The
Washington Times
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By
KATHY JANICH Miss McGovern is 30 years into a show-biz career that includes recordings, concerts, Broadway, movies, television, radio, two Grammy nominations. A frequent visitor to Wolf Trap and other venues in the Washington area, she is winding up a New York-to-Florida tour that has her conjuring the old favorites in her 90-minute show. They mostly include Richard Rodgers in her 90-minute show, but Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington and her faves, the Gershwins, also drop in for a tune or two. "It's a wonderful, eclectic mix of things from Larry Hart and his witty, sophisticated, heartbreaking lyrics, to Hammerstein's wide-open Americana and beautifully earthy lyrics." Miss McGovern says. She gives a very un-Julie Andrews-like jolt of jazz to "My Favorite Things," a woman's touch to "This Nearly Was Mine" and an ahhh-cappella reading to "My Funny Valentine." Her pipes, pampered by the health food and kitchenware she carries in six suitcases, also produce a 22-song Rodgers medley done in 1 1/2 minutes, a little ditty she and composer-arranger-pianist-pal Jeff Harris call the "Fantasy Fricassee." Family lore has it that Maureen Therese McGovern, an Irish-Catholic girl from Youngstown, Ohio, began singing at age 3, pulling herself erect in her crib at night and letting loose with whatever she had heard on the radio that day. By age 5, she was harmonizing with Daddy's barbershop quartet; by the third grade, she knew she would make her life in music-- and that details would work out somehow. As she grew, her voice did, too, into an instrument with a rare four-octave range, one that seems to slide effortlessly from head to chest through scat, standards, classical, pop and Broadway. |
 "The Morning After," from "The Posiedon Adventure" launched Maureen McGovern's recording and concert career 30 years ago. She frequently performs at Wolf Trap. |
most
major U.S. symphonies, including the New York Pops and the Baltimore,
St. Louis and National symphonies, among many others.
As the years on the road pile up for the stylish 52-year-old vegetarian, she thinks more about staying home in Los Angeles with her beloved Yorkies Hannah and Rocky, concentrating on the music she writes for children and leaving a legacy. Her talk is about giving back. Miss McGovern has always felt innately that music can heal. She was, in fact, doing music therapy long before she knew the term. The Music Therapy Association, a national nonprofit that promotes music as a way to ease illness and pain, addiction and disabilities, recently recognized that early this year when it presented her with its Songs From the Heart Award at Wolf Trap. Also this year, she founded The McGovern Works of Heart Project for music and healing. Its first project, she says, is a library of life-affirming recordings for everyone "from preemies to seniors." The first CD, due for Valentine's Day includes "Never-Land," "Amazing Grace" and The Morning After." "I think it's an antidote for what's out there musicwise," she says, "at the risk [of] sounding like our parents." Her career, it seems, will always circle back to that "The Morning After." It first came along at a particularly messy time in her life. She was divorcing her husband, was embroiled in a nasty lawsuit with her first manager, and had just learned that her mother, Mary, had colon cancer. "I think what people heard in my version was my real desperate need to believe in it," she says, and "as long as people want to hear it, I'll be glad to sing it." This time "The Morning After" comes around with her in a position to make it matter even more. It astounds Miss McGovern that she still gets letters about the three-decades-old tune. She hears how that "generic hope song" has helped people get through illnesses, deaths, depressions. "So I thought," she says, matter-of-factly, " 'If that's a gift I've been given, to do that, why not focus on it?' " |
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Review from: JazzWest.com: Celebrating the Best in Bay Area Jazz By
by Phil Elwood
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| Posted on Thu, Nov. 21, 2002
