The following are Program Notes and Artist Bios for the Lyrics and Lyricists show Did the American Songbook Really End in 1965? at the 92nd Street Y on May 31 to June 2.

“Round, like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning on an ever-spinning reel..."*

So goes the American popular song. Lyrics and melodies so perfectly intertwined that a fragment alone is enough to elicit a cascade of memories. From the very beginning our lives are scored. Ever since the advent of radio, we make stars out of singers, as words and music ride on an invisible breeze directly into our hearts. It’s not different for the baby-boomers and beyond. Songs still carry emotional resonance and thread their way into our history. Perhaps it’s singer/songwriters that you identify with, like Joni Mitchell or Carly Simon and their struggle to define a generation. Maybe it’s the “misty, water-colored memories” elicited by film and theatre lyricists like Stephen Sondheim which feel like an “Old Friend” to you or the reassuring refrain that things will be alright because, “You’ve Got a Friend.” If Hal David, Lennon & McCartney, Jerry Herman and Billy Joel helped you to capture what it means to fall in love, then the music of the past 40 years has been true to its roots, and the “standard” is safe and secure for generations to come.

“So hold this moment fast, and live and love as hard as you know how, and make this moment last, because the best of times is now!” **

—Lesley Alexander

* “The Windmills Of Your Mind” (Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
** “The Best of Times is Now” (Jerry Herman)

Meet the Artists

Andrea Marcovicci is returning for her fourth season as guest artistic director for Lyrics & Lyricists. Her 2005 presentation, Kurt Weill in America, was subsequently recorded on her own Andreasong label. Known as the “Queen of Cabaret,” Marcovicci recently celebrated her 21st anniversary at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel (where a suite filed with memorabilia of her work has been dedicated in her name) and returns there this fall with Marcovicci Sings Movies II. Last month she starred in the title role of the 42nd Street Moon revival of Coco in San Francisco. In March, as the premiere performer, she helped to launch an elegant new club – Harlan’s at the Nevermore in New Hope, PA.

Marcovicci has created over 25 nightclub acts, performed at the White House, and played to sold-out houses at the esteemed Liceu Opera House in Barcelona, as well as Carnegie and Town halls. On screen she appeared in The Front (Golden Globe nomination), The Hand, and Someone To Love (featuring Orson Welles in his last film appearance), among others, and will soon be seen in Henry Jaglom’s independent film, Irene in Time. Along with a myriad of made-for-TV movies, her appearances include Arli$$ for HBO, Cybill, Taxi, Magnum P.I., Hill Street Blues, Trapper John, M.D. and Strong Medicine among others. In addition to on and off-Broadway appearances, her regional credits include St. Joan, Burn This and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (American Conservatory Theater, SF.); Chaplin and Finian’s Rainbow (Reprise!, Los Angeles); and Lady in the Dark (Prince Music Theatre, Philadelphia). Co-stars have included luminaries like Sir Michael Caine, Sir John Gielgud, Anthony Newley, Sam Waterston, Danny DeVito, Woody Allen and Howard Keel.

Marcovicci’s concert work includes appearances with the Oregon and Fort Worth symphonies, among others. In addition to clubs, she has brought the intimacy of the cabaret to numerous theatres across the country including Steppenwolf in Chicago. She has recorded 17 CDs, including a recently-released tribute to Rodgers & Hart. Last year Marcovicci was awarded the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s 2007 Mabel Award, and she is also the recipient of three lifetime achievement awards and two honorary degrees in the arts. More information on her career, schedule and CDs may be found by visiting www.marcovicci.com.

As a musical director and arranger, Shelly Markham has worked extensively with Andrea Marcovicci, performing with her at the Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel for the past 12 years, touring with her, and arranging and conducting nine of her CD releases. He has also worked with a diverse roster of performers, including Lainie Kazan, Michael Feinstein, Margaret Whiting, Nell Carter, Joey Lawrence, Ann Jillian, Gogi Grant, Julie Wilson, Chad Mitchell, Carol Lawrence and Bonnie Franklin.

