Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Marvin Hamlisch and Michael Feinstein

Friday, October 23, 2009, at 7:30pm | Foellinger Great Hall

Rodgers and Hammerstein. Gershwin and Gershwin. Rodgers and Hart. Porter and Sinatra. Bennett and Sondheim. Hamlisch and Feinstein.

On this captivating evening, two singular entertainers will take us on a stroll through the Great American Songbook that will start at Tin Pan Alley, cut across Broadway, and head off to Hollywood.

Marvin Hamlisch’s career is nothing less than remarkable. He can conjure goose bumps with his songs from A Chorus Line, create anguish with The Way We Were, bring the house down with hilarious antics onstage, authoritatively helm a huge orchestra, and make children recovering from the Chernobyl explosion giggle. Never mind that—like no one except Richard Rodgers before him—he’s won an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy, a Tony, and a Pulitzer Prize.

Perhaps only Michael Feinstein rivals Hamlisch today in his passion for the frolicsome, poignant music of this era. The New York Post calls him “invaluable,” and he’s made it his mission to preserve, treasure, and reintroduce the unmistakable sounds of Porter, Gershwin (both George and Ira), and Berlin into our daily lexicon. His skill at interpreting this music as though he’s singing it for us for the very first time also displays its uncanny grasp of the human spirit. And when he pulls back for a delicate, soft phrase or pauses ever so gently before a final chord, he demonstrates how masterfully he can own a song.

“Why not give your heart what it may crave?” Feinstein’s characteristic rippling tone and polished cadences will play off Hamlisch’s fine piano flourishes in this heart-satisfying concert.

This performance will be filmed for possible inclusion in the PBS series Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook, which will air in 2010.

Download the program for this performance
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Patron Sponsors:
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Patron Co-sponsors:
Carol and Carl Belber
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Corporate Bronze Sponsor:
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