Their partnership was one of Broadway and Hollywood's longest runs. Together, Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote words that gave life to On the Town, Wonderful Town, Bells are Ringing and Singin' in the Rain. Phyllis Newman, Tony Award-winner and Green's wife of more than four decades, summons the essence of their genius - irreverence, humanity, sophisticated wit and joy - in the Lyrics & LyricistsTM season closer Carried Away: Being Comden and Green on May 21, 22 and 23. Joining her are vocalists Sarah Uriarte Berry, Josh Grisetti, Marcus Lovett, Mary Testa and Zakiya Young, with special guest vocalist Leslie Uggams.
Music director Lawrence Yurman will lead an all-star band that includes Steven Kenyon, reeds; Jack Cavari, guitar; Dick Sarpola, bass,; and Ray Marchica, drums
Newman says, of putting together her first L&L program: "I want to give the audience a sense of Adolph and Betty's wonderful creative energy. They lit up any place they were, as if they were born with built-in spotlights. It's no wonder they called their own show A Party!"
Phyllis Newman won a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the Jule Styne/Comden & Green musical Subways are for Sleeping and earned a nomination for Neil Simon's Broadway Bound. She received her second Tony Award last year when she was honored as the first recipient of the Isabelle Stevenson Award for creating the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative of the Actor's Fund in 1996. She has also appeared on Broadway in Bells are Ringing, The Apple Tree, On the Town, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and Awake and Sing!, among other shows.
L&L shows are Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 2 and 7 pm, and Monday at 2 and 8 pm. Individual tickets range from $67 to $52. There is also a special under-35 ticket price of $25 for the Saturday and Sunday evening shows.
Cast
Sarah Uriarte Berry, vocals
Berry created the role of "Franca" in The Light in the Piazza (garnering Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations). Most recently she starred in Boradway in Next to Normal. Other Broadway credits include Taboo and Les Misérables, and she toured nationall as "Julie" in Carousel and as "Betty" in the Petula Clark production of Sunset Boulevard.
Josh Grisetti, vocals
Grisetti is a Theatre World Award winner for his off-Broadway performance in Enter Laughing, for which he also garnered Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel nominations. Other New York credits include After the Ball and Candida for the Irish Repertory Theatre. His regional theater credits include roles in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Ovation Award, Spamalot and Camelot, and he starred in the ABC-TV series The Knights of Prosperity.
Marcus Lovett, vocals
Lovett's Broadway credits include the title role in Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and "Billy Bigelow" in the LCT production of Carousel. His film credits include Jeffrey, Pieces of April and the title role in the animated musical Young Herc. He also performed in London in Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration, seen in the U.S. on PBS' "Great Performances."
Mary Testa, vocals
Testa's decades-spanning Broadway career began with the 1980 production of Barnum and includes starring roles in the 2009 Guys & Dolls revival, Xanadu, Marie Christine, On the Town, Chicago, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She has been recognized numerous times with nominations for Tony Awards (as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for 42nd Street and On the Town) and Drama Desk Awards (as Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for First Lady Suite, See What I Wanna See and Xanadu).
Zakiya Young, vocals
Young has appeared on Broadway in The Little Mermaid and can be heard on the cast recording. Her off-Broadway and regional theater credits include Kiss Me Kate, Cabin in the Sky, The Mikado, Carousel and Little Shop of Horrors. She sang the works of Comden and Green last year in the annual "Nothing Like a Dame" concert to benefit the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative of the Actor's Fund.
Special Guest Leslie Uggams, vocals
A theater professional since the age of nine, Uggams won a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical for her Broadway debut in Comden and Green's Hallelujah, Baby! and has also appeared on Broadway in August Wilson's King Hedley II (garnering a Tony nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie and Anything Goes, among others. She has performed with Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, won plaudits for her role as "Kizzy" in Roots and hosted television's The Leslie Uggams Show.
ABOUT LYRICS & LYRICISTS
Long one of 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. Since 2004, L&L has featured original programs created by accomplished champions of the repertoire, including Rob Fisher, Sheldon Harnick, Robert Kimball, Rex Reed, Lucie Arnaz, Billy Stritch, Ted Sperling and Andrea Marcovicci,. Each show celebrates the American Songbook through a blend of performance and narrative with a particular focus on lyrics. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org/Lyrics.
ABOUT 92Y
92nd Street Y's unique fusion of community and culture makes it the only place of its kind in the world. 92Y is a not-for-profit community center, performance stage and lecture hall; a literary salon and home for artists; a school, outreach organization and summer camp; a gym, a residence and more. 92nd Street Y, a proudly Jewish institution since its inception in 1874, has become a community of communities, welcoming people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds. Now serving more than 300,000 people each year in its New York facilities, 92Y also reaches millions of "virtual" guests around the world through its website, satellite broadcasts and other electronic media. Committed to making its programs available to everyone, 92nd Street Y awards nearly $1 million in scholarships annually and reaches about 7500 public school children through subsidized arts and science education programs. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org.