As a composer, Markham has enjoyed a long and successful collaboration with the acclaimed poet and author Judith Viorst. Their musical revue, Love & Shrimp, a celebration of Viorst’s poetry and insights, ran at the Pasadena Playhouse, the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills and The Ballroom in New York City. Their musical, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, based on her best-selling children’s book, was commissioned by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Now published by Dramatic Publishing, the show toured for two years and has become one of the most performed children’s musicals in the country. Their sequel, Alexander Who’s Not Not Not Not Not Not Going to Move, was also published last year. Markham has also collaborated with lyricists Amanda McBroom, Carol Hall and with Marie Cain and Mark Winkler, who he met while working on the hit Off-Broadway show Naked Boys Singing. He collaborated with Marie and Mark on a revue about the wonders and terrors of aging called Too Old for the Chorus. It premiered at the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles, enjoyed a six-month run in San Diego, and opened last fall at La Mirada Theatre prior to a national tour. He scored the PBS production of Charley’s Aunt, starring Charles Grodin, and has written special musical material for many popular television series, including Friends, The Nanny, Golden Girls, Gimme a Break and Touched by an Angel.

A versatile vocalist who sings everything from jazz to pop to musical theater to folk, Francesca Amari recently made her New York solo cabaret debut at The Metropolitan Room. Among the legendary singers she has performed with are Andrea Marcovicci, Karen Mason, Shelly Markham, Barry Kleinbort and folk legends Peter Yarrow and Christine Lavin. She has appeared at such venues as Birdland, Don’t Tell Mama and The Triad in New York; Davenport’s and the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago; the Savannah Music Festival and The Ark in Ann Arbor (MI). She has created several cabaret shows that she tours throughout the Midwest, including “Songbirds: The Women in My Head,” a tribute to female singers and songwriters like Carolyn Leigh, Dorothy Fields and Ella Fitzgerald; “Secretly Square: Guilty Pleasures,” featuring songs by Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka, Johnny Mathis and others; and three shows featuring her trio, Boogie Woogie Babies: “Boogie Woogie Babies - the 1940s Revue,” “Boogie Down Broadway” and “Boogie, Beehives & Beyond!” Other regional credits include A...My Name is Alice, Pump Boys & Dinettes, Into the Woods and Beehive, and a new musical revue, Midlife! The Crisis Musical, created by Broadway veterans and brothers Bob and Jim Walton. She is a busy theater educator and director in western Michigan, she runs her own talent agency (www.theagencyweb.net) and she directs audiobooks for Brilliance Audio/Amazon.com.

Kelly Houston began singing at age nine as a member of a men and boys choir in his native Washington, D.C. Since that time he has performed on stage, TV, radio, and in films, recordings and nightclubs from Taegu, Korea, to Thule, Greenland. A resident of Chico, California, he continues to perform regularly on the West Coast and is making his Manhattan debut with these Lyrics & Lyricists performances. His regional stage credits include roles in Jesus Christ Superstar, Ragtime, Evita, Annie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Music Man, Anything Goes, Kismet, The Most Happy Fella, Rags, Singin’ in the Rain, Kiss Me Kate, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Bye Bye Birdie, Camelot, Guys & Dolls, 42nd Street, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Big River, Finian’s Rainbow, Paint Your Wagon, Fanny, Greater Tuna and Five Guys Named Moe. His film credits include Sudden Impact with Clint Eastwood, and his television credits include Out of the Woods with Ed Asner. A much sought-after voice actor, Houston can be heard on numerous radio and TV commercials as well as medical and high-tech informational materials. In 2000, he was awarded a Northern California Regional Emmy as the voice and cyber puppeteer of Spencer F. Katt, a virtual character on ZDTV.

