L & L returns

The wonderful "Lyrics and Lyricists" series has returned to  92Y for the 2012 season. I think this is my quintessential New York experience. It was one of the first concerts we saw in NYC last year, that edition starring John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, and I was so overwhelmed I cried through most of it. This time I was simply flooded with well-being as I watched another expert company of musicians singing the songs of Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn from the Jazz Age in MAKIN' WHOOPEE.

My darling friend Christine Andreas lent her bell like tones to "It Had To Be You", "The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else", "I'm Thru With Love", "San Francisco", "Love Me or Leave Me" and "Carolina in the Morning".

The truly adorable Jason Graae (pronounced Grah) has a voice like velvet and the demeanor of a hyperactive pixie and he ripped his way through "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On the Farm", "Pretty Baby", "Yes Sir, That's My Baby", "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye", "Because My Baby Don't Mean Maybe Now" and "My Baby Just Cares For Me" (he did note the abundance of "baby" songs he'd been assigned). I went straight out into the foyer after the show and bought Mr. Graae's latest cd PERFECT HERMANY, his tribute to Jerry Herman. I already have a few of his albums, he's a joy.

It was exciting to see husband-and-wife team William Bolcom and Joan Morris on the bill. I have an early recording of theirs, songs of Lieber & Stoller, which is a very rare gem.

The beautiful Laura Osnes starred in the ill-fated BONNIE & CLYDE and is rumoured to be attached to the revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's CINDERELLA but today she melted our hearts with "Dream a Little Dream of Me".

Howard McGillin of PHANTOM, DROOD and ANYTHING GOES fame wrapped his golden tonsils around "My Blue Heaven", "You Stepped Out of a Dream", "Flying Down To Rio", "Liza" and a rendition of "My Buddy" which prompted much sniffling from the largely geriatric audience.

The host and artistic director of the show was Robert Kimball. If you have any coffee table books of the Lyrics of Ira Gershwin, Frank Loesser, Irving Berlin, Lorenz Hart, Johnny Mercer or Cole Porter then he probably edited them.
The  sensational band was Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks who can be heard on the soundtrack of BOARDWALK EMPIRE.

The audience was star-speckled. I spotted Julie Wilson, Karen Ziemba, Gary Chryst (co-choreographer of CHICAGO), David Zippel (lyricist of CITY OF ANGELS) and introduced myself to Brent Barrett who has been starring in FOLLIES with Caroline O'Connor in Chicago.

 The gorgeous Ms. Andreas is off to San Jose next week to star in a concert version of GYPSY. I'd kill to see that!