Wall To Wall Broadway Brings The Tunes Of Great White Way To Symphony Space 5/16

As an annual gift to the city, Symphony Space has been presenting its signature music marathons since it opened in 1978. This year Symphony Space samples some of the greatest music from the Great White Way for Wall to Wall Broadway: A Century of Musicals, a twelve-hour celebration of the music of Broadway on May 16 from 11:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m., FREE.

Hosted and staged by Symphony Space Artistic Director and co-founder Isaiah Sheffer, the event will feature an array of works from Broadway-songs, overtures, dance music, even songs from kid-friendly musicals in the morning-performed by hundreds of well known and emerging artists. Some of the highlighted performers include Brian Stokes Mitchell, Tony Award Winner for Kiss Me, Kate and stage and television mainstay; Kelli O'Hara, three time Tony Award nominee for The Pajama Game, The Light in the Piazza, and South Pacific; Donna Murphy, four time Tony Award nominee and winner for Passion and The King and I; Liz Callaway, Tony Award nominee for Baby; B.D. Wong, star of stage and screen and Tony Award winner for M. Butterfly; Charlotte d'Amboise, two-time Tony Award nominee best known for her portrayal of Roxie Hart in Chicago; Julie Wilson, cabaret legend and Tony Award nominee for Legs Diamond; and Artistic Director Sheffer himself performing "Don Jose from Far Rockaway" from Wish You Were Here. Tony Award-winning musical director Paul Gemignani will conduct the orchestra for the "Broadway Classics" segment from 8:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m.

This year's event will also feature a discussion with storied producer Harold Prince, winner of 21 Tony Awards, as well as segments titled "Musicals That Inspired Me" and "Gems From Flops" hosted by noted musical theatre scholar and author Leonard Fleischer and President of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization Theodore Chapin. Additionally, Sheldon Harnick, dean of American Musical Theater Lyricists (Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof) will talk with Broadway's youngest composer-lyricist, Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) and perform his recent "rap." Young composers from the ASCAP and BMI Workshops will participate, previewing future Broadway numbers, while The current casts from a number of Broadway shows including West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Shrek and South Pacific will stop by to perform. Throughout the event, the lobby and theatre interior will be alive with large-scale reproductions of great Broadway drawings by the unique caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, courtesy of Louise Kerz-Hirschfeld. 

Past Wall to Wall marathons at Symphony Space have explored the works of Stephen Sondheim (for which devoted fans lined up beginning at 1:30 a.m. on the day of performance), Beethoven, Joni Mitchell, Kurt Weill, Duke Ellington and other legendary creators. Audiences are welcome to enter and exit throughout the event.

Unique in New York City's cultural landscape, Symphony Space-which presents more than 500 events each year in music, literature, dance, theatre, film, and family programming-is the only New York venue where one can see Salman Rushdie and Jane Curtin, E.L. Doctorow and Tom Wolfe, Robyn Hitchcock and Meredith Monk, Ursula Oppens and Mark O'Connor all in one house and all in one season. One of New York's preeminent cultural resources since 1978, Symphony Space is a leader in adventurous programming. Signature events include Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story, hosted by Isaiah Sheffer and broadcast on 150 public radio stations nationwide; Bloomsday on Broadway, the annual marathon celebration of James Joyce's Ulysses; and Wall to Wall, the free annual 12-hour musical marathon which The New York Times called a "gift to New York City."

Symphony Space's Artistic Director is Isaiah Sheffer; Assoc. Artistic Director is Laura Kaminsky. Symphony Space is located at 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, near the 1, 2, 3 and B, C trains.

Wall to Wall Broadway Participating Artists
Current as of April 10, 2009:
Ivy Austin
Kate Baldwin
D'Ambrose Boyd
Mary Brienza
Kevin Burdette
Liz Callaway
Charlotte d'Amboise
Gregg Edelman
Melissa Errico
Raul Esparza
Lisa Flanagan
Alexander Gemignani
Randy Graff
Paul Gemignani
Debbie Gravitte
David Greene
Jonathan Hadari
Mary Cleere Haran
Sheldon Harnick
George S. Irving
Mark Kudisch
Emily Loesser
Jo Sullivan Loesser
Terrence Mann
Kathryn Markey
Rob Marx
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Donna Murphy
James Naughton
Harold Prince
Leenya Rideout
Vale Rideout
Tony Roberts
Jeffrey Schecter
Martin Vidnovic
Thom Christopher Warren
Julie Wilson
B.D. Wong
Chip Zien
And more to be announced...