With his graceful lyric baritone vocals and a sophisticated yet endearing persona, Lee Lessack has toured extensively in the United States and Europe to sold-out performances and has released five recordings. His most ambitious recording to date, In Good Company, was released in 2005. Featuring duets with music notables like Michael Feinstein, Maureen McGovern, Amanda McBroom, Ann Hampton Callaway and Stephen Schwartz, it has earned a MAC and Bistro award for Best Recording of the Year and was recently nominated for an OutMusic Award. His other critically-acclaimed albums include two live recordings (3 Men and a Baby...Grand, a salute to the Rat Pack; and Too Marvelous for Words: The Songs of Johnny Mercer), his self-titled debut solo album, his GLAMA Award-winning I Know You by Heart and the cast recording of An Enchanted Evening: The Music of Broadway. A native of Philadelphia, Lessack attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and in 1996 he founded LML Music, whose catalogue of CDs includes over 80 of the world’s top recording artists in the Cabaret, Jazz and Broadway genres. Lessack is also a founding partner of Spot-On Entertainment, a multi-faceted concert production company with offices in both New York and Los Angeles. Among the leading Broadway concert artists the company represents are Stephen Schwartz, Linda Purl, Susan Egan, Emily Skinner & Alice Ripley and Ken Page. His websites are www.LeeLessack.com, www.LMLmusic.com and www.Spot-OnEntertainment.com.

Stacy Sullivan, winner of the 2008 Backstage Bistro Award for Outstanding Vocalist, has played in cabaret rooms across the country, from the legendary Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel in New York to the famed Feinstein’s at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. In 2002, she won a MAC Award for Outstanding Female New York Debut from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs. On the LML Music label, she has recorded four albums, including her newest release, Small Town. Well-known to Los Angeles audiences for her work with Toys for Tots, ChildHelp, S.T.A.G.E., and Equity Fights AIDS, Sullivan has been a soloist for the Pasadena Pops Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and La Mirada Symphony. Her theatrical performances include the role of Christine in the Los Angeles premiere of Yeston & Kopit’s Phantom, Rosabud in the West Coast Premiere of The Mystery of Edwin Drood with George Rose, and Babes in Toyland with Robert Morse. Her television and film appearances include Mrs. Santa Claus, Christy, Evening Shade, Angels Among Us, It’s a Miracle, Days of Our Lives, Hearts Afire, Santa Barbara and Perfect Prey. Born in Boggy Depot, Oklahoma, Sullivan (the seventh of eight children) began singing gospel concerts with her family when she was a child. They recently sang together again at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in a concert celebrating her parents’ 60th wedding anniversary.

Keyboardist Lisa LeMay was musical director/conductor for How The Grinch Stole Christmas at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Too Old For The Chorus (co-written by Shelley Markham) at the La Mirada Theatre, and the 2008 NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Residency at the Goodspeed Theatre. She was musical director for “Broadway Tonite,” performing the music of Broadway internationally, and associate musical director for the Reprise! productions of Pippin, Applause and City of Angels in Los Angeles. She played keyboards on the regional or touring productions of Will Rogers Follies, The Sound of Music, The Gershwins’ Fascinating Rhythm, Camelot, West Side Story, Oklahoma!, Bye Bye Birdie, Funny Girl and Carousel, among others, and the national tours of Brooklyn: The Musical, All Shook Up, and The Lion King. She was arranger for the Tucson Symphony, the Tucson Pops Orchestra, the Welk Theater in Branson and San Diego, and the Locrian Orchestra for the Holiday Classic International Ballroom Dance Competition in Caesar’s Palace. As a jazz pianist, she has appeared at jazz festivals in Mammoth Lakes, Sacramento and Scottsdale, performing with, among others, Dizzy Gillespie, Carla Bley, Richie Cole, Ann Patterson (Maiden Voyage) and former Tonight Show bandleader Tommy Newsom. She is a voting member of NARAS (Grammys) and the Society of Composers and Lyricists, and she is affiliated with BMI as a composer.

