Austin Pendleton and Barbara Bleier Return to Pangea in October With “Starting Here—The Songs of Richard Maltby and David Shire”

Austin Pendleton and Barbara Bleier are returning to downtown’s Pangea supper club with a reprise of their show, STARTING HERE- The Songs of  Richard Maltby and David Shire,on October 2nd and 9th. Paul Greenwood is the Musical Director;Barbara Maier Gustern directs. Pendleton, friends with Maltby and Shire since their undergraduate days at Yale in the 1960s, appeared in several of their student productions. The composers have generously offered some of their unpublished works to the duo.

 

Together, Pendleton and Bleier have made many appearances at Pangea in shows that position them as old friends with a “past.” Starting Here is, according to Pendleton, “all about the composers, who are friends. We’re singing as us, as real friends singing music we love and admire.” Pendleton and Bleier will perform solos and duets along with stories about the music, the composers and themselves. 

 

AUSTIN PENDLETON is an actor, director, playwright and teacher of acting, among whose most recent stage appearance was as the King in Lear at The Secret Theatre. His first Broadway appearance was as Motel the Tailor in the original production of Fiddler on the Roof directed by Jerome Robbins and starring Zero Mostel. He has since appeared frequently on, off and off-off Broadway and can be seen in approximately 200 films. His many TV appearances include roles on “Oz,” “Homicide,” “Law and Order” and “Billions.” In New York, he has directed Between Riverside and Crazy and four shows at CSC, among others. He is the author of three plays—Orson’s Shadow, Uncle Bob and Booth. Pendleton teaches acting in New York at HB Studio, where he studied with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof. He also studied acting with Robert Lewis.

 

BARBARA BLEIER is a singer, actor and playwright who has appeared on stage, in film and on TV, as well as in solo shows and revues in national and international cabaret. She played the mother of a psychopathic killer in the cult classic, Swoon and appeared in the film This is Where I Leave You, with Jane Fonda and Tina Fey and in They Came Together, with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. Her solo show, Who’s Your Mama? was selected for production in the NYC Women at Work Festival. Her two-person revues with Austin Pendleton, Late Nights in Smoky Bars, ‘Tis the Season to Be Morbid and Beautiful Mistake—The Songs of John Bucchino and Amanda McBroom, received critical praise in the press. She has studied acting with Austin Pendleton, singing with Barbara Maier and musical performance with the late Julie Wilson at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center.