Encore! Encores (2/23/19)

A Sing Along Show & Tell Celebrating City Center Encores!

This was a lot of fun. The host, Evan Leslie, from the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, put together a mix of sing along songs, as well as a slide show display of artifacts from the library itself. We saw snippets of Harold Prince’s papers and an ooh-inspiring rendition of the set model for the original production of Follies (1971). And then we got to sing Broadway Baby, which was loads of fun, led by Marla Louisaint.

Along the way, we also learned about and celebrated the 75th anniversary of New York’s City Center and the 25th anniversary of its Encores! series. All of the songs included in the afternoon were from shows that have had performances at Encores! The current Encores! music director, Rob Berman, was on hand to shed some light on both anniversaries. A little known song from Fiorello! (1959) followed. Led by Austin Prebula, Joseph Grosso, Hunter Coombs, Andrew O’Brien, Paul Esswein, and Daniel Lawrence, we were asked to join in on the chorus of Politics and Poker (actually, totally unknown by me).

The next couple of sing along songs were a little on the difficult side. Both were ballads and, once again, little known, to me at least. Ari Axelrod gamely led us through I Could Write a Book, from Pal Joey (1940), and Ms. Louisaint did the same for Make Someone Happy, from Do Re Mi (1960). I knew this one better than the Pal Joey song, but the ballad’s tempo made it perhaps not the best sing along song, in my opinion. From the library’s holdings of the papers of George Balanchine, we saw photos of a hand-painted (by Mr. B himself) armoire, one of which also had his cat peeking out from the armoire door. Oohs and aahs again from the appreciative audience. We also saw some slides of the Comden and Green papers from the library’s vaults.

The library also has Charles Strouse’s papers. We saw slides of parts of a script and score before singing Put on a Happy Face, from Bye Bye Birdie (1960), led by Marc Castle. This one was very well known and very popular. Another crowd pleaser was I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, from Promises, Promises (1968), led by Molly Model. Interesting side note—she is the daughter of Ben Model, who supplies the piano scores and plays them for the Silent Clowns Series, also held at LPA.

Before ending with a bang, we saw pieces from the Fred Ebb collection, also housed at the library. Garnering oohs again was a slide showing a Standard Production Contract for Liza Minnelli (Extraordinary Risk), when she replaced Gwen Verdon in Chicago (1975). After someone asked what Extraordinary Risk meant, we got the answer from an audience member. He was a concessionaire at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers). Ms. Verdon was having vocal problems (possibly from some of the confetti used at the end of the show). With only a week’s rehearsal and no public announcement, Ms. Minnelli replaced her, eventually for five weeks. This guy said that when the announcement was made that first night at the theater, after first grumbling a lot the audience went wild. Thank you, Mr. Audience Member! Apparently the reason for the replacement is what caused the Extraordinary Risk notation. Mr. Cellophane was given terrific song leader support by Andrew Weinstein of the LPA, who was himself a fill-in for an indisposed performer. And we finished with Nowadays, led by all of the song leaders.

The afternoon included goofy games, tons of theater trivia, swag bags (alas, not for me), and a whole lot of fun and positive energy. I had a blast.

ConcertMeister