Larry Saltzman is one of New York’s most “in demand” sideman for both recordings and live performances. In 2007, his guitar playing was featured on both a Grammy Award-winning CD (Jersey Boys cast recording), and an Academy Award-winning film (Martin Scorsese’s The Departed). He toured worldwide with Simon and Garfunkel in 2003 and 2004 (captured on CD and DVD as “Old Friends on Stage"), and continues to tour with Garfunkel. Saltzman has also performed and/or recorded with Bette Midler (numerous TV and concert performances), Christine Ebersole, Shawn Colvin, Chris Botti, Jewel, David Johansen, The Brecker Brothers and Celine Dion. He has also been seen and heard on NBC’s Saturday Night Live as a member of the “house band.”

Bassist Jered Egan is equally in demand on the concert stages of Carnegie Hall and in cabaret rooms throughout New York City. His concert work has spanned several continents, from the American Symphony Orchestra and the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, to the Hong Kong Philharmonic. In the cabaret field he has performed in venues like the Algonquin Hotel, the Metropolitan Room and the Café Carlyle, with singers including Polly Bergen, Faith Prince, Karen Mason, Jeff Harnar, Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway. In 2006 he was honored by the editors of Back Stage magazine for his cabaret work with their Bistro Award for Outstanding Achievement. On Broadway, Egan made his onstage debut playing and singing in An Evening with Jerry Herman. He also appeared onstage in Patti LuPone on Broadway and below stage in many Broadway pit orchestras. Recent projects include making a CD with the New York New Music Ensemble, playing for the Pope at Yankee Stadium, and opening a bed-and-breakfast in the western Catskills. Egan studied at The Juilliard School and completed his training with fellowships at the Tanglewood and Waterloo festivals. He has worked with Andrea Marcovicci for the last five years, including all of her Lyrics & Lyricists shows.

Rex Benincasa has been a freelance drummer and world music percussion specialist in New York since 1978. Along with hundreds of television/radio soundtracks and commercial recordings, he has performed with the New Music Consort, Ensemble Caprice, Alba Consort, Flamenco Latino, Carlota Santana Spanish Dance, Andrea Del Conte Danza España, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, Pilar Rioja, the Grammy Orchestra, Amanecer Flamenco Progressivo, the Sacramento Ballet, Ballet Austin, the Washington Ballet and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He has recorded CDs and/or movie soundtracks for Karen Mason, Andrea Marcovicci, Craig Rubano, Stephanie Pope, Foday Musa Suso, Philip Glass, Sesame Street, NFL Films, the Sons of Sepharad, the Ivory Consort and the Gerard Edery Ensemble, to name a few. Benincasa has played many show scores for all kinds of productions. His most recent Broadway appearances have been with Fosse, Elaine Stritch, The Full Monty, Flower Drum Song, Man Of La Mancha, Never Gonna Dance, Little Shop of Horrors, The Frogs, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, All Shook Up, Hairspray, The Drowsy Chaperone, Curtains, The Color Purple and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Lesley Alexander is returning for her fourth season with Andrea Marcovicci and Lyrics & Lyricists. She has worked with several theater companies and arts organizations as a director, stage manager and property master, among many other positions. Off-Broadway she worked with The New York Theatre Ensemble and The Acting Company. Her regional theater credits include The Empire State Egg. She also serves as director of operations for Andreasong Recordings and has co-produced five CDs including the recently-released Andrea Marcovicci Sings Rodgers & Hart for the label. Alexander produced My Christmas Song for You, a benefit for Symphony Space and produced and hosted two sold-out Critics’ Choice Benefits at Danny’s Skylight Room. A Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle member, she is the theater critic for Whitney Radio and cititour.com. For two years she has lectured for the Tilles Center on Long Island, most recently on the subject of the Broadway musical, Gypsy. As a volunteer with Describe!, she has audio-described more than 50 Broadway and Off-Broadway shows for the blind.

[Did the American Songbook Really End in 1965?: May 31 - Jun 2]