Kaufman Center Press Releases
Merkin Concert Hall presents Broadway Playhouse: Frank Loesser (January 11, 2009)
A Family-Friendly Tour through the World of Musical Theater
Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 11:00 am
Now in its third year, Kaufman Center’s critically-acclaimed hit series opens with composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, who began as a Hollywood lyricist, conquered Broadway during the 1950s with Where’s Charley?, The Most Happy Fella, How to Succeed in Business and his masterpiece, Guys And Dolls. His hit songs include “Luck Be A Lady,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat.”
Broadway Playhouse’s family-friendly concerts celebrate the best of American musical theater with sing-alongs, interactive games, fun facts, musical medleys and a mini-musical featuring the delightfully zany Broadway Playhouse Players. They’re hosted by Sean Hartley and feature a cast that includes Kathryn Markey, Jason Robinson, Erica Schroeder and musical director Jihwan Kim. These kid-friendly concerts are adult-friendly, too! Special Monday morning performances of all three shows in the series for school groups are scheduled on January 12, February 2 and April 6. For details please call Faye Menken Schneier at 212 501 3357.
About Frank Loesser
Frank Loesser wrote his first song “The May Party,” at the age of six, and as a child taught himself the harmonica and then the piano. Growing up in New York, he attended the Townsend Harris High School and then City College in New York. He left college in 1930 and experimented with several jobs including newspaper advertising, process server and newspaper editor until he began to write songs and sketches for radio scripts. Loesser’s first published song was “In Love With the Memory of You,” with music by William Schuman (who would later become a serious composer and the President of the Julliard School of Music).
In the mid-1930’s, Loesser collaborated with composer Irving Actman, contributing five songs to the Broadway show The Illustrator’s Show. While the show was unsuccessful, Loesser had been discovered by Hollywood. Universal Pictures put him under contract in 1936 to write songs for film musicals. For Universal and then Paramount Pictures, Loesser would write the scores for more than 60 films over a three-decade period. After World War II, Loesser moved back to New York City to write for the Cy Feuer/Ernest Martin production Where’s Charley. The musical opened on October 11, 1948 and had a run of 792 performances. Loesser followed up on the success of Where’s Charley with the hit Guys and Dolls, which opened on November 24, 1950. With a score full of standards like “A Bushel and a Peck,” “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” “Luck be a Lady,” “I’ll Know,” “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat,” Guys and Dolls swept the Tony Awards that year, taking home the coveted Best Musical trophy.
In 1952, Loesser returned briefly to Hollywood to write the score for Hans Christian Anderson, a Danny Kaye vehicle that included "Ugly Duckling," "Inchworm," and "Thumbelina" (nominated for an Oscar in 1952). Returning to Broadway in 1956, Loesser wrote the score and book for The Most Happy Fella, which included the hit songs “Standing on the Corner,” “Big D,” "Joey, Joey, Joey," and "Happy to Make Your Acquaintance". While The Most Happy Fella won the New York Drama Critics award in 1957, the production was memorable for another reason: it starred Jo Sullivan, who would later become Mrs. Frank Loesser. Another success came in 1961 with the Broadway production How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. The production ran for four years and won the Pulitzer Prize and seven Tony Awards.
Throughout the years, Loesser collaborated with several of the great Tin Pan Alley composers, including Burton Lane, Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy McHugh, Jule Styne, Victor Schertzinger and Arthur Schwartz. Often called the most versatile of all Broadway composers, Frank Loesser passed away at the age of 59 on July 26, 1969 in New York City. Upcoming shows in the Broadway Playhouse series include Jerry Herman on Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 11:00am. Herman came to prominence during the 1960s with two mega-hits, Hello, Dolly and Mame, then continued to write a string of memorable shows culminating in the Tony Award-winning sensation La Cage Aux Folles. Herman’s simple but infectious melodies and funny/sweet lyrics are among Broadway’s all-time best. On April 5, 2009 at 11:00 am, don’t miss Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, the most dynamic and versatile team writing for Broadway today. They have created a string of artistic and commercial successes including Ragtime, Once on this Island and Seussical. Find out what makes these elegant and joyful writers so versatile, and so beloved. (The concert will feature an interview with the writers.)
Broadway Playhouse presentations are made possible, in part, by The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Edith Meiser Foundation, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Foundation. Additional support for Merkin Hall presentations is provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Edward T. Cone Foundation, the Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The Herman Goldman Foundation, Joint Industry Board of the Electrical Industry, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., and Steffens 21st Century Foundation II.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency. Special thanks to an anonymous donor, Andrea Brown, Janis and Alan Menken, Roy Niederhoffer and Kara Unterberg, and David Shaw and Beth Kobliner Shaw.
Listings Information:
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center presents
BROADWAY PLAYHOUSE: FRANK LOESSER
Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 11:00am
129 West 67th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam)
Tickets at 212 501 3330 or http://www.kaufman-center.org
3-concert subscription: $45 / Single tickets: $20
EDITORS: Please refer to the series by its name, BROADWAY PLAYHOUSE…
and its location, Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Press Only: Hi-res photos for download at http://kaufman-center.org/press/image-library