Program Notes - Lincoln Center`s American Songbook

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Sponsored by Prudential Investment Management
Saturday Evening, February 1, 2014, at 8:30
Heartbreak Country:
Michael John LaChiusa’s Stories
of America
with Kate Baldwin, Sherry D. Boone, Marc Kudisch,
Bryce Ryness, Andrew Samonsky, Emily Skinner,
and Mary Testa
Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Musical Director and Piano
David Gardos, Piano
Steven Lyon, Reeds
Laura Bontrager, Cello
Marc Schmied, Bass
Damien Bassman, Drums
Jack Cummings III, Conception and Director
This evening’s program is approximately 75 minutes long and will be performed
without intermission.
Major support for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook is provided by Fisher Brothers, In Memory of
Richard L. Fisher; and Amy & Joseph Perella.
Wine generously donated by William Hill Estate Winery, Official Wine of Lincoln Center.
This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Steinway Piano
The Allen Room
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
Please make certain your cellular phone,
pager, or watch alarm is switched off.
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Lincoln Center
Additional support for Lincoln Center’s American
Songbook is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc.,
of Houston, The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward
Memorial Fund, The Shubert Foundation, Jill and
Irwin Cohen, The G & A Foundation, Inc., Great
Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends
of Lincoln Center.
Endowment support is provided by Bank of America.
Public support is provided by the New York State
Council on the Arts.
Artist catering is provided by Zabar’s and
Zabars.com.
Upcoming American Songbook Events
in The Allen Room:
Wednesday Evening, February 12, at 8:30
Sarah Jarosz & The Milk Carton Kids
(limited availability)
Thursday Evening, February 13, at 8:30
The Songs of Henry Krieger
with Erin Davie, Charity Dawson, Darius de Haas,
Joshua Henry, Matthew Hydzik, Rebecca Luker,
Emily Padgett, Alice Ripley, Keala Settle, &
Lillias White
Friday Evening, February 14, at 8:30
Beth Orton
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center.
Movado is an Official Sponsor of Lincoln Center.
Saturday Evening, February 15, at 7:30 and 9:30
Jonathan Groff
United Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln
Center.
Wednesday Evening, February 19, at 8:30
Marty Stuart & Connie Smith
WABC-TV is the Official Broadcast Partner of
Lincoln Center.
Thursday Evening, February 20, at 7:30 and 9:30
Portraits of Joni: Jessica Molaskey Sings
Joni Mitchell
William Hill Estate Winery is the Official Wine of
Lincoln Center.
Friday Evening, February 21, at 8:30
Aoife O’Donovan
Saturday Evening, February 22, at 8:30
Ann Harada
Wednesday Evening, March 5, at 8:30
Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular
Music: The 1920s
Thursday Evening, March 6, at 8:30
Deer Tick (limited availability)
The Allen Room is located in Jazz at Lincoln
Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall.
For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit
AmericanSongbook.org. Call the Lincoln Center
Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 or visit
AmericanSongbook.org for complete program
information.
Join the conversation: #LCSongbook
We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the
performers and your fellow audience members.
In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave
before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs
and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.
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Lincoln Center
Meet the Artists
Michael John
LaChiusa
Michael John LaChiusa—composer, lyricist, and librettist—established himself as a
powerful presence on the American musical theater scene after winning 1993 Obie
Awards for his musicals First Lady Suite
and Hello, Again. Mr. LaChiusa was represented on Broadway during the 1999–2000
season by two more musicals, The Wild
Party and Marie Christine, which together
received 12 Tony Award nominations, garnering Mr. LaChiusa nominations for Best
Score and Best Book (along with George C.
Wolfe on The Wild Party ) for each production. He received his first Tony Award nomination for Best Book (co-written with Graciela
Daniele and Jim Lewis) for Chronicle of a
Death Foretold in 1996.
Mr. LaChiusa received the first Stephen
Sondheim Award (1989), the Gilman and
Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theatre Award
(1995), and the Kleban Prize for Musical
Theatre (1999). He was the 1998–99 Brena
and Lee Freeman Sr. composer-inresidence at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
and an artist-in-residence at New York
Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theater from
1997–98. In 2005 he received Emerson
College’s Leonidas A. Nickole Award of
Distinction for Artistic Growth and Achievement in Musical Theatre as well as the
Flora Roberts Award, given annually by the
Dramatists Guild.
