ABOUT THE CD:

Featuring a deluxe 48 page booklet with complete lyrics, dozens of color
photos and in-depth liner notes, the CD celebrates German-born
composer Kurt Weill and the lyrics of Maxwell Anderson, Ira Gershwin,
Oscar Hammerstein, Langston Hughes, Alan Jay Lerner, Ogden Nash,
Paul Green and Ann Ronell. It's based upon the concert which opened the
92nd Street Y’s 36th annual “Lyrics and Lyricists” season in November
2005 and is conceived by Andrea Marcovicci. Musical Director Shelly
Markham. It features Anna Bergman, Barbara Brussell, Mark Coffin,
Chuck Cooper, Jeff Harnar and Maude Maggart.

ABOUT KURT WEILL:

Before Kurt Weill fled Nazi Germany for Paris in March 1933, he had
composed a dozen works for the musical theater. Early on in his career,
Weill said, "I need poetry to set my imagination in motion," and he
established a lifelong practice of collaborating with only the most talented
lyricists. In Germany his two most famous partners were the playwrights
Georg Kaiser and Bertolt Brecht. In America, he teamed up with great
American lyricists and poets like Alan Jay Lerner, Ira Gershwin, Ogden
Nash, Langston Hughes and Maxwell Anderson. This recording follows the
musical life of Kurt Weill in America to explore the work of several
influential American lyricists in the context of their work with this singular
composer. Their collective output showed Weill himself adapting to his
new country, absorbing influences from his American colleagues and
enjoying the newfound artistic freedom that America offered.

Weill collaborated with giants of American song like Ira Gershwin, as in
the Broadway operetta Firebrand of Florence (1944) and Lady in the Dark
(1940). He wrote the rarely-performed 1948 Broadway vaudeville Love
Life with Alan Jay Lerner, which features the same characteristic wit and
whimsy as Lerner’s best-known work, My Fair Lady.

But Weill also worked with lyricists who were primarily playwrights and
poets. Pulitzer-prize-winning North Carolina playwright Paul Green, who
was known for his portrayal of Southern American folk life, was Weill’s
first American collaborator; the project was Johnny Johnson (1936), the
offbeat story of a peace-loving soldier in World War I. With playwright
and lyricist Maxwell Anderson, Weill wrote Knickerbocker Holiday (1938),
which starred Walter Huston in the Broadway production and featured the
hit songs “It Never Was You” and “September Song.” Anderson and Weill
also started work on a musical version of Huckleberry Finn, but Weill
completed only five songs before his death in 1950. These songs were
performed in public for the first time at the 92nd Street Y under the
direction of L&L founder and Weill’s conductor, Maurice Levine, in 1952.
The great American poet Langston Hughes wrote the lyrics for Weill’s
1947 opera Street Scene, which was based on Elmer Rice's Pulitzer-Prize
winning play of the same name. Another great American poet and
journalist, Ogden Nash, collaborated with Weill to write lyrics to the 1943
Broadway hit, One Touch of Venus.

ABOUT ANDREA MARCOVICCI:

Andrea Marcovicci, the "Queen of Cabaret," recently celebrated her
twentieth anniversary at the Gardenia in Los Angeles, the Plush Room in
San Francisco and the Oak Room of New York's Algonquin. She returns to
the Oak Room in May with just love... By Request. Andrea has created
over twenty-five nightclub acts, performed at the White House, and
played to sold-out houses at the esteemed LICEU Opera House in
Barcelona. She enjoyed he same reception at her Carnegie Hall solo
debut with the American Symphony Orchestra and most recently at Town
Hall with I'll Be Seeing You... Love Songs of WWII. As a director, Andrea
conceived four programs for “Lyrics & Lyricists” including "Easy to Love:
The Lyrics of Cole Porter", "Kurt Weill in America", "Thanks for the
Memories: The Lyrics of Leo Robin", and the upcoming look at standards
penned post 1965.

ABOUT THE CAST:

Anna Bergman‘s most recent career highlights include Lincoln Center with
Barbara Cook, Carnegie Hall (Ira At 100), Kennedy Center (A Little Night
of Music), The White House, Aspen Music Festival (Street Scene) and
Intiman Theatre (Adam Guettel & Friends). Barbara Brussell, a 1997 Back
Stage Bistro Award winner and a six-time MAC Award finalist, has created
over a dozen nightclub acts, soloed with symphony orchestras and
recorded two CD’s for LML Music. Mark Coffin, who has performed
internationally and throughout the states, has appeared in a tribute to
Don Hewitt of “60 Minutes” performing Noel Coward, at the Yale Club, at
Alice Tully Hall, the Ethical Cultural Center and Carnegie Hall. Chuck
Cooper has been seen on Broadway in The Life, for which he received a
Tony Award, Caroline Or Change, Lennon, Chicago, Passion and many
more. He has also been guest lead on numerous TV shows like “Law and
Order,” “Oz,” “NYPD Blue,” and “Cosby.” Jeff Harnar has performed at
Carnegie Hall for both the Cole Porter and Noel Coward centennial galas,
a solo concert at Weill Recital Hall and as Michael Feinstein’s special guest
at Zankel Hall. Jeff tours nationally with Shauna Hicks in their symphony
orchestra concert I Got Rhythm: Mickey & Judy’s Hollywood. Maude
Maggart, the acclaimed concert and club artist who is a mainstay of the
Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room, was featured on NPR’s “Morning Edition”
and Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List.” Her new CD Maude Maggart Live
was praised by USA Today and Business Week.

ABOUT LYRICS & LYRICISTS:

The granddaddy of American songbook programs, Lyrics & Lyricists was
launched in 1970 when Broadway conductor Maurice Levine and lyricist
E.Y. “Yip” Harburg (The Wizard of Oz) took to the 92nd Street Y stage to
discuss the then unusual topic of songwriting. Garnering praise and
adulation from critics and audiences alike, the series explores the
American Popular Song through the unique lens of the lyricist. Lyrics &
Lyricists has hosted Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Johnny Mercer,
Stephen Sondheim, Dorothy Fields, Alan Jay Lerner, Sheldon Harnick,
Fred Ebb, Sammy Cahn, Stephen Schwartz, Tim Rice, Jerry Herman and
many more. It has been one of the most popular and inventive series at
the 92nd Street Y since its inception.

For more information:
Kurt Weill Foundation for Music at: kwf.org
92nd Street Y at: 92Y.org