92nd St. Y's 'DREAM' Offers Special Post Show Reception with Zippel to Benefit BC/EFA 2/20

The 92nd Street Y continues its 2009 season of Lyrics & Lyricists, the Y's legendary American Songbook series, with It Started with a Dream, an evening with David Zippel (Shows: City of Angels, The Goodbye Girl, The Woman in White, Pamela's First Musical. Films: Mulan, Hercules).

The 92nd Street Y has made a block of tickets available for BC/EFA supporters on Opening Night February 21st, 2009.

Each ticket purchased through BC/EFA will include an exclusive and intimate post-performance wine and cheese reception with Mr. Zippel and the evening's performers.

Call 212.840.0770 x268 for tickets and information or click here.

An acclaimed and sought after lyricist, David Zippel won a Tony Award® for the score to 1990's innovative City of Angels.

His other credits include The Woman in White and The Goodbye Girl as well as crafting songs for the legendary Barbara Cook.

He's also a two-time Oscar nominee for the Disney films Hercules and Mulan.

Join Mr. Zippel and special guests Broadway actors Kate Baldwin, Kevin Earley, Tony winner Debbie Gravitte, Danny Gurwin and Tony winner Lillias White as he presents highlights from his own scores and shares his inspirations and personal favorites from the American Songbook canon.

Long one of the 92nd Street Y's most popular programs, the American Songbook series Lyrics & LyricistsTM was launched in 1970 when longtime Broadway conductor Maurice Levine and lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (The Wizard of Oz) took to the stage to talk about the then unusual topic of songwriting. Over the years the series has featured every great Broadway and Hollywood lyricist including Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Johnny Mercer, Stephen Sondheim, Dorothy Fields, and Alan Jay Lerner. In 1978, Lyrics & Lyricists began celebrating composers as well as lyricists and, in 1982, the series evolved from first-person histories of the American musical theatre to narrated musical revues. In 2004, the 92nd Street Y reinvented the format yet again when it asked several accomplished champions of the repertoire - artists like John Pizzarelli, Andrea Marcovicci, Rob Fisher, Sheldon Harnick, Robert Kimball and Ted Sperling - to present original programs in the Lyrics & Lyricists tradition: seamless mixtures of information and entertainment with a particular focus on lyrics.

For more information, please visit www.92Y.org/lyrics.

The Lyrics & Lyricists series is partially underwritten by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. The performances of Lyrics & Lyricists' "Sunday in New York" show are underwritten by Gilda and Henry Block and Kenneth Kolker. The evening performances of L&L on April 5 and May 10 are underwritten by The Henry Nias Foundation, courtesy of Dr. Stanley Edelman. The May 11 evening performance of "The Man That Got Away: Ira After George" is underwritten by Nancy and Jeffrey Lane.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grants making organization. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, BC/EFA raises funds for AIDS-related causes across the United States. Since its founding in 1988, BC/EFA has raised over $140 million dollars for critically needed services for people with AIDS and other serious illnesses.

BC/EFA is the major supporter of six programs at The Actors' Fund - including The AIDS Initiative, The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative, 2 supportive housing residences and the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic at The Aurora in NYC - and awards grants to over 400 AIDS and family service organizations yearly.

Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the 92nd Street Y has grown into a wide-ranging cultural, educational and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds - about 300,000 people each year. 

Photo of David Zippel by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

Photo of Michael Crawford as 'Count Fosco' in The Woman in White courtesy of RUG.