Yip Harburg current news

news


CURRENT \| UPCOMING \| ARCHIVE

On Saturday October 9, 2010 at 3:00 pm the Paley Center for Media in New York City will screen the 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. (1956; 90 minutes) Following the screening, Bloomer Girl star Barbara Cook and Ernie Harburg (son of lyricist Yip Harburg) will be interviewed by Bill Rudman, host of the Sirius XM on Broadway program On the Aisle. Reservations are required for the screening and discussion and can be made from September 9 onward. Free tickets available to Members on September 9; $10 tickets available to general public on September 15.

In August-September 2010, the Lost Musicals series in London is staging a concert revival of the 1968 Yip Harburg-Jule Styne musical Darling of the Day. This performance, directed by Lost Musicals founder Ian Marshall Fisher, is being presented at the National Portrait Gallery Ondaatje Theater in association with Sadler's Wells dance house. Click here for details.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

PS Classics released a cast album of the current Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow in February 2010.

Edward Rothstein analyzed Yip's use of suffixes in "Grandish Wordplay: Harburg's Ish List" in the Dec. 23, 2009 issue of The New York Times.

Keith Lee Grant's new adaptation of the 1951 Yip Harburg-Sammy Fain musical satire Flahooley was presented at Theater for the New City in Manhattan from Dec. 18, 2009 through Jan. 3, 2010. Click here to read a feature article about the musical by Jonathan Slaff of NewsBlaze, and click here to read Daniel M. Gold's review in The New York Times.

On November 15, 2009 cabaret artist Nancy Stearns performed a special CD release show of her spring 2009 cabaret Yip Harburg: With Humor and Hope at Don't Tell Mama in NYC.

Hal Leonard Music Publishers released a new edition of The Yip Harburg Songbook on October 6, 2009. It contains sheet music to 34 songs with lyrics by Yip. The previous edition, put out by Alfred Publishers (formerly CPP-Belwin/Warner Publications) is now out of print. Also newly available from Alfred are vocal selections from Finian's Rainbow.

In Fall 2009 Alfred Music Publishing released a deluxe 70th anniversary edition of a deluxe 70th anniversary edition of Wizard of Oz vocal selections including character themes, the complete Munchkinland musical sequence and the deleted song "The Jitterbug."

From Oct. 2-4, 2009 The Yip Harburg Foundation, along with the City College of New York and the Harlem Repertory Theatre held a Yip Harburg Festival at CCNY's Aaron Davis Hall. Events included a new, one-hour version of The Wizard of Oz; Yip and Gersh (a theatrical concert of song with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg starring Stephen Bogardus and Sherry Boone and narrated by Deena Harburg); the world premiere of a new adaptation of the 1951 Harburg-Fain musical Flahooley.

Actress-singer Kate Baldwin's debut CD, Let's See What Happens, consisting entirely of songs by Burton Lane and Yip Harburg, was released Oct. 20, 2009 by PS Classics. Ms. Baldwin played Sharon in the 2009 Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow.

The classic Yip Harburg-Burton Lane-Fred Saidy musical Finian's Rainbow returned to Broadway on Oct. 29, 2009 through Jan. 17, 2010 at the St. James Theatre. A press release by the producers stated: "Despite the rave reviews and extraordinarily positive audience reception, the economic realities of Broadway today do not allow us to play at the St. James as long as we would have hoped. We are thrilled, however, that our gorgeous musical score-performed by our incredible cast and brilliant orchestra-lives on in our soon to be released cast album."

On September 29, 2009 Warner Home Video released a 70th anniversary blu-ray edition of The Wizard of Oz with greater image clarity and more extra features than any previous edition.

On September 21, 2009 the Barnes & Noble book store at Lincoln Triangle in New York City presented The Return of Finian's Rainbow: A Salute to Lane & Harburg, featuring Lynn Lane (widow of composer Burton Lane) and Ernie Harburg (Yip Harburg's son). To a packed house, the two discussed the creation of this classic show with theater historian Robert Kimball and shared personal memories of Yip and Burt. Special musical guests Richard Holbrook and Nancy Stearns sang several songs written by the team.

In the July 25, 2009 issue of the Guardian, Emma Brockes writes about the 70th anniversary of the 1939 motion picture classic The Wizard of Oz (lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Harold Arlen). Yip's son Ernie was among the interviewees for the piece.

Cabaret artist Nancy Stearns performed her new show, Yip Harburg: With Humor and Hope at Don't Tell Mama in New York City on April 26 and May 6, 2009.

