Praised by Backstage Magazine for "one of those rare voices with a soothing, almost hypnotic quality" award winning vocalist and actress Jill O’Hara, the original female lead in the Burt Bacharach-Hal David-Neil Simon Broadway musical Promises, Promises, reunites with Burt Bacharach at the annual spring gala for 92nd Street Y. What The World Needs Now…The Music of Burt Bacharach will take place at Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, Monday, May 18. Jill introduced the Bacharach/David pop classics I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, Knowing When To Leave and Whoever You Are I Love You. O’Hara went on to win a Tony nomination, the Theater World Award and New Jersey Journal Award for Best Actress In A Musical, while the cast album earned a Grammy Award. The concert event will also feature performances by Dionne Warwick, Sarah Dash and Elvis Costello. Proceeds from the Spring Gala support the 92nd Street Y's myriad of programs. Tickets are available by calling 212-415-5488 or online at www.92Y.org.
O’Hara is celebrating the release of her new CD Alone Together. Her first release in fifteen years, the CD is an eclectic collection of standards and more contemporary material from Randy Newman and Amanda McBroom. Backed by some of the top jazz musicians around including pianist/arranger Bill Mays (Frank Sinatra, Al Jarreau), Grammy winner Byron Olson who served as arranger, conductor and songwriter, bass player David Finck (Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin) and saxophonist Tim Ries (Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, Rolling Stones) and , the long awaited recording is a triumph for Jill O’Hara. In just a short time, the long awaited release has been greeted with instant acclaim. It was immediately premiered by WNCY’s Jonathan Schwartz, who called it "a richly intelligent work," while WBAI Radio’s David Rothenberg praised it saying "I was stunned by her interpretive powers …just beautiful." In the short time of it’s release, Alone Together has already been named "One of the Two Outstanding CD’s" by Playbill Magazine and "One of the Ten Best CDs of the Year" by Sound Advice/ Talkin Broadway while receiving Broadway World.com’s highest rating of 5 out of 5 discs. Critic Rob Lester raves "the intensity of Jill’s performance style and the laser beam she focuses on the lyric and story make for compelling listening."
Her solo debut, 1993’s Jill O’Hara became a classic and favorite of disc jockeys and critics, earning a spot as "The Ten Best Recordings Of the Year" by Backstage Magazine. With all of the initial copies sold out, the recording became an in-demand, cult favorite that is garnering high prices on auction sites such as Ebay and amazon.com. Fans will now be delighted to know that O’Hara has re-released the album in conjunction with Alone Together. Both of these landmark recordings are available on iTunes, amazon.com, CDBaby.com and jilloharamusic.com.
From guest starring television performances on the Merv Griffin, Ed Sullivan and David Frost Shows; live performances at Lincoln Center, Town Hall and London’s King’s Head Theatre, to her Tony-nominated, starring role in Promises, Promises, Jill O’Hara’s talent has no bounds.
Winning a Backstage Magazine Bistro Award for her live club performances at Danny’s Skylight Room, Eighty-eights and The Ballroom, she earned critical acclaim with the New York Times Stephen Holden saying "not many singers meld a Broadway theatricality and a folk-pop torchiness with the naturalness and personality of Jill O’Hara." Her other notable nightclub engagements included The Bitter End, The Village Gate and Café Wha where she shared the bill with Richard Pryor and Richie Havens.
Her one-woman show Jill and Her Jacks in London played to audience and critical praise and the TimeOut London raving "O’Hara’s singing is beautifully phrased and full of conviction."
However, it will be for her memorable stage roles that O’Hara made her initial and indelible mark on the entertainment world. Becoming the toast of Broadway by the time she was 21 years old, in rapid succession, she starred in three hit musicals. She has the distinction of originating the female lead in the very first Public Theater production of Hair (that performance is now preserved on the original cast album CD) before going on to co-star with Joel Grey in the Tony Award winning musical George M!. But it was playing opposite Jerry Orbach in the Burt Bacharach-Hal David-Neil Simon musical Promises, Promises, that immortalized her.
