CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Standard Time with Michael Feinstein

Zankel Hall
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 7:30 PM

Michael Feinstein, Artistic Director

starring:
Jason Graae
Mary Lane Haskell

with:
Steven Cahill, Piano
Alex Rybeck, Piano

and special guest Elaine Stritch

Sponsored by Bank of America, Carnegie Hall’s Proud Season Sponsor

More Information:

Program to be performed with no intermission.

Michael Feinstein, Artistic Director
Michael Feinstein, one of the premiere interpreters of American popular song, has been a household name since the success of his 1988 one-man Broadway show, Isn’t It Romantic. He enjoys an active performance calendar, including major concert halls, symphony orchestras, intimate jazz clubs, and college campuses. More than a mere performer, he is nationally recognized for his commitment to the American popular song, both celebrating its art and preserving its legacy for the next generation.

Michael is currently producing a CD for his friend Liza Minnelli based on the music of her godmother Kay Thompson, the famed author, singer, and arranger. He will also host and serve as consultant on a new PBS film on vintage Hollywood “soundies” and is producing a documentary feature on arts and society icon Kitty Carlisle Hart. He has written the score for a new stage musical, The Gold Room, opening soon in London’s West End.

His latest CD from Concord Records is Hopeless Romantics, a songbook of Harry Warren classics recorded with legendary jazz pianist George Shearing. In 2004, Michael completed a national tour with songwriting icon Jimmy Webb based on their CD, Only One Life—The Songs of Jimmy Webb. The disc was named one of the Ten Best CDs of the Year by USA Today.

In 2003, Michael received his fourth Grammy Award nomination for his Concord release, Michael Feinstein with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, his first recording with a symphony orchestra. The year before, Rhino/Elektra Music released The Michael Feinstein Anthology, a two-disc compilation spanning the years 1987 to 1996, featuring old favorites and previously unreleased tracks.

He hosted and produced The Great American Songbook, a PBS special and DVD set from Warner Brothers Home Video that traces the history of popular music in our country. The program, which debuted at the Palm Springs Film Festival, was released last year. His own record label, Feinery, a new Concord subsidiary, released The Livingston & Evans Songbook, featuring Feinstein and special guest Melissa Manchester. Feinery will also record favorite current artists and restore recordings and musical broadcasts from the golden age of popular song, many of which showcase some of the nation’s most admired and enduring entertainers.

Michael’s Manhattan nightclub, Feinstein’s at the Regency, has presented the top talents of pop and jazz such as Rosemary Clooney, Steve Tyrell, Barbara Cook, Tony Danza, Glen Campbell, Diahann Carroll, Jackie Mason, and Dame Cleo Laine. He appears there for a sold-out holiday engagement every year. Last fall he completed a sold-out two week engagement at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London’s West End.

Michael started playing piano by ear when he was five. As a teenager, he played at weddings and parties in Columbus, Ohio. After graduating from high school, he worked in local piano lounges for two years, moving to Los Angeles when he was 20. Through the widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant, he was introduced to Ira Gershwin in July 1977. He became Gershwin’s assistant for six years, granting him access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs, which he has since performed and recorded.

Gershwin’s influence provided a solid base upon which Mr. Feinstein has not only evolved into a captivating performer, composer, and arranger of his own original music, but has also become an unparalleled interpreter of music legends such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, and Harry Warren.

Through his live performances (from Hollywood Bowl to Carnegie Hall), recordings, film and television appearances, and his songwriting (in collaboration with Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Lindy Robbins and Carole Bayer Sager), Feinstein has been an important musical force during the past 15 years. In addition, he scored the original music for the film Get Bruce. His television credits include performances on 7th Heaven, Caroline in the City, Melrose Place, Coach, and Cybil.

In 1998 Feinstein became a Concord Records artist where he has recorded Michael and George: Feinstein Sings Gershwin, Big City Rhythms (with the Maynard Ferguson Big Band), the double-CD Romance On Film, Romance On Broadway, among others. The Library of Congress recently elected Michael to the exclusive National Sound Recording Advisory Board. He and other industry leaders recently met in Washington, DC, for a forum on safeguarding America’s musical heritage.

