BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center Presents FOOL IN LOVE, 12/7

Featuring Darryl JoVan Williams as Frankie Lymon, with Roz White and Amber Iman supplying additional vocals, Fool in Love... is a sizzling tour de force performance chronicling the meteoric rise and fall of teenage musical sensation Frankie Lymon; a career that fell just as quickly as it rose. Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers are inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and the Grammy Hall of Fame and this one-night concert musical tracks both Lymon’s indelible imprint on American pop music as well as his failures. Fool in Love... includes such groundbreaking hits as “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”, “Goin’ Out of My Head,” “My Girl,” “Goody Goody”, “Little Bitty Pretty One”, and “So Young." Written by Directed by Thomas W. Jones, II with Original Music & Musical Direction by William Knowles. To view a preview clip of this compelling concert event, visit our website at http://tribecapac.org/music.htm.

Darryl JoVan Williams: Williams has performed as a Choir Director and guest soloist in the European Tour of the Harlem Gospel Singers. He joined the original Broadway cast in Smokey Joe’s Café in 2001, where he performed for ten years. Williams has also performed and created background vocals for such artist as Gladys Knight, Leslie Gore, Louis St. Louis, Beverly Taki, Eric Jordan Young , Ann Nesby, and Emmy award winner Dave Pierce. His performance and back-round vocals with Leslie Gore at Fienstien’s was lauded as one of the “Top Ten Cabaret Shows” in 2009. He has additionally performed in the Off Broadway shows Streakin, Mama I Want to Sing, and Big Mama Stringbean, in which he earned an AUDELCO AWARD nomination. Williams has been the co-music arranger and vocal arranger for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s much anticipated gospel version of Jesus Christ Superstar, performed at Atlanta’s prestigious ALLIANCE THEATRE. His critically acclaimed performance as Judas has earned Mr. Williams a Suzi Bass award nomination for Best Actor.

Frankie Lymon: Born in Harlem, singer-songwriter Franklin Joseph “Frankie” Lymon was easily known as the boy soprano lead singer of the NYC-based early rock and roll group, The Teenagers. “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” was released in 1956 peaking at #6 on the Billboard pop singles chart and topping the Billboard R&B singles chart for five weeks. One album later, Lymon went solo. Never reaching the musical success he saw with the Teenagers as a solo artist, his cover of Thurston Harris’ “Little Bitty Pretty One” did receive critical acclaim peaking at #58 on the Hot 100 pop chart. His career saw an extreme downturn when his voice changed, forcing him to sing in falsetto instead of in his notably signature soprano. Plagued with drug addiction at the age of 15, Lymon began performing less. Equally as tumultuous as his music career was his love life; he married three times. On February 28, but was found dead on his grandmother’s bathroom floor from a heroin overdose. A 1998 biographical movie, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, re-introduced Lymon’s story, music and legacy to audiences worldwide starring Larenz Tate, Halle Berry, and Vivica A. Fox.

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the longest operating performance venue in lower Manhattan, proudly presents Fool in Love: A Musical Night in the Life of Frankie Lymon, performing on Friday, December 7 at 8PM. Written by Directed by Thomas W. Jones, II with Original Music & Musical Direction by William Knowles.

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