Kate Baldwin, Heidi Blickenstaff and More to Celebrate Sondheim & Prince in 'A GOOD THING GOING' at 92Y Next Month

Lyrics & Lyricists gets going on the opening show of its 45th season with "A Good Thing Going: The Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince Collaboration" on January 10, 11 and 12. Artistic director David Loud, himself a frequent Sondheim collaborator, explores the 1970-1981 partnership behind the groundbreaking musicals Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along - with cast members Kate Baldwin, Heidi Blickenstaff, Liz Callaway, James Clow, Jason Danieley, and Alan H. Green.

David Loud notes that when creating an evening of Sondheim material, "the list of extraordinary songs that one wants to include is so long that no matter what, you're going to leave out something great. When Side by Side by Sondheim - the first full-length Sondheim revue - played on Broadway in 1977, he hadn't yet written Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods or Passion." So Loud decided to focus on the shows that Sondheim wrote in collaboration with director and producer Harold Prince. "It was a remarkable partnership. I can't think of another one like it. And the six shows they created together don't live comfortably in existing styles; they create new styles, new forms, new genres, even. Sondheim was somehow able to continually reinvent himself as a composer, depending on what was required for each particular project, and Prince was interested in doing things that had never been done before in musical theatre. Together, these artists redefined what a musical can be."

About the Artistic Director and Cast:

David Loud has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim. Among his many credits, Loud was the onstage pianist of the original Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along, music director of Broadway's Sondheim on Sondheim, and music director of A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair, a collaboration between Sondheim and Wynton Marsalis and starring Bernadette Peters at the New York City Center in 2013. For the 2011/12 Broadway season, David was both musical supervisor of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess and conductor of the incidental music for Death of a Salesman, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. Among his other Broadway credits, he was music director of the original productions of Ragtime, A Class Act, Steel Pier and The Look of Love, and the revivals of She Loves Me, Company, The Boys from Syracuse and Sweeney Todd. This past November David was music supervisor for the world premiere of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Little Dancer, directed by Susan Stroman, at the Kennedy Center. He also has the distinction of simultaneously serving as a cast and artistic staff member of two Broadway shows: Terrence McNally's Master Class, in which he played Manny and was musical supervisor; and Kander & Ebb's Curtains, in which he played Sasha and was music director.

Noah Racey, a performer, director, choreographer and educator, made his Broadway debut in the 2001 revival of Follies, and has since appeared in Thoroughly Modern Millie (for which he was also associate choreographer for Rob Ashford's Tony Award-winning choreography), Never Gonna Dance and Curtains. Noah's directing and choreographic work has been seen regularly in the Town Hall's Broadway by the Year series, and for its 2007 summer Broadway Festival production of All Singin'! All Dancin'! He recently starred in Holiday Inn at the Goodspeed Opera House. Noah is founder and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed New York Song & Dance Company.

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, and 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. She is currently starring as Emily Hobbs in a production of Elf at the Paper Mill Playhouse. This past April, she made her New York City Center Encores! debut as Cleo in the critically acclaimed production of The Most Happy Fella.

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 three tours of Irving Berlin's White Christmas, 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 appeared 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, Swing!, and Smokey Joe's Café. Regionally, he joined Heidi Blickenstaff and James Clow for the Kander & Ebb revue First You Dream, co-conceived by David Loud, at the Kennedy Center; his other credits include Kander & Ebb's The Visit at Virginia's Signature Theater, Big River as Jim at the Arvada Centre, Miss Saigon at the Paper Mill Playhouse. Alan has performed at Joe's Pub and the Metropolitan Room.

About 92nd Street Y and Lyrics & Lyricists - Now celebrating its 140th Anniversary, 92nd Street Y is a world-class, nonprofit cultural and community center that fosters the mental, physical and spiritual health of people throughout their lives: wide-ranging conversations with the world's best minds; an outstanding range of programming in the performing, visual and literary arts; fitness and sports programs; and activities for children and families. Since 1970, Lyrics & Lyricists, the pioneering American Songbook series, and one of 92Y's signature series, has celebrated the work of songwriters like Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Sheldon Harnick, and David Zippel with champions and interpreters of the American Songbook including Ted Chapin, Rob Fisher, John Pizzarelli, Kathleen Marshall, and Billy Stritch. Lyrics & Lyricists receives underwriting support from Gilda and Henry Block; Kenneth Kolker; The Henry Nias Foundation, courtesy of Dr. Stanley Edelman; The Edythe Kenner Foundation; and the Hite Foundation, Inc.

More than 300,000 people visit 92Y annually, and millions more participate in 92Y's growing collection of digital programs and online content. A proudly Jewish organization since our founding in 1874, 92Y embraces its Jewish heritage and welcomes people of all backgrounds and perspectives. For more information, visit www.92Y.org.

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