For more information, please visit michaelfeinstein.com.

starring:
Jason Graae
Jason Graae won the 2006 L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award and a New York Nightlife Award for Coup de Graae! On and off-Broadway he has been featured in Falsettos, A Grand Night for Singing, Stardust, Snoopy, Forever Plaid, Olympus on my Mind, All in the Timing, Hello Muddah,Hello Fadduh (Drama Desk nomination for Best Actor in a Musical), and many more. In Los Angeles he was recently featured as Njegus in The Merry Widow with Los Angeles Opera, originated the role of Houdini in the Los Angeles company of Ragtime, won an Ovation Award for Forbidden Broadway Y2KLA!, won an Artistic Director’s Achievement Award for Fully Committed, and played Marcellus in The Music Man at The Hollywood Bowl. He also was recently featured as Frosch in Die Fledermaus at San Francisco Opera and the Washington National Operas. He has appeared on dozens of television shows, including Six Feet Under, Rude Awakening, Friends, Frasier, and Evening at Pops, among others. He has recorded more than 40 CDs, including two solo albums, and for five years he was the voice of Lucky the Leprechaun for Lucky Charms cereal. He recently took part in ASCAP’s Evening with Jerry Herman at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Mary Lane Haskell

Mary Lane Haskell is thrilled and honored to be making her New York debut in this evening’s concert. Ms. Haskell has been singing and dancing since she was three years old and has performed in 20 different plays, musicals, and recitals over the past six years. Favorite roles include Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, Nancy in Oliver, the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods, Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray, and Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! However, she is most proud of her charitable and community service activities. Dedicated to working with youth in the theater, in summer 2006 she choreographed a production of Aida in Los Angeles with the Youth Musical Theater Association founded by director, performer, and dear friend Blake Ewing, and, in summer 2007, she worked alongside Debbie Allen teaching musical theater to children from all over the country. She will join Ms. Allen once again this winter in her new musical, Alex in Wonderland, with music by James Ingram, which was originally workshopped at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Her most noteworthy accomplishment was in spring 2007 when she directed, choreographed, and produced a benefit entitled Viewpoint Cares: A Salute to Broadway to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. She and her Theater Club along with such Broadway artists as Lily Tomlin, Lucie Arnaz, Sam Harris, Davis Gaines, and Laurie Gayle Stephenson came together and raised over $35,000 for the cause. Originally from Los Angeles, Ms. Haskell graduated last year with honors from Viewpoint Prep School and is currently a freshman at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts studying musical theater at CAP 21. Thanks to God, to Mamma and Daddy for all of your love and support, and to Michael Feinstein for always believing in me and for giving me this incredible opportunity.

with:
Steven Cahill, Piano

Alex Rybeck, Piano

and special guest Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch was born in Detroit, Michigan. She trained at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research in New York City under Erwin Piscator; other students at the Dramatic Workshop at this time included Marlon Brando and Bea Arthur.

Ms. Stritch’s Broadway debut came in the revue Angel in the Wings. She was also a standby for Ethel Merman in the Irving Berlin musical Call Me Madam and, at the same time, appeared in the 1952 revival of Pal Joey, singing “Zip,” a pivotal number. At the end of 1952, Stritch led the national tour of Call Me Madam, in Merman's role. In 1954, she appeared in another revival, of On Your Toes, with an interpretation of the song “You Took Advantage of Me,” from the show Present Arms, which was added specially for Ms. Stritch. She played a non-singing role in Bus Stop in 1955, then starred in two new musicals, Goldilocks in 1958 and Noël Coward’s Sail Away in 1961. One of her most memorable roles was as Joanne in Sondheim’s Company, which she originated on Broadway in 1970 and in which she performed “The Ladies Who Lunch.” Among her other Broadway appearances were roles in a revival of the musical Show Boat, a one-night only concert of her 1970 hit Company, and Edward Albee’s play A Delicate Balance.

In 2002, Ms. Stritch began performing in her one-woman show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty. The show was a summation of Ms. Stritch’s life and career, and she performed the show to great acclaim. In 2005, and again in 2006, she performed her cabaret act at the Carlyle Room at the Carlyle Hotel.

Although her work has primarily been on the stage, Ms. Stritch has also made many appearances in films, most recently in Woody Allen’s September and Small Time Crooks, Screwed, Monster-In-Law, and Autumn in New York.

Ms. Stritch has been nominated for a Tony Award four times: as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Bus Stop in 1956 and A Delicate Balance in 1996; and as Best Actress in a Musical in 1962 for Sail Away, in which she portrayed Mimi Paragon, and for Company, 1971. In 2002, her one-woman show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, won the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.

Ms. Stritch received an Emmy in September 2007 for a guest appearance on the comedy series 30 Rock.