Jeff Harnar to Perform I KNOW THINGS NOW at Birdland

Jeff Harnar will perform a special encore of I Know Things Now, My Life in Sondheim's Words. Performed in memory of Sondra Lee, with Music Director Jon Weber, the performance will take place on Monday November 9th, 2026 at Birdland Jazz.

'The greatest cabaret show I have ever attended,' declared Stephen Holden, music and film critic for The New York Times for over 30 years. Such was the critical response for Jeff Harnar's I Know Things Now: My Life in Sondheim's Words. 'A thing of wonder, a show of powerful storytelling … unforgettable, impeccable and completely original,' wrote BroadwayWorld. In London the show received a 5-star review, 'A master of his craft at the top of him game,' from Musical Theatre Review.

The show was Directed by Broadway's legendary Sondra Lee, who originated the roles of Tiger Lilly opposite Mary Martin's Peter Pan, and Minnie Fay opposite Carol Channing's Dolly Levi. She continued her career working on more than 70 films, directing, teaching and authoring her memoir I Slept With Everybody. This Spring, Broadway dimmed its marquis lights in memory of Ms. Lee, who passed in February at the age of 97.

On Monday November 9th Jeff Harnar returns to Birdland with the BroadwayWorld Award winning I Know Things Now: My Life in Sondheim's Words, which was one of Ms. Lee's final directing projects, and one she championed from its inception. Together with Ms. Lee and Music Director, jazz virtuoso Jon Weber, Mr. Harnar uses the words and music of Stephen Sondheim, to create a self-portrait of the emotional landscape of an openly gay New Yorker. The duo will be joined by Steve Doyle on bass and Ray Marchica on drums to revisit an eclectic set list from Follies, Into The Woods, A Little Night Music, Road Show, Dick Tracy, Passion, Company and more, with a gender-bending fluidity, many songs having originally been introduced by women.

Music Director Jon Weber is a renown composer, arranger and Host of Piano Jazz with Jon Weber on NPR. Upon first hearing Mr. Weber's jazz reinventions of his songs Sondheim said, 'I liked the changes. I wished there were more!' From that invitation, Weber and Harnar continued to expand on their liberties of plucking songs from musicals written for specific settings, characters and genders, and reimagining them in Harnar's own voice and life experience. The show received Mr. Sondheim's endorsement and has been licensed for theatrical productions by Music Theater International.

The show was recorded and released by PS Classics, Produced by Tommy Krasker with Executive Producer Ron Thomas and won the 2023 MAC Award (Manhattan Association of Cabarets) for Major Recording and is available on all streaming platforms worldwide. Harnar has said, 'The best way to keep Sondra Lee's brilliance alive is to keep putting her work forward.' It is in this spirit he and Mr. Weber bring this Special Encore of I Know Things Now: My Life in Sondheim's Words to Birdland, a piece which Theater Pizzazz called, 'Stratospheric … a magnificent show.'

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