Jeff Harnar To Return To Birdland with The 1959 Broadway Songbook

Birdland Jazz Club will host the return of multiple BroadwayWorld Award-winning concert artist Jeff Harnar in his show The 1959 Broadway Songbook. This concert is a Special Encore following the sold-out performance last October. At Birdland, Harnar will be joined by his longtime music director Alex Rybeck, in addition to Tom Hubbard on bass and Dan Gross on drums. The 1959 Broadway Songbook is directed by Sara Louise Lazarus.

The 1959 Broadway Songbook is a musical collage of the 21 musicals that were playing in New York in 1959. Gypsy, The Sound of Music, Fiorello, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, Flower Drum Song, Bells are Ringing, and Once Upon a Mattress are among those in the show that are a tribute to The Golden Age of Broadway. Songwriters represented include Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Harold Arlen & Yip Harburg, Leonard Bernstein, Comden & Green, and Lerner & Loewe. Over 40 songs are brought together including “Tonight,” “On the Street Where You Live,” “Til There Was You,” “The Party’s Over,” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” in a show that also pays homage to the very structure of a Broadway musical, including an “Overture,” “Entr’Acte” and an “Intermission,” the latter featuring a humorous nod to pop and Hollywood music and current events of 1959.

“The 1959 Broadway Songbook holds a special place in my heart as it was my debut engagement at the Oak Room in 1991,” comments Harnar. “1959 was a magical year in New York theater and 1991 was magical year for the abundance of artists who attended our show, including Dolores Gray, Sheldon Harnick, Al Hirschfeld, Sally Ann Howes, Julie Wilson, Burton Lane, Joan Rivers, Phyllis McGuire, and Celeste Holm. I’m especially delighted that now, decades later, we can recreate that excitement onstage and know that, thanks to PS Classics, our 1959 Broadway Songbook album, long out of print, is now available for Broadway music aficionados after we take our final bows.”