EVENT ARCHIVES

A winner of three Academy Awards, Salvatore Antonio Guaragna was the preeminent composer for the Hollywood motion picture. His parents came from Calabria, Italy and when Salvatore was very young his father Americanized the family name. Salvatore became known as Harry Warren. His compositions are among the best known in the great American songbook yet he is perhaps most famous... for not being famous. This concert explores the life and music of this great Italian-American composer in connection with the stories and background of the legendary artists Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Jerry Vale, Connie Francis, Carol Lawrence, Russ Columbo, Carlo Buti, Perry Como, Johnny Maestro and many others who made the songs famous.

Come celebrate Alan Jay Lerner, the brilliant lyricist of My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, Gigi, Camelot and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. 2018 is Lerner's 100th birthday year, but we are the ones receiving the gifts! Amy Asch will discuss the recently published "Complete Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner," which she co-edited with British scholar Dominic McHugh, sharing wonderful stories about their intensive research and archival discoveries. (The book will be available for purchase at a special discount; $30 cash.) KT and Mark, two of the most acclaimed performers in the cabaret world, will perform excerpts from their sparkling Lerner tribute, "Almost Like Being in Love," adding their own panache to Lerner's romantic, witty and wonderful songs.

Jimmy Van Heusen put more songs in Frank Sinatra's mouth than any other composer. But more than that, he served as the singer's closest and best friend for multiple decades, and he provided The Chairman of the Board with a role model, a template for how to act in his personal life. Sinatra's lifestyle of the 1950s and '60s, his years of high-rolling, cocktail-swigging, and skirt-chasing, were carefully patterned after Van Heusen. This presentation will use rare concert and television videos to show Frank Sinatra performing over a dozen classic songs by his best bud, Jimmy Van Heusen. "The trouble with Sinatra," Sammy Cahn famously said, "is that he thinks he's Van Heusen!"

The Anderson Twins are thrilled to join us for a concert.. They will be accompanied by Parisian guitarist Felix Lemerle. They will delve into the songbooks of George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Potter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, and Jimmy Van Heusen. The American Popular Songbook has provided them with endless imagination and meaningful structure throughout their performing careers. The twins owe a great bit of gratitude to these brilliant composers for their inspiration.

...celebrates the legendary Broadway, concert and cabaret star Barbara Cook. It is a feast of vocal amazement and stellar interpretation, paying tribute to Cook with songs by Bernstein, Hammerstein, Sondheim and more. Displaying an intelligent and sophisticated approach to the material and with a polished elegance, Shana Farr brilliantly commands the stage and leads the audience on a journey from a young ingenue to a woman full of life experience.

Join us for a priceless evening of songs and stories with actor/author Ron Fassler telling his personal tales of Broadway from his memoir Up in the Cheap Seats, a chronicle of the time when he saw more than 200 Broadway shows as a teenager, all for as little as $2, and all paid for by his Long Island paper route. Famous songs from such classic musicals as Company, Follies, Promises, Promises and I Do! I Do! will be sung by some of Ron's up and coming young friends: Michael Caizzi, Matthew Kurzniec, Payton Reiller, along with New York theatre veteran (and special guest) Jim Brochu, whose Zero Hour won him the Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Solo Performance for his extraordinary portrayal of Zero Mostel.

Celebrating Jazz Month and the Nat King Cole centenary. Entertainer-singer and ace saxophone player Danny Bacher and his trio (piano and bass) present the music that made jazz pianist and vocalist Nat King Cole an international star. He not only acted in films and appeared on Broadway, but was the first Black man to host an American television series. With such tunes as "Nature Boy," "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "Sweet Lorraine" and many more, learn why prolific hit-maker Cole set the musical pace for many of his contemporaries as well as jazz men and women to follow.

The 14th Annual Songwriter Series, produced by Sandi Durell, will feature a diverse group of songwriters and their singers both in the spirit of the Great American Songbook and the future of where it is headed. Expect to hear songs from Jake Friedman (Esther Unmasked); Clint Edwards (My Beloved, A Ted Bundy Musical); Anya Turner & Robert Grusecki; Sara Zahn & Allan Kashkin; Jude Obermueller (Feet Keep Me Flyin', Miss Havisham's Wedding) and some surprises! The pre-opener from Brazil is Pedro Coppeti (represented AMDA at the 10th anniversary of Broadway's Rising Stars, and appearing in Scott Siegel's Broadway by the Year).

June 16th, on the anniversary of Meredith Willson's passing (June 15, 1984...34 years ago), Richard Skipper Celebrates The Legacy of Meredith Willson. Of course, there will be stories and songs from Here's Love, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and, of course, The Music Man which will be returning to Broadway next year. Richard will be joined by Jim Brochu, Charles Karel (who was in the original Music Man), Ann Kittredge, Nathan Robert Pecchia, and a few surprises! Save the date!