination), Sunset Boulevard as Betty and Les Misérables. She is currently appearing as Petra in A Little Night Music at Baltimore's CenterStage, and her other regional performances include Anne in A Little Night Music at the Kennedy Center, Sarah in Guys and Dolls and Maria in the Sound of Music at AMT San Jose, the title role in Violet at the Laguna Playhouse, Maria in West Side Story and Betty in White Christmas at MUNY St. Louis, and the premiere of Thoroughly Modern Millie at the La Jolla Playhouse. Berry can be heard on the cast recordings of The Light in the Piazza, Taboo, The Boys from Syracuse and Tenderloin. She is a graduate of UCLA. |
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| David Burnham |
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 David Burnham is currently on Broadway playing Fiyero in Wicked, having created the role in the original Los Angeles workshop production. He made his Broadway debut as part of the original cast of The Light in the Piazza and received the 2007 Helen Hayes and Garland awards as Best Actor for his portrayal of Fabrizio in the show's national tour. He first gained fame when he was chosen to replace Donny Osmond in the national tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, earning a Dramalogue Award, and he has also toured the country as Peter in Jesus Christ Superstar. His regional credits include the new musicals Tom Jones and Letters from 'Nam at Boston's North Shore Music Theater, the world premiere of Peggy Sue Got Married in Chicago, Assassins at Reprise, The Woman in Black at the Road Theatre and Children of Eden (Robby Award) at Musical Theater West. Burnham can be heard in two animated features, Warner's The King and I and Disney's Home on the Range, and in the recordings Strouse, Schwartz, & Schwartz; Lerner, Loewe and Lane; and Lee Lessack's In Good Company. He has performed his solo concert at Birdland and the Metropolitan Room, and he has just released his first solo CD, David Burnham, on LML Music. His website is www.davidburnham.com. |
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| Sally Mayes |
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 Sally Mayes made her Broadway debut in Cy Coleman's Welcome To The Club, earning her a Theater World Award and an Outer Critics Circle nomination as one of Broadway's Outstanding Newcomers. She may be best known for her performance in the Roundabout Theater revival of She Loves Me, for which she earned Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations. She received another Drama Desk nomination for her role as Aunt Corene in Broadway's Urban Cowboy, and she appeared in the Broadway revival of Steel Magnolias. Off-Broadway she has appeared in Closer than Ever (Outer Critics Circle nomination), Das Barbecue and Pete N' Keely (Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical), and she starred as Mae West in the national tour of Dirty Blonde. Her film and television credits include City Hall, Bye Bye Birdie, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Sex and the City and The Job. Mayes can be heard on countless cast recordings and has five solo albums: The Dorothy Fields Songbook, Our Private World, The Comden and Green Songbook, The Story Hour, Boys and Girls Like You and Me, and Valentine. She has performed in nightclubs from coast to coast, and she has been nominated for 12 Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) Awards and has won two Back Stage Bistro Awards for excellence in cabaret and recording. |
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| Donna McKechnie |
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 Donna McKechnie, the Tony Award-winning star of A Chorus Line, is regarded internationally as one of Broadway's foremost dancing and singing stars. Some of her Broadway credits include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (national tour); The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N; Sondheim - A Musical Tribute (which she also choreographed); On the Town; Promises, Promises; Company and State Fair, for which she received the Fred Astaire Award for Best Female Dancer in 1996. She has starred in numerous productions in London's West End, including Promises, Promises; Company; No Way to Treat a Lady (which she also choreographed); Can-Can and Follies. Bob Fosse invited McKechnie to play the lead in his last production, a national tour of Sweet Charity, for which she was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award. Her regional credits include The Glass Menagerie, Irma La Douce, Cabaret, The Imaginary Invalid, The Goodbye Girl, Follies, Mack and Mabel, Gypsy, I Do! I Do!, Misalliance, Come Back Little Sheba and Inside The Music, her one-woman musical with text by Christopher Durang. McKechnie has also performed extensively on the concert stage, in cabaret and with symphony orchestras. She has appeared as a guest star in numerous television musical specials and dramatic series, including Fame, Cheers, Family Ties, Hullabaloo, Twirl and Dark Shadows. She also portrayed The Rose in the film The Little Prince. Her recently-released memoirs, Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life, was published by Simon and Schuster. |
