Yip Harburg archive

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CURRENT \| UPCOMING \| ARCHIVE


MUSICAL SHOWS

A revival of The Happiest Girl in the World, the 1961 Yip Harburg-Jacques Offenbach anti-war musical based on Lysistrata and stories from Bulfinch's Mythology, was presented by The Medicine Show Theatre in New York City from November 17-December 17, 2006. This production was based on two scripts originally provided by the Yip Harburg Foundation. For further information, see a related article in Playbill.

Jamaica, the 1957 musical by Yip and Harold Arlen which starred Lena Horne on Broadway, was presented in concert form by the York Theatre Company in New York City from April 8-10, 2005 with a book revised by Jeff Hochhauser.

The Westport Country Playhouse (Joanne Woodward, Artistic Director) launched its 75th anniversary season in its newly renovated theatre with the Irish Rep's Finian's Rainbow, directed by Charlotte Moore. The show ran from June 16 - July 2, 2005. Leading the cast were Milo O'Shea as Finian and, reprising their original Irish Rep performances, Melissa Errico as Sharon and Malcolm Gets as Og.

On Saturday July 30, 2005 at 2pm the Musical Theatre Department of the University of Michigan presented Look to the Rainbow: A Tribute to the Songs of Yip Harburg at the Mendelssohn Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Written and directed by Brent Wagner, Chair of the renowned Musical Theatre Department at the University of Michigan, with musical direction by former UM faculty member Grant Wenaus, and choeography by UM graduate Darryl Semira, the show was performed by students from throughout the country studying in the pre-college training program sponsored by the Musical Theatre Department at UM.

A full-length version of Finian's Rainbow ran from September 6 - October 23, 2005 at the Walnut Street Theatre of Philadelphia (Artistic Director, Bernard Havard). The production was directed by Malcolm Black.

Light Opera Works of Evanston, Illinois presented the 1968 Yip Harburg-Jule Styne musical, Darling of the Day from October 2-November 6, 2005 to celebrate the Styne centennial. LOW used a revised book by Erik Haagensen which was staged in New York City in 1998 as part of the York Theatre Company's renowned "Musicals in Mufti" series. The York also presented an encore of its 1998 production from April 15-17, 2005, starring Rebecca Luker, Simon Jones, Stephen Mo Hanan and Beth Fowler. Jones and Mo Hanan reprised their 1998 performances. (This production was chosen as one of THE TEN BEST THEATRE EVENTS OF 2005 by Richard Corliss of TIME magazine. For background on the show and the York production, see "Peter Filichia's Diary" in the March 16, 2005 edition of TheatreMania on the web.)

Finian's Rainbow, the 1947 Yip Harburg-Burton Lane-Fred Saidy musical classic, ran at Stage West Community Playhouse of Spring Hill, Florida (Robert Reece, Artistic Director) from November 3-20, 2005. See the rave review in the St. Petersburg Times.

Stage and screen director Arthur Allan Seidelman is developing Look to the Rainbow, a musical revue about Yip's life and works. The first reading, using two pianos with limited staging and choreography, took place at the University of Judaism in Bel Air, California, on December 18 and 19, 2004.

Finian's Rainbow has been running (in Czech) throughout the Czech Republic since 1948 under the title Divotvorný Hrnec ("The Magic Pot"). An updated version opened at Prague's Fidlovacka Theatre on November 25, 2004.

The 42nd Street Moon theatre company in San Francisco presented an NEA-sponsored restoration of the 1937 Yip Harburg-Harold Arlen anti-war musical Hooray for What! from November 10-28, 2004.

Bill Rudman continues to develop his "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" cabaret, featuring political songs from the American musical theatre (many by Yip). The show has played in over 25 Ohio venues in 1999.

The Lyric Stage Theatre of Irving, Texas opened its 2004-05 season with the Irish Rep version of Finian's Rainbow directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

Finian’s Rainbow ended its smash-hit SRO run at The Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City on July 11th, 2004 after being held over from its original closing date of May 30. This production was adapted to concert form and directed by the Rep's Artistic Director Charlotte Moore, and nominated for both Drama League and Drama Desk Awards as "Best Revival of a Musical." See the RECORDINGS section for information about the cast album.

In 2001 The Paul Taylor Dance Company began touring Black Tuesday, a series of dance pieces choreographed to popular songs of the Great Depression, including a ballet performed to Rudy Vallee's recording of the 1932 Yip Harburg-Jay Gorney classic, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"


RECORDINGS

On June 27, 2006, 19 Recordings Limited/RCA Records released American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee's single, "My Destiny"/"Over the Rainbow" which she sang to great acclaim on AI's 2006 season finale.

On August 30, 2005 Decca-Broadway released a new CD featuring Ethel Merman, The World Is Your Balloon: The Decca Singles, 1950-1951. The title song is from the 1951 Yip Harburg-Sammy Fain musical, Flahooley.

The cast album of the Irish Repertory Theatre's 2004 concert revival of Finian's Rainbow was released on November 16, 2004. It can be ordered from Ghostlight Records.

DC-area singer Beverly Cosham celebrated the release of her new CD, Beverly Cosham Sings Yip Harburg, on Thursday, September 23, 2004 at 8pm at the Reston Community Center of Reston, Va.

In March 2004 DRG re-released the original Broadway cast album of the 1951 Yip Harburg-Sammy Fain musical Flahooley.

The original 1961 Broadway cast album of the Yip-Jacques Offenbach musical, The Happiest Girl in the World, was released on CD by DRG Records on Sept. 10, 2002.

