Interview: Jeff Harnar Celebrates THE 1959 BROADWAY SONGBOOK Album at Birdland

Jeff Harnar, one of New York City’s premiere cabaret singers, is revising and revisiting one of his early albums; The 1959 Broadway Songbook. The new album, a remastered version of the 1992 album of the same name, will be released in its streaming debut from the PS Classics label on Friday, October 3. Harnar will be celebrating the new work with a concert on Monday, October 6 at Midtown’s Birdland Jazz Club. Read a conversation below with Harnar about the new album celebrating the Golden Age of Broadway.

Where did the inspiration for your 1959 Broadway Songbook album come from?

1959 is the year I was born … which amazingly makes me 36 years old! I was curious to know what shows were born that year. It just happened to be a remarkable year with new shows such as Gypsy, The Sound of Music, Fiorello!, Flower Drum Song, Once Upon a Mattress... Then we expanded our umbrella to include the shows still running in 1959, which included West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Bells Are Ringing...  There were 21 musicals altogether and not one revival. It was truly a Golden Age in Broadway musicals.

What was the process of remastering this album like? Had you revisited the project much since recording it in 1992?

The remastering was done for PS Classics by 13-time Grammy nominated Bart Migal, who brought the recording up to present aural standards. As the album was recorded “Live at the Algonquin,” there were limitations to what could be done, but we are delighted with the enhancements.

The 1959 Broadway Songbook is our most requested, most performed show of the “theme shows” in my catalogue. We’ve performed it around the country, it had an open-ended run in London, it was filmed for PBS in 1993, it was a “Lyrics & Lyricists” event at the 92nd Street Y (with Donna McKechnie as our Special Guest recreating Gwen Verdon’s choreography from Redhead), and it had a limited run Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters. It is in our (ever-older) bones!

Does the music on this album feel any different to you now, 30 years later?

Absolutely!  First of all, while the songs remain the same, some of the keys have been changed to protect the innocent! It’s fascinating to revisit these lyrics I first sang in my early thirties now that I’m a senior citizen. Certainly a song like “I Wish It So” from Juno has an added perspective and poignancy when this narrator is now in his mid-sixties. It’s impossible not to feel the gift of life experience revisiting every syllable of this show.

Add to that the miracle of still having Alex Rybeck onstage with me, all these years and venues later.  That is a rare gift. I especially love our duets in this show.  How lucky am I that we are “Together, Wherever We Go.”

How much research into the 1959 Broadway Songbook season did you do when you put this album together?

We built this show in the pre-internet days of 1991. Finding all 21 albums on vinyl was the first task. I transferred them to cassettes and made a set for music director Alex Rybeck and director Sara Louise Lazarus. Next, we each made our individual lists the must-be-included songs and those that we felt were a good fit for me. The transformative moment was the session when we hit on not merely saluting the songs but also paying homage to the structure of a Broadway musical. Thus, we could fit some of our must-haves into our “Overture” and “Entr’Acte” and have some fun with 1959 pop culture information during the “Intermission.” The classic boy-meets-girl musical through line gave us helpful structure.

Great resources for us on those non-digital days were Michael Kerker at ASCAP and Frank Military at Warner-Chappell... and Michael Feinstein!  Michael and I had a chance encounter during the building the show and it was he who suggested “I Wish It So.” The song had slipped by my radar. Michael sprang to the piano and treated me to an impromptu rendition, sans sheet music, by heart, and it was a revelation.  It’s a stunning lyric. And Michael’s genuine encyclopedic knowledge was and remains astonishing.

Aside from this remastering project, what have you been working on lately?

Andrea Marcovicci and I are co-hosting the opening night of the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Cabaret Convention on Tuesday, October 21st at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall. We’ve helped curate and program a celebration of Cy Coleman songs, which promises to be dazzling … look for Donna McKechnie there, too! The roster of artists is quite staggering. I’m also part of tribute to Alec Wilder with Steve Ross and Marissa Mulder at 54 Below November 8th, which has given me an opportunity to research and learn “new” old material. I’ll be back at Birdland with a holiday show along with KT and Stacy Sullivan and Todd Murray. And along the way shows I’ve directed are on the boards including the album launch of Renee Katz singing Irving Berlin at 54 Below (October 19) and Judi Mark’s 100th Birthday Celebration of Gwen Verdon at The Triad (October 8).

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Looking back to when we first debuted The 1959 Broadway Songbook in 1991, it’s moving how many of those luminaries were still around and able to see us.  For someone who listened to these cast albums and dreamt about that Broadway it was beyond thrilling to have Dolores Gray, Sheldon Harnick, Polly Bergen, Marti Stevens, Jane White, Al Hirschfeld, and Sally Ann Howes – who had replaced Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady in 1959 – all come to witness our valentine to their legacy. For many, 1959 is considered the beginning of the end of the Golden Age of Broadway; for this saloon singer, in 1991 our 1959 Broadway Songbook was the beginning of a Golden Age in my New York cabaret experience.  I’m so looking forward to revisiting this show and hopefully introducing a new audience to it.

Learn more about Jeff Harnar on his website at jeffharnar.com