Kelli O'Hara, Alex Newell & More to Star in Lyrics & Lyricists 2024/25 Season

The 92nd Street Y, New York has revealed the new Lyrics & Lyricists season and a slate of American Songbook concerts with some of today’s most celebrated artists. The concerts are part of the 2024/25 Tisch Music season at the renowned cultural center, which recently celebrated its historic 150th anniversary.

L&L, the country’s preeminent American Songbook series, illuminates the many facets of popular music, with shows this season exploring three generations of musical theater creators – Oscar Hammerstein II, Kander & Ebb, and Jonathan Larson – and the singular artistry of “High Priestess of Soul” Nina Simone. A one-night-only L&L special event spotlights singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash.

2024/25 also includes exclusive NYC performances with Broadway stars Kelli O’Hara – returning to our stage to open the season – and Heather Headley, Alex Newell and Darren Criss in their 92NY debuts.

“This season, we continue to broaden and deepen 92NY’s perspective on the American Songbook, both in our hallmark Lyrics and Lyricists  series and in four exclusive concerts,” comments Nicholas Russotto, Executive Director, Tisch Music. “Building on the successes of previous seasons, the series again offers an opportunity for iconic musical theater composers and legendary singer-songwriters to share their singular viewpoints and reflections on this uniquely American art form.”

LYRICS & LYRICISTS 2024/25 SEASON
All Concerts In Person

COCKEYED OPTIMIST: WHERE HAMMERSTEIN FOUND HIS HOPE

Co-writers: Malcolm Gets and Dick Scanlan
Director: Dick Scanlan
Sat, Oct 26, 7:30 pm
Sun, Oct 27, 2 pm
Mon, Oct 28, 7:30 pm

Oscar Hammerstein II, in collaboration with Richard Rodgers and others before him, created some of musical theater’s most iconic shows and enduring songs. Beloved for their simplicity, sentiment, and heart, Hammerstein’s lyrics have also at times been under-appreciated for those very qualities. In this all-new Lyrics & Lyricists  show, Tony nominees Dick Scanlan and Malcolm Gets take a fresh look at the soul and spirit of the man behind the seemingly simple lyrics – one with a keen understanding of human nature, and ahead of his time in his commitment to social justice and multiculturalism. Through a deep dive into the wide-ranging source material that captivated and inspired Hammerstein (a Cherokee-authored play, a German film, a feminist novel) – resulting in masterworks from Oklahoma! to The Sound of Music to Carousel to Show Boat and more – we celebrate the complexity of the American Songbook optimist who explored the dark but always saw the light.

REBEL WITH A CAUSE: THE ARTISTRY AND ACTIVISM OF NINA SIMONE

Featured performer: Amber Iman
Sat, Dec 7, 7:30 pm
Sun, Dec 8, 2 pm
Mon, Dec 9, 7:30 pm
Tony nominee Amber Iman (Lempicka), who earned raves as the iconic Nina Simone on Broadway in Soul Doctor, celebrates the music and legacy of one of music’s most influential and revolutionary artists.

AN EVENING WITH Rosanne Cash - A ONE-NIGHT-ONLY LYRICS AND LYRICISTS SPECIAL EVENT

Thu, Feb 13, 7:30 pm
Multi-Grammy Award winner Rosanne Cash is one of music’s most celebrated singer-songwriters and a national treasure. She joins us for a one-night-only Lyrics & Lyricists special event performing songs from her lyrical, peerless body of work: “Seven Year Ache,” “Blue Moon with Heartache,” “Hold On,” “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me,” and more. And she shares stories about her remarkable journey from daughter of the legendary Johnny Cash to American icon and one of music’s greatest storytellers and truthtellers.

LOUDER THAN WORDS: THE ENDURING LEGACY OF Jonathan Larson

Artistic director: James Nicola
Sat, Mar 1, 7:30 pm
Sun, May 2, 2 pm
Mon, Mar 3, 7:30 pm
The profound impact of composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson (Rent; Tick, Tick, Boom) on musical theater – and the creators who have followed him – is given the spotlight in this new Lyrics & Lyricists show from a collaborator who was there from the start. The show’s artistic director, James Nicola, former artistic director of New York Theater Workshop – the small East Village theater where Rent was first workshopped – shares the stories about Larson only he can tell. “As passionate, unpretentious and powerful as anything I’ve heard in musical theater for more than a decade,” wrote The New Yorker about Rent when it opened on Broadway.

