George Gershwin News

Though Ervin Drake's 'The Friendliest Thing (Two People Can Do),' from his 1964 hit What Makes Sammy Run?, has been called the first song from a Broadway musical to be directly about having sex, Suzanne Carrico employs no vampy winks or purring vocals as she observes with heightened intellectual interest the unnecessity of foreplaying drinks and dances when a couple in lust could simply get right to it.  (Yes, I just made up two words in that sentence.  Deal with it.)  Her new show at The Metropolitan Room, opening less than three weeks afters winning the MAC Award for Outstanding Debut, is named for this suggestive showtune but the self-described geek cleverly treats the song as a subtext to Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields' 'Welcome To Holiday Inn,' sandwiching the cerebral sexuality between slices of broader, comical pass-making.  This is either the smartest show about sex or the sexiest show about smarts in town.In outstanding company both offstage (Mary Cleere Haran is her director) and on (she's got music director/arranger Tedd Firth on piano and Steve Doyle on bass), Carrico has the kind of sunny, uncomplicated voice that can fill Harold Arlen and Leo Brown's 'Hooray For Love' with perky glee, matched with the kind of acting skill that can explore the dark dramatic longings of Arlen and Johnny Mercer's 'I Had Myself a True Love,' climaxing in an anguished belt that is far more about the woman she portrays than her ability to vocally shine.She calls this her hanky-panky show and most every number has something to do with sex.  There's the sweet simplicity with which she approaches Jimmy Roberts and Joe DiPietro's 'I Will Be Loved Tonight,' where a woman who has gone too long without a lover's touch anticipates how the evening's date will end, and the wry exasperation of 'Toothbrush Time,' William Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein's tense contemplation on why last night's lover is taking so long to get out of the apartment.  She savors the snazzy jazz jauntiness of Michael John La Chiusa's 'The Thief' and turns George Gershwin and B.G. DeSylva's 'Do It Again!' into a lopsided debate between the mind and the libido (guess who wins).The very funny sexpot character song, 'Femininity' (Jay Livingston/Ray Evans), is given an interesting personal twist as she introduces it with some of her own feelings as an adolescent girl surprised by the different way boys would look at her once she started developing.  Her admiration for the romantic passion expressed by Alan and Marilyn Bergman fuels her detailed story-telling in 'Like a Lover' and 'The Island.And for those who believe that hanky-panky is never complete without a bit of cuddling after, she finishes the evening with a very satisfied and satisfying 'Embraceable You' by the Gershwins.

By George Productions presents the Los Angeles Premiere of the 1937 Broadway musical comedy hit, 'I'd Rather Be Right', opening at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre

Broadway, Recording & Concert Star Brings Hit New York Show To Chicago June 2-5

FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY, the nightclub proclaimed 'Best of New York' by New York Magazine and 'an invaluable New York institution' by The New York Post, will continue the Spring 2008 season with the debut of Tony Award nominee EMILY SKINNER for two nights only, June 1 and 8.

The Tony winner headlines a retrospective in song and film of Gershwin's partnership with Kay Swift.

On The Town, the first Broadway musical written by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, with original choreography by Jerome Robbins, will open the 2008-2009 Encores! season as part of the city-wide Leonard Bernstein 90th Birthday Celebration sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic from September through December 2008.

New York City Center announces 16th Encores! Season opening with 'On the Town.'

Grammy Award and Emmy Award winner and two-time Tony Award nominee Harry Connick, Jr. will return to Broadway in Spring 2009 in Nice Work If You Can Get It, a new musical comedy with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, and book by Joe DiPietro ( I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, All Shook Up). Two-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall (The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town) will direct and choreograph.

Friday, April 18th, The After Party welcomes Telarc Recording Artist TONY DeSARE. Plus, a Birthday Party for ADAM ROSEN

The Royal Albert Hall and Raymond Gubbay celebrate Summer 2008 with a world premiere featuring English National Ballet. Strictly Gershwin continues the hugely popular and successful series of in-the-round ballet presentations which started in 1997, (Swan Lake / Romeo & Juliet), and is a dazzling homage to George Gershwin, the big band era and the glamour of musical motion pictures.

On the heels of the acclaimed productions of George Gershwin Alone and Monsieur Chopin, the Geffen Playhouse announces the highly anticipated culmination of Hershey Felder's Composer Trilogy, Beethoven, As I Knew Him, to kick off the theater's 2008-09 season.

Classical music commentator Rob Kapilow presents an engaging exploration of some of George Gershwin's most beloved songs in Rob Kapilow's What Makes it Great? The Songs of George Gershwin. Kapilow is joined by soprano Sally Wilfert and tenor Michael Winther for the first What Makes it Great? program of the season, taking place on Saturday, February 2 at 8PM at NEC's Jordan Hall

Maureen McGovern returns to the Manhattan cabaret scene with her new show A Long and Winding Road at New York City's Metropolitan Room at 7:30 p.m. on February 13-16 and February 21-23.

The 2007 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards ceremony was held November 12 at downtown's The Orpheum Theatre. The nights big winners included Sleeping Beauty Wakes (World Premiere Musical), Film Chinois (World Premiere Play) and Jersey Boys (Touring Production)...

Judy Butterfield returns to the Algonquin with her new show, 'How Long Has This Been Going On?' on Sunday, November 4 at 8PM.

The New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) opens its 20th Anniversary season on October 16 and 18 at 8PM with 'No Song is Safe From Us,' an evening of song encompassing four musical genres.

Award-winning performers Lois Walden, Barry Kleinbort, and Paul Greenwood will tell the largely untold story of acclaimed and notoriously enigmatic American singer Lee Wiley while celebrating her enduring musical legacy in Why Lee? A Musical Scrapbook about Lee Wiley during a five-night engagement at The Metropolitan Room.

The West Bank Café announces our October, 2007 line-up of live entertainment, to be presented in The Laurie Beechman Theatre.