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| "Lyrics & Lyricists" 2008 Season |
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| Tickets/Registration: 212.415.5500 |
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| Media Contact: Beverly Greenfield, 212.415.5452, email |
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| 92nd STREET Y ANNOUNCES "LYRICS & LYRICISTS" 2008 SEASON |
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TED SPERLING on Sammy Cahn | Jan 12-14
ROB FISHER on Fred Ebb | Feb 23-25
DEBORAH GRACE WINER on Carolyn Leigh | March 29-31
JEFF HARNAR on the Songs of 1959 | May 3-5
ANDREA MARCOVICCI on the American Songbook since 1965 | May 31-June 2
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| New York, NY, August, 2, 2007—The 92nd Street Y announces the 2008 lineup of Lyrics & Lyricists, its legendary American Songbook series, now in its 38th season. Tickets for all performances go on sale today, Wednesday, August 2, at 212-415-5500 or on-line at www.92Y.org/lyrics. |
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The 2008 season of Lyrics & Lyricists, which runs from January to June, devotes three shows to individual lyricists: TED SPERLING celebrates SAMMY CAHN (1913-1993) in January; ROB FISHER explores the lyrics of FRED EBB (1928-2004) in February; and DEBORAH GRACE WINER delves into the songs of CAROLYN LEIGH (1926-1983) in March. Cabaret artist JEFF HARNAR makes his first appearance as artistic director in May for a romp through the songs of 1959, a year that boasted a remarkable number of soon-to-be-classics, including Gypsy, The Sound of Music and West Side Story. ANDREA MARCOVICCI concludes the season in June with a show devoted to a selection of finely crafted songs written after 1965.
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Lyrics & Lyricists continues to follow the format established in 2003, featuring five different shows designed specifically for L&L by five different artistic directors each season. Each artistic director works with Kristin Lancino, artistic advisor to the 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts, the series' producer, and the Center's director, Hanna Arie-Gaifman, to create an original program in the L&L tradition: a seamless mix of information and entertainment with a particular focus on lyrics.
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L&L shows are Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 and 8 pm, and Monday at 2 and 8pm. Individual tickets are $60 and $50; subscriptions to the entire series are $250 and $220.
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January 12-14, 2008
IT'S MAGIC: THE LYRICS OF SAMMY CAHN
TED SPERLING, Artistic Director
One of SAMMY CAHN's early hits was the English version of "Bei Mir Bist Du Shon" — the song that catapulted the Andrews Sisters into the spotlight. Between 1942 and 1951 Cahn teamed up with Jule Styne to write movie classics like "Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week," "It's Magic" and "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow." Cahn also wrote Mario Lanza's first hit, "Be My Love," with Nicholas Brodzsky, and teamed up with Jimmy Van Heusen to write a string of hits for Frank Sinatra, including "Come Fly With Me," "Only The Lonely," "Come Dance With Me" and "High Hopes." TED SPERLING — arranger, music director, conductor, actor and director — explores the wide variety of Cahn's lyric writing, the simplicity of songs like "I Fall in Love Too Easily," and the playfulness of novelty songs like "10432 Sheep."
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Sperling won a Tony for the Broadway hit The Light in the Piazza; his other Broadway credits include The Full Monty, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. He directed L&L's recent tributes to E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and Frank Loesser, and has directed several programs for the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center.
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February 23-25, 2008
LIFE IS A CABARET: A TRIBUTE TO FRED EBB
ROB FISHER, Artistic Director
FRED EBB wrote more than 700 songs during his 50-year career, and many of them epitomize the wit and sophistication of Broadway. Ebb's 40-year collaboration with composer John Kander produced the scores for Cabaret, Happy Time, Zorba, Chicago, Woman of the Year, The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Curtains, which was produced on Broadway this year.
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As music director and conductor of the 1996 revival of Chicago, artistic director and host ROB FISHER knew Fred Ebb both personally and professionally. Fisher was the longtime musical director of City Center's Encores! and leader of the Coffee Club Orchestra (a group developed for Garrison Keillor's "American Radio Company"); he was also artistic advisor for Carnegie Hall's two-year Gershwin Centenary Celebration.
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March 29-31, 2008
I'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER: ROMANCE, THE RAT PACK AND CAROLYN LEIGH
DEBORAH GRACE WINER, Artistic Director
JOHN ODDO, Music Director
MARK WALDROP, Stage Director
Journalist and playwright DEBORAH GRACE WINER, who has hosted L&L tributes to Rosemary Clooney and Dorothy Fields, returns this year with a look at the lyricist CAROLYN LEIGH. Leigh's first big break as a songwriter — "Young at Heart" — became a huge hit for Frank Sinatra. The year was 1954; Leigh was still in her twenties. She went on to write elegant, savvy songs that embodied the martini-lounge sensibility of the 1950s and '60s and was the major female songwriter of her generation (a successor of sorts to Dorothy Fields). Carolyn Leigh's songs — recorded by and still associated with Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Tony Bennett, among others — included "The Best Is Yet to Come," "Witchcraft," "Rules of the Road," and "I've Got Your Number." She also wrote songs for Broadway shows including Peter Pan (with Moose Charlap) and Little Me, with her longtime collaborator Cy Coleman.
