Rob McClure, Joshua Henry & More to Celebrate MGM Musicals at LYRICS & LYRICISTS on 1/11

Follow Lyrics & Lyricists™ over the rainbow to the West Coast and the glory days of MGM. On January 11, 12and 13 Tony Award® winner Kathleen Marshall makes her L&L debut as guest artistic director for Going Hollywood, a singing, dancing, Technicolor celebration of the silver screen's greatest musicals, featuring Cameron Adams, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Joshua Henry, Jeremy Jordan, Rob McClure and Rachel York.

Marshall, who fell in love with MGM musicals as a small child the first time she saw The Wizard of Oz on TV, will celebrate MGM's 1940s and '50s golden age-stars from Judy Garland to Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire to Lena Horne-and movies like Singin' in the Rain, Meet Me in St. Louis, Gigi, and other classics generated by the studio's legendary "Freed Unit," ruled by producer/lyricist Arthur Freed.

"What made these MGM musicals so unique was that Arthur Freed assembled an amazing array of talent-writers, composers, lyricists, directors, choreographers and designers-and gave them the freedom and the resources to dream up lavish and original musicals specifically created for stars like Judy Garland, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly," commentS Marshall. "The result was some of the most magical and memorable musical films of all time.

Guest artistic director Kathleen Marshall is a three-time Tony Award winner, most recently directing and choreographing Nice Work If You Can Get Iton Broadway (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics nominations for best direction and choreography). Other shows include Anything Goes (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards for Best Choreography and nominations for direction), Grease (Tony nomination for best revival), The Pajama Game (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards for Best Choreography and nominations for direction) and Wonderful Town (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Astaire Awards for Best Choreography and nominations for direction). She directed and choreographed the Disney/ABC tele-pic,Once Upon A Mattress, starring Tracey Ullman and Carol Burnett, and choreographed their previous tele-pic, The Music Man, starring Matthew Broderick (Emmy nomination). She choreographed the Broadway productions of Boeing Boeing, Little Shop Of Horrors, Follies (Outer Critics Award nomination), Seussical, Kiss Me, Kate (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Astaire Award nominations), Ring Round the Moon (Lincoln Center Theater), 1776 (Roundabout) and Swinging On a Star (Drama Desk nomination), as well as the West End revival of Kiss Me, Kate (Olivier Award nomination). She is an Artistic Associate of City Center Encores!, where she was the Artistic Director for four seasons. For Encores!, last summer she directed and choreographed I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it On the Road , and previously, Bells Are Ringing, Applause, 70 Girls 70, House of Flowers, Carnival, Hair, Wonderful Town and Babes In Arms.

Broadway veteran Adams's credits include Nice Work If You Can Get It (directed/choreographed by Kathleen Marshall), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Promises, Promises, Hairspray, Oklahoma! and The Music Man.

Goldsberry's Broadway credits include The Color Purple, The Lion King and Rent (she was the last actress to portray Mimi Marquez.) Recently, she starred in I'm Getting My Act Together... for Encores! Off-Center, directed by Kathleen Marshall. She is known to both daytime and nighttime TV viewers for her roles on One Life to Live and The Good Wife and is also a songwriter with a John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize to her credit.

Henry won a Drama Desk Award for his performance in In the Heights, and has gone on to appear in American Idiot, The Scottsboro Boys (Tony Award nomination), The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess and Bring It On:The Musical.

Jordan starred on Broadway in Newsies (Tony and Drama Desk nominations) and Bonnie and Clyde (Theatre World Award win); his credits also include Rock of Ages and the 2009 revival of West Side Story. He was just in A Bed and A Chair: A New York Love Affair, and he had a recurring role on Smash.

McClure recently starred in The Papermill Playhouse production of Honeymoon In Vegas after receiving 2013 Tony, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle nominations for his performance as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin on Broadway. He charmed audiences and critics alike in the title role of Where's Charley? at Encores! and starred on Broadway as Princeton/Rod in Avenue Q. He made his Broadway debut in the 2002 revival of I'm Not Rappaport alongside Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen.

York earned raves as Reno Sweeney in the national tour of the Roundabout Theatre's smash revival of Anything Goes. She made her Broadway debut in City of Angels and has gone on to perform in LES MISERABLES, Victor/Victoria (Drama Desk Award), The Scarlet Pimpernel and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. She is known to TV audiences for her portrayal of Lucille Ball in the CBS movie Lucy.

Long one of 92nd Street Y's most popular programs, the American Songbook series Lyrics & Lyricistsâ„¢ 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 great Broadway and Hollywood lyricists including Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Johnny Mercer, Stephen Sondheim, Dorothy Fields, and Alan Jay Lerner. Since 2004, L&L has featured original programs created by accomplished champions of the repertoire, including John Pizzarelli, Rob Fisher, Sheldon Harnick, Robert Kimball, Kathleen Marshall, Rex Reed, Billy Stritch, Lucie Arnaz, Ted Sperling and Mark Lamos. Each show is designed to celebrate the American Songbook with narrated revues, with a particular focus on lyrics. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org/Lyrics.

Lyrics & Lyricists receives underwriting support from The Henry Nias Foundation, courtesy of Dr. Stanley Edelman; Gilda and Henry Block; Kenneth Kolker; the Estate of Sanford Goldstein, in memory of Harold W. and Ida L. Goldstein; and The Edythe Kenner Foundation.

92Y is a world-class nonprofit community and cultural center that connects people at every stage of life to the worlds of education, the arts, health and wellness, and Jewish life. Through the breadth and depth of 92Y's extraordinary programs, 92Y enriches lives, creates community and elevates humanity. More than 300,000 people visit 92Y in New York City annually and many more connect through digital and social media, live webcasts of events, and an extensive archive of stage programs and original content produced for the web, all available on 92YOnDemand.org. A proudly Jewish organization since its founding in 1874, 92Y embraces its heritage and enthusiastically welcomes people of all backgrounds and perspectives. For more information, visit www.92Y.org.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos