92nd Street Y Announces L&L DOWNTOWN Series, Kicks Off 4/19

The 92nd Street Y announces L&L Downtown, a new, more intimate Lyrics & Lyricists^TM experience at 92YTribeca, the 92nd Street Y's downtown arts and culture venue. L&L Downtown features one-night-only performances that bring the legendary American Songbook series - running since 1970 and still going strong - to the cabaret-style mainstage at 92YTribeca. The new series kicks off on Monday, April 19 with an evening featuring the Tony Award-winning songwriting team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. The duo will talk about their craft and their experiences in musical theater with Flaherty at the piano, and several singers (TBA) to perform their songs.

For L&L's artistic director Deborah Grace Winer - who also directs L&L Downtown - the new series is a welcome opportunity to generate intimate, informal conversations with songwriters working in today's musical theater, all in a nightclub setting (complete with full bar).

Winer says, "We're so excited to start this new venture, and it's hard to imagine two more fitting artists to launch it than Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. They're such talented musical theater professionals at the top of their game, who exemplify the American Songbook tradition." In addition to winning the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Ragtime, Ahrens and Flaherty received Tony nominations for Once on This Island, and Grammy nominations for Ragtime and Seussical, one of the most frequently-performed shows in America. The Kennedy Center revival of Ragtime (which moved to Broadway last fall) just garnered six Helen Hayes Award nominations; and their 2002 musical A Man of No Importance (with book by their Ragtime collaborator Terrence McNally), is set to make its West End debut in London next month. Ahrens and Flaherty are also two-time Academy Award nominees for the movie musical Anastasia.

About Lyrics & Lyricists
Long one of the 92nd Street Y's most popular programs, the American Songbook series Lyrics & Lyricists^TM was launched in 1970 when longtime Broadway conductor Maurice Levine and lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (The Wizard of Oz) took to the stage to talk about the then unusual topic of songwriting. Over the years the series has featured every great Broadway and Hollywood lyricist from Alan Jay Lerner to Stephen Sondheim. Since 2004, Lyrics & Lyricists^TM has featured accomplished champions of the repertoire presenting original programs that deliver a seamless mixture of information and entertainment with a particular focus on lyrics. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org/Lyrics.

The Lyrics and Lyricists^TM series is partially underwritten by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

About 92nd Street Y
92YTribeca is the 92nd Street Y's downtown arts and culture venue in New York City. Opened in October 2008, 92YTribeca presents music, comedy, film, theater, talks, classes, family events, and Jewish community and holiday programs in a versatile, street-level, modern space at 200 Hudson Street. For more information, visit www.92YTribeca.org.

Since launching its concert series in 1934, what is now the 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts, which produces Lyrics and Lyricists^TM, has presented acclaimed classical musicians and exciting newcomers; it is also home to 92Y's winter and summer jazz series, guitar series, family concerts and the renowned Unterberg Poetry Center.

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 about 300,000 people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds each year. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org.