Spend Labor Day with Marilyn Maye at Cotuit Center for the Arts

Cotuit Center for the Arts and Mark Cortale will once again present cabaret, jazz, and musical theater legend Marilyn Maye live in concert, accompanied by Tedd Firth on the piano. Ms. Maye will perform on the Main Stage on Monday, September 4 at 6:00PM.

The legendary Marilyn Maye is a singer, actress, director, arranger, educator, and a Grammy-nominated recording artist who receives rave reviews everywhere she goes. Her entire life has been committed to the art of song and performance.

Ms. Maye appeared 76 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson—the record for any entertainer. Perhaps the simplest accolade for Marilyn Maye came after one of her show-stopping appearances on The Tonight Show when, turning to his audience of millions, Johnny Carson said, “And that, young singers, is the way it’s done.”

Chuck Lavazzi of KDHX wrote of a recent St. Louis performance of Broadway and American Songbook numbers, “Maye used her commanding performance presence and vocal virtuosity to immediately connect with the orchestra. . . . Her boundless energy, good humor, and obvious delight in her material are, in short, irresistible.”

Now 94, Maye still maintains a demanding performance schedule at venues such as the Metropolitan Room, Birdland, Town Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Lincoln Center in New York and at other locations across the country, often performing to standing-room only audiences. The New York Times wrote: “A phenomenal demonstration of one woman’s stamina and musical intelligence! This ageless dynamo has earned a singular place in New York’s cabaret world.”

Best known for her cabaret singing, Maye flows easily from ballads to swing to jazz waltz, often grouping songs into meaningful medleys, and offering reflections on her richly lived life. A review of her “90 at Last!” show at 54 Below noted, “The emotional tide that sweeps through the audience is ever present in this unique interpreter of song, as she vocally flows up, down, and around, bringing life to lyrics.”

Maye began her professional singing career at the age of 9 by winning a 13-week appearance on radio station WIBW in Topeka, Kansas, and she has been singing ever since. She began emceeing variety shows at 11 and had her own radio program at 15. During her eleven-year engagement at the Colony in Kansas City, she was discovered by Steve Allen, who was the first to present her to a national television audience. This led to an RCA recording contract. 

Maye has released seven albums and 34 singles, including the first hit recordings of “Cabaret” and “Step to the Rear.” Her album The Lamp is Low, recorded with a full orchestra, is considered a classic. Her place in American music history was assured when the Arts Council of the Smithsonian Institution selected one of her recordings, “Too Late Now,” for the Smithsonian-produced album of the 110 Best American Compositions of the Twentieth Century.

Her many symphony concert appearances around the United States include the Florida Symphony, The Philly Pops, The Phoenix Symphony, The Kansas City Symphony, The Omaha Symphony, and in June 2015, The Pasadena Symphony with Michael Feinstein conducting. Maye performed twice with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall for tributes to Stephen Sondheim and Frank Loesser, with both shows receiving show-stopping applause and rave reviews.

Marilyn Maye will be joined on the Cotuit Stage by Tedd Firth, whom the New York Times praised as a "prodigiously gifted and versatile pianist.”

Tickets are $35, with a $5 discount for members and a $2 discount for seniors/veterans. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit artsonthecape.org or call the Box Office at 508-428-0669 x0. Cotuit Center for the Arts is located at 4404 Falmouth Road/Route 28 in Cotuit.

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