Contact Information (press inquiries only) The New York Public Library Public Relations Office 188 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 phone: 212.592.7700 fax: 212.592.7729 
|
Irving Berlin's Broadway Takes Center Stage in Free Exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The 54-Year Broadway Career of One of America's Greatest Songwriters is Showcased in Exhibition Opening February 14
Irving Berlin, whose Broadway career gave us such enduring song standards as "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody," "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," "Easter Parade," and "There's No Business Like Show Business," is the subject of Show Business!: Irving Berlin's Broadway, an exhibition on view from Tuesday, February 14 through Friday, May 26, 2006 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Admission is free. The exhibition coincides with the publication of Irving Berlin's Show Business, written by the show's curator David Leopold. In addition, the Library will present a series of free public programs on Irving Berlin, including appearances by noted performers Barbara Cook and Russell Nype, to complement the exhibition. (See below for program listings.) With original stage designs, programs, posters, seldom-seen photographs, cast albums, and rare recordings, the exhibition transports viewers to Broadway's glamorous heyday, when songs by Berlin were at the forefront of the nation's popular culture. Watch Your Step (1914), the first Broadway show for which Berlin wrote the entire score, is animated by photographs of its stars, the great ballroom dancers Irene and Vernon Castle, and by the colorful costume designs of Helen Dryden and bold set designs of Robert McQuinn. The original vivid costume designs by Lucinda Ballard and Jo Mielziner's painterly, detailed set designs give a sense of the original production of Annie Get Your Gun (1946). Irving Berlin's handwritten lyrics for "The Hostess with the Mostes' on the Ball" from Call Me Madam (1950) are scribbled on an office notepad. Original drawings by Alex Gard, famed for his Sardi's Restaurant caricatures, depict stars who worked with Berlin, including Carol Bruce, Victor Moore, and Helen Broderick. The majority of the items on view in Show Business!: Irving Berlin's Broadway are from the collections of the Library for the Performing Arts. Additional material was provided by the Estate of Irving Berlin, the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, and the Ben Solowey Studio. In addition, sound stations enable visitors to hear Berlin's songs as they were performed on the stage. Beginning in 1909 and continuing through 1962, Berlin provided songs and scores for more than 50 Broadway productions . His six-decade career included contributions to the Ziegfeld Follies and other revues and was capped by his scores for such musicals as Annie Get Your Gun and Call Me Madam. The range of Berlin's unique contributions to the Broadway stage and to American popular culture are captured in photographs that present classic and influential moments of musical theater history. His humor mixed with patriotism is epitomized by his Army musicals: the World War production Yip! Yip! Yaphank (1918) and the World War II musical This is the Army (1942). In one picture Sergeant Berlin is sitting on an army cot dolefully singing "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" and in several others a bevy of cross-dressing recruits cavort as "Ladies of the Chorus." Berlin is pictured with Eddie Cantor, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., and dance director Sammy Lee at a rehearsal for The Ziegfeld Follies of 1927, the first edition of the Follies for which a single composer wrote the entire score. In As Thousands Cheer (1933) Ethel Waters had multiple roles in the scenes of newspaper headlines of the times, going from singing "Supper Time," which poignantly captured the tragedy and despair of black lynchings and which stopped the show every night, to channeling Josephine Baker, and in the same evening joyfully performing "Heat Wave." The one and only Ethel Merman is pictured belting out songs in rehearsal and performance in both Annie Get Your Gun and Call Me Madam. In one unusually tender scene, she is shown with Russell Nype singing "You're Just in Love," one of Berlin's signature counterpoint songs in which each performer sings a separate melody. Exhibition Organized Chronologically Shows Evolution of Broadway Musical The first section, 1909-1914, includes programs of musicals and revues for which Berlin wrote songs, but not the complete score. In the first quarter of the 20th century, individual songs, which usually had little to do with a show's story line, were often interpolated into a score written by another composer or team. Among the Berlin interpolations included in the audio stations are: "Oh How That German Could Love" (1910), first sung in The Girl and the Wizard; "Woodman, Spare That Tree" sung by Bert Williams in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1911; "I've Got My Captain Working For Me Now" sung by Eddie Cantor in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919; and "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" sung by John Steel in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919. The second section, 1914-1916 focuses on Berlin's first complete scores for Broadway - Watch Your Step, which was his debut score and the first show on Broadway without interpolations, and Stop! Look! Listen! (1915), whose score included "I Love a Piano." The third section, 1918, concentrates on the Broadway fundraiser for World War I, Yip! Yip! Yaphank!, billed as "a military mess cooked up by the boys of Camp Upton," for which serviceman Berlin wrote the music and in which he performed. The revues for which Berlin composed are included in section 4, 1916-1927. Featured are portraits of such Ziegfeld Follies and Music Box Revue performers as Fanny Brice, Bert Williams, Eddie Cantor, Marilyn Miller, Bobby Clark, Ruth Page, John Steel, and Grace Moore. The 1932-33 section showcases two Berlin revues - Face the Music and As Thousands Cheer and includes the Alex Gard caricatures and Al Frueh drawings. The 1942-1944 section is devoted to This is the Army, which Berlin, too old to enlist, wrote during World War II and for which he assembled a cast of performers from the ranks of the entire Army. 1940-1949, includes photographs, cartoons, and designs from Louisiana Purchase, Miss Liberty, and Annie Get Your Gun. The last section, 1950-1966, features artifacts from Berlin's final two musicals, Call Me Madam and Mr. President. "The collections of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts allow us to examine the careers of noteworthy artists from multiple perspectives and in remarkable depth," said David Ferriero, Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries. "Irving Berlin's Broadway highlights the musical verve, the visual splash, and the charismatic performances that characterized the work of one of the key innovators of the American musical's history." "This exhibition takes the viewer back in time," commented Jacqueline Z. Davis, the Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. "A comprehensive display of materials from the Broadway career of one of America's most important songwriters, Show Business! invites visitors to imagine what it must have been like to hear and see the productions at the time they were being created. I think they will leave with a new appreciation of Irving Berlin's rich contributions to one of America's greatest art forms." Show Business!: Irving Berlin's Broadway is curated by David Leopold, a curator and author whose exhibitions have been presented around the world, including shows withThe New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, the Norman Rockwell Museum, The James A. Michener Art Museum, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is the Director of The Studio of Ben Solowey in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His book Irving Berlin's Show Business was recently published by Harry N. Abrams. The exhibition will be on view in the Vincent Astor Gallery of the Library for the Performing Arts. Barbara Cohen-Stratyner is the Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg Curator of Exhibitions at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and author of Popular Song: 1900-1919. Organized and developed by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the exhibition will travel to The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas in July. It was previously loaned to the San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Free Public Programs Complement the Exhibition Show Business!: Irving Berlin's Broadway In conjunction with the exhibition Show Business!: Irving Berlin's Broadway, a series of free public programs will be presented in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at 111 Amsterdam Avenue. Admission is free and seats are available on a first come, first served basis, except where noted. For more information, please call 212.642.0142. Tuesday, February 21, 2006, 3:00 p.m. Thursday, March 23, 2006, 6:00 p.m. Saturday, April 29, 2006, 3:00 p.m. Show Business!: Irving Berlin's Broadway will be on view February 14 through May 26, 2006 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Vincent Astor Gallery, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Exhibition hours are: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m.; Thursday from noon to 8 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and holidays. Admission is free. For exhibition information, telephone 212.870.1630. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the leadership support of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. Additional support for exhibitions has been provided by Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg and the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation. ### Contact: Rima Corben | 212.704.8600 rc:02.06.06:nypl005
|
