Andrea Marcovicci Returns to 'Lyrics & Lyricists'

Fresh from her sold-out headlining run in Coco in San Francisco, cabaret legend Andrea Marcovicci returns to LYRICS & LYRICISTS™ with an evening of gems from the post-1965 repertoire to refute the notion that rock 'n' roll killed the art of songwriting. At the final LYRICS & LYRICISTS of the 2009 season – Did the American Songbook Really End in 1965? - Marcovicci presents a selection of songs that have become American popular standards from atop the pop charts, on screen and on stage. Songwriters represented include Hal David and Burt Bacharach, James Taylor, Carole King, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Paul Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields, Jerry Herman, Leslie Bricusse and Henry Mancini and, of course, the great Stephen Sondheim. Joining her are vocalists Francesca Amari, Kelly Houston, Lee Lessack and Stacy Sullivan. Shelly Markham is the music director and pianist for the show.

 Several of the lyricists included in the program are themselves "alumni" of the Lyrics & Lyricists stage. Stephen Sondheim appeared in 1971, the program's sophomore season. Dorothy Fields appeared in 1972, Hal David and Stephen Schwartz (separately) in 1973, and James Taylor in 1974. Alan & Marilyn Bergman made multiple appearances (1974, 1982 and 1995), as did Jerry Herman (1974, 1980 and 1990).Beginning May 31st L&L shows are Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 and 8 pm, and Monday at 2 and 8 pm.  Individual tickets are $60 and $50.

Andrea Marcovicci, the "Queen of Cabaret," has performed for more than 20 years at the Algonquin's famed Oak Room, where she returns this fall with Marcovicci Sings Movies II. She has  created over 25 nightclub acts, performed at the White House and played to sold-out houses at the esteemed Liceu Opera House in Barcelona. She enjoyed the same reception at her Carnegie Hall solo debut with the American Symphony Orchestra and most recently at Town Hall with I'll Be Seeing You... Love Songs of WWII. As a director, Marcovicci conceived three programs for Lyrics & Lyricists including Easy to Love: The Lyrics of Cole Porter, Kurt Weill in America, and Thanks for the Memories: The Lyrics of Leo Robin. She has 17 CDs to her credit, including Kurt Weill in America and her most recent, Andrea Marcovicci Sings Rodgers & Hart, both for her own Andreasong label. Marcovicci is also an accomplished actress who has appeared in films, television and theatre, both on-and off-Broadway. Her costars have included Danny DeVito, Woody Allen, Sir Michael Caine, Sir John Gielgud, and Sam Waterston among others. Her latest film, Irene in Time, directed by Henry Jaglom, is soon to be released.

Shelly Markham (music director & piano). As a musical director and arranger, Shelly has worked with singer Andrea Marcovicci for the past 11 years at the famed Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel in New York City, toured with her extensively, and has arranged and conducted seven of her latest CD releases. He has also worked with a diverse roster of performers, including Lainie Kazan, Michael Feinstein, Margaret Whiting, Nell Carter, Joey Lawrence, Ann Jillian, Gogi Grant, Julie Wilson, Chad Mitchell, Carol Lawrence and Bonnie Franklin. As a composer, Markham has enjoyed a long and successful collaboration with the acclaimed poet and author Judith Viorst. Their musical, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, based on her best-selling children's book, has become one of the most performed children's musicals in the country.

Michigan-based cabaret artist Francesca Amari made her NY cabaret debut last year at the Metropolitan Room. She has studied and performed with cabaret and Broadway greats Karen Mason, Andrea Marcovicci, Shelly Markham and Barry Kleinbort, and sings everything from jazz standards to pop to musical theatre to folk. Amari regularly performs her cabaret shows in Chicago, Colorado, New York and Michigan and tours the Midwest with her trio, Boogie Woogie Babies. Her cabaret shows include, Songbirds: The Women in My Head, a tribute to female singers and songwriters like Carolyn Leigh, Dorothy Fields, Ella Fitzgerald, and her most recent show, The Square Show: Songs You (Hate To) Love, featuring "guilty pleasures" from Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka, and Johnny Mathis.

Kelly Houston began singing at age nine as a member of a men and boys choir in his native Washington, D.C. Since that time he has performed on stage, TV, radio, and in films, recordings and nightclubs from Taegu, Korea, to Thule, Greenland. A California resident, he continues to perform regularly on the West Coast and is making his Manhattan debut with these Lyrics & Lyricists performances. His regional stage credits include roles in Jesus Christ Superstar, Ragtime, Evita, Annie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Music Man, and Anything Goes, among others. His film credits include Sudden Impact with Clint Eastwood, and his television credits include Out of the Woods with Ed Asner. A much sought-after voice actor, Houston can be heard on numerous radio and TV commercials as well as medical and high-tech informational materials.

Lee Lessack has toured extensively in the United States and Europe to sold-out performances and has released five recordings. His most ambitious to date is the award-winning In Good Company (2005), featuring duets with music notables like Michael Feinstein, Maureen McGovern, Amanda McBroom, Ann Hampton Callaway and Stephen Schwartz. Other critically-acclaimed albums include two live recordings, the Rat Pack salute 3 Men and a Baby…Grand and Too Marvellous for Words: The Songs of Johnny Mercer; his self-titled debut solo album, the award-winning I Know You by Heart and The cast recording of An Enchanted Evening: The Music of Broadway.

Stacy Sullivan, winner of the 2008 Backstage Bistro Award for Outstanding Vocalist, has played in cabaret rooms across the country, from the legendary Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel in New York to the famed Feinstein's at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. She has recorded four albums, and her newest release is Small Town. Sullivan has performed as a soloist with orchestras, and her theatrical performances include Phantom, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Babes in Toyland. She has appeared on television and film in Mrs. Santa Claus, Christy, Evening Shade, Angels Among Us and Days of Our Lives, among others. Sullivan, the seventh of eight children, began singing gospel concerts with her family when she was a child. The family recently sang together again at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in a concert celebrating her parents' 60th wedding anniversary.

Long one of the 92nd Street Y's most popular programs, the American Songbook series Lyrics & Lyricists was launched in 1970 when longtime Broadway conductor Maurice Levine and lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (The Wizard of Oz) took to the stage to talk about the then unusual topic of songwriting. Over the years the series has featured every great Broadway and Hollywood lyricist including Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Johnny Mercer, Stephen Sondheim, Dorothy Fields, and Alan Jay Lerner. In 1978, Lyrics & Lyricists began celebrating composers as well as lyricists and, in 1982, the series evolved from first-person histories of the American musical theatre to narrated musical revues. In 2004, the 92nd Street Y reinvented the format yet again when it asked several accomplished champions of the repertoire – artists like John Pizzarelli, Andrea Marcovicci, Rob Fisher, Sheldon Harnick, Robert Kimball and Ted Sperling – to present original programs in the Lyrics & Lyricists tradition: seamless mixtures of information and entertainment with a particular focus on lyrics. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org/lyrics.

Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the 92nd Street Y has grown into a wide-ranging cultural, educational and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds. The 92nd Street Y's mission is to enrich the lives of the over 300,000 people who visit in person each year as well as those who visit virtually, through the Y's satellite, television, radio and Internet broadcasts. The organization offers comprehensive performing arts, film and spoken word events; courses in the humanities, the arts, personal development and Jewish culture; activities and workshops for children, teenagers and parents; and health and fitness programs for people of every age. Committed to making its programs available to everyone, the 92nd Street Y awards nearly $1 million in scholarships annually and reaches out to 7,000 public school children through subsidized arts education programs. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org.

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