Kate Baldwin, Jason Danieley, Heidi Blickenstaff & More Set for 92Y's LYRICS & LYRICISTS 2015

2Y announces casting for Lyrics & Lyricists 2015, the 45th season of the acclaimed American Songbook series. Cady Huffman, Liz Callaway, Kate Baldwin, Peter Cincotti and Jason Danieley are among the performers interpreting the works of Stephen Sondheim; Irving Berlin; Sheldon Harnick; and such songwriters as Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein, who so eloquently illuminated New York City's essence in song. Mitzi Gaynor makes a special guest appearance for the show on Hollywood's Leading Ladies - only the fourth time the legendary entertainer has performed in New York City.

L&L shows are Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 2 and 7 pm, and Monday at 2 and 7:30 pm. Subscriptions to the five-concert series running from January to June are on sale now, starting at $250. Individual tickets are also on sale now starting at $55. 92Y's 35 & Under program also offers access to steeply discounted tickets for all performances at $25; $100 season subscriptions. Please call 212-415-5500 or go to www.92Y.org/Lyrics for more information.

"We're thrilled that in our 45th season, the best of the best of performing and creative artists have made Lyrics & Lyricists their home - a place to have fun and invent - and then bring the audience to the party," says series artistic director Deborah Grace Winer. "It's a total joy for us to present these one-of-a-kind American Songbook concerts and lead the way in celebrating some of the greatest music ever written."

Lyrics & Lyricists: 2015 Season

January 10, 11, 12
A GOOD THING GOING: THE STEPHEN SONDHEIM AND HAROLD PRINCE COLLABORATION
David Loud, Artistic Director and Host
Noah Racey, Stage Director
Cast: Kate Baldwin, Heidi Blickenstaff, Liz Callaway, James Clow, Jason Danieley, Alan H. Green

Join us to explore one of the most creative and productive partnerships in Broadway's history. From 1970 to 1981, Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince collaborated on a series ­of new musicals that would forever redefine what was possible in musical theatre. As composer/lyricist and director, they devised an astonishing series of groundbreaking works -Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along- that remain as exciting today as when they first appeared.

Kate Baldwin's credits include several concert appearances with Stephen Sondheim as a featured performer in his critically acclaimed evening, "A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim." She also had a featured role in the PBS filming of Sondheim's "Passion." Baldwin's Broadway credits include Big Fish; Finian's Rainbow (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations); The Full Monty; Thoroughly Modern Millie; Wonderful Town. Concert and nightclub appearances include the New York Pops; the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center; Feinstein's at the Regency; Birdland; and 54 Below.

Heidi Blickenstaff gained widespread notice for her work in [title of show], during both its Off-Broadway and Broadway runs, playing what she called a "concentrated version" of herself. Her other Broadway credits include roles in The Addams Family, The Little Mermaid and The Full Monty. She won a Helen Hayes Award for her starring role in the musical Meet John Doe at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Liz Callaway made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along; her Broadway credits also include Baby (Tony nomination); Cats; Miss Saigon; The Three Musketeers; and The Look of Love. Other New York appearances include the legendary Follies in Concert at Lincoln Center; A Stephen Sondheim Evening; Fiorello! (Encores!); and Hair in Concert. The award-winning Sibling Revelry (created with sister Ann Hampton Callaway) was presented at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Boom!, a celebration of the music of the 60's and 70's, also created with her sister was recorded live at Birdland, and is currently touring performing arts centers around the country.

James Clow's Broadway credits include Assassins, Blood Brothers, Company, She Loves Me, Wonderful Town and Irving Berlin's White Christmas. He has toured nationally in numerous shows, including Beauty and the Beast, Into the Woods, Jekyll & Hyde, and Oklahoma!. Clow appeared in Lincoln Center's presentation of Stephen Sondheim's Passion and on TV in PBS's "Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall."

Jason Danieley has been hailed by The New York Times as "the most exquisite tenor on Broadway." After making a splash in the theater world in Adam Guettel's Floyd Collins, Danieley has gone on to appear on Broadway in Next to Normal (alongside his wife Marin Mazzie), Curtains, The Full Monty and Candide (Theater World Award winner, Drama Desk nomination). He recently starred in the Broadway-bound production of Cole Porter's Can-Can at the Paper Mill Playhouse.

