James Snyder, Samantha Massell, & More to Celebrate Frank Loesser at 92Y

"Luck Be a Lady." "My Heart is So Full of You." "A Secretary is Not a Toy." We know and love Frank Loesser, composer. But "Snug as a Bug in a Rug?" "I Get the Neck of the Chicken?" "Bloop, Bleep?" 92Y's 48th season of Lyrics & Lyricists culminates with a look at the lesser-known side of Loesser - his Hollywood career collaborating with such composers as Hoagy Carmichael, Jule Style, Burton Lane and Jimmy McHugh - as well as a fresh look at songs from Guys and Dolls and his Broadway best, in Frank Loesser: Lyricist. L&L favorite David Loud, who most recently helmed acclaimed shows celebrating Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter, returns as artistic director and host, with a cast featuring Farah Alvin (It Shoulda Been You, Nine); Lewis Cleale (The Book of Mormon, Spamalot); Laura Darrell (Encores! The Golden Apple; THE VINEYARD Theater Kid Victory); Samantha Massell (Fiddler on the Roof); and James Snyder (In Transit, If/Then, Encores! Grand Hotel).

Saturday, June 2 / 8 pm

Sunday, June 3 / 2 pm + 7 pm

Monday, June 4 / 2 pm + 7:30 pm

Tickets from $65 (35 & Under tickets, $30)

"We think of Frank Loesser as a theater writer - indeed, one of the finest, with masterpieces like Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying to his credit," comments David Loud, "but prior to making his Broadway debut in 1948, with Where's Charley, he spent twelve years in Hollywood honing his craft, contributing songs to a dizzying number of movies, over 60, in collaboration with some first-class composers. While some classics did emerge from this period - like 'Two Sleepy People,' 'I Don't Want to Walk Without You,' and 'Let's Get Lost' - most of the pictures he worked on are obscure and infrequently exhibited today, leaving behind a scavenger hunt of rarities, difficult to find but often rewarding to excavate. Last year, in a disreputable looking thrift shop in the Catskills, I found the sheet music to a song called 'I Get the Neck of the Chicken,' from some movie called Seven Days Leave, starring Victor Mature and Lucille Ball. This gem of a song, with a delightful lyric by Loesser, is the kind of thing I can't wait to share with the Lyrics and Lyricists audience. We'll also enjoy some of his superb, more well-known theater songs, like 'I've Never Been in Love Before,' 'Luck Be a Lady,' 'Once in Love with Amy,' and 'The Brotherhood of Man.'"

About L&L Producer Ted Chapin

Ted Chapin adds his new role to his current position as President & Chief Creative Officer of Rodgers and Hammerstein. During Chapin's tenure at R&H, he has overseen major productions on Broadway (seven TONY AWARDS for Best Revival), in London, and around the world, and has encouraged newly created shows including the recent Holiday Inn, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, State Fair, and Irving Berlin's White Christmas. He has curated three programs at Lyrics & Lyricists, was the co-founder of the Encores!series at City Center, and served as chairman of the American Theater Wing. His book Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical "Follies," was published by Knopf in 2003. His career began as production assistant for the Broadway productions of Follies, The Rothschilds, and The Unknown Soldier and His Wife, and associate to director Alan Arkin on the original Broadway production of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys and the CBS-TV production of Twigs with Carol Burnett. He is a visiting lecturer at many universities including Pace, NYU, Duke and Yale.

About Lyrics & Lyricists

Since 1970, Lyrics & Lyricists™, the pioneering American Songbook series, and one of 92Y's signature series, has celebrated the work of songwriters like Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Sheldon Harnick, and David Zippel with CHAMPIONS and interpreters of the American Songbook including Rob Fisher, Kathleen Marshall, Billy Stritch, John Pizzarelli, Ted Chapin, and Mark Lamos. 92Y Lyrics & Lyricists receives support from Gilda and Block; The Hite Foundation, Inc.; The Harold W. and Ida L. Goldstein Lecture Fund through the Estate of Sanford Goldstein; The Edythe Kenner Foundation; The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation; and Howard and Eleanor Morgan.

Photo Credit: Jessica Fallon Gordon