The Yip Harburg Political Documentary Collection, housed since 2004 at the Donnell Media Center in New York City, moved to the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts in 2009. The 2009 screenings which took place at the Bruno Walter Auditorium were: APRIL 3: A Tribute to Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz. APRIL 10: The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy. APRIL 17: Eleanor Roosevelt (co-producer Kathryn Dietz will be present to introduce the film and participate in a Q&A afterwards). APRIL 24: Living Broke in Boom Times. Admission to these screenings is free.

The Yip Harburg-Harold Arlen classic "Over the Rainbow" is prominently featured throughout the Baz Luhrmann film epic Australia which was released inernationallly in November 2008.

The late broadcaster and author Studs Terkel's posthumous collection of essays, P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening, contains the transcript of a radio interview Yip did with Studs in 1978. Yip was also featured in Terkel's well-known oral history, Hard Times, a collection of memories of the Great Depression.

On November 17, 2008 Yip's son Ernie and his wife Deena, along with their son Ben, were on hand at Theater for the New City in Manhattan to launch the "New City-New Film & Media" Series. A program of rare films clips about Yip's life and work, edited by Francesse Maingrette, was introduced by the Harburgs.

On November 15, 2008 musician-composer-author Robert Kapilow joined Susan Stamberg on NPR's Saturday Weekend Edition in a discussion and analysis of the Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney classic "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (The first song explored in the series was Harburg and Arlen's "Over the Rainbow.")

On August 1st and 16th, 2008 Eric Barsness (bass), Carol Diefenbach (mezzo soprano), Jody Weatherstone (soprano) and Jim Blanton (piano) will present The Wizard of Verse, a musical tribute to Yip and his composers. The concerts will be presented by the Delaware Valley Opera at the Seelig Theatre at Sullivan (NY) County Community College, 112 College St., Loch Sheldrake, NY 12754. Tickets: 845-252-7272 ; box office: 845-434-5750 x 4303.

On the July 6, 2008 broacast of NPR's "Weekend Morning Edition" senior news analyst Daniel Schorr sang the Yip Harburg-Jay Gorney classic "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" a capella from memory as part of a reminiscence about the Great Depression.

