The 92nd Street Y is celebrating 50 years of Lyrics and Lyricists programming with a virtual American Songbook concerts, available now. The five-part series, with an ensemble of performers including Farah Alvin, Allison Blackwell, Nikki Renée Daniels, Brandon Victor Dixon, Katherine Henly, Jeff Kready, James T. Lane, Telly Leung, Kara Lindsay, Julia Murney, Zachary Noah Piser, Zachary Prince, Pearl Sun and Mariand Torres, explores the standards of George Gershwin, Jule Styne, Richard Rodgers and more. Programs are narrated by Beth Malone. Artistic director and creator of the series is Paul Masse, pictured above.
These five original programs were filmed on the 92Y stage, and include the following:
GEORGE GERSHWIN: BIDIN’ MY TIME
Available through Wed, Nov 25
As a companion to the Gershwin program from this past March (rescheduled for Spring of 2021), this program is set among excerpts of letters and archival interviews with George Gershwin and his brother and lyricist Ira Gershwin, his longtime musical collaborator Kay Swift, and pianist Oscar Levant. The words of Todd Duncan and Anne Brown, the original Porgy and Bess, provide a perspective on the creation of Gershwin’s “folk opera” and the invaluable contributions of its performers.
TOM JONES & HARVEY SCHMIDT: SIMPLE LITTLE THINGS
Mon, Nov 9, 2020, 7 pm ET, available through Dec 9
Sixty years ago, on May 3, 1960, at the tiny Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, The Fantasticks opened on the sparsest of budgets and ran uninterrupted for nearly 42 years, closing on January 13, 2002 after a record 17,162 performances. Its elegance and simplicity endured four decades, while its creators continued their evolution into several uptown successes. Including 110 In the Shade and I Do! I Do!,
RODGERS, RODGERS, & GUETTEL: STATUES AND STORIES
Mon, Nov 23, 2020, 7 pm ET, available through Dec 23
The groundbreaking works of Richard Rodgers, most famously in his collaborations with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, gave us the foundation of the modern musical form. But Rodgers also left a family lineage that has enriched the craft. In a loose song cycle format, this program will weave his work with the creations of daughter Mary Rodgers (Once Upon a Mattress) and Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza, Myths and Hymns).
JULE STYNE AND HIS MANY LYRICISTS: DISTANT MELODY
Mon, Dec 7, 2020, 7 pm ET, available through Jan 6
It’s said that Jule Styne published over 1,500 songs in his lifetime, a staggering number that spans decades and includes dozens of collaborators. Beginning with Sammy Cahn in the 1940s, his lyricists would include names like Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Leo Robin, Bob Merrill and Stephen Sondheim. Styne wrote some of our most famous songs and classic Broadway hits, with dozens of lesser-known work along the way.
THE THEME FROM…: SONGS WRITTEN FOR FILM
Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 7 pm, available through Jan 13
As a celebration of our performers, and the necessary medium of film to tell these stories at this moment in time, this special program presents some of the best songs specifically written for film ever since the genre first achieved the technology to capture sound. A diverse concert of hits like “Moon River” and “The Man That Got Away” mixed in with other songs from decades of film history offers a look at the effect of these songs on an audience and how, even in a non-musical film, music is key to unlocking the emotional journey of storytelling.
For more information and to purchase tickets, go to: https://www.92y.org/lyrics
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