Alan H. Green appears later this year in NBC's telecast of Peter Pan Live! He has appeared on Broadway in Sister Act and Play On! and in the national touring production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

February 7, 8, 9
HERE'S TO THE GIRLS!: HOLLYWOOD'S LEADING LADIES
Created by Charles Busch and Carl Andress
Charles Busch, Artistic Director and Host
Carl Andress, Stage Director
John McDaniel, Music Director
Cast: Nancy Anderson, Andréa Burns, Jennifer Cody, Cady Huffman, Zakiya Young and Special Guest Mitzi Gaynor

They faced down studio heads, gossip columnists and shorter leading men, and they always came back a star! We bring you a cavalcade of stories and songs about the legendary women of Hollywood's movie musicals from 1930 to 1960. Each studio had its own style and stars to match: MacDonald, Garland, Powell (Eleanor and Jane), Keeler, Rogers and Grable. Whether an MGM glamour girl or a Warner Bros. gold digger, these musical legends were made to be adored-and still are.

Nancy Anderson was seen last year off-Broadway in Far From Heaven at Playwrights Horizons. She received Drama Desk Award nominations for her portrayal of all the women in Jolson & Co and the title role in Fanny Hill. She made her Broadway debut in A Class Act, and played the roles of Helen and Eileen in the Broadway revival of Wonderful Town. Other off-Broadway credits include all the female roles in Yank! as well as the New York revival of Ionescopade, both at the York Theatre. She was the 2011 winner of the Noël Coward Cabaret Award Competition, and her debut album, Ten Cents a Dance, is an homage to the Depression-era songs of the 1930s.

Andréa Burns co-starred on Broadway with Nathan Lane in The Nance and other Broadway credits include In the Heights (after first appearing in the original Off-Broadway production); Beauty and the Beast; The Full Monty; and The Ritz. Andréa was in the original company of Jason Robert Brown's critically acclaimed Songs for a New World at the WPA Theatre, and portrayed the role of Celeste in Stephen Sondheim's Saturday Night at Second Stage Theatre.

Jennifer Cody was last seen on Broadway in Shrek: The Musical. Other Broadway credits include The Pajama Game; Taboo; Urinetown; and Seussical. Off-Broadway, she received a Drama League Award nomination for her performance in Henry and Smudge and played Junie in Junie B. Jones (both at the Lucille Lortel Theatre), and was in the New York City Center Encores! production of No, No Nanette.

Cady Huffman has starred on Broadway in The Producers (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards); The Nance (Outer Critics Circle nomination), The Will Rogers Follies (Tony nomination); Steel Pier; Dame Edna: The Royal Tour; La Cage aux Folles; and Bob Fosse's last original musical, Big Deal. Huffman had an unforgettable recurring role on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," almost becoming Larry David's 10th anniversary present; she has also appeared on "The Good Wife" and served as a judge on "Iron Chef America" for ten consecutive seasons. Her film credits include The Company Men; Romance & Cigarettes; and The Nanny Diaries.

Zakiya Young has appeared on Broadway in The Little Mermaid and can be heard on the cast recording. Young starred at the York in Tenderloin in the Musicals in Mufti series earlier this year celebrating the work of Sheldon Harnick. Her off-Broadway and regional theater credits include Kiss Me Kate, Cabin in the Sky, The Mikado, Carousel and Little Shop of Horrors. She performed at 54 Below twice this year, for the Broadway Spotted 5th Anniversary concert and the York Theatre's 45th Anniversary celebration.