Mr. LaChiusa has been commissioned to
write musicals and operas by Houston Grand
Opera, Musical Theatre Works, Lincoln
Center Theater, New York Shakespeare
Festival, Signature Theatre in Virginia, and
Audra McDonald for her Seven Deadly Sins
project, which premiered at Zankel Hall in
2004. He accompanied an array of female
stars singing songs from the LaChiusa catalogue in The Girlie Show, which was part of
American Songbook in 2004. His other
musicals include Giant (with a book by
Sybille Pearson), Queen of the Mist, Los
Otros (with Ellen Fitzhugh), See What I
Wanna See, Little Fish, and Bernarda Alba.
Among multiple cast recordings, The Wild
Party (Decca Broadway) received a Grammy
nomination for Best Musical Show Album in
2001. Mr. LaChiusa won a 2008 Daytime
Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement
in Music Direction and Composition for an
episode of Nick Jr.’s Wonder Pets. Queen of
the Mist won the Outer Critics Circle Award
for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
in 2012, and Giant was nominated for nine
Drama Desk Awards in 2013, as well as the
Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical.
Upcoming commissions include an
Edgerton Commission from the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival and a musical based
on The Minstrels, which he is developing
with Ellen Fitzhugh and Graciela Daniele.
Kate Baldwin
Kate Baldwin recently completed a run on
Broadway as Sandra Bloom in Big Fish. Her
other Broadway credits include Finian’s
Rainbow (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer
Critics Circle award nominations), The Full
Monty, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and
Wonderful Town. In New York she also performed in the Public Theater’s Giant
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Lincoln Center
(Drama Desk nomination) and City Center’s
Fiorello!. Her regional credits include The
Women (Old Globe), Henry V (Shakespeare
Theatre of New Jersey), and She Loves
Me (Williamstown). On television she has
appeared in Law & Order: SVU and
Stephen Sondheim’s Passion for PBS. Her
film credits include Brooklyn Brothers Beat
the Best. She has released the solo recordings Let’s See What Happens and She
Loves Him on PS Classics. Ms. Baldwin is
a graduate of Northwestern University.
Sherry D. Boone
Sherry D. Boone’s Broadway credits
include Ragtime, Jelly’s Last Jam, and the
title role in Marie Christine. Off-Broadway
she appeared in First Lady Suite (Transport
Group), and her London credits include
Carmen at Royal Festival Hall. She has participated in national tours of The Phantom
of the Opera, Les Misérables, and
Carousel. Her regional theater credits
include Master Class and Eliza in My Fair
Lady. She appeared in the opera The
Scrimshaw Violin at the 92nd Street Y and
Green Eggs and Hamadeus at the Mostly
Mozart Festival. Ms. Boone debuted with
the National Symphony Orchestra at the
Kennedy Center in Rob Kapilow’s And
Furthermore, They Bite! and Two by
Seuss. She has been a guest soloist with
the Philadelphia Orchestra, Nashville
Symphony, and the Toronto and Hartford
Symphony Orchestras. She is founder and
artistic director of Opera at Home, a cutting-edge opera company dedicated to
increasing opera audiences around the
globe. With Opera at Home, she collaborated with composer Sean Jeremy Palmer
to produce and direct Ellen Craft: A New
American Opera, based on true events of a
mixed-race woman’s harrowing escape
from slavery disguised as a white man.
Learn more at sherryboone.com.
Marc Kudisch
On Broadway, Marc Kudisch has appeared
in 9 to 5 (Tony and Drama Desk nominations),
The Apple Tree, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
(Tony nomination), Assassins (Drama Desk
nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie
(Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Bells
Are Ringing, The Wild Party, High Society,
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Beauty and the
Beast, and Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat. His Off-Broadway
credits include The Blue Flower, See What
I Wanna See (Drama Desk nomination), The
Minister’s Wife, The Thing About Men, The
Glorious Ones, and City Center Encores! productions of Girl Crazy and No Strings. On the
New York operatic stage, he has appeared in
A Little Night Music and The Pirates of Penzance. His regional theater credits include
The Highest Yellow, The Golden Age, Zorba,
The Sycamore Trees, and Summer and
Smoke. On television and film, Mr. Kudisch
has appeared in Break-In, Sex and the City,
All My Children, Loving, Late Show with
David Letterman, and Bye Bye Birdie.
