Jennifer Sheehan To Make Laurie Beechman Theatre Debut, Performances 9/18, 9/20, & 9/25

Julie Wilson Award winner Jennifer Sheehan makes her Laurie Beechman Theatre debut celebrating the upcoming 100th birthday of The Great American Songbook. After all, its first chapter was written in 1910, with the publication of Shelton Brooks's "Some of These Days," a song that experts regard as the first modern American standard!

Passionate about classics from the Songbook's Golden Era, as well as more contemporary masterpieces, Sheehan will sing the songs-and the praises-of America's finest lyricists and composers - from Berlin to Bucchino and Gershwin to Guettel. And she'll share how their songs have taken hold of the hearts and imaginations of generations, including her own.

Sheehan, a versatile and expressive singer, explains, "The Songbook is more than just a group of great tunes with smart lyrics. It's really a brilliant reflection of all our hopes and dreams, our love of a good laugh and our burning passions, our disappointments and our triumphs. There's so much material to choose from, but I'll do my best to represent the great variety of music that has immortalized the Songbook."

And that will feature songs by Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers, Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Stephen Sondheim, Henry Mancini, Alan and Marilyn Bergman and more. Songs will include "All the Things You Are," "In the Still of the Night," "Two for the Road" and newer gems by John Bucchino, Susan Werner, and Adam Guettel.

Sheehan is a 2007 graduate of The Juilliard School, where she was selected to perform in master classes with Barbara Cook and Victoria Clark. She has performed as one of six singers in Radio City Music Hall's "Christmas Spectacular" and will appear there again this season. She recently completed a national tour of big-band concerts as a principal singer with The String of Pearls Orchestra. Other highlights include performing in the 92nd Street Y Lyrics and Lyricists series and at the Bard Summerscape Festival in New York. At age 14, Sheehan became a protegée of cabaret star Andrea Marcovicci, after performing for Marcovicci at a master class in St. Louis, Missouri (Sheehan's hometown).

Sheehan will perform "You Made Me Love You" at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on September 18 at 8pm, September 20 at 7pm, and September 25 at 8pm. James Followell is the music director. For reservations, call 212-695-6909.