"WHY LEE?" AT BEECHMAN IN MAY
Award-winning performers Lois Walden, Barry Kleinbort, and Paul Greenwood
tell the largely untold story of an acclaimed, notoriously enigmatic
American singer and celebrate her enduring musical legacy in WHY LEE?:
A MUSICAL SCRAPBOOK ABOUT LEE WILEY. Featuring songs from Ms. Wiley's
repertoire, anecdotes and dramatic scenarios about her life both onstage
and off, and personal reminiscences from Walden, Kleinbort, and Greenwood,
the show will run at THE WEST BANK CAFE/LAURIE BEECHMAN THEATER (407
West 42nd Street, NYC - 212-695-6909 -
http://www.westbankcafe.com/theater/schedule
) on Wednesdays, May 16th and 23rd at 7:00 pm. Kleinbort will direct,
and Greenwood is the show's musical director and pianist.
Lee Wiley was a favorite singer of George Gershwin,
Cole Porter and other legendary American composers. Her sophisticated
singing style has influenced the most iconic recording artists of
the 20th century, from Peggy Lee to Barbra Streisand. She performed
with the hottest jazz musicians of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, including
Bunny Berigan, Eddie Condon and Fats Waller, and pioneered the concept
of the "songbook" album in the late 1930s with albums devoted to
the music of the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and Harold
Arlen. With her remarkable talent and astounding beauty, Lee Wiley
seemed destined for stardom - yet she virtually disappeared in the
1950s at the height of her popularity.
WHY LEE? showcases many of Wiley's best-known and
best-loved hits, including the Gershwins' "I've Got a Crush on You,"
Harold Arlen's "Down With Love," Johnny Mercer's "Moon River," as
well as her signature songs: Victor Young's "A Woman's Intuition"
and "Street of Dreams," and the Victor Young/Bing Crosby/Ned Washington
favorite "A Ghost of a Chance." This enchanting musical journey
also features a medley of songs from Wiley's songbook albums.
While Rosemary Clooney, Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee, and
other "girl singers" of the era enjoyed soaring careers as the entertainment
industry transitioned from radio to film and television, Wiley's
career experienced a number of roadblocks, many of them self-imposed.
Fiercely independent and principled, she frequently turned down
opportunities that could further her career, most notably in 1935
when she departed from a featured role in the top-rated Kraft radio
show because its producers refused to give billing to composer Victor
Young, her musical partner and lover. Her strong-willed behavior,
sensual singing style, enigmatic personality, severe alcohol addiction,
and legendary beauty and sophistication, coupled with her premature
retirement at age 50 and relatively small discography, have all
contributed to her mythic status.
Lois Walden has written title songs, musicals, television
specials, radio shows, videos, and special material for such celebrated
jazz instrumentalists and performing artists as Shari Lewis, Kathleen
Battle, Dionne Warwick, Jane Fonda, and Michel Colombier. Her immensely
successful show Gospel Music from the Church to the Charts inspired
the formation of The Sisters of Glory, a singing group featuring
Walden, Thelma Houston, Albertina Walker, CeCe Peniston, Phoebe
Snow, and Mavis Staples. In addition to these accomplishments, Walden
produced her own solo album, Traveler. She has toured extensively
in her one-woman show. Walden holds the position of Teaching Artist
with The Acting Company, conducting in-depth workshops with students
and teachers across the country.
Barry Kleinbort has worked as a composer, lyricist,
librettist, and director for more than 25 years, and is the recipient
of the prestigious Edward Kleban Foundation Award for Lyric Writing,
two Gilman-Gonzalez Musical Theatre Commendation Awards, a Second
Stage Music Theater Award, two Back Stage Bistro Awards, ten Manhattan
Association of Cabarets (MAC) Awards, and two Telly Awards. He wrote
the book and lyrics for the new musical, Was, which was recently
mounted in Chicago under the direction of Tina Landau. For PBS,
he provided the written continuity for A Washington Opera Celebration
and the 2003 presentation of Die Fledermaus, and performed similar
writing duties for six PBS broadcasts of Keith Lockhart and the
Boston Pops and Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops. Kleinbort
has directed and written special musical materials for Kaye Ballard,
Regis Philbin, Marcia Lewis, Mary Cleere Haran, John Epperson (aka:
Lypsinka), Donna Murphy, the late Jerry Orbach, Karen Mason, Brent
Barrett, Harolyn Blackwell, Heather MacRae, and many others.
Paul Greenwood has appeared as pianist and singer
in New York's premiere cabarets, including The Oak Room at the Algonquin,
The Improvisation, and Eighty-Eights. He starred in the original
New York production of Our Sinatra and has accompanied some of the
industry's most honored performers, including George Burns, Elly
Stone, Art Garfunkel, Mary Cleere Haran, Ann Hampton Calloway, Nancy
Lamott, and Sylvia McNair. Greenwood is the recipient of Back Stage
Magazine's Bistro Award, the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and
Clubs (MAC) Award, and the Leonardo DaVinci Award, given by the
Beaux Arts Society for outstanding male vocalist.
Tickets, priced at $15 with a $15 food/beverage minimum.
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