Blickenstaff, Feldshuh et al. Join 2010 Ebb Award Winner Doug Cohen in Concert, 4/11

The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell Bernard, Trustee) in association with the York Theatre (James Morgan, Artistic Director) is pleased to present an invitation-only showcase presentation entitled An Afternoon with Doug Cohen featuring the words and music of the 2010 Fred Ebb Award Winner. Featured in the presentation will be Heidi Blickenstaff, Bradley Dean, Tovah Feldshuh, Jackie Hoffman, Lauren Kennedy, Jeff McCarthy, Lindsay Roberts, Lance Rubin, Howie Michael Smith and Barbara Walsh.

Directed by Richard Roland, the hour-long presentation will be at The York Theatre Company, Saint Peter's Theatre, 54th Street, (Just East of Lexington). A reception with Doug Cohen and the cast will follow.

The Fred Ebb Award recognizes excellence in musical theatre songwriting, by a lyricist, composer, or songwriting team that has not yet achieved significant commercial success. The award is meant to encourage and support aspiring songwriters to create new works for the musical theatre. The prize includes a $50,000 award. The Fred Ebb Foundation is funded by royalties from Mr. Ebb's vast catalogue of work. Past winners include John Bucchino (2005), Steve Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman (2006), Peter Mills (2007), Adam Gwon (2008), and Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich (2009).

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Douglas J. Cohen Doug is thrilled to be the recipient of the 2010 Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre Songwriting. He also received two Richard Rodgers Awards and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Theatre Foundation Award for writing book, music, and lyrics to NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY (produced twice off-Broadway at the Hudson Guild Theatre and York Theatre directed by Jack Hofsiss and Scott Schwartz respectively and over a hundred productions regionally and abroad; optioned for New York by Larry Hirschhorn), and THE GIG (readings at the O'Neill National Music Theatre Conference in 1993, produced at Manhattan Theatre Club in concert, full productions at Goodspeed at Chester directed by Victoria Bussert, Sacramento Music Circus and American Stage Company directed by John DeLuca, and York Theatre Company benefit now on Jay Records). For THE GIG, Doug also became the first recipient of the Noël Coward Prize, which will receive a reading in June at the York directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. Doug is the composer/lyricist of THE BIG TIME (directed by Christopher Ashley), first produced in the NYMF Festival, 2005. Nominated for a 2005 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics for CHILDREN'S LETTERS TO GOD (Jay Records, off-Broadway run at the Lamb's Theatre directed by Stafford Arima), Doug is co-librettist/ composer/lyricist for THE OPPOSITE OF SEX (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Magic Theatre directed by Robert Jess Roth); composer of A Charles Dickens CHRISTMAS (produced by Theatreworks/USA and licensed through MTI); and composer of GLIMMERGLASS (Goodspeed at Chester, Spirit of Broadway - Best Production of 2008). He received a Jonathan Larson Grant for his music to BARNSTORMER (NAMT 2008 conference, Lark Play Development Center Bare Bones production, Red Mountain Theatre Company production directed by Jerry Dixon, and upcoming off-Broadway production produced by New Professional Theatre to be directed by Ken Roberson). Doug also contributed original songs to BOOZY, produced by Les Freres Corbusier and directed by Alex Timbers which enjoyed runs at both the Ohio Theatre and Culture Project. Doug's current projects include the musicals NINE WIVES, VALENTINO'S TANGO, HELEN OF TROY FROM NOON TILL THREE, and the play LOVELY SEND ANYWHERE, which was developed at the Lark Play Development Center and judged a FINALIST for the inaugural Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award. Doug is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, and a graduate of Amherst College.

As a writer, lyricist, composer and director, Fred Ebb made incalculable contributions to the New York theatrical community. Mr. Ebb is a Tony®, Grammy®, Emmy®, Olivier® and Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award winning recipient. Fred Ebb's first professional songwriting assignment came in 1953 when he and Phil Springer were hired by Columbia Records to write a song for Judy Garland called "Heartbroken." Mr. Ebb was introduced to composer John Kander in 1964 by music publisher Tommy Valando and became one of the most legendary songwriting teams in American history. The first successful collaboration was on the song "My Coloring Book," recorded by Barbra Streisand. Their second theatrical collaboration, Flora, the Red Menace, created a star out of Liza Minnelli in her Tony® Award-winning Broadway debut. In 1966, their collaboration Cabaret, opened and received seven Tony® Awards including Best Musical and Best Score. A 1972 movie version of Cabaret starring Liza Minnelli was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won eight awards and was nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards and won three including Best Picture, Musical or Comedy. The same year, the songwriting team wrote a number of songs for Minnelli's television special "Liza with a Z," which received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Program - Variety or Popular Music. In 1975, the two wrote the Broadway musical Chicago, directed by Bob Fosse and starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach. The musical was successfully revived 20 years later at City Center ENCORES! and subsequently transferred to Broadway where it is currently the longest running revival in Broadway history. In 1977, the team collaborated with Martin Scorsese on the movie New York, New York; the title song was introduced by Minnelli and later recorded by Frank Sinatra becoming the unofficial theme song of New York City. The Minnelli Broadway vehicle The Act also opened that year. After a four-year absence, Mr. Ebb and Mr. Kander returned with Woman of the Year (1981), The Rink (1984), Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985) and Steel Pier (1997). Miramax's 2002 feature film Chicago was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture and was nominated for eight Golden Globe Awards and won three, including Best Picture, Musical or Comedy. At the time of the unfortunate death of Mr. Ebb, Kander and Ebb had several projects in different stages of completion. The Visit starring Chita Rivera, enjoyed an acclaimed run at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 2001 as well as at the Tony winning Signature Theatre in 2008, All About Us (a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder play The Skin of Our Teeth), as well as the Tony-winning Curtains which ran on Broadway for over a year in 2007. Currently The Scottsboro Boys, directed by Susan Stroman, is breaking all records at The Vineyard Theatre.