news

 
CURRENT     |  UPCOMING   |  ARCHIVE  
bullet

On Tuesday April 3, 2012 from 6-8 pm Long Island University will present a lecture presentation entitled “Riding the Rainbow/Writing the Rainbow: The Lyrics of Yip Harburg.” Speakers and performers will be Michael Lasser, Prof. Richard Iacona and Madeline Kole. The event will take place at the Hillwood Commons Lecture Hall, LIU Post and is one of several presentations hosted by LIU in conjunction with the traveling exhibit A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-1965, on display at the Hutchins Gallery of LIU’s B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library from March 18 through April 12, 2012.

bullet On March 18 and 19, 2012 Merkin Hall in New York City's Kaufman Center will present a tribute to Yip Harburg as part of its Broadway Playhouse series in which children are introduced to great figures of American musical theatre.
bullet The winter 2011-12 issue of Jewish Currents contains an article by Dick Flacks about Yip on the 30th anniversary of his death.
bullet

On February 13, 2012 Theater for the New City (TNC) and The National Arts Club will present Love 'n' Courage, the 9th annual benefit for TNC’s Emerging Playwrights Program. Featured in the program, along with Elaine Stritch, Tammy Grimes, Phoebe Legere and others, will be three members of the Yip Harburg Foundation’s Rainbow Troupe (Ben Harburg, Eric Poindexter and Jennifer Babiak), who will be performing song selections from “Free and Equal,” a new musical conceived by Deena Harburg, scripted by Arthur Perlman, directed and choreographed by Stephanie Fittro and with musical direction and piano accompaniment by David Brunetti.

bullet Finian's Rainbow Junior was enthusiastically received by an audience of 3,000 at the 2012 Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta. Read all about it here. And see excerpts on YouTube.
bullet The latest novel by Haruki Murakami, IQ84, opens with a quote from "It's Only a Paper Moon" (lyric by Yip Harburg, music by Harold Arlen).
bullet In his daily blog in The American Scholar of Nov. 7, 2011 author William Zinsser writes about the enduring relevance of the Yip Harburg-Jay Gorney song "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?"
bullet From September 30 -October 4, 2011 the New York Philharmonic presented the world premiere of a song cycle by composer John Corigliano called "One Sweet Morning" (named after a poem written by Yip Harburg and previously set to music by Earl Robinson), a reflection on war in the decade since 9/11, using texts from ancient times to the present. Mr. Corigliano's musical setting of Yip's poem was published by G. Schirmer, Inc. in 2005.
bullet In August 2011 Alfred Music Publishing released musical selections from Andrew Lloyd Webber's new stage production of The Wizard of Oz.
bullet On June 29, 2011 Richard Holbrook brought his acclaimed Burton Lane cabaret to a packed and appreciative house at Feinstein's (see April 8 and 10 below).
bullet The June 2011 issue of Neuen Zuricher Zeitung's magazine is devoted to the legacy of the song "Over the Rainbow," written by Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen for the 1939 motion picture The Wizard of Oz. Among the articles is an interview with Yip's son Ernie Harburg.
bullet On June 15 and 16, 2011 Lance Cruce and Chris Tanner presented "Optimistic Depression," a cabaret of songs with lyrics by Yip Harburg, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in Manhattan.
bullet Glee star Matthew Morrison sings a duet of the Harburg-Arlen song classic "Over the Rainbow" with Gwyneth Paltrow on his debut album (entitled "Matthew Morrison"), released May 10, 2011.
bullet Singer Karen Oberlin reprised her successful Yip Harburg cabaret at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York on April 30, 2011. The show was first performed in 2008 at the Metropolitan Room in New York City.
bullet The April 2011 edition of American Songwriter magazine (online edition only) featured a new article about Yip by Leigh Donaldson entitled "Yip Harburg: Father of the Socially Conscious Lyric."
bullet On April 8 and 10, 2011 singer Richard Holbrook presented his new cabaret "Richard Sings Burton: The Songs of Burton Lane," in honor of Lane's centennial year, at the Metropolitan Room in New York City. The songs included several with lyrics by Lane's frequent collaborator, Yip Harburg. The performances were recorded for an upcoming CD.
bullet From Mar. 11 through Apr. 10, 2011 The Quality Hill Playhouse in Kansas City, MO presented Look to the Rainbow, a revue featuring songs with lyrics by Yip Harburg.
bullet On March 1, 2011 Andrew Lloyd Webber's much-anticipated adaptation of The Wizard of Oz opened at London's Palladium with a cast including Michael Crawford as the Wizard. Webber has retained the beloved original score by Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, and also added some new songs written by himself and Tim Rice. The cast album was released May 9, 2011.
bullet The finale of the Feb. 27, 2011 Academy Awards telecast featured the chorus of Public School 22 of Staten Island, NY, led by Gregg Breinberg, singing the immortal Yip Harburg-Harold Arlen song "Over the Rainbow" (the winner of the Best Song award for 1939).
bullet The musicologists of Tablet, an online Jewish magazine, chose "Over the Rainbow" as the "Greatest Jewish Song Ever," topping even "Hava Nagila," in an article published in the December 21, 2010 issue.
bullet On Dec. 1, 2010 singer Josie O'Donnell performed her one-woman-show Yip Yip Hooray at the Rainberry Bay Theatre, Delray Beach, Florida, to a packed house. Josie knew Yip personally and appeared with him at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and other venues.
bullet On October 9, 2010 the Paley Center for Media in New York City screened the 1956 Producers' Showcase television adaptation of the 1944 Broadway show Bloomer Girl, set on the eve of the Civil War, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Yip Harburg, book by Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy, choreography by Agnes de Mille, and starring Barbara Cook, Keith Andes, Carmen Mathews, Rawn Spearman, and Paul Ford.  Following the screening, Bloomer Girl star Barbara Cook was interviewed by Bill Rudman, host of the Sirius XM on Broadway program On the Aisle. A packed house responded enthusiastically to the screening and the after-show chat a portion of which can be seen here.
bullet In August-September 2010, the Lost Musicals series in London staged a sold-out concert revival of the 1968 Yip Harburg-Jule Styne musical Darling of the Day. Directed by Lost Musicals founder Ian Marshall Fisher, the show was presented at the National Portrait Gallery Ondaatje Theater in association with Sadler's Wells dance house. Patricia Routledge, Tony-Award-winning star of the original Broadway production, attended the final performance on September 19 and participated in an after-show chat.
bullet The CD of Life Begins at 8:40 (see March 22 below) was released on June 8, 2010. It was recorded by the Grammy nominated label PS Classics and produced by its co-founder, Tommy Krasker. Here is a review by Steven Suskin.
bullet