In December, 2003 the piano/vocal duo of William Bolcom and Joan Morris, with vocalist Max Morath, released Bolcom, Morris and Morath Sing Yip Harburg on the Original Cast label. The songs were recorded live in concert at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City in June, 2003. This CD includes rarities as well as familiar standards.

In 2003 Singer Karen Lynn Gorney, daughter of Jay Gorney (composer of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?") recently released Hot Moonlight, a CD of songs composed by her father, including four he wrote with Yip ("Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" "Ah, But Is It Love?" and "Adrift on a Star," as well as the title song).


RADIO

On April 29, 2006 Yip's son Ernie Harburg was interviewed about his father's views regarding religion by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of the Freedom from Religion Foundation on their new weekly program Freethought Radio. The broadcast was a tie-in to the recent publication of Yip's light verse by FFRF. Freethought Radio airs live from Madison, Wisconsin on 92.1 FM, Saturdays 8-9 a.m.

On April 22, 2006 National Public Radio reporter Iris Mann presented a piece about the new biography of Jay Gorney (the composer who wrote the music to "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" with Yip) written by Jay's widow Sondra Gorney.

Bill Rudman's nationally syndicated radio show "Footlight Parade," broadcast a segment about Yip and his songs, featuring an interview with Ernie Harburg, in spring 2003. A CD of this show is available from the Yip Harburg Foundation.

On November 10, 2002 BBC-Scotland broadcast a segment of the "Songlines" series about "Over the Rainbow." Their 2001 segment about "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" was outstanding. Both are now available on one CD from the Yip Harburg Foundation.


FILM & TV

On October 25, 2005 Warner Home Video reissued The Wizard of Oz (1939) on DVD. It is available both as two- and three-disc sets, the latter boasting a new documentary about Oz author L. Frank Baum. Both versions feature a new digital transfer using "Ultra-Resolution" technology as well as a remastering of the soundtrack which features the immortal score by Yip and composer Harold Arlen.

In a CBS-TV special aired on June 22, 2004, “Over the Rainbow” (lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Harold Arlen, from the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz) was announced as the best song in US film history by the American Film Institute. “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” by the same team came in at number 82. (In 2001 “Over the Rainbow” was also chosen “Greatest Song of the 20th Century” in a poll conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America.)

The Yip Harburg Foundation, with Marie Nesthus, Director of the Donnell Media Center of the NY Public Library, has compiled a Yip Harburg Political Documentary Collection housed at the Center where periodic screenings of selected films with appearances by the filmmakers will be held. The collection consists of over 40 documentaries that have been funded by the Foundation. The first documentary film screenings took place on April 15, 22 and 29, 2004.

Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica's Democracy Now, interviewed Yip's son Ernie in 1996 on the occasion of a centennial exhibit of Yip's memorabilia at the Billy Rose Library for the Performing Arts. In 2003 Ms. Goodman and her colleagues combined the soundtrack of this interview with video images to create the documentary, A Tribute to Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz. Since then the documentary has been broadcast annually on Democracy Now as a holiday special. A transcript is also available on the Democracy Now web site.

On September 14, 2003 Bon Show TV in Japan broadcast a docu-drama about the Arlen-Harburg classic song, "Over the Rainbow." The program combined interviews with John Fricke, Mickey Rooney, Ernest Harburg and Deena Rosenberg (among others) with the story of a Japanese teenager who travels to America to research the history and legacy of the song.

A rarely-seen televised version of the 1944 Yip Harburg-Fred Saidy-Harold Arlen musical Bloomer Girl was screened as part of the "Musicals on Television" series at the Museum of TV and Radio on October 1, 2004. The show was originally broadcast on May 28, 1956 as part of the Producers' Showcase series and starred Barbara Cook, Keith Andes and Paul Ford.

"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" written by Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney for the 1932 Broadway revue Americana, is featured in episode three (“I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’”) of a new documentary by Michael Kantor entitled Broadway: The American Musical, which aired on PBS October 19, 20 and 21, 2004. The DVD, with several hours of extras, is available in stores, as well as through Amazon and other internet sources. The lavishly illustrated companion book, featuring a rare photograph of the original performance of "Dime," is available from Bulfinch Press.


YIP ON THE WEB

www.yipharburg.com - official site created by Yip's heirs, containing information about the Yip Harburg Foundation, a calendar of events, biographical information, a complete song list and much more

http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/the/the.html - web site of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library which houses an extensive E.Y. Harburg Collection

http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/music/har-d.htm - a complete listing of the contents of the E.Y. Harburg Collection, part of the American Musical Theatre Collection, Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University; these materials were donated by Yip in 1968

http://www.tams-witmark.com - the web site of the Tams-Witmark Music Library which licenses four of Yip's major Broadway musicals: Finian's Rainbow, Bloomer Girl, Jamaica and The Happiest Girl in the World.

http://www.nfo.net/www/bigband.html - A major WorldWide Web reference source for American, Canadian, and English popular music and jazz. Many links to other Web sites.

http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibit_home_page.asp?exhibitId=14 - The Yip Harburg Exhibit at The Songwriters Hall of Fame Virtual Museum

http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/showmusic/ - The Library of Congress's Show Music on Record Database contains discographic information for commercially-released recordings including many with lyrics by Yip


SPECIAL EVENTS

On June 17, 2006 The Holy Apostles Community Chorus (New York City) presented Teamwork: A Musical Partnership in which the 70-voice chorus sang the songs of Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen from The Wizard of Oz, Bloomer Girl and other hits. Guest soloists were Rashad Naylor from Broadway's Hairspray, Nicole Tieri from 2004 American Idol, Gail Nelson from Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill and Ben Harburg, Yip's grandson. The event was directed by Jack Eppler with J. David Williams as pianist and organist.