McGovern makes any song hers By Pat Craig CONTRA COSTA TIMES Here's the bottom line: If you were a song, you'd give anything to be sung by Maureen McGovern. That's the long and the short of it. When it comes to singing the classic catalog of American popular songs, it just doesn't get any better than McGovern. She's got the range, the tone, the presence and the indefinable star quality necessary to make any song shine. Although probably best known as the queen of the disaster movie theme ("The Morning After," from "The Poseidon Adventure," and "We May Never Love Like This Again," from "The Towering Inferno," both recorded during McGovern's long-blond-haired folk-singer period), the entertainer has emerged as one of the top interpreters of Broadway music. As both an actress, with several Broadway and roadshow credits, and a recording star -- lauded for her interpretation of the Gershwin canon and praised for her skills as a jazz singer by Mel Torme -- McGovern has emerged as one of the finest singers going. I have been enamored with her ability to sing Gershwin songs since the first time I heard her CD, "Naughty Baby: McGovern Sings Gershwin," an album that has a nearly permanent place on my car CD player. But, as proved beyond a doubt Tuesday, opening night of her 12-day run at San Francisco's Plush Room, it's not the material that makes McGovern shine. It is that voice, that wonderful, chocolate-coated velvet voice that ranges unbelievably and makes the singer so wonderfully able to interpret the tunes of the masters. In her voice, you hear Ella Fitzgerald, some Torme, bits of Merman and even a little Audra McDonald as she makes just about any tune her own. Her current show is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Richard Rodgers, highlighting the collaboration of both Rodgers and Hart and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Rodgers' two major partners were just about as diverse as they come -- Hart saw the glass as half-empty and Hammerstein saw it as half-full is how McGovern explains it. Just look at Hart's "I Wish I Were in Love Again," and Hammerstein's "Cockeyed Optimist," as polar opposite as you can get, yet Rodgers' music fits them both like designer jeans. And they both fit McGovern's style equally well. She has a way of infusing each song with her own personality, and making it feel as if it had been written for her, alone. You forget Mary Martin when you hear her sing "Cockeyed Optimist," or Julie Andrews when she moves gently into "Climb Ev'ry Mountain." Yet the tunes still evoke the shows from which they came. McGovern has a way of blending her tremendous acting ability with a sinewy but almost operatic voice to give songs a personal intensity. She makes each tune a brief emotional encounter, with an irresistible interpretation that makes it seem fresh and new no matter how many times you have heard it. The Plush Room is an ideal setting for McGovern's style of singing. Her interpretations of the different Rodgers songs unfold on a very intimate, personal basis, making the performance like a very personal encounter with McGovern. If you've been meaning to take in a show at the Plush Room, this one could be your best bet. They really don't get any better than this. |
Leisure: Maureen McGovern tickets availableBy Barbara Swarm
HANFORD -- After performing live in concert on the East Coast, Maureen McGovern, the voice behind "The Morning After" from the 1970's movie "The Poseidon Adventure" will be heading to Hanford where she will present an evening celebrating timeless classics during the 14th annual Hospital Gala Dinner Show at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10 in the Civic Auditorium, 400 N. Douty St. . . . McGovern has made a commitment to help out with all aspects associated with the medical community whenever possible and is looking forward to supporting the two hospitals here in Hanford.
During her recent trip to Atlanta where she attended the Music Therapy Association Conference, McGovern learned of a new device for preemies: a musical pacifier.
"It was amazing," she said.
According to McGovern, "case studies show that preemies love the sound of music."
Because of the musical pacifier, preemies learn to suck and drink earlier, therefore gaining weight and are sent home sooner, she said.
McGovern, who recently founded The McGovern Works of Heart Project for music and healing, has become an American Music Therapy Association artist spokesperson for music therapy.
"It was a life altering experience," she said of her time and commitment to the cause.
McGovern was recently recognized with the Songs From the Heart Award for her commitment to children, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the healing power of music.
"I am really excited," she said about this next chapter in her life. McGovern continues to stay busy between concerts and theater. "I love musical theater," she said. "I try to do one to two shows a year."
How can she stay so busy, "I love the variety," she replied. "You learn, it keeps you fresh."
