Simon, McKechnie, Etc. to Appear at Cy Feuer Memorial

By: Sep. 13, 2006
JULIE ANDREWS
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A memorial celebration of the life and career of Cy Feuer, legendary Broadway producer, director, composer, musician, and immediate past chairman and longtime president of The League of American Theatres and Producers, will be held on Thursday, September 21st at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre (205 West 46th Street), beginning at 1 p.m.  The event is open to the public, but seating is limited.  Doors will open at 12:30 p.m.

The program will include remarks and performances by many of Mr. Feuer's past collaborators, lifelong friends and associates, and artists who performed in his productions.  Slated to appear are playwright Neil Simon; journalist Jimmy Breslin; press agent Merle Debusky; performers Melissa Errico, Ellen Foley, and Donna McKechnie; Gerald Schoenfeld, President, Shubert Organization, and Chairman, The League of American Theatres and Producers; and Rocco Landesman, President, Jujamcyn  Theaters.  

The list of speakers and performers follows.  All appearances and performances are subject to change.

Speakers

·        Jed Bernstein, President, Above the Title Entertainment, past President, The League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc.
·        Jimmy Breslin, journalist and close friend of Mr. Feuer
·        Alvin Colt, costume designer (Guys and Dolls)
·        Merle Debuskey, press agent (Walking Happy, Skyscraper, Little Me,and How to Succeed…
·        Rocco Landesman, President, Jujamcyn Theaters
·        Gerald Schoenfeld, Chairman, Shubert Organization, and The League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc.
·        Neil Simon, acclaimed playwright, collaborated with Mr. Feuer on Little Me
·         Herb Siegel, businessman, industrialist
·        Max Wilk, theatre historian and author, worked with Mr. Feuer on the Ford Television Theater Hour

Performers

·        Melissa Errico (performing from Guys and Dolls)
·        Ellen Foley (performing "On the Other Side of the Tracks" from Little Me)
·        Jed Feuer and "Bipolar" (his jazz quintet) – performing "Cy's Suite," featuring 18 songs from Feuer productions.
·        Donna McKechnie (performing "I Love Paris" and "It's All Right With Me" from Can-Can), a cast member of original Broadway production of  How To Succeed …
·        Burke Moses (performing "Luck Be a Lady" from Guys and Dolls)
·        Steve Ross (performing a medley of songs from Cy Feuer productions)
·        Joe Wilder, trumpeter from original Broadway production of Guys and Dolls
·        Music Director: Michael Dansiker (orchestrator, The Times They are A-Changin')

Mr. Feuer passed away on May 17 at age 95 at his home in Manhattan.  During his more than 50-year career spanning from Broadway to motion pictures, he brought to life many of America's most enduring musicals.
 
With his partner, the late Ernest H. Martin, he produced such musicals as Where's Charley, Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Whoop-Up, the Tony Award and Pulitzer-Prize winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Little Me, The Goodbye People , and The Act.  He directed, as well as produced, The Boy Friend, Silk Stockings, Skyscraper, Whoop-Up, Little Me, and Walking Happy, and he directed the play I Remember Mama.

Feuer was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning three - one for Guys and Dolls and two for How To Succeed… Feuer received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in 2003.  His feature film credits include the eight-time Academy Award-winning Cabaret and A Chorus Line.  

From 1989-2003, he was President and later Chairman of The League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc., the national trade association for Broadway producers, presenters and theatre owner/operators.

In 2003, Feuer published his memoir, I Got the Show Right Here: The Amazing True Story of How an Obscure Brooklyn Horn Player Became the Last Great Broadway Showman, written with Ken Gross, in which he looked back on his remarkable career on Broadway and in Hollywood working with such legendary talent as Bob Fosse, Frank Loesser, George S. Kaufman, Cole Porter, Julie Andrews, Abe Burrows, Gwen Verdon, John Steinbeck, Martin Scorsese, and George Balanchine.

Born in Brooklyn, New York on January 15, 1911, Feuer later attended New Utrecht High School, then Juilliard, where he studied music.  He pursued a music career, playing the trumpet at Radio City and other theatres, and then became composer and head of the Music Department of Republic Pictures during the 1930s and '40s.  Feuer was a captain in the Army Air Corps during World War II.  In 1947, he returned to New York where he became a producer for the Broadway stage, a career that lasted more than 50 years.

He is survived by two sons, the composer, Jed Feuer and Robert Feuer, a lawyer in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.



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