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May 3-5, 2008
THE 1959 BROADWAY SONGBOOK
JEFF HARNAR, Artistic Director, Host & Vocals
The year 1959 was an especially great one on the Great White Way. Gypsy, The Sound of Music, Fiorello, West Side Story, The Music Man and My Fair Lady were among 21 stellar musicals on Broadway that year. Cabaret artist JEFF HARNAR celebrates the songs of 1959 and the lyricists behind them, including Hammerstein, Harnick, Comden and Green, Lerner, Blitzstein and Mercer in this expansion of his 1991 Algonquin solo debut show. Harnar has appeared as a vocalist in nearly a dozen recent L&L shows; this appearance marks his first as artistic director.
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Harnar's most recent project is an export of American cabaret talent to London, where he produced and appeared in the debut of "The American Songbook in London" earlier this year; the four-week production featured Andrea Marcovicci, Steve Ross, Maude Maggart and Harnar himself.
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May 31 - June 2, 2008
DID THE AMERICAN SONGBOOK END IN 1965?
ANDREA MARCOVICCI, Artistic Director, Host & Vocals
SHELLY MARKHAM, Music Director & Piano
Cabaret diva ANDREA MARCOVICCI suggests that rock 'n' roll did not actually put an end to the art of songwriting (as some would argue). She returns to L&L with an evening of songs that have become American popular standards — all written after 1965. Audiences can expect to hear finely crafted gems by James Taylor, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Paul Simon and, of course, the great Stephen Sondheim, among others.
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| ABOUT "LYRICS & LYRICISTS" |
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The granddaddy of American Songbook programs, Lyrics & Lyricists was launched in 1970 when longtime Broadway conductor Maurice Levine and lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (The Wizard of Oz) took to the stage of the 92nd Street Y to talk about the then unusual topic of songwriting. The series has since featured every great Broadway and Hollywood lyricist and composer, including Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Johnny Mercer, Stephen Sondheim, Dorothy Fields, Alan Jay Lerner and many more. Lyrics & Lyricists laid the groundwork for more recent series, like Lincoln Center's American Songbook, Carnegie Hall's American Popular Song Celebration and City Center's Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert. Eventually, L&L, as it is affectionately known, expanded to include composers and, in 1984, went from first-person histories of the American musical theatre to a series of narrated musical revues. The program has been one of the most popular series at the 92nd Street Y since its inception. Beginning in 2004, the Y reinvented the format of this legendary series; L&L continues to celebrate the words and music of the American Songbook, but now opens up the stage to interpretations by today's most accomplished champions of the repertoire. Each of L&L's five annual shows features a different artistic director who designs a show especially for the series. The artistic directors work with staff at the 92nd Street Y to create original programs in the L&L tradition: a seamless mix of information and entertainment with a particular focus on lyrics. Recent artistic directors include John Pizzarelli, Andrea Marcovicci, Rob Fisher with Sheldon Harnick, Robert Kimball, and Ted Sperling.
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| ABOUT THE 92nd STREET Y |
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Since its concert series began in 1934, what is now the 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts, endowed through the generous support of Joan and Preston Robert Tisch, has presented acclaimed classical musicians like Janos Starker, Emmanuel Pahud and the Tokyo String Quartet. The Center is also well known for its two jazz series — Jazz Piano at the Y curated by jazz great Dick Hyman and Jazz in July, curated by Bill Charlap — as well as its Lyrics & Lyricists series, the grandfather of the now popular American Songbook series. The Center's legendary Unterberg Poetry Center (estab. 1939) presents the country's oldest and most illustrious reading series and an extensive writing program that gives working adults the opportunity to learn from well-known, published authors. Outreach activities include a literacy program for new immigrants and workshops for high school students taught by some of the country's leading writers.
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| Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the 92nd Street Y has grown into a wide-ranging cultural, educational and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds. The 92nd Street Y's mission is to enrich the lives of the over 300,000 people who visit each year — both in person and through the Y's satellite, television, radio and Internet broadcasts. The organization offers comprehensive performing arts, film and spoken word events; courses in the humanities, the arts, personal development and Jewish culture; activities and workshops for children, teenagers and parents; and health and fitness programs for people of every age. Committed to making its programs available to everyone, the 92nd Street Y awards nearly $1 million in scholarships annually and reaches out to 7,000 public school children through fully-subsidized arts education programs. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org. |
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© 2008 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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