|
Exhibitions at The Research Libraries Writing to Character: Songwriters & the Tony AwardsFrom February 26, 2008 through June 14, 2008  The songwriters at the first rehearsal of Wonderful Town, 1953. (left to right) Betty Comden (lyricist), Rosalind Russell (star), Adolph Green (lyricist), George Abbott (director), Lehman Engel (musical director) and Leonard Bernstein (composer). Photograph by Vandamm. Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts For Broadway's lyricists, composers, and orchestrators, the Tony Awards represent the highest honor that their colleagues can bestow. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts delves into its peerless collections for this multi-media tribute to the creators of the Best Musicals, as well as winners of the occasional Best Score Tony. Working backwards from the award ceremony, the exhibition reveals the work of putting on a show -- from the opening night performance back through rehearsals, orchestrations and arrangements, demos and money raising, writing the songs, and plotting out the show to the original concept. Material is drawn from the archives of songwriters and their producer, designer, director, and performer colleagues in the Library’s four research divisions, including, among many others, Richard Rodgers, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Frank Loesser, Harold Prince, Michael Stewart, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, Fred Ebb, Charles Small, Edward Kleban, and the New York Shakespeare Festival. |