BEYOND BLUE MOON to Play Hamptons Summer Songbook by the Sea with Garcia & Abous

Hamptons Summer Songbook by the Sea, the live concert series bringing leading Broadway, cabaret and American Songbook performers to the East End, continues its third season with Eric Yves Garcia and Maria Abous performing “Beyond Blue Moon — And Before the Broken Hart” at LTV Studios in Wainscott on Saturday, July 25th, 2026, at 7:30pm.

Produced and hosted by David Alpern, the evening explores the wit, ache and sophistication of lyricist Lorenz “Larry” Hart, whose partnership with composer Richard Rodgers produced more than 500 songs and helped define the sound of American popular music. The program takes inspiration from “Blue Moon,” the “tart, sad screen tale of a famous musical divorce and the broken Hart behind it,” while filling the musical space around the title song with Rodgers and Hart treasures.  

Garcia and Abous will bring audiences into the world of Rodgers and Hart with beloved standards including “Falling in Love with Love,” “Isn't It Romantic?,” “My Funny Valentine” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” The night will also include one song by Oscar Hammerstein, plus lyric sheets for the audience to sing along — “for better and verse.”  

Garcia, one of New York's most popular and award-winning singer-pianists, brings a cabaret veteran's command of timing, style and musical storytelling to the evening. A recipient of the Margaret Whiting Award and a Bistro Award for singer-instrumentalist, he most recently won the Donald F. Smith Award from the Mabel Mercer Foundation during its annual Cabaret Convention at Jazz at Lincoln Center. His career has taken him from New York to London and Paris, from Chez Josephine and The Pierre Hotel to performances afloat for the Silversea cruise line.  

Abous, a crossover soprano whose voice Rolling Stone UK described as one that “begs for lush orchestration,” has performed on iconic New York stages including Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 54 Below, The Triad and Birdland. Praised by Woman Around Town as “the embodiment of a leading lady,” Abous brings classical training, theater instinct and emotional warmth to a program built around romance, longing and lyrical sophistication.  

The performance is produced and hosted by Alpern, a Sag Harbor resident whose career has moved across journalism, broadcasting and the performing arts. A former New York correspondent for United Press International and later a reporter, writer and senior editor at Newsweek, Alpern hosted “Newsweek on Air” for more than 30 years, interviewing newsmakers, policy experts and top entertainers including Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Graham, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Walter Cronkite, Robert Caro, John le Carré, Nora Ephron, Rosemary Clooney and Barbara Cook.  

The July 25th performance continues the spirit of Hamptons Summer Songbook by the Sea, which pairs world-class performers with the intimacy of LTV Studios' black-box setting, café-style seating, superb acoustics and an up-close concert experience designed for storytelling, connection and sophisticated summer entertainment.

The 2026 season continues with “A Swell-egant, Elegant Party,” hosted by Laurence Maslon and starring Eric Comstockand Barbara Fasano, on August 1st; KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler joined by Stephanie Pope and Christine Pedi in a program co-sponsored by the Mabel Mercer Foundation on August 22nd; and a season finale with Tony Award-winning “A Chorus Line” star Donna McKechnie on August 29th.