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| Jered Egan |
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| Bassist Jered Egan is equally in demand on the concert stages of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, in the orchestras of top Broadway shows and in cabaret rooms throughout New York City. His concert work has spanned several continents, from the American Symphony Orchestra and the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, to the Hong Kong Philharmonic. He has played in the pit orchestra for many Broadway shows and has appeared onstage for An Evening with Jerry Herman and Patti LuPone on Broadway. In the cabaret field he has performed in venues like The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, the Metropolitan Room and the Café Carlyle, with singers such as Andrea Marcovicci, Polly Bergen, Faith Prince, Jeff Harnar, Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway. In 2006, he was honored by the editors of Back Stage for his cabaret work with a Bistro Award for Outstanding Achievement. Recent projects include a recording with the New York New Music Ensemble, playing for the Pope at Yankee Stadium and opening a bed-and-breakfast in the western Catskills. Egan studied at The Juilliard School and completed his training with fellowships at the Tanglewood and Waterloo festivals. "The 1959 Broadway Songbook" is his fifth appearance at Lyrics & Lyricists™. |
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| Dan Gross |
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| Drummer/percussionist/songwriter Dan Gross hails from Atlanta, GA, and has been immersed in the New York music scene as a performer, teacher, clinician, composer and songwriter since 1988. Along with work in the jazz and contemporary pop/rock fields, he has appeared and recorded with many of the city's top cabaret and club artists, including his colleagues for "The 1959 Broadway Songbook," Jeff Harnar, Alex Rybeck and Jered Egan. His Broadway and national touring credits include Grease, Blood Brothers, Les Misérables, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, Rent and Chicago. His songs have been performed by various artists throughout New York and Connecticut, and his writing credits include works for the Daydream's Reality Foundation and Music Outreach, earning ASCAPlus Awards and favorable reviews in Billboard Magazine. As an educator, Gross teaches privately, has had two method books published by Cherry Lane Music and is a Music Outreach Workshop leader in the New York City public schools. He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians and ASCAP. |
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| Sara Louise Lazarus |
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Sara Louise Lazarus is a Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) and Back Stage Bistro award-winning director. She has created and directed shows at Feinsteins at the Regency, Rainbow and Stars, the Russian Tea Room, and Cabaret Comes to Carnegie. In New York, she directed Tovah Feldshuh's one-woman Off-Broadway show, Tovah Out Of Her Mind, the revival of Babes In Arms at Avery Fisher Hall, the world premiere of Terrence McNally's Plaisir D'Amour and Ludlow Ladd, starring Kristen Chenoweth. She wrote and directed A Century of Song for a series of symphony pops concerts. She staged two Harvard Hasty Pudding Shows, and She Loves Me at Yale featuring Melissa Errico. Other regional productions include The Rink with Patti Karr, Ernest In Love with Jimmy Smits and Starting Here, Starting Now with Carolee Carmello. Lazarus has taught workshops for Yale, the University of New Hampshire, and Penn State. She is currently on the faculty of Circle in the Square Theatre School and teaches a popular musical audition class with Alex Rybeck. In January, she produced and directed "Stars Over Millburn," a benefit for Paper Mill Playhouse. Lazarus directed Jeff Harnar's solo version of "The 1959 Broadway Songbook" at The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel. This expanded version at Lyrics & Lyricists™ represents her tenth collaboration with Harnar and Rybeck.
Ticket Information:
Saturday, May 3, 8pm
Sunday, May 4, 3pm & 8pm
Monday, May 5, 2pm & 8pm
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© 2008 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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