On April 29, 2006 the Young People's Chorus of New York City gave the world premieres of new works by Mark Adamo, John Corigliano and others. Among the pieces presented was Mr. Corigliano's Sweet Morning, set to Yip's poem.

On April 6, 2006 at 6pm the Donnell Media Center of the NY Public Library, in association with the Yip Harburg Foundation, presented the third annual theatrical concert celebrating the Yip Harburg Documentary Collection. This year's program, narrated by Deena Rosenberg, was entitled A Song Makes You Feel a Thought and explored how composers and lyricists collaborate to create theatre and film songs. Singers were Catherine Russell and Ben Harburg. David Brunetti directed and accompanied the singers on piano. The program also featured rare film clips of Yip Harburg Harold Arlen and the Gershwins. A DVD of this event is available from The Yip Harburg Foundation.

On April 2, 2006 at 8pm the Holy Apostles Community Chorus of Manhattan held a musical evening to benefit the Holy Apostles Community Chorus (which will also present a full concert of Harold Arlen-Yip Harburg songs on June 17 - see "Upcoming" for details). Among the singers at this cabaret was Ben Harburg. The musical director was David Brunetti.

On February 13, 2006 Theater for the New City in Manhattan held its third annual Love 'n' Courage benefit with a brief concert of Yip Harburg's songs performed by Catherine Russell, Stephen Bogardus and Ben Harburg, accompanied by David Brunetti on piano, and narrated by Deena Rosenberg. Following the Yip Harburg concert, New Orleans jazz singer Troi Bechet performed with her quartet. Charles Busch and Julie Halston hosted the evening, reading Yip's poems with great timing and panache. Proceeds went to Theater for the New City's Emerging Playwrights Program as well as the Southern Rep Theater in New Orleans which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

On April 7, 2005 Donnell Media Center of the NY Public Library presented the second annual theatrical concert celebrating the Yip Harburg Documentary Collection (see "FILM AND TV"). This year's event, "Hooray for What! Yip Harburg's Songs and Poems of Love and War," featured Stephen Bogardus, Catherine Russell and Diane Sutherland, as well as Ben Harburg (Yip's grandson). The concert was narrated by Deena Rosenberg, directed by Michael Montel and musical directed by David Brunetti, also on piano. A DVD of this event is available from the Yip Harburg Foundation.

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 37-cent Yip Harburg commemorative stamp on April 28, 2005. Stamp designer Ethel Kessler began with a photograph taken by Barbara Bordnick in 1978, then added other elements including a rainbow and the lyric fragment ['somewhere over the rainbow'] from Yip and Harold Arlen's Oscar-winning song." The launching ceremony at New York City's 92nd Street Y featured Maureen McGovern, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, Stephen Bogardus, Catherine Russell, cast members from the Irish Repertory Theatre's revival of Finian's Rainbow as well as Yip's youngest grandson Ben. Yip's daughter Marge and son Ernie also participated in the unveiling. A DVD of this event is available from the Yip Harburg Foundation.

On June 3, 2005 the Congressional Chorus presented a Yip Harburg celebration at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Terrace Theatre in Washington, D.C. The show featured selections from The Wizard of Oz, Finian's Rainbow, and many other well-known works such as “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” The musical director was Michael Patterson and the arranger and pianist was Bob Tartaglia. The same concert was presented as a benefit for the Washington City Church of the Brethren on Sunday May 22, 2005 at 4pm. A third celebration was held at the National Postal Museum at 2 Massachusetts Ave. in Washington, D.C. on June 17.

On June 6, 2005 Yip was honored with an "Excellence in Diversity" award by Actors Equity, AFTRA and SAG at a ceremony held at the East West Players in Los Angeles. The Diversity Awards are a tri-union honor, initiated by the Actors Equity Association Western Regional Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. This year's event was titled "Honoring Our Pioneers." Other award recipients were Ossie Davis, Beulah Quo and Will Sampson.

On Thursday, April 8, 2004 (Yip's 108th birthday) there was a free concert entitled "Yip Harburg's Lyrics of Social Comment" to launch the Yip Harburg Documentary Film Collection at the Donnell Media Center, New York Public Library. The concert was conceived and narrated by Deena Rosenberg, directed by Michael Montel, and featured Broadway singers Stephen Bogardus (Man of La Mancha), Sherry Boone (Jelly's Last Jam), T. Oliver Reid (Thoroughly Modern Millie) and Diane Sutherland (A Chorus Line).

Musical director Ted Sperling presented Yip Harburg: Beyond the Rainbow as part of the 92nd Street Y's "Lyrics and Lyricists" series from March 20-22, 2004 at the Y's Tisch Center. Yip was the first lyricist featured in the series in 1970.

Bill Sheldon, former host of WFMT-radio's "Words and Music" program in Chicago, presented two gala evenings in Chicago in 2003: Over the Rainbow: The Songs of Yip Harburg at Gallery 37 Center for the Arts on September 8 with vocalist Spider Saloff and musical director Jeremy Kahn; and After the Rainbow: A Celebration of the Music of Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies on September 11. Spider Saloff sang under the musical direction of Jeremy Kahn. Kelly Sill and Eric Schneider also performed.