Bryce Ryness
Bryce Ryness’s Broadway credits include
Woof in the Tony Award–winning revival of
Hair (Drama Desk nomination), Leap of
Faith, and Legally Blonde. Off-Broadway he
appeared in Around the World in 80 Days,
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Hair, and See Rock City and Other
Destinations (Transport Group). Regional
theater credits include Sleeping Beauty
Wakes, Floyd Collins, Leap of Faith, and
Cabaret. He performed in the national tour
of Rent. His band, Ryness, has released
two albums, which are available on iTunes.
He served as the voice of Thug in the film
Tangled. On television, Mr. Ryness has
appeared on Law & Order: SVU, Just for
Kicks, Late Show with David Letterman,
and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.
Andrew
Samonsky
Andrew Samonsky played Lt. Joseph
Cable in Lincoln Center’s Tony Award–
winning production of South Pacific, in
which he was also seen on the Live From
Lincoln Center broadcast on PBS. He
received a Drama Desk nomination for the
role of Frank Russell in Michael John
LaChiusa’s Queen of the Mist (Transport
Group). He originated roles in James Lapine
and William Finn’s Little Miss Sunshine as
Joshua Rose at La Jolla Playhouse, and in
the Scissor Sisters’ Tales of the City as
Beauchamp Day at ACT. He was seen on
Broadway in Scandalous as well as in City
Center’s Merrily We Roll Along. Mr.
Samonsky appears on the cast recordings
of Queen of the Mist, Merrily We Roll
Along, and Disney’s On the Record.
Emily Skinner
Emily Skinner is best known for her Tonynominated performance as Daisy Hilton in
the original Broadway production of Side
Show. Her other Broadway credits include
Jekyll & Hyde, James Joyce’s The Dead,
The Full Monty, Dinner at Eight, and Billy
Elliot. Other New York credits include the
City Center Encores! productions of Pardon
My English and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,
as well as Fanny Hill at the York. Her recordings include Duets and Unsuspecting
Hearts, both with Alice Ripley, and a selftitled solo album. Ms. Skinner is a graduate
of Carnegie Mellon University.
Mary Testa
Mary Testa most recently appeared in the
opera Anna Nicole, which opened the 2013
Next Wave Festival at BAM. She is winner
of two 2012 Drama Desk Awards, one in
recognition of three decades of outstanding work and one for Queen of the Mist.
On Broadway she has appeared in Guys
and Dolls, Xanadu (Drama Desk nomination), Chicago, 42nd Street (Tony nomination), Marie Christine (cast album), On the
Town (Tony nomination), A Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the Forum (cast
album), The Rink, Marilyn, and Barnum.
She also appeared in the City Center
Encores! production of The Ziegfeld Follies
of 1936 (cast album). Her Off-Broadway
credits include Queen of the Mist (Transport Group; Drama League and Lucille
Lortel Award nominations), Love, Loss, and
What I Wore, Regrets Only, See What I
Wanna See (Drama Desk and Drama
League nominations; cast album), First Lady
Suite (Transport Group; Drama Desk nomination), String of Pearls (Drama Desk nomination), The Vagina Monologues, From
Above (Obie Award), Lucky Stiff, A New
Brain (cast album), Tartuffe, On the Town
(Obie Award), Scapin (Classic Stage Company), and In Trousers (cast album). Her
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Lincoln Center
film credits include Franny, Eat Pray Love,
The Bounty Hunter, Stay, Tony ’n’ Tina’s
Wedding, The Business of Strangers, The
Out-of-Towners, and Sleepers. On television,
Ms. Testa has appeared on Two Broke Girls,
Over Under, White Collar, Nurse Jackie,
Whoopi, Sex and the City, and Law & Order.
Mary-Mitchell Campbell
Mary-Mitchell Campbell (musical director
and piano) was recently seen conducting
and playing for Carole King, Alicia Keys, and
Katy Perry at the Dolby Theatre in Los
Angeles alongside Quincy Jones. Her New
York credits include Company (Drama Desk
Award for Outstanding Orchestrations), The
Addams Family, Carrie, Hello Again (Drama
Desk nomination for Outstanding Orchestrations), In Transit, Sweeney Todd, Road
Show, Next to Normal (Second Stage
Theatre), First Lady Suite, and Sweet Charity
(Lincoln Center Theater). Ms. Campbell’s
regional credits include Little House on the
Prairie (Guthrie Theater) and 3hree (Prince
Music Theater). Internationally, she has
worked on Grace, the Musical (with Cy
Coleman in Amsterdam) and Green Violin
(St. Petersburg). She recorded As I Am with
Kristin Chenoweth.
