New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) NJTV, New Jersey's public television network, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) announced the production of a new music television series, American Songbook at NJPAC, taped before a live audience at the Arts Center and airing on NJTV and WNET this fall.
The six-part series, to be taped in NJPAC's intimate
Victoria Theater on Saturday, June 15, will feature performances from eight stars of stage, screen and concert halls. Tom Wopat,
Valerie Simpson, Rebecca Luker,
Sandy Stewart and Bill Charlap, Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley, and
Maude Maggart will each perform a 40-minute set followed by a Q&A session conducted by Ted Chapin, president and executive director of Rodgers & Hammerstein: An Imagen Company.
The series will be crafted from two live performance sessions at NJPAC in Newark, NJ. The first session, at 12pm, will feature Wopat, Simpson and Luker, while the second, at 6pm, will feature Mazzie and Danieley, Stewart and Charlap, and Maggart. The American Songbook performance series at NJPAC is presented, in part, through the generous support of the
Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, and will benefit The Actors Fund.
Tickets are $29 for the each of the American Songbook at NJPAC sessions, and go on sale Friday, May 10 at 10am. Tickets are available by phone at 1-888-466-5722, online www.njpac.org, and at NJPAC's box office at 1 Center Street in Downtown Newark.
"NJTV is committed to giving the arts a broadcast home in New Jersey," said John Servidio, General Manager of NJTV. "Arts programming is intrinsic to the mission of public television, and we are one of the few outlets providing it in the television marketplace. To be able to capture this performance genre with entertainers of this caliber is very exciting. This series will serve as a model we can replicate at other forums to showcase all types of talent across the state."
"NJPAC is delighted to partner again with NJTV, this time on a special series to highlight American Song," said John Schreiber, President and CEO of NJPAC. "This series allows us to deliver unique and compelling content beyond the four walls of the Arts Center with some of America's premier interpreters of song." He added, "To be able to partner with The Actors Fund makes this series even more special."
"When John Schreiber asked me to host the conversations he conceived as part of the television shows to be produced with NJTV/WNET, I was honored," said Ted Chapin. "The American Songbook is endlessly fascinating, and the combination of first rate and focused performances by some of our most talented singers with interviews was too alluring to pass up. I have enjoyed the moderating and interviews I have done through the years and look forward to an action-packed, gloriously musical day at NJPAC in June."
The American Songbook at NJPAC series follows on the success of several recent television tapings and broadcasts from the Arts Center, including Conversations at NJPAC with Steve Adubato and the national broadcasts of NBC's hit America's Got Talent last summer. "NJPAC has proved it is a first choice venue for high-profile television productions," said Schreiber. "We look forward to more partnerships like these that will continue to expand broadcast opportunities."
For the television tapings, NJPAC will donate tickets to The Actors Fund as a fundraiser for the renowned national human services organization, which helps all professionals in performing arts and entertainment.
"The Actors Fund and the American Songbook go together like peanut butter and jelly," said Joe Benincasa, president & CEO of The Actors Fund, "and so do NJPAC and The Fund." He continued by underscoring the fact that past and current American composers, singers and songwriters have all supported the human services mission of The Fund.
Session 1: June 15 at 12pm
Tom Wopat
Tom Wopat's career has brought him from television in the '70s and '80s to high visibility Broadway roles in 1999's
Annie Get Your Gun and 2008's A Catered Affair (he received Tony® Award nominations for both), as well as Chicago, 42nd Street, Sondheim on Sondheim and more. Hi new CD, I've Got Your Number, features Great American Songbook classics and songs by artists such as Paul Simon, Judy Collins and Bruce Springsteen. Known for his starring role in the '80s hit television series The
Dukes of Hazard, he recently had a role in Django Unchained.
Valerie Simpson
Valerie Simpson is half of the songwriting/ performing/ producing duo Ashford and Simpson. Their award-winning collaborations began four decades ago, and she, along with her late husband Nick Ashford, have penned classic hits such as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "You're All I Need to Get By," "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand," "I'm Every Woman," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," "
Solid" and "Your Precious Love."
Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker most recently starred in the world premiere of Maury Yeston's acclaimed Death Takes a Holiday for the Roundabout Theatre Company. Other Broadway shows include Mary Poppins (Tony® nomination), Nine, The
Music Man, The Sound of Music, Show Boat (Tony® nomination), The Secret Garden, The Phantom of the Opera; and Brigadoon with City Opera. She has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress and the White House. Recently, Luker returned to the American Songbook Series in Jazz at Lincoln Center's the Allen Room.
Session 2: June 15 at 6pm
Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley
Critically-acclaimed husband and wife actors/singers Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley starred together in the 11-time Tony® nominated Broadway production of Next To Normal. Mazzie has been heard in many of the country's major symphony halls, cabaret and concert venues, and has been seen starring in some of the most memorable musicals on the Broadway stage and London's West End. Most recently, Mazzie co-starred in the Off-Broadway revival of Carrie. She received Tony® nominations for Kiss Me Kate, Ragtime and Passion, and has an extensive concert career that spans the country from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl under the batons of Keith Lockhart, Michael Tilson Thomas, Marvin Hamlisch, Skitch Henderson, and Paul Gemignani. She has been seen with the New York Philharmonic in two of its PBS specials. Jason Danieley recently starred, to critical acclaim, in
Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's production of Sunday in the Park with George. On Broadway, he has appeared in Candide, created the role of
Aaron Fox in Curtains, originated the role of Malcolm in The Full Monty, and had leading roles in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and
Strike Up the Band (City Center's Encores!). He has appeared with many of the country's leading orchestras, including the New York, Boston, and Philly Pops, L.A. Philharmonic (at the Hollywood Bowl), New York Philharmonic, St. Louis, Grant Park and at the Ravinia Festival.
Sandy Stewart & Bill Charlap
Sandy Stewart made her professional debut as a singer when she was 10. In 1962, she had a hit with the Grammy-nominated, "My Coloring Book" and continued working with legends like Ernie Kovacs, Ed Sullivan and
Perry Como before touring as a vocalist with Benny Goodman. She retired from show business at 26 to be home with her two children and two stepchildren. At the urging of her son Bill, Stewart returned to singing. One of the world's premier jazz pianists,
Bill Charlap has performed with many leading artists of our time, ranging from Phil Woods and Tony
Bennett to Gerry Mulligan and Wynton Marsalis. He is known for his interpretations of American popular songs and has recorded albums featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, Leonard Bernstein and
George Gershwin. Charlap is the artistic director of New York City's Jazz in July Festival at the 92nd Street Y. He has produced several concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center and an evening of
George Gershwin's music at the Hollywood Bowl. In 2014, Charlap will produce and perform in a new "Jazz Songbook" series at NJPAC.
Maude Maggart
Since her cabaret debut in 2001, Maggart has performed in cabarets and theaters across the United States; notably her yearly engagement at The Algonquin Hotel, from 2003 through 2011. She has performed at the Oregon Festival of American Music, led by legendary bandleader Dick Hyman, Michael Feinstein's concert series at Carnegie Hall, and on the national live radio broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. In 2012, she made her debut with jazz bandleader Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, and sang for Dr. Cornel West's retirement celebration at Princeton University.
Visit NJTV online at njtvonline.org, Facebook and Twitter @njtvonline for more programming news and information.
Visit NJPAC online at njpac.org, Facebook and Twitter @NJPAC
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