On Saturday, October 11, 2003, at Lincoln Center's Bruno Walter Auditorium, Anna Wheeler Gentry and pianist Vicky Ohl presented a performance lecture analyzing songs from Walk a Little Faster including "April in Paris," "So Nonchalant," "Speaking of Love," "That's Life," and others. The event is part of an educational series celebrating the centennial birth year of Vernon Duke (1903-1969).

On Sunday, August 3, 2003, Anna Wheeler Gentry presented a poster session (entitled "Reconstruction and Revival of a 1932 Musical Revue: A Work in Progress") at the national conference for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (at New York City's Marriott Marquis Hotel) regarding her ongoing restoration of the Harburg/Duke musical revue, Walk a Little Faster.

From June 20-22, 2003, the duo of pianist/composer William Bolcom and singer Joan Morris, along with singer Max Morath, presented a concert entitled, Over the Rainbow: Music to the Lyrics of Yip Harburg at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City.

On June 14, 2003 at the Aronow Theatre at the City College of New York (Yip's alma mater) a tribute concert to Yip and fellow alumnus and friend Ira Gershwin was presented on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the school's first graduating class. Yip and Gersh was conceived by Deena Rosenberg, directed by Michael Montel and featured top Broadway singers. An encore performance will take place at the Roosevelt Hotel Ballroom on November 13, 2003. An encore performance took place at the Roosevelt Hotel Ballroom on November 13, 2003.

Also on June 14, 2003 The Holy Apostles Community Chorus of New York City, conducted by Jack Eppler, performed a concert of Yip's songs at the Church of the Holy Apostle at 9th Avenue and 28th Street.


PRINT

In March 2006 Welcome Books reissued Over the Rainbow, edited by Mary Tiegreen. This book illustrates the lyric to the famous Harburg-Arlen classic song with paintings by Maxfield Parrish.

In January 2006 Yip's two volumes of light verse, Rhymes for the Irreverent and At This Point in Rhyme, were reissued in one hardcover volume by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The new publication includes several unpublished poems as well as new illustrations by Seymour Chwast who illustrated the original edition in 1965. Available from Amazon, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Yip Harburg Foundation.

Four music collections for piano, vocal and guitar from Hal Leonard Publications contain songs with Yip’s lyrics. “Last Night When We Were Young” (1935, composer, Harold Arlen) appears in The Best Torch Songs Ever and “Old Devil Moon” (from Finian’s Rainbow, 1947; composer, Burton Lane) appears in The Best Jazz Standards Ever. "April in Paris," "It's Only a Paper Moon" and "I Like the Likes of You" appear in Essential Songs of the 1930's and "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "Old Devil Moon" appear in Essential Songs of the 1940's.

Deena Rosenberg and Harold Meyerson's essay on Yip appears in the current volume (#265) of The Dictionary of Literary Biography: American Song Lyricists, 1920-1960, devoted solely to great lyricists of the golden age of American song writing.

The Dramatist (journal of the Dramatists Guild of America) published over twenty of Yip's poems in its March / April 2005 issue focusing on political themes. The poems were originally published in Yip's 1976 collection, At This Point in Rhyme.

In the April 2005 issue of Freethought Today is an article by Dan Barker called "Yip Harburg: Secular Songwriter." Mr. Barker discusses Yip's agnosticism which took shape after the death of his older brother, Max. The article also includes a number of Yip's poems.

The lyrics to "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and "Over the Rainbow" are included in The New Anthology of American Poetry: Modernisms 1900-1950 published in Fall 2005 by Rutgers University Press.

On September 28, 2005 Scarecrow Press published Sondra Gorney's Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?: The Life of Composer Jay Gorney. In addition to "Dime," Yip and Jay wrote dozens of other songs together, mostly in the late 20's and early 30's, and remained lifelong friends.

On October 20, 2005 Overlook Press published Honky Tonk Parade: New Yorker Profiles of Show People, a collection of essays by John Lahr. Included is his 1996 piece on Yip, "The Lemon-Drop Kid."

The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical by Mark N. Grant (Northeastern University Press, 2004) contains several pages about Yip as a Broadway auteur and the impact of his four political musicals, Hooray for What!, Bloomer Girl, Finian's Rainbow and Flahooley.

Alisa Roost's The Other Musical Theatre: Political Satire in Broadway Musicals from Strike Up the Band (1927) to Anyone Can Whistle (1964) not only contains a chapter on Yip but cites him throughout as a major influence on the genre (dissertation thesis for City University of New York, 2001).

Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time, edited by Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnick, was published by Black Dog and Leventhal in Fall 2004. Bloomer Girl and Finian's Rainbow are among the selections.


EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES

In March 2001 Judy Garland's recording of "Over the Rainbow" was named #1 of 365 Greatest Recordings of the 20th century in a poll conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America. A curriculum consisting of a study of the songs was distributed to 6,500 5th-grade teachers nationwide.

A CD-ROM project using Yip's lyrics to increase reading proficiency for 3rd to 4th graders, students of English as a second language, and those with other language difficulties is being planned.

"The American Musicals Project" at the NY Historical Society has created a Bloomer Girl component for the NYC Board of Education with lesson plans, recordings and videos for use in social studies and literature curricula in NYC public schools. Deena Rosenberg is teaching teachers to use the new curricula.

Lower East Side Community High School in on E. 12th St. in NYC (near where Yip grew up) has taught literacy-through-musical-theatre using Yip's (and his colleagues') songs and musicals. Deena Rosenberg directs this project.

