Dear all,
This Press Release went out yesterday.
WILL
AN EVENING WITH JERRY HERMANTHE MAN WHO SCORED "HELLO DOLLY", "MAME" and "LA CAGE AUX FOLLES",
"MILK & HONEY", "DEAR WORLD", "MISS SPECTACULAR" & "MACK AND MABEL"
The Herman interview, the 21st birthday of Broadway at Bedtime, goes to air on pioneer
Gay and Lesbian Radio Station, Joy 94.9, on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at 9 pm.
For the 21st Birthday celebrations, Will, PJ and Karla will be joined by Jerry Herman and :
Chelsea Plumley – B@B West End Correspondent
Australian Theatre Legends,
Tony Sheldon and Toni Lamondfor the Adelaide Cabaret Festival
John Diedrich to talk about his new production of Maury Yeston's TITANIC.
In this extraordinary interview, Herman takes the audience through a discography of B@B-chosen gems penned by the man who has melody in his nib. Herman talks with relish about his Jewish heritage, his love of the Broadway showtune, and his incomparable leading ladies who include : Angela Lansbury, Carol Channing, Ethel Merman, Carole Cook and Australia's Jill Perryman (Hello Dolly!) and…. Jon Ewing, (Zsa Zsa/Albin, La Cage Aux Folles).
"Jerry Herman had a profound effect on my Music Theatre upbringing ", says Conyers, Melbourne Music Theatre savant and, until September 2005, Green Room Awards Association President. "Sure, he writes a great hummable showtune, but he also writes lyrics for actors with buckets of pith and plain and simple actability : seamless transitions from spoken into sung text and he advances the drama FOR the actor and audience alike. Few composer/lyrists acheive this. And at the same time, they're just bloody good songs!"
The man himself agrees, "That's really what I am all about. I could not sit down right now and write you a song if you wanted me to write something… But I could do it in ten minutes, if you gave me a character and a situation that THAT character is in… It's really musical playwriting that I do…that's really what it is..."
"It was my dream to have him on the show, even before B@B went to air. I never thought it would happen by our 21st show", says Conyers. "Thank God it did!"
If you love Music Theatre, the singable songs, the challenging lyrics and the stars that bring it all to you, the B@B team really does deliver!
Even Jerry Herman is full of praise. Herman said to Will, referring to the interview :
"What wonderful choices you've made… this is going to be SOME thing...
I feel I've watched my life go by…"
Broadway @ Bedtime and all Joy programs are streamed internationally via the world wide web (www.joy.org.au) and the Sunday night program already boasts regular listeners from all Australian capital cities and London, Paris, New York, Fiji, Japan and Pune, India!
www.broadwayatbedtime.com
