{"id":6489,"global_id":"www.thevillagetrip.com?id=6489","global_id_lineage":["www.thevillagetrip.com?id=6489"],"author":"1","status":"publish","date":"2022-08-18 06:26:28","date_utc":"2022-08-18 10:26:28","modified":"2022-08-23 13:46:22","modified_utc":"2022-08-23 17:46:22","url":"https:\/\/www.thevillagetrip.com\/event\/wonderful-town-cabaret\/","rest_url":"https:\/\/www.thevillagetrip.com\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/events\/6489","title":"Wonderful Town<\/em>: Cabaret and Cocktails with Janis Siegel and Friends","description":"
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My, what charm<\/em>
\nMy, what grace<\/em>
\nPoets and peasants on Waverly Place!<\/em><\/h4>\n

Wonderful Town<\/em> immortalized Greenwich Village, just as a later Leonard Bernstein musical immortalized the West Side of Manhattan. <\/strong>This unique and intimate cabaret \u2013 featuring the Grammy-garlanded Janis Siegel with baritone Michael Kelly, Jamie Bernstein and The Manhattan Transfer’s long-time musical director Yaron Gershovsky on keyboards \u2013 is a glorious celebration of songs such as \u201cOhio,\u201d \u201cPass the Football,\u201d and \u201cOne Hundred Easy Ways to Lose a Man,\u201d plus a surprise song famously left out of the original score . For good measure, Janis and friends will also be dipping into more of the Maestro\u2019s Manhattan musicals, On the Town<\/em> and West Side Story<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Writes Jamie Bernstein, who will welcome everyone to the historic North Square Lounge: \u201cOur hour-long-ish afternoon walking tour will conclude at the historic Washington Square Hotel, which my Dad would surely have known and where, in later years, Betty and Adolph often came for brunch. In the Hotel\u2019s North Square Lounge, we’ll all settle in for some restorative cocktails and nibbles and be treated to a bouquet of Bernstein songs by jazz diva Janis Siegel and acclaimed baritone Michael Kelly, accompanied by pianist Yaron Gershovsky.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even I will get into the act \u2013 in a pleasing echo of <\/em>Wonderful Town itself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Based on the 1940 play My Sister Eileen<\/em> by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, and The Short Stories<\/em> of Ruth McKenney, Wonderful Town<\/em> was Leonard Bernstein\u2019s second salute to New York City. As with the first, On the Town, Bernstein teamed up with lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Villagers who as cabaret artists had been a fixture at the nearby Village Vanguard. Rosalind Russell, who had earlier starred in the 1952 film of My Sister Eileen<\/em>, was cast again for the Broadway version as Ruth, and a 25-year-old Juilliard graduate and future TV star, Edie Adams, as the ingenue younger sister, Eileen. Bernstein wrote songs \u2013 including \u201cOne Hundred Ways to Lose a Man\u201d and \u201cSwing\u201d \u2013 that played to Russell\u2019s strengths as a character actress not known for her vocal prowess. The original Broadway production won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.<\/p>\n

Oh, and by the way, Jamie recalls that her father wrote the musical to cover the cost of her baby clothes and diapers!<\/p>\n

The cabaret is preceded by a walking tour of Wonderful Town locales with Jamie Bernstein<\/a>.<\/h4>\n