	A revival of The Happiest Girl in the World, the 1961 Yip Harburg-Jacques Offenbach anti-war musical based on Lysistrata and stories from Bulfinch's Mythology, was presented by The Medicine Show Theatre in New York City from November 17-December 17, 2006. This production was based on two scripts originally provided by the Yip Harburg Foundation. For further information, see a related article in Playbill.
	Jamaica, the 1957 musical by Yip and Harold Arlen which starred Lena Horne on Broadway, was presented in concert form by the York Theatre Company in New York City from April 8-10, 2005 with a book revised by Jeff Hochhauser.
	The Westport Country Playhouse (Joanne Woodward, Artistic Director) launched its 75th anniversary season in its newly renovated theatre with the Irish Rep's Finian's Rainbow, directed by Charlotte Moore. The show ran from June 16 - July 2, 2005. Leading the cast were Milo O'Shea as Finian and, reprising their original Irish Rep performances, Melissa Errico as Sharon and Malcolm Gets as Og.
	On Saturday July 30, 2005 at 2pm the Musical Theatre Department of the University of Michigan presented Look to the Rainbow: A Tribute to the Songs of Yip Harburg at the Mendelssohn Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Written and directed by Brent Wagner, Chair of the renowned Musical Theatre Department at the University of Michigan, with musical direction by former UM faculty member Grant Wenaus, and choeography by UM graduate Darryl Semira, the show was performed by students from throughout the country studying in the pre-college training program sponsored by the Musical Theatre Department at UM.
	A full-length version of Finian's Rainbow ran from September 6 - October 23, 2005 at the Walnut Street Theatre of Philadelphia (Artistic Director, Bernard Havard). The production was directed by Malcolm Black.
	Light Opera Works of Evanston, Illinois presented the 1968 Yip Harburg-Jule Styne musical, Darling of the Day from October 2-November 6, 2005 to celebrate the Styne centennial. LOW used a revised book by Erik Haagensen which was staged in New York City in 1998 as part of the York Theatre Company's renowned "Musicals in Mufti" series. The York also presented an encore of its 1998 production from April 15-17, 2005, starring Rebecca Luker, Simon Jones, Stephen Mo Hanan and Beth Fowler. Jones and Mo Hanan reprised their 1998 performances. (This production was chosen as one of THE TEN BEST THEATRE EVENTS OF 2005 by Richard Corliss of TIME magazine. For background on the show and the York production, see "Peter Filichia's Diary" in the March 16, 2005 edition of TheatreMania on the web.)
	Finian's Rainbow, the 1947 Yip Harburg-Burton Lane-Fred Saidy musical classic, ran at Stage West Community Playhouse of Spring Hill, Florida (Robert Reece, Artistic Director) from November 3-20, 2005. See the rave review in the St. Petersburg Times.
	Stage and screen director Arthur Allan Seidelman is developing Look to the Rainbow, a musical revue about Yip's life and works. The first reading, using two pianos with limited staging and choreography, took place at the University of Judaism in Bel Air, California, on December 18 and 19, 2004.
	Finian's Rainbow has been running (in Czech) throughout the Czech Republic since 1948 under the title Divotvorný Hrnec ("The Magic Pot"). An updated version opened at Prague's Fidlovacka Theatre on November 25, 2004.
	The 42nd Street Moon theatre company in San Francisco presented an NEA-sponsored restoration of the 1937 Yip Harburg-Harold Arlen anti-war musical Hooray for What! from November 10-28, 2004.
	Bill Rudman continues to develop his "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" cabaret, featuring political songs from the American musical theatre (many by Yip). The show has played in over 25 Ohio venues in 1999.
	The Lyric Stage Theatre of Irving, Texas opened its 2004-05 season with the Irish Rep version of Finian's Rainbow directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge.
	Finian’s Rainbow ended its smash-hit SRO run at The Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City on July 11th, 2004 after being held over from its original closing date of May 30. This production was adapted to concert form and directed by the Rep's Artistic Director Charlotte Moore, and nominated for both Drama League and Drama Desk Awards as "Best Revival of a Musical." See the RECORDINGS section for information about the cast album.
	In 2001 The Paul Taylor Dance Company began touring Black Tuesday, a series of dance pieces choreographed to popular songs of the Great Depression, including a ballet performed to Rudy Vallee's recording of the 1932 Yip Harburg-Jay Gorney classic, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"

	On June 27, 2006, 19 Recordings Limited/RCA Records released American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee's single, "My Destiny"/"Over the Rainbow" which she sang to great acclaim on AI's 2006 season finale.
	On August 30, 2005 Decca-Broadway released a new CD featuring Ethel Merman, The World Is Your Balloon: The Decca Singles, 1950-1951. The title song is from the 1951 Yip Harburg-Sammy Fain musical, Flahooley.
	The cast album of the Irish Repertory Theatre's 2004 concert revival of Finian's Rainbow was released on November 16, 2004. It can be ordered from Ghostlight Records.
	DC-area singer Beverly Cosham celebrated the release of her new CD, Beverly Cosham Sings Yip Harburg, on Thursday, September 23, 2004 at 8pm at the Reston Community Center of Reston, Va.
	In March 2004 DRG re-released the original Broadway cast album of the 1951 Yip Harburg-Sammy Fain musical Flahooley.
	The original 1961 Broadway cast album of the Yip-Jacques Offenbach musical, The Happiest Girl in the World, was released on CD by DRG Records on Sept. 10, 2002.
	In December, 2003 the piano/vocal duo of William Bolcom and Joan Morris, with vocalist Max Morath, released Bolcom, Morris and Morath Sing Yip Harburg on the Original Cast label. The songs were recorded live in concert at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City in June, 2003. This CD includes rarities as well as familiar standards.
	In 2003 Singer Karen Lynn Gorney, daughter of Jay Gorney (composer of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?") recently released Hot Moonlight, a CD of songs composed by her father, including four he wrote with Yip ("Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" "Ah, But Is It Love?" and "Adrift on a Star," as well as the title song).