Special Guest Mitzi Gaynor is making her 92Y debut at what is only her fourth live appearance in New York City. Her first was on Broadway in the Civic Light Opera production of The Gypsy Lady when she was a teenager; the second was at Madison Square Garden in 1964 at a concert for President Johnson; third was a Feinstein's at the Regency engagement in 2010. Gaynor's career began onstage when she was 13; she transitioned to film at 19, starring in My Blue Heaven. Best known as Nellie Forbush in the acclaimed film version of South Pacific - making such numbers as "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" and "A Wonderful Guy" her own - her movie credits also include There's No Business Like Show Business (with Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor and Marilyn Monroe); Anything Goes (with Bing Crosby); The Joker is Wild (with Frank Sinatra); and Les Girls (with Gene Kelly). As a nightclub performer her Las Vegas debut at The Flamingo broke all box office records, and the press dubbed her "The nation's number one female song and dance star" (The Los Angeles Times) and "flawless and devastating" (The Hollywood Reporter). Gaynor was top-billed over The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964 and her wildly popular annual TV specials were celebrated in the Emmy Award-winning 2008 musical documentary Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Special Years. Gaynor continues to perform her one-woman show Razzle Dazzle: My Life Behind the Sequins, hailed by Rex Reed as "glamorous, colossal and one of a kind."

March 21, 22, 23
NEW YORK: SONGS OF THE CITY
Deborah Grace Winer, Artistic Director and Host
John Oddo, Music Director
Mark Waldrop, Stage Director
Cast: Peter Cincotti, Darius de Haas, Jeffrey Schecter (additional cast TBA)

There are eight million stories in the Naked City-and a song to go with each of them. For decades, songwriters like Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Ellington, Bernstein and Coleman have been fueled by this city's places ("Manhattan", "Lullaby of Broadway") and roller coaster existence ("Sophisticated Lady," "Another Hundred People"). A show for New Yorkers-or anyone who's ever wanted to be one.

Peter Cincotti makes his L&L debut on both vocals and piano. A regular to New York nightclubs since high school, the New York Times hailed the singer-songwriter-pianist as "one of the most promising singer-pianists of the next generation" at the age of 18. He is the youngest artist to have a #1 album on Billboard's jazz chart and has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Olympia in Paris, The Montreux Festival (where he won an award in their renowned piano competition), and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Hailed as "the rebirth of cool" by Elle magazine, Cincotti explores musical styles that blend pop, rock, blues and jazz.

Darius de Haas made his Broadway debut in Kiss of the Spider Woman and has performed in numerous Broadway productions including Lincoln Center Theatre's productions of Carousel and Marie Christine, and Rent. He toured internationally in the world premiere of John Adams's song play I Was Looking At the Ceiling and Saw the Sky and won the Obie award for his work in the title role of Off-Broadway's Running Man. He performed an acclaimed solo show at 54 Below and sings in clubs in New York and across the country.

Jeffrey Schecter's Broadway credits include Nice Work If You Can Get It; The People in the Picture; Anything Goes; A Chorus Line; The Pajama Game; Wonderful Town; and Beauty and the Beast. In addition to performing, Schecter conducts Broadway workshops for children and adults. His short film, Tyco Parks the Car, premiered at the Big Apple Film Festival.

May 2, 3, 4
ALL DANCING! ALL SINGING! IRVING BERLIN IN HOLLYWOOD
Randy Skinner, Artistic Director, Stage Director and Choreographer
Cast: TBA

We're puttin' on our top hats and brushin' off our tails for a sparking celebration of Irving Berlin's Hollywood in dance! Berlin wrote for more Astaire-Rogers films than any other composer. His songs were made for dancing and romancing, whether Fred & Ginger "cheek to cheek" in Top Hat, "a couple o' swells" out for a walk in Easter Parade or a "sisters" fan dance in White Christmas. So step out with your baby and join us as we salute Irving Berlin at the movies-in our dancing shoes.

May 30, 31 and June 1
TO LIFE! CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF FIDDLER ON THE ROOF WITH SHELDON HARNICK
Rob Fisher, Artistic Director
Sheldon Harnick, Writer and Host
Gary Griffin, Stage Director
Cast: TBA

Generations all over the world have grown up with Fiddler on the Roof. The unforgettable songs, characters and conflicts in Fiddler offer universal insights into family, home, tradition and transformation, as we watch Tevye and his family live, love and ultimately leave the "intimate, obstinate" village of Anatevka. Lyricist Sheldon Harnick takes us inside the creation and history of this cultural landmark, revealing the twists and turns of the creative process he shared with Jerry Bock, Jerome Robbins and Harold Prince, and sharing his behind-the-scenes stories of how it became the show and score we love.