Her latest CD, "Maureen McGovern: Works of Heart" which is about 85 percent complete is expected to be released just in time for Valentines day.. . . |
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October 16, 2002 Senior
Games enter Round 2 IVINS -- Dressed in traditional Piute clothing, a member of the Piute Indian Nation zigzagged down Red Mountain Tuesday, the light in his hand brightening against the night sky as he approached Tuacahn stage. He handed off the torch to Broadway Star Maureen McGovern who, accompanied by U.S. Table Tennis Champion Scott Preiss, passed the torch to Senior Games Founder John Morgan who lit the Huntsman World Senior Games flame -- again. The Second Week Opening Ceremonies of the Senior Games showed off what the City of Ivins is known for best -- its natural landscape and the performing arts -- with a little added grandeur brought by Broadway Star Maureen McGovern. McGovern, who told the audience she was clinging to the first three months of her 53rd year, exhibited her well-maintained voice, singing Broadway hits and big-band style songs, occasionally breaking into scat and dancing beside the accompanying Crestmark band. McGovern dedicated Richard Rogers' "The will to go on," to the athletes. Read more here: The Spectrum |
| September
21, 2002 PERFECT with POPS Maureen McGovern's strong performance kicks off symphony series Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk, Grand Rapids Press Maureen McGovern has been called the Stradivarius of voice, but I'd prefer to call her a vocal chameleon. McGovern is to singing what Rich Little is to speaking. With a soft ballad, she sounds as refined as Julie Andrews. With a beat and a big orchestra there is a nasal hint of Barbara Streisand. She scats like Mel Tormé and belts like Judy Garland. And yet, McGovern isn't an impersonator. She is an original who obviously learned from the best. . . . A consummate singer and actress, who has appeared on Broadway as Mabel in “Pirates of Penzance” and toured nationally as Anna in “The King and I,” McGovern sells songs such as “This Can’t Be Love” and “I Wish I were in Love Again” with a tilt of her head, a lift of her eyebrow and a shrug of her shoulder, putting her entire self into the performance. Even for the old standbys, such as “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught,” she put on a fresh face, turning the former song from “Oklahoma!” into a swing tune and the latter from “South Pacific” into a contemporary pop number. . . . Whether imitating Jeanette Mac Donald singing while riding a horse or rattling off more than a dozen of Rodgers’ best knows songs, from “Blue Moon” to “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” in a couple of minutes, McGovern entertained throughout the hour-long show. While poking fun at her age and her 30-year career, McGovern looked radiant. Yet it was the voice that made her show. Whether she plays the ingénue singing “Out of My Dreams” or the older and wiser woman with “Falling in Love With Love,” McGovern captivated the audience with sheer singing. Not many entertainers could hold a stage all alone, but after a piano introduction, McGovern sang Rodgers and Heart’s “My Funny Valentine” entirely unaccompanied and earned a big hand for her efforts. The musical arrangements, many by her musical director, Jeff Harris, were enjoyable, switching gears from big band swing to Broadway to contemporary pop. |
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Monday, September 16, 2002 McGovern says she loves sheer range of her life on stageBy
Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk . . .McGovern will bring a career's worth of experience singing pop, jazz and Broadway musicals to Grand Rapids this weekend to open Grand Rapids Symphony's 2002-03 Pops Series season in DeVos Performance Hall. . . .She spent this past summer at The Sundance Institute in Utah as Countess Aurelia in a revival of Jerry Herman's 1969 musical "Dear World." "I got to play a wonderfully eccentric character," she said. "To be in one place and to do a character role like that was a real leap off the cliff for me." Yet she continues her career as singer, earning a 1999 Grammy nomination for her jazz recording "The Pleasure of His Company" with pianist Mike Renzi, while doing voice-over work such as the voice of Rachel in the animated movie "Joseph: King of Dreams." "I like to mix it up," she said. "I try to make my year as diverse as possible." |
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July 10,
2002 By Sharon Haddock
DEAR WORLD, Sundance Theatre, through Aug. 17,
tickets available at 907-4050. Running time 2 hours 45 minutes. |