	On April 29, 2006 Yip's son Ernie Harburg was interviewed about his father's views regarding religion by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of the Freedom from Religion Foundation on their new weekly program Freethought Radio. The broadcast was a tie-in to the recent publication of Yip's light verse by FFRF. Freethought Radio airs live from Madison, Wisconsin on 92.1 FM, Saturdays 8-9 a.m.
	On April 22, 2006 National Public Radio reporter Iris Mann presented a piece about the new biography of Jay Gorney (the composer who wrote the music to "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" with Yip) written by Jay's widow Sondra Gorney.
	Bill Rudman's nationally syndicated radio show "Footlight Parade," broadcast a segment about Yip and his songs, featuring an interview with Ernie Harburg, in spring 2003. A CD of this show is available from the Yip Harburg Foundation.
	On November 10, 2002 BBC-Scotland broadcast a segment of the "Songlines" series about "Over the Rainbow." Their 2001 segment about "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" was outstanding. Both are now available on one CD from the Yip Harburg Foundation.

	On October 25, 2005 Warner Home Video reissued The Wizard of Oz (1939) on DVD. It is available both as two- and three-disc sets, the latter boasting a new documentary about Oz author L. Frank Baum. Both versions feature a new digital transfer using "Ultra-Resolution" technology as well as a remastering of the soundtrack which features the immortal score by Yip and composer Harold Arlen.
	In a CBS-TV special aired on June 22, 2004, “Over the Rainbow” (lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Harold Arlen, from the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz) was announced as the best song in US film history by the American Film Institute. “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” by the same team came in at number 82. (In 2001 “Over the Rainbow” was also chosen “Greatest Song of the 20th Century” in a poll conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America.)
	The Yip Harburg Foundation, with Marie Nesthus, Director of the Donnell Media Center of the NY Public Library, has compiled a Yip Harburg Political Documentary Collection housed at the Center where periodic screenings of selected films with appearances by the filmmakers will be held. The collection consists of over 40 documentaries that have been funded by the Foundation. The first documentary film screenings took place on April 15, 22 and 29, 2004.
	Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica's Democracy Now, interviewed Yip's son Ernie in 1996 on the occasion of a centennial exhibit of Yip's memorabilia at the Billy Rose Library for the Performing Arts. In 2003 Ms. Goodman and her colleagues combined the soundtrack of this interview with video images to create the documentary, A Tribute to Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz. Since then the documentary has been broadcast annually on Democracy Now as a holiday special. A transcript is also available on the Democracy Now web site.
	On September 14, 2003 Bon Show TV in Japan broadcast a docu-drama about the Arlen-Harburg classic song, "Over the Rainbow." The program combined interviews with John Fricke, Mickey Rooney, Ernest Harburg and Deena Rosenberg (among others) with the story of a Japanese teenager who travels to America to research the history and legacy of the song.
	A rarely-seen televised version of the 1944 Yip Harburg-Fred Saidy-Harold Arlen musical Bloomer Girl was screened as part of the "Musicals on Television" series at the Museum of TV and Radio on October 1, 2004. The show was originally broadcast on May 28, 1956 as part of the Producers' Showcase series and starred Barbara Cook, Keith Andes and Paul Ford.
	"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" written by Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney for the 1932 Broadway revue Americana, is featured in episode three (“I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’”) of a new documentary by Michael Kantor entitled Broadway: The American Musical, which aired on PBS October 19, 20 and 21, 2004. The DVD, with several hours of extras, is available in stores, as well as through Amazon and other internet sources. The lavishly illustrated companion book, featuring a rare photograph of the original performance of "Dime," is available from Bulfinch Press.

	www.yipharburg.com - official site created by Yip's heirs, containing information about the Yip Harburg Foundation, a calendar of events, biographical information, a complete song list and much more
	http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/the/the.html - web site of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library which houses an extensive E.Y. Harburg Collection
	http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/music/har-d.htm - a complete listing of the contents of the E.Y. Harburg Collection, part of the American Musical Theatre Collection, Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University; these materials were donated by Yip in 1968
	http://www.tams-witmark.com - the web site of the Tams-Witmark Music Library which licenses four of Yip's major Broadway musicals: Finian's Rainbow, Bloomer Girl, Jamaica and The Happiest Girl in the World.
	http://www.nfo.net/www/bigband.html - A major WorldWide Web reference source for American, Canadian, and English popular music and jazz. Many links to other Web sites.
	http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibit_home_page.asp?exhibitId=14 - The Yip Harburg Exhibit at The Songwriters Hall of Fame Virtual Museum
	http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/showmusic/ - The Library of Congress's Show Music on Record Database contains discographic information for commercially-released recordings including many with lyrics by Yip