The cast of Fox TV's "Glee" performed a version of "Over the Rainbow" (inspired by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's popular arrangement) for the Season 1 finale (episode 22), which aired June 8, 2010. In the show, Mr. Schue prepared a special performance for the Glee club. Watch it on Hulu. If the teenage girl in you is not yet satisfied by watching that clip, you can see The Celtic Women (Méav, Chloë, Órlagh, and Hayley) sing it at the Slane Castle, Ireland on any number of websites.

bullet

There are two performances of Divotvorny Hrnec ("Magical Pot"), the Czech Finian's Rainbow in Prague on June 15. The play has been a perennial favorite in the Czech Republic, where it has been continuously performed since 1948. It and will be presented by North Theatre of Opera and Ballet Usti nad Labem and at Divadlo (theater) Na Fidlovacce, Prague. At the latter theater, it has been in repertory since January 2009 and will have its final performance on June 15. Video clips from other performances in the Czech Republic can be found on YouTube.

bullet On May 4, 2010 the Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow received three Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical. Video clips from the show can be seen on the Tony Awards web site. Finian also received eight nominations for Drama Desk Awards (and a win for Christopher Fitzgerald as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Og), four for Outer Critics Circle Awards and two for Drama League Awards.
bullet On April 30 2010 the Yip Harburg Political Documentary Collection and the NY Public Library held a free screening of the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. The screening at the Bruno Walter Auditorium was packed. Daniel Ellsberg's son Robert Ellsberg was present to answer questions from the audience.
bullet

On April 16, 2010 the Yip Harburg Foundation and the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts co-sponsored a hugely successful free staged reading of The Wizard of Oz at Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center. This one-hour version will soon be available for licensing or purchase by schools.

bullet

On March 22, 2010 the Music Division of the Library of Congress presented the 1934 Harold Arlen/Ira Gershwin/Yip Harburg musical revue Life Begins at 8:40 in concert, its first live performance in 75 years, in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. Aaron Gandy conducted the 24-piece orchestra. The cast principals included Broadway and recording veterans Kate Baldwin, Philip Chaffin, Christopher Fitzgerald, Montego Glover, Rebecca Luker, Brad Oscar, Faith Prince, Graham Rowat and Jessica Stone.

bullet The March 2010 issue of Theatre Journal contains an essay by Shane Vogel entitled Jamaica on Broadway: The Popular Caribbean and Mock Transnational Performance, about the 1957 Yip Harburg-Fred Saidy-Harold Arlen musical starring the late Lena Horne.
bullet PS Classics released a cast album of the current Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow in February 2010.
 
up

©2012 yipharburg.com