A TOAST TO STEVE & EYDIE Starring David Lawrence & Debbie Gravitte to be Presented at Carnegie Hall

“A Toast To Steve & Eydie” will be presented on Monday, March 18 at 7:30PM at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. For tickets, ranging from $59-$129, visit CarnegieHall.org, call CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800 or visit the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 881 7th Ave (at 57th Street).

 

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé personified the astonishing staying power of the great American songbook with their humor and style. Join their son, Emmy nominated composer David Lawrence along with Tony Award winner Debbie Gravitte as they celebrate the duo's treasured style in “A Toast To Steve & Eydie." David and Debbie will swing along to America's standards with a 30-piece orchestra as they make their Zankel Hall debut with this one-night-only concert event.

 

“A Toast To Steve & Eydie” is a heartfelt celebration of the iconic duo, honoring their timeless music and legacy. Providing a personal history of Steve & Eydie's extraordinary lives and careers, David and Debbie will perform some of Steve & Eydie's most famous songs with the original orchestrations, including “This Could Be the Start of Something Big,” “I Gotta Be Me,” “What Did I Have (That I Don't Have),” “Together, Wherever We Go,” “Cheek To Cheek” and more.

 

“A Toast To Steve & Eydie” is directed by Lonny Price (Sunset Boulevard, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill) and Matt Cowart (Associate Director for Sunset Boulevard, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill); features Musical Direction by Tedd Firth (music director for Bernadette Peters, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Barbara Cook, Michael Feinstein, Marilyn Maye); and is written by Tony Award winner Robert L. Freedman (A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder) and Faye Greenberg (Disney's High School Musical).

 

 

“From the moment I met Debbie and experienced, firsthand, her extraordinary talent, I was smitten,” says David Lawrence. “There was something about her amazing voice and unbelievable energy that always reminded me of my mom. Two thoroughbreds who knew how to shape a song and bring down the house. Through the years Debbie and I have collaborated on many projects including playing my mom and dad in the Bette Midler film, Isn't She Great. Even back then we talked about doing something to celebrate my parents' remarkable career - a chance to take a deep dive into the incredible orchestrations that made their repertoire so exciting and their shows so unforgettable. That time is now. The glamour, style & elegance of an era gone by, classic songs by our greatest songwriters, and a swingin' 30-piece band that will blow your mind. I can't wait!”

 

“I knew my fate was sealed when I sang at Steve and Eydies' son's wedding,” says Debbie Gravitte. “After I sang, Eydie stood up and rang out to the room ‘THAT'S MY TYPE OF BROAD!,' Little did I dream that years later I would be in the privileged position of celebrating the incomparable legacy of Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence, alongside their incredibly talented son, David. David and I first met over some music demos he was working on and then, soon after, he was busy at work creating the most fantastic arrangements and orchestrations for my first album. David and I were very clear from the beginning that this would be a celebration - and not an imitation - of his parents.  We would sing together with a 30 piece band playing the iconic, epic arrangements that David's parents made famous. It is a little bit like being in heaven. Eydie Gormé …she is MY kind of broad.”

David Lawrence was born in New York City, raised in Los Angeles and is the son of iconic entertainers Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme. Emmy nominated for his work on Disney's Descendants and two-time recipient of the ASCAP Award for Most Performed Film Score, David's music and/or songs can be heard in Freaky Friday, the High School Musical trilogy, the American Pie franchise, “Jericho” (CBS), “Harper's Island” (CBS), “Liv And Maddie” (Disney Channel), “The Cleaner” (A&E), “Common Law” (USA), “Muppet Classic Theatre,” “The 12 Days Of Christmas,” “Company Man,” “Life Without Dick,” Earth, Wind and Fire's “Millennium,” Diane Schuur's “Pure Schuur” and the HBO documentary “Becoming Mike Nichols.” He has been commissioned to write three ballets for Melissa Barak's Barak Ballet including E/Space in collaboration with award winning interactive video artist Refik Anadol. For director Kenny Ortega he composed the music for the Lake Of Dreams Orb Show at the Wynn Hotel, he served as Musical Supervisor on “Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows” and orchestrated the Off Broadway musicals Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah and Tapestry. Most recently he completed his first solo album, “Nosotros”, a tribute to his mother and her recordings with the Trio Los Panchos. A graduate of Mannes Conservatory of Music, David lives in Los Angeles with his lyricist//producing partner/wife Faye Greenberg, Sheldon, a delightfully deranged mutt and occasionally daughter Mabel Lawrence who thinks pursuing a career New York is more important than keeping Dad company. 

One of Broadway's biggest personalities, Debbie Gravitte received the Tony Award for her critically acclaimed performance in Jerome Robbins Broadway, along with the New York Showstopper Award, Grammy Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination. She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of They're Playing Our Song, and went on to appear in: Blues In The Night, Perfectly Frank (Drama Desk Award Nomination) Zorba, Ain't Broadway Grand?, Chicago and Les Misérables. Debbie appeared in London in Jerry Herman's Mack and Mabel at the Drury Lane Theatre. She's also been seen in the West Coast Premiere of The Goodbye Girl, Love Life (in Philadelphia), Fiddler On The Roof with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, along with the Encores productions of The Boys From Syracuse, Tenderloin, and Carnival at New York's City Center. Debbie has performed her nightclub act worldwide, from New York's Rainbow And Stars, Birdland, 54 Below, to London's Pizza On The Park. In Atlantic City, she's had the honor to open for George Burns and Jay Leno. She currently tours with her partner David Lawrence in A Toast To Steve And Eydie. Debbie has sung with over 200 orchestras worldwide, including the National Symphony with Marvin Hamlisch, Cleveland Orchestra,The Boston Pops, Cincinnati Pops, Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta, San Diego, and St. Louis Symphonies. Overseas, she's appeared with the London, Aalborg and Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, Stockholm Philharmonic, the Gotesborg and Jerusalem Symphonies, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, National Symphonica Of Brazil, as well as the Munich Philharmonic. Debbie is featured on many recordings including her 4 solo CD's: “Defying Gravity”, “The Alan Menken Album,” “The MGM Album” along with “Big Band Broadway.” Film: Isnt' She Great, The Little Mermaid. Television: “Trial And Error” (CBS), “Pursuit Of Happiness” (NBC). Numerous PBS specials (EMMY nomination). She is the President and Founder of group5productions presenting entertainment across the country. Her greatest achievement: her three beautiful children.

 

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