In addition to her musical career, Ms.
Campbell is passionate about arts education and poverty reduction and is the
founder of Artists Striving to End Poverty
(ASTEP); learn more at asteponline.org.
She has been featured on the television
show Giving and was named NY1’s New
Yorker of the Week for her philanthropic
work. She has served on the faculties of
NYU, Boston College, and The Juilliard
School. Ms. Campbell holds degrees from
Furman University and North Carolina
School of the Arts.
David Gardos
David Gardos (piano) is a musical director,
conductor, and pianist/keyboard player
from Australia. His Broadway credits include
Big Fish (keyboard) and Chaplin (associate
conductor/keyboard). He served as associate conductor for the first national tour of In
the Heights. Mr. Gardos holds a master’s
degree in orchestral conducting from the
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a bachelor’s degree in
music education from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Selected New York
and regional credits include Gloryana,
Naughty/Nice, The Great Pretender, Altar
Boys (Westchester), Giving Up Later
(Cincinnati), and Tell Me on a Sunday
(Kookaburra Theatre Co., Sydney).
Steven Lyon
Steven Lyon (reeds) is a New York
City–based multiple woodwind artist. He
regularly performs in various musical settings in a variety of musical styles. Mr. Lyon
has been a member of the Broadway
orchestras of West Side Story, The
Addams Family, People in the Picture, and,
most recently, Second Stage Theatre’s
Little Miss Sunshine, as well as a sub on
many other shows. He has recorded with
singers including Plácido Domingo,
Rebecca Luker, and Kelli O’Hara, and he
has performed with singers including
Kristin Chenoweth, the Irish Tenors, and
Anne Hathaway. Mr. Lyon attended Temple
University and New Jersey City University
for undergraduate and graduate studies.
Laura Bontrager
Laura Bontrager (cello) came to New York
City in 1986 to attend The Juilliard School,
where she received her bachelor’s and
master’s degrees. Ms. Bontrager has
appeared with many orchestras and chamber music ensembles, in jazz and popular
settings, on Broadway, and frequently in
solo recital. Her commitment to contemporary music has been an essential part of her
musical life. Most recently, she recorded
David Wolfson’s Sonata for Cello and Piano
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Lincoln Center
on the Albany Records album Seventeen
Windows. Ms. Bontrager is a longtime
member of the cello quartet CELLO and
the Aurosuono Trio. She is a certified
Suzuki teacher and is a faculty member at
the Diller-Quaile School of Music and the
Chapin School in Manhattan.
Marc Schmied
Brooklynite Marc Schmied (bass) has been
part of the New York music scene for the
last 20 years. After bass studies at Juilliard
he began performing in the classical, jazz,
and theater worlds. Classical credits include
the Albany Symphony, Hudson Valley
Philharmonic, and the Manhattan Chamber
Orchestra. Broadway credits include
Matilda, How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying, La Cage aux Folles,
Evita, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,
Cabaret, 1776, Little Me, Oklahoma!, and
The Music Man. Lincoln Center Theater
credits include Marie Christine, South
Pacific, The Light in the Piazza, Dessa Rose,
The House of Bernarda Alba, and The
Glorious Ones. He is often asked if he
wishes he played the flute.
Damien Bassman
Damien Bassman (drums) wrote and played
the drum/percussion books for the Tony and
Pulitzer Prize–winning Next to Normal, The
Color Purple, The Addams Family, High
Fidelity, and Mario Cantone’s Laugh Whore,
and he wrote the drum book for the recent
revival of Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello
Again. As principal percussionist of Absolute
Ensemble he has toured and recorded with
fusion legend Joe Zawinul and artists such
as Paquito D’Rivera, Mike Keneally, Marcel
Khalife, Carel Kraayenhof, and Gregor
Bregovich. Mr. Bassman has performed in
over 20 countries and has been a featured
soloist with the NDR Radio Philharmonic,
Tonkünstler Orchestra, and the MDR and
Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. He
appeared in Kristin Chenoweth’s American
Songbook 2013 Live From Lincoln Center
PBS broadcast, and his other television
credits include the Late Show with David
Letterman, The View, Oprah, Good Morning
America, and the BBC’s Live from the
Proms. Mr. Bassman is the percussion
instructor and orchestra coach for the Baltic
Youth Philharmonic and the I, Culture
Orchestra of Poland, and he is on the faculty
of Marymount Manhattan College. He has
drummed for Elton John, Barry Manilow,
Ben Folds, John Cameron Mitchell, and
Rufus Wainwright, and is the drummer for
New York–based artists including Brian
d’Arcy James, Judy Kuhn, Jarrod Spector,
Rachel Potter, Ariana DeBose, Farah Alvin,
Kelli O’Hara, and the Tom Kitt Band. He
proudly endorses Toca Percussion.