SING HAPPY!: THE COLLABORATION OF KANDER & EBB

Artistic director: David Loud
Sat, May 31, 7:30 pm
Sun, Jun 1, 2 pm
Mon, Jun 2, 7:30 pm
Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Woman of the Year, The Scottsboro Boys, The Visit, Flora the Red Menace … the 50-year artistic partnership of John Kander and Fred Ebb that began in 1962 was one of the prolific and enduring in Broadway history and helped usher in a new era in musical theater. Lyrics & Lyricists favorite and longtime Kander & Ebb music director David Loud leads a celebration of their remarkable collaboration and the music it gave us.

AMERICAN SONGBOOK CONCERTS
All Concerts In Person

AN EVENING WITH KELLI O’HARA

Thu, Oct. 10, 7:30 pm
The glorious Tony Award-winning Kelli O’Hara opens our season, returning to our stage in her first solo NYC concert since dazzling in Broadway’s Days of Wine and Roses – earning her 8th Tony nomination – and triumphant sold-out 92NY performance in 2022. Vulture wrote, “[O’Hara’s] voice is the kind of instrument that sends people scrabbling for metaphors – a prism, an alpine stream, a Golden Snitch.”

AN AFTERNOON WITH Heather Headley

Sun, Nov 24, 2 pm
Tony and Grammy Award winner Heather Headley joins us for her first NYC concert in nearly a decade and an afternoon of music from her dazzling Broadway career. Headley first earned acclaim as Nala in The Lion King, going on to star and earn a Tony as the lead in Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida. The Color Purple and a standout performance in the Encores! production of Into the Woods have followed.

AN EVENING WITH Alex Newell

Thu, May 8, 7:30 pm
Tony Award winner and TIME magazine’s 2023 Breakthrough of the Year Alex Newell joins us for what promises to be one of the season’s most electrifying concert events. Newell’s showstopping performance in Broadway’s Shucked was further affirmation of the talent and magnetic force fans across musical theater, television, and music have been celebrating for years, beginning with their breakout in Glee and through roles in Once on This Island, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, and more.

AN EVENING WITH Darren Criss

Mon, Jun 9, 7:30 pm
Golden Globe and Emmy winner Darren Criss burst into our hearts with his star turn in Glee and has been seen on and off Broadway in Little Shop of Horrors, How to Succeed in Business … and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.  A gifted songwriter and multi-instrumentalist on top of his magnetism as a performer, he joins us for an unforgettable evening of music spanning standards, show tunes, and originals.

TISCH MUSIC 2024/25 SEASON

The 2024/25 Tisch Music season builds exponentially on the organization’s rich history of presenting the best and most innovative musicians performing across a wide range of genres, from classical to jazz, advancing and expanding each genre through commissions and multi-disciplinary collaborations. With this, his first season as Executive Director of Tisch Music, Nicholas Russotto has created an exciting season of four World, one US and 19 New York premieres, and returning Tisch Music favorites, expanding the scope of offered programming.

Highlights of the 2024/25 Tisch Music Season include:

New York premieres of new work from Pulitzer Prize winners Caroline Shaw and Tyshawn Sorey, performances by acclaimed new music ensembles Sō Percussion and Wild Up, and many others
92NY concert debuts, including superstar early-music ensemble Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, phenom young supergroup OWLS, UK’s preeminent baroque orchestra Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Grammy Award winners Jordi Savall and Brad Mehldau

Expanded American Songbook offerings of exclusive concerts by Broadway icons Kelli O’Hara, Heather Headley, Alex Newell, and Darren Criss

Presentations from the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music; NEA Jazz Master Abdullah Ibrahim; Grammy Award winners Pacifica Quartet and Catalyst Quartet, Lakecia Benjamin Quartet, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

2024/25 Lyrics & Lyricists series celebrates the legendary artistry of luminaries Jonathan Larson, Nina Simone, Oscar Hammerstein II and Kander & Ebb; plus a one-night-only special event with the legendary Rosanne Cash