John Bucchino's It's Only Life Plays Birdland 11/14

By: Oct. 14, 2011
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John Bucchino's "It's Only Life," featuring the Australian Cast (Christian Cavallo, Phoebe Coupe, Zack Anthony Curran, Madeleine Featherby, Laura Fitzpatrick, Sam Rabbone and Cameron Thomas) with John Bucchino at the piano plays BIRDLAND on Monday, November 14 at 7pm.

A rare concert performance of John Bucchino's uplifting musical revue, co-conceived and originally directed by Daisy Prince. The cast of the recent Melbourne, Australia production has flown to New York especially for this performance, and the composer will be accompanying them at the piano. Songs in the show include "Grateful," "It Feels Like Home," "Sweet Dreams," and dazzling Jason Robert Brown vocal arrangements of "That Smile," "Taking The Wheel," and the title song.

About "It's Only Life," the Los Angeles Times says:
"Brimming with intimate character portraits, sophisticated intelligence and emotional sincerity, the impeccably crafted songs of John Bucchino...mine deep revelations about idealism, disillusionment and their ultimate reconciliation."
The New York Times says:
"Mr. Bucchino occupies a special niche. His finely made piano ballads describe an urban single life in which relationships come and go... with high expectations, high anxiety and open hearts."

John Bucchino's songs have been performed and recorded by renowned pop (Art Garfunkel, Judy Collins), theatre (Liza Minnelli, Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald), cabaret (Barbara Cook, Michael Feinstein), and classical (Yo-Yo Ma, Deborah Voight, Nathan Gunn), artists as well as The Boston Pops, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in venues including Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Opera, The Hollywood Bowl, The Sydney Opera House, London's O2 Arena and The White House.

Among his honors are The Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award, The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, The Jonathan Larson Award, The Kleban Award, The Los Angeles Ovation Award (for the revue IT'S ONLY LIFE), The DVD Premiere Award (for the song "Better Than I"), and the first annual Fred Ebb Award.

He has written scores for the musicals URBAN MYTHS, LAVENDER GIRL, Broadway's A CATERED AFFAIR (winner of the Drama League Award for Best Musical, with a book by Harvey Fierstein), IT'S ONLY LIFE, and the Dreamworks animated film JOSEPH, KING OF DREAMS, and lyrics for the children's musical SIMEON's GIFT (with a book by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton and music by Ian Fraser). Some recordings of his work are: GRATEFUL, THE SONGS OF John Bucchino (with companion songbook), SOLITUDE LESSONS (another collection of original songs), ON Richard Rodgers' PIANO (solo piano interpretations of Rodgers songs on the composer's own Steinway, voted Best Instrumental CD by Show Business Weekly), and the PS Classics releases of the cast albums of IT'S ONLY LIFE (with companion songbook) and A CATERED AFFAIR. As part of their Julie Andrews Collection, Harper Collins published a children's book, based on John's song, called "Grateful, A Song of Giving Thanks" which was awarded the Parents' Choice Gold Award.

John Bucchino's "It's Only Life"
Monday, November 14 at 7pm
Birdland, 315 West 44 Street, NYC
$25 cover/$10 food-drink minimum per person



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