	On June 17, 2006 The Holy Apostles Community Chorus (New York City) presented Teamwork: A Musical Partnership in which the 70-voice chorus sang the songs of Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen from The Wizard of Oz, Bloomer Girl and other hits. Guest soloists were Rashad Naylor from Broadway's Hairspray, Nicole Tieri from 2004 American Idol, Gail Nelson from Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill and Ben Harburg, Yip's grandson. The event was directed by Jack Eppler with J. David Williams as pianist and organist.
	On April 29, 2006 the Young People's Chorus of New York City gave the world premieres of new works by Mark Adamo, John Corigliano and others. Among the pieces presented was Mr. Corigliano's Sweet Morning, set to Yip's poem.
	On April 6, 2006 at 6pm the Donnell Media Center of the NY Public Library, in association with the Yip Harburg Foundation, presented the third annual theatrical concert celebrating the Yip Harburg Documentary Collection. This year's program, narrated by Deena Rosenberg, was entitled A Song Makes You Feel a Thought and explored how composers and lyricists collaborate to create theatre and film songs. Singers were Catherine Russell and Ben Harburg. David Brunetti directed and accompanied the singers on piano. The program also featured rare film clips of Yip Harburg Harold Arlen and the Gershwins. A DVD of this event is available from The Yip Harburg Foundation.
	On April 2, 2006 at 8pm the Holy Apostles Community Chorus of Manhattan held a musical evening to benefit the Holy Apostles Community Chorus (which will also present a full concert of Harold Arlen-Yip Harburg songs on June 17 - see "Upcoming" for details). Among the singers at this cabaret was Ben Harburg. The musical director was David Brunetti.
	On February 13, 2006 Theater for the New City in Manhattan held its third annual Love 'n' Courage benefit with a brief concert of Yip Harburg's songs performed by Catherine Russell, Stephen Bogardus and Ben Harburg, accompanied by David Brunetti on piano, and narrated by Deena Rosenberg. Following the Yip Harburg concert, New Orleans jazz singer Troi Bechet performed with her quartet. Charles Busch and Julie Halston hosted the evening, reading Yip's poems with great timing and panache. Proceeds went to Theater for the New City's Emerging Playwrights Program as well as the Southern Rep Theater in New Orleans which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
	On April 7, 2005 Donnell Media Center of the NY Public Library presented the second annual theatrical concert celebrating the Yip Harburg Documentary Collection (see "FILM AND TV"). This year's event, "Hooray for What! Yip Harburg's Songs and Poems of Love and War," featured Stephen Bogardus, Catherine Russell and Diane Sutherland, as well as Ben Harburg (Yip's grandson). The concert was narrated by Deena Rosenberg, directed by Michael Montel and musical directed by David Brunetti, also on piano. A DVD of this event is available from the Yip Harburg Foundation.
	The U.S. Postal Service issued a 37-cent Yip Harburg commemorative stamp on April 28, 2005. Stamp designer Ethel Kessler began with a photograph taken by Barbara Bordnick in 1978, then added other elements including a rainbow and the lyric fragment ['somewhere over the rainbow'] from Yip and Harold Arlen's Oscar-winning song." The launching ceremony at New York City's 92nd Street Y featured Maureen McGovern, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, Stephen Bogardus, Catherine Russell, cast members from the Irish Repertory Theatre's revival of Finian's Rainbow as well as Yip's youngest grandson Ben. Yip's daughter Marge and son Ernie also participated in the unveiling. A DVD of this event is available from the Yip Harburg Foundation.
	On June 3, 2005 the Congressional Chorus presented a Yip Harburg celebration at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Terrace Theatre in Washington, D.C. The show featured selections from The Wizard of Oz, Finian's Rainbow, and many other well-known works such as “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” The musical director was Michael Patterson and the arranger and pianist was Bob Tartaglia. The same concert was presented as a benefit for the Washington City Church of the Brethren on Sunday May 22, 2005 at 4pm. A third celebration was held at the National Postal Museum at 2 Massachusetts Ave. in Washington, D.C. on June 17.
	On June 6, 2005 Yip was honored with an "Excellence in Diversity" award by Actors Equity, AFTRA and SAG at a ceremony held at the East West Players in Los Angeles. The Diversity Awards are a tri-union honor, initiated by the Actors Equity Association Western Regional Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. This year's event was titled "Honoring Our Pioneers." Other award recipients were Ossie Davis, Beulah Quo and Will Sampson.
	On Thursday, April 8, 2004 (Yip's 108th birthday) there was a free concert entitled "Yip Harburg's Lyrics of Social Comment" to launch the Yip Harburg Documentary Film Collection at the Donnell Media Center, New York Public Library. The concert was conceived and narrated by Deena Rosenberg, directed by Michael Montel, and featured Broadway singers Stephen Bogardus (Man of La Mancha), Sherry Boone (Jelly's Last Jam), T. Oliver Reid (Thoroughly Modern Millie) and Diane Sutherland (A Chorus Line).
	Musical director Ted Sperling presented Yip Harburg: Beyond the Rainbow as part of the 92nd Street Y's "Lyrics and Lyricists" series from March 20-22, 2004 at the Y's Tisch Center. Yip was the first lyricist featured in the series in 1970.
	Bill Sheldon, former host of WFMT-radio's "Words and Music" program in Chicago, presented two gala evenings in Chicago in 2003: Over the Rainbow: The Songs of Yip Harburg at Gallery 37 Center for the Arts on September 8 with vocalist Spider Saloff and musical director Jeremy Kahn; and After the Rainbow: A Celebration of the Music of Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies on September 11. Spider Saloff sang under the musical direction of Jeremy Kahn. Kelly Sill and Eric Schneider also performed.
	On Saturday, October 11, 2003, at Lincoln Center's Bruno Walter Auditorium, Anna Wheeler Gentry and pianist Vicky Ohl presented a performance lecture analyzing songs from Walk a Little Faster including "April in Paris," "So Nonchalant," "Speaking of Love," "That's Life," and others. The event is part of an educational series celebrating the centennial birth year of Vernon Duke (1903-1969).
	On Sunday, August 3, 2003, Anna Wheeler Gentry presented a poster session (entitled "Reconstruction and Revival of a 1932 Musical Revue: A Work in Progress") at the national conference for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (at New York City's Marriott Marquis Hotel) regarding her ongoing restoration of the Harburg/Duke musical revue, Walk a Little Faster.
	From June 20-22, 2003, the duo of pianist/composer William Bolcom and singer Joan Morris, along with singer Max Morath, presented a concert entitled, Over the Rainbow: Music to the Lyrics of Yip Harburg at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City.
	On June 14, 2003 at the Aronow Theatre at the City College of New York (Yip's alma mater) a tribute concert to Yip and fellow alumnus and friend Ira Gershwin was presented on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the school's first graduating class. Yip and Gersh was conceived by Deena Rosenberg, directed by Michael Montel and featured top Broadway singers. An encore performance will take place at the Roosevelt Hotel Ballroom on November 13, 2003. An encore performance took place at the Roosevelt Hotel Ballroom on November 13, 2003.
	Also on June 14, 2003 The Holy Apostles Community Chorus of New York City, conducted by Jack Eppler, performed a concert of Yip's songs at the Church of the Holy Apostle at 9th Avenue and 28th Street.