	On Saturday October 9, 2010 at 3:00 pm the Paley Center for Media in New York City will screen the 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. (1956; 90 minutes) Following the screening, Bloomer Girl star Barbara Cook and Ernie Harburg (son of lyricist Yip Harburg) will be interviewed by Bill Rudman, host of the Sirius XM on Broadway program On the Aisle. Reservations are required for the screening and discussion and can be made from September 9 onward. Free tickets available to Members on September 9; $10 tickets available to general public on September 15.
	In August-September 2010, the Lost Musicals series in London is staging a concert revival of the 1968 Yip Harburg-Jule Styne musical Darling of the Day. This performance, directed by Lost Musicals founder Ian Marshall Fisher, is being presented at the National Portrait Gallery Ondaatje Theater in association with Sadler's Wells dance house. Click here for details.
	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.
	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.
	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.
	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.
	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.
	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.
	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.
	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.
	PS Classics released a cast album of the current Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow in February 2010.
	Edward Rothstein analyzed Yip's use of suffixes in "Grandish Wordplay: Harburg's Ish List" in the Dec. 23, 2009 issue of The New York Times.
	Keith Lee Grant's new adaptation of the 1951 Yip Harburg-Sammy Fain musical satire Flahooley was presented at Theater for the New City in Manhattan from Dec. 18, 2009 through Jan. 3, 2010. Click here to read a feature article about the musical by Jonathan Slaff of NewsBlaze, and click here to read Daniel M. Gold's review in The New York Times.
	On November 15, 2009 cabaret artist Nancy Stearns performed a special CD release show of her spring 2009 cabaret Yip Harburg: With Humor and Hope at Don't Tell Mama in NYC.
	Hal Leonard Music Publishers released a new edition of The Yip Harburg Songbook on October 6, 2009. It contains sheet music to 34 songs with lyrics by Yip. The previous edition, put out by Alfred Publishers (formerly CPP-Belwin/Warner Publications) is now out of print. Also newly available from Alfred are vocal selections from Finian's Rainbow.
	In Fall 2009 Alfred Music Publishing released a deluxe 70th anniversary edition of a deluxe 70th anniversary edition of Wizard of Oz vocal selections including character themes, the complete Munchkinland musical sequence and the deleted song "The Jitterbug."
	From Oct. 2-4, 2009 The Yip Harburg Foundation, along with the City College of New York and the Harlem Repertory Theatre held a Yip Harburg Festival at CCNY's Aaron Davis Hall. Events included a new, one-hour version of The Wizard of Oz; Yip and Gersh (a theatrical concert of song with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg starring Stephen Bogardus and Sherry Boone and narrated by Deena Harburg); the world premiere of a new adaptation of the 1951 Harburg-Fain musical Flahooley.
	Actress-singer Kate Baldwin's debut CD, Let's See What Happens, consisting entirely of songs by Burton Lane and Yip Harburg, was released Oct. 20, 2009 by PS Classics. Ms. Baldwin played Sharon in the 2009 Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow.
	The classic Yip Harburg-Burton Lane-Fred Saidy musical Finian's Rainbow returned to Broadway on Oct. 29, 2009 through Jan. 17, 2010 at the St. James Theatre. A press release by the producers stated: "Despite the rave reviews and extraordinarily positive audience reception, the economic realities of Broadway today do not allow us to play at the St. James as long as we would have hoped. We are thrilled, however, that our gorgeous musical score-performed by our incredible cast and brilliant orchestra-lives on in our soon to be released cast album."
	On September 29, 2009 Warner Home Video released a 70th anniversary blu-ray edition of The Wizard of Oz with greater image clarity and more extra features than any previous edition.
	On September 21, 2009 the Barnes & Noble book store at Lincoln Triangle in New York City presented The Return of Finian's Rainbow: A Salute to Lane & Harburg, featuring Lynn Lane (widow of composer Burton Lane) and Ernie Harburg (Yip Harburg's son). To a packed house, the two discussed the creation of this classic show with theater historian Robert Kimball and shared personal memories of Yip and Burt. Special musical guests Richard Holbrook and Nancy Stearns sang several songs written by the team.
	In the July 25, 2009 issue of the Guardian, Emma Brockes writes about the 70th anniversary of the 1939 motion picture classic The Wizard of Oz (lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Harold Arlen). Yip's son Ernie was among the interviewees for the piece.
	Cabaret artist Nancy Stearns performed her new show, Yip Harburg: With Humor and Hope at Don't Tell Mama in New York City on April 26 and May 6, 2009.
	The Yip Harburg Political Documentary Collection, housed since 2004 at the Donnell Media Center in New York City, moved to the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts in 2009. The 2009 screenings which took place at the Bruno Walter Auditorium were: APRIL 3: A Tribute to Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz. APRIL 10: The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy. APRIL 17: Eleanor Roosevelt (co-producer Kathryn Dietz will be present to introduce the film and participate in a Q&A afterwards). APRIL 24: Living Broke in Boom Times. Admission to these screenings is free.
	The Yip Harburg-Harold Arlen classic "Over the Rainbow" is prominently featured throughout the Baz Luhrmann film epic Australia which was released inernationallly in November 2008.
	The late broadcaster and author Studs Terkel's posthumous collection of essays, *P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening, contains the transcript of a radio interview Yip did with Studs in 1978. Yip was also featured in Terkel's well-known oral history, Hard Times*, a collection of memories of the Great Depression.
	On November 17, 2008 Yip's son Ernie and his wife Deena, along with their son Ben, were on hand at Theater for the New City in Manhattan to launch the "New City-New Film & Media" Series. A program of rare films clips about Yip's life and work, edited by Francesse Maingrette, was introduced by the Harburgs.
	On November 15, 2008 musician-composer-author Robert Kapilow joined Susan Stamberg on NPR's Saturday Weekend Edition in a discussion and analysis of the Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney classic "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (The first song explored in the series was Harburg and Arlen's "Over the Rainbow.")
	On August 1st and 16th, 2008 Eric Barsness (bass), Carol Diefenbach (mezzo soprano), Jody Weatherstone (soprano) and Jim Blanton (piano) will present The Wizard of Verse, a musical tribute to Yip and his composers. The concerts will be presented by the Delaware Valley Opera at the Seelig Theatre at Sullivan (NY) County Community College, 112 College St., Loch Sheldrake, NY 12754. Tickets: 845-252-7272 ; box office: 845-434-5750 x 4303.
	On the July 6, 2008 broacast of NPR's "Weekend Morning Edition" senior news analyst Daniel Schorr sang the Yip Harburg-Jay Gorney classic "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" a capella from memory as part of a reminiscence about the Great Depression.