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July 09, 2002 Neil Patel's set design resembles a giant impressionistic painting, complete with a gilded frame, giving the illusion that the audience is gazing into an alluring if fantastic canvas. The musical staging by Peter Anastos, with simplicity and minimal prop use, maintains the immediacy of the work. The uncluttered staging also keeps the focus on the excellent performers, proving that for Dear World, less is certainly more.. . . The Sundance Theatre's production honors both Mr. Herman's vision and the original text from which Dear World was adapted, Jean Giraurdoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, which Himberg calls "a delicate soufflé of a play. The story is a fable set in post World War II Paris about the power of one and the triumph of idealism and hope over calculated corporate greed. The internationally acclaimed Maureen McGovern tackles the lead role of the charismatic Countess Aurelia, The Madwoman of Chaillot, with aplomb. Her clear diction and powerful voice are gorgeous, but so too is her acting. A masterful presence on the stage, McGovern's Countess is zany and loveable, but also entirely credible. By the production's finale, one has the distinct impression that she is not actually mad, but simply chooses to live in a world she can control.. . . The production's second act is a musical tour de force with the juxtaposed trios of the Madwomen and The Presidents. Joan Barber as Constance, The Madwoman of Passy and Park City's own Dee Macaluso as Gabrielle, The Madwoman of St. Sulpice are charmingly loopy with their insistence that the other is insane but that their own imaginary friends and dogs do in fact exist. Their benign lunacies perfectly complement McGovern's character, and the song, "The Tea Party, beautifully blends their three distinct voices, as well as their cleverly delineated eccentricities and outrageous carryings on.. . . With Mount Timpanogos as the backdrop, "Dear World is a frothy, almost ethereal musical appropriate for adults and children alike. When during the final song, lighting designer David Lander makes shocking use of the natural setting, the result is as though the dreamlike impressionism of the production leaps off its canvas and into the real world. Read More...The Park Record |
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July 08, 2002 SUNDANCE -- Jerry Herman's "Dear World" opened and closed on Broadway in 1969, suffering from a bloated production that ran contrary to the composer's vision of a small, intimate show. Now, a mere 33 years later, Sundance is staging the premiere of a revised "Dear World" that is truer to Herman's original intent. The great outdoors setting at Sundance may not be what you'd call "intimate," but the performances are quirky and lovable, and so is the show. I fear the beauty of "Dear World" may be lost on some people. It has fewer songs and more talking than some musicals, and its style is daft and sometimes surreal. The story is slight and parable-like. I didn't know what Herman meant when he described the show in an interview as "fragile." Now I know. It's like the child you feel is most precious because it's a little different from the others, and you're afraid the rest of the world won't appreciate it. The show, directed by Philip Himberg, is set in Paris just after World War II, when the citizens are still sweeping up the last vestiges of the Nazi occupation -- physically, anyway. In every other way, the war has changed Paris forever. That is not true for Countess Aurelia (Maureen McGovern), though, the madwoman of Chaillot for whom men's names change every hour and to whom "the sun is always shining, right behind the clouds." She takes Pollyanna's optimism and advances it to the next level: full-blown insanity. She lives life the way it used to be, not the way it is. When informed of how hearts have hardened since the recent travails, she sings a song called "I Don't Want to Know." And then there is Maureen McGovern, filling the role originated by Angela Lansbury and, judging by the cast recording of the original production and with all due respect to Ms. Lansbury, doing a better job of it. McGovern's voice is fantastic; that was never in question. But the self-described "singer who acts" handles the acting with incredible grace, humor and fire. Aurelia does not seem like a delusional old fool who won't face reality; instead, she is an idealist who truly believes -- and convinces the audience -- that one person can change the world. "Dear World" has ample great humor, but it is the gentle, poignant moments that will stick with you. Such a lovely show; I hope the world appreciates it. Should you go? Definitely.
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you might see Redford in the audience. |
July
8, 2002
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June 30, 2002 "Dear World, which stars the internationally-lauded Maureen McGovern, is a fable set in post World War II Paris about the power of optimism, idealism, and hope over the cold worlds of business and science. The failure of the 1969 production is attributed to an over-blown Broadway treatment that smothered the musical's subtle intimacy. "From what I gather, it was conceived as a chamber piece, explains Ms. McGovern.". . . According to Himberg, he and McGovern worked closely with Herman to reclaim Dear World as its creator had first envisioned it, "gossamer and just quietly romantic. Mr. Herman even introduced songs that he wrote for the 1969 version that were hacked out and have never been sung in performance. "Now [the lost songs] are back where they were intended to be. All is well in the world, smiles Herman.. . . This is Himberg's sixth season at Sundance, where he says the challenges of working at altitude with unpredictable weather are far overshadowed by the splendor of the setting. "I've been to outdoor theaters all over the country, and nothing is as beautiful as seeing a play at Sundance with the mountain for a backdrop. Himberg met McGovern when he produced The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and later met Herman at