	In March 2006 Welcome Books reissued Over the Rainbow, edited by Mary Tiegreen. This book illustrates the lyric to the famous Harburg-Arlen classic song with paintings by Maxfield Parrish.
	In January 2006 Yip's two volumes of light verse, Rhymes for the Irreverent and At This Point in Rhyme, were reissued in one hardcover volume by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The new publication includes several unpublished poems as well as new illustrations by Seymour Chwast who illustrated the original edition in 1965. Available from Amazon, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Yip Harburg Foundation.
	Four music collections for piano, vocal and guitar from Hal Leonard Publications contain songs with Yip’s lyrics. “Last Night When We Were Young” (1935, composer, Harold Arlen) appears in The Best Torch Songs Ever and “Old Devil Moon” (from Finian’s Rainbow, 1947; composer, Burton Lane) appears in The Best Jazz Standards Ever. "April in Paris," "It's Only a Paper Moon" and "I Like the Likes of You" appear in Essential Songs of the 1930's and "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "Old Devil Moon" appear in Essential Songs of the 1940's.
	Deena Rosenberg and Harold Meyerson's essay on Yip appears in the current volume (#265) of The Dictionary of Literary Biography: American Song Lyricists, 1920-1960, devoted solely to great lyricists of the golden age of American song writing.
	The Dramatist (journal of the Dramatists Guild of America) published over twenty of Yip's poems in its March / April 2005 issue focusing on political themes. The poems were originally published in Yip's 1976 collection, At This Point in Rhyme.
	In the April 2005 issue of Freethought Today is an article by Dan Barker called "Yip Harburg: Secular Songwriter." Mr. Barker discusses Yip's agnosticism which took shape after the death of his older brother, Max. The article also includes a number of Yip's poems.
	The lyrics to "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and "Over the Rainbow" are included in The New Anthology of American Poetry: Modernisms 1900-1950 published in Fall 2005 by Rutgers University Press.
	On September 28, 2005 Scarecrow Press published Sondra Gorney's Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?: The Life of Composer Jay Gorney. In addition to "Dime," Yip and Jay wrote dozens of other songs together, mostly in the late 20's and early 30's, and remained lifelong friends.
	On October 20, 2005 Overlook Press published *Honky Tonk Parade: New Yorker Profiles of Show People*, a collection of essays by John Lahr. Included is his 1996 piece on Yip, "The Lemon-Drop Kid."
	The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical by Mark N. Grant (Northeastern University Press, 2004) contains several pages about Yip as a Broadway auteur and the impact of his four political musicals, Hooray for What!, Bloomer Girl, Finian's Rainbow and Flahooley.
	Alisa Roost's The Other Musical Theatre: Political Satire in Broadway Musicals from Strike Up the Band (1927) to Anyone Can Whistle (1964) not only contains a chapter on Yip but cites him throughout as a major influence on the genre (dissertation thesis for City University of New York, 2001).
	Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time, edited by Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnick, was published by Black Dog and Leventhal in Fall 2004. Bloomer Girl and Finian's Rainbow are among the selections.

	In March 2001 Judy Garland's recording of "Over the Rainbow" was named #1 of 365 Greatest Recordings of the 20th century in a poll conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America. A curriculum consisting of a study of the songs was distributed to 6,500 5th-grade teachers nationwide.
	A CD-ROM project using Yip's lyrics to increase reading proficiency for 3rd to 4th graders, students of English as a second language, and those with other language difficulties is being planned.
	"The American Musicals Project" at the NY Historical Society has created a Bloomer Girl component for the NYC Board of Education with lesson plans, recordings and videos for use in social studies and literature curricula in NYC public schools. Deena Rosenberg is teaching teachers to use the new curricula.
	Lower East Side Community High School in on E. 12th St. in NYC (near where Yip grew up) has taught literacy-through-musical-theatre using Yip's (and his colleagues') songs and musicals. Deena Rosenberg directs this project.