Last Performance of 'Lucie Arnaz Brings Music of Desi Arnaz' to 92Y 1/11
By: BWW News Desk Jan. 11, 2010
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The 92nd Street Y opens its 40th anniversary season of Lyrics & LyricistsTM with Babalu-The American Songbook Goes Latin: Featuring the Music of the Desi Arnaz Orchestra. The show's artistic director is Desi Arnaz's daughter Lucie Arnaz, who also hosts and performs. The production includes a Latin big band, vocalists RAÚL ESPARZA and Valarie Pettiford and Latin dancers Mark Stuart ECKSTEIN and Kristine Bendul. Lucie's brother Desi Arnaz, JR. is a special guest, making the show a family affair.
Babalu-The American Songbook Goes Latin is not only Lucie's way of paying tribute to her father, but a chance to celebrate Desi Arnaz's musical career and the major role Latin music has played in the American Songbook. For this show, Lucie has resurrected her father's original orchestra charts, which have been housed at the Library of Congress for the last 20 years. Desi achieved lasting fame for his groundbreaking work on I Love Lucy, but earlier in his career, he was a major player in the big-band era of the 1930s and ‘40s, when he toured the country and played top-tier New York clubs like Ciro's. Desi was instrumental in popularizing the conga, which became one of the first popular dance crazes and paved the way for the Twist and the Macarena.Actress/singer Lucie Arnaz began her career on the TV shows The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, appearing with her legendary mother, Lucille Ball. She won an Emmy Award as the executive producer of the documentary film Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie. As a stage actress she has appeared on Broadway, where her credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Lost in Yonkers and They're Playing our Song, as well as in London's West End and Chicago.Raúl Esparza, vocals
Raúl Esparza's Broadway credits include Speed-the-Plow, The Homecoming, Company, and Taboo, in Tony Award-nominated roles for all.Valarie Pettiford, vocals
Valarie Pettiford appeared in the chorus of the film The Wiz at age 14. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her work in the hit show Fosse and starred in a critically-acclaimed run in the musical Chicago in London opposite Chita Rivera.
Actor and drummer Desi Arnaz, Jr. has numerous TV and film roles to his credit, and received a Golden Globe award for his work in the film, Red Sky at Morning. He played his father in the film The Mambo Kings as well as in an episode of Saturday Night Live co-hosted with Desi, Sr. He also served as executive producer on 2001's I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special. His public life began with his appearance as a baby in the first issue of TV Guide in April, 1953.Mark Stuart Eckstein, dancer
Mark Stuart Eckstein is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Mark Stuart Dance Theatre, which has appeared at New York City Center and the Minskoff Theatre.Kristine Bendul, dancer
Kristine Bendul's Broadway credits include Movin' Out, Man of La Mancha, Swing! and On the Town. She is part of Twyla Tharp's new Sinatra project Come Fly with Me. Coming up in 2010February 20, 21, 22
MISTY: Johnny Burke AFTER HOURS
DARYL SHERMAN, Artistic Director, Host, Piano & Vocals
Caitlin Carter, Stage DirectorEric Comstock, Piano & Vocals
Barbara Fasano, Vocals
Jeff Harnar, Vocals
Daryl Sherman, Piano & Vocals
Carol Woods, Vocals******************************March 20, 21, 22
FRED & GINGER IN SO MANY WORDS: THE ASTAIRE-ROGERS SONGBOOK
DEBORAH GRACE WINER, Artistic Director & Host
John Oddo, Music Director & Piano
Mark Waldrop, Stage DirectorDebby Boone, Vocals
James Naughton, Vocals
Billy Stritch, Vocals
Karen Ziemba, Vocals
Additional artists to be announcedMay 8, 9, 10
POISONING PIGEONS IN THE PARK: THE ART OF THE SATIRIC COMEDY SONG
Rob Fisher, Artistic Director
Sheldon Harnick, Host
David Garrison, Stage DirectorCast to be announcedJune 5, 6, 7
IN THE COOL, COOL, COOL OF THE EVENING: THE STARDUST OF Hoagy Carmichael
Ted Sperling, Artistic Director & Host
Jeffrey Klitz, Music Director & PianoLaura Marie Duncan, Vocals
Capathia Jenkins, Vocals
Clarke Thorell, Vocals
Additional artists to be announcedABOUT LYRICS & LYRICISTS
Long one of the 92nd Street Y's most popular programs, the American Songbook series Lyrics & LyricistsTM 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. The Lyrics & Lyricists series is partially underwritten by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. The performances of Lyrics & Lyricists' "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening: The Stardust of Hoagy Carmichael" as well as the performances of "Babalu: The American Songbook Goes Latin Featuring the Music of the Desi Arnaz Orchestra" are underwritten by Gilda and Henry Block, and Kenneth Kolker. The March 22 evening performance of "Fred and Ginger in So Many Words: The Astaire-Rogers Songbook" is underwritten by The Henry Nias Foundation, courtesy of Dr. Stanley Edelman.ABOUT THE 92nd STREET Y
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 - about 300,000 people each year.Since launching its concert series in 1934, what is now the 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts has presented acclaimed classical musicians and exciting newcomers. The Center is also home to 92Y's legendary American songbook series, Lyrics & Lyricists, and to 92Y's summer Jazz in July festival, with artistic director Bill Charlap. The Tisch Center's literary program, the Unterberg Poetry Center, presents the country's oldest and arguably most illustrious reading series as well as an extensive writing program that gives working adults access to teachers who are published authors - a rarity outside M.F.A. programs. The 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts is endowed through the generosity of the Joan and Preston Robert Tisch family. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org.
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