a Sundance workshop. A collaboration was born. "The role [of the Countess Aurelia] is a wonderful challenge for me, says McGovern, who graced Utah audiences in 1999 at Sundance as Mme. Emery in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. This year marks her 30th in show business, with performing credits spanning all media, from Broadway and the world's most acclaimed concert stages, to television, film, and numerous recordings, including the Academy Award-winning song "The Morning After from The Poseidon Adventure. Mel Torme calls McGovern "quite simply, the most glorious singer ever to come down the pike. Many of the cast members are local, including Park City resident, Dee Macaluso. Macaluso is a professional actress who also teaches improvisational comedy classes. Himberg says that working with a predominantly Utah cast and crew has been rewarding and that he is impressed with the appreciation for musical theater he has found in Utah. "I've found Utah audiences to be so enthusiastic and sophisticated, agrees Herman. McGovern, who has also performed with Keith Lockhart and the Utah Symphony, concurs. "Utah audiences are devoted, musically astute, and receptive, she praises. She recalls one evening during the production of Umbrellas of Cherbourg, when it began to rain. "The audience stayed, she laughs with amazement, "they just put up their own umbrellas; it was very fitting. The production of "Dear World is not without similar irony: during a recent rehearsal, the cast was silenced by an animal bounding across the amphitheater's seating, prompting them to privately refer to the play as Deer World. "Dear World is the undeservedly neglected story of one woman's quest to vanquish the injustices of capitalism. With a blessing from the musical's creator, Himberg and his cast will breathe fresh life into "Dear World, more than 30 years after its disappointing debut. Read more. . .Park Record |
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June 27,2002 . . . Tony Award-winning songwriter Jerry Herman said, "I am honored and grateful that Sundance Theatre is giving the wonderful Utah audience a chance to hear one of my favorite scores. I was so moved by Maureen McGovern's glorious talent in early meetings and I can't wait for Sundance audiences to share that experience with me.". . . "Collaborating with Jerry Herman on a new version of "Dear World" is a unique prospect for both our creative team and our audiences. The pairing of Maureen McGovern's exquisite voice with Jerry's powerful score is a rare opportunity." A version of the revised script was produced by Goodspeed Musicals in the fall of 2000. Since that production, Himberg has collaborated with Herman and Thompson on additional revisions and the orchestrations are being revisited.. . . Maureen McGovern last appeared at Sundance Theatre in 1999 as Mme. Emery in Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand's "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg." Her performing credits span all media, from Broadway and the world's most acclaimed concert stages, to television, film, and numerous recordings, including the Grammy-nominated "The Pleasure of His Company" and the Academy Award-winning song "The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure. Jerry Herman performed at Sundance last season in "Hello Jerry, a Musical Salute to Jerry Herman," an evening dedicated to the songs of this musical theatre legend. . . . Read more. . .New Utah |
| 'Dear
World,' playwright Jerry Herman's biggest flop, gets tuned up and toned
down BY
CELIA R. BAKER |
 Sundance
plays revamped 'Dear World'ERIC D. SNIDER The Daily Herald on Friday, June 28 SUNDANCE -- Sundance Theatre will premiere a newly revised version of Jerry Herman's "Dear World," a musical comedy that flopped on Broadway in 1969 and is just now getting a chance at redemption. The show's preview performances are now through July 5; official opening night is July 6. "The nice thing is, you don't really get very many second chances," Herman said in a telephone interview from his Beverly Hills home. "If something doesn't work, you sort of put it aside and you brush yourself off and start over again. But I always wanted to see what this would look like, and next week I will get a chance." . . . "It was supposed to be a small, charming chamber piece," he said. "I never saw it as a 'Broadway-Broadway' musical." It was booked in the Mark Hellinger Theatre, though -- the largest house on Broadway at the time -- and the producer "suddenly realized he had to fill it with a huge orchestra, so out went my little chamber orchestra," Herman said. "And the 11-person show became a show with 40, and a huge chorus." As a result, Herman said, the show lost its intimacy, failed to connect with audiences and critics, and closed after 132 performances. "I, through the years, have always hoped somebody would come along and want to do it the way it was intended to be," he said. Enter Philip Himberg, artistic director at Sundance Theatre. He met Herman last year when Herman performed a concert of his songs at Sundance.. . . Himberg knew a little-known show like "Dear World" would be risky, but Sundance founder Robert Redford told him what he needed to hear: "Sundance is all about taking risks." Herman was delighted at the prospect of remounting the show. "It's one of my very favorites, because it's like a stepchild," he said. "It's a