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From Jazz at Lincoln Center – Michael Feinstein presents: Bringing Jazz to Broadway – Cy Coleman

From Jazz at Lincoln Center – Michael Feinstein presents: Bringing Jazz to Broadway – Cy Coleman (Produced, Written and Directed by the multi-tallented Scott Siegel)

Here are the video interviews with 3 of the wonderful performers, Tamara Tunie, James Naughton and Michelle Lee. The official review of the concert can be found above this posting.

Enjoy!

From jazz pianist and leader of a much-in-demand jazz trio to legendary Broadway composer, Cy Coleman brought the sound of big, brassy jazz to the Great White Way. One only need think of “Sweet Charity’s” Hey, Big Spender, and its bright blare of horns, to recognize Coleman’s Signature Sound, a musical style that dominated Broadway for more than a generation. Shows like “City of Angels,” “The Life,” and many others were permeated by Coleman’s propensity for jazz.

As part of its Jazz & Popular Song series, directed by five-time Grammy Award-nominated singer and pianist Michael Feinstein, Jazz at Lincoln Center will present Cy Coleman: Bringing Jazz to Broadway on Tuesday, May 15 and Wednesday May 16 at 7:30pm. Feinstein, who featured Cy Coleman as a vocalist and jazz pianist in his nightclub the month before the famed composer died, leads a cast featuring Michele Lee (Coleman’s Seesaw, Knots Landing), Tamara Tunie (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Broadway veteran Chuck Cooper, singer-songwriter Johnny Rodgers and, on May 16 only, James Naughton (The Devil Wears Prada) that illustrates Coleman’s profound jazz influence on contemporary Broadway.

For more information about this series, visit www.jalc.org/jazzandpopularsong.

Next up: Sweet & Low Down: How Popular Standards Became Jazz Classics
The show plays at The Allen Room at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th Street, New York, NY. Ticket prices for this series, except for the family concert, are $75 for mezzanine concert seating, $95-120 for cabaret seating. Tickets for the family matinee are $25.

Tickets can be purchased through jalc.org or CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, open daily from 10am to 9pm. Tickets can also be purchased at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, located on Broadway at 60th Street, ground floor. Box Office hours: Monday-Saturday from 10am to 6pm (or 30 minutes past curtain) and Sunday from noon to 6pm (or 30 minutes past curtain). Limited subscriptions for the 2011-12 Jazz and Popular Song series are available. Visit jalc.org/subs for more information.

Video interview with Johnny Rodgers

Excuse me while I repeat myself;

Hello. My name is Elli, and I am a Johnny Rodgers-aholic.

Mr. Rodgers first appeared on my radar at the 2010 Nightlife Awards where I wrote,

“Act II brought out a new star that I had not had the pleasure of seeing perform, the fabulous Johnny Rodgers. Mr. Rodgers and his band brought down the house with an on-fire rendition of “The Birth of the Blues.” His rapid-fire piano skills, coupled with his great vocals, reminded me of a young Jerry Lee Lewis at work.”

Internationally known and always performing, I finally got the chance to sit down and have a chat with Johnny just before they called “Places” for his appearance in “Michael Feinstein’s Bringing Jazz to Broadway: Cy Coleman”. After you watch the interview, be sure to check out the rehearsal video below and look for the review of the evening elsewhere on this site.

The Johnny Rodgers Band will be performing in NYC on June 5th, 2010 at Iridium Jazz Club 1650 Broadway, NYC. Get your tickets before it sells out!
(P.S. It’s his birthday so make sure you don’t miss this!!!)

For more information, and to follow their International travels, check out the JRB website.

A gifted songwriter, Mr. Rodgers won ASCAP’s Jamie deRoy & Friends Foundation Award in 2009, The New York Sheet Music Society’s Gerald Marks Award and the Songwriters Hall of Fame Abe Oldman Award. Other honors include the Nitelife Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist Award 2010, Backstage Magazine’s Bistro Award and the MAC Award. Mr. Rodgers recently made his Broadway debut co-starring in the Tony Award winning “Liza’s At The Palace” with Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award winning superstar Liza Minnelli. JRB’s recently released CD, “Box of Photographs” (PS Classics) has won acclaim from critics and radio stations across the country.

PLAYBILL EXCLUSIVE:
In Rehearsal With Michael Feinstein and his Cy Coleman Tribute