Jack Cummings III
Jack Cummings III (conception and director) is co-founder and artistic director of
Off-Broadway’s award-winning Transport
Group Theatre Company. He most recently
directed the world premiere of Terrence
McNally’s And Away We Go for the Pearl
Theatre Company. He is a five-time Drama
Desk Award nominee for Outstanding
Director (The Audience, The Boys in the
Band, See Rock City and Other Destinations, Hello Again, and Queen of the
Mist). Other favorite Transport Group credits include the first New York revivals of
Michael John LaChiusa’s First Lady Suite
(starring Mary Testa and Mary Beth Peil),
Tad Mosel’s Pulitzer Prize–winning All the
Way Home, William Inge’s The Dark at the
Top of the Stairs (starring Michele Pawk),
the world premieres of Normal (starring
Barbara Walsh) and Marcy in the Galaxy,
and a deconstruction of the 1928 play The
Patsy (starring David Greenspan).
Other New York credits include the world
premieres of A Thousand Words Come to
Mind by Michele Lowe and Scott Richards
and Polly Pen’s Arlington, both for Inner
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Lincoln Center
Voices/Premieres. Regional credits include
A Streetcar Named Desire for Pennsylvania’s Gretna Theatre, Tony Kushner’s
adaptation of The Illusion for Nevada
Theatre Company, and Violet and The
Young Man from Atlanta for Virginia
Repertory Theatre. For PBS, he directed a
musical version of A Tale of Two Cities
(filmed in Brighton, England) starring
Michael York. Mr. Cummings is currently
developing the new musical The Blonde
Streak by Dan Lipton and David Rossmer
for Grove Entertainment. Upcoming projects include the Transport Group productions of John Cariani’s Almost, Maine and
John Van Druten’s I Remember Mama, as
well as the 2013 Drama Desk Awards. Mr.
Cummings received his master of fine arts
degree from the University of Virginia and
his bachelor’s degree from the College of
William and Mary. He is married to actress
Barbara Walsh.
American Songbook
In 1998, Lincoln Center launched American
Songbook, dedicated to the celebration of
popular American song. Designed to highlight and affirm the creative mastery of
America’s songwriters from their emergence at the turn of the 19th century up
through the present, American Songbook
spans all styles and genres, from the
form’s early roots in Tin Pan Alley and
Broadway to the eclecticism of today’s
singer-songwriters. American Songbook
also showcases the outstanding interpreters
of popular song, including established and
emerging concert, cabaret, theater, and
songwriter performers.
Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts, Inc.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
(LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter
of artistic programming, national leader in
arts and education and community relations,
and manager of the Lincoln Center campus.
A presenter of more than 3,000 free and
ticketed events, performances, tours, and
educational activities annually, LCPA offers
15 programs, series, and festivals including
American Songbook, Great Performers,
Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out
of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the
Mostly Mozart Festival, and the White Light
Festival, as well as the Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs
nationally on PBS. As manager of the
Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center
complex and the 11 resident organizations.
In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus
renovation, completed in October 2012. in
October 2012.
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Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center Programming Department
Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director
Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming
Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming
Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager
Bill Bragin, Director, Public Programming
Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming
Jill Sternheimer, Producer, Public Programming
Mauricio Lomelin, Associate Producer, Contemporary Programming
Nicole Cotton, Production Coordinator
Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director
Julia Lin, Programming Associate
Ann Crews Melton, Programming Publications Editor
Kristin Renee Young, House Seat Coordinator
For American Songbook
Matt Berman, Lighting Design
Scott Stauffer, Sound Design
Jessica Barrios, Wardrobe Assistant
Performance rights for Giant, The Wild Party, Queen of the Mist, Marie Christine, and
Bernarda Alba are available through R&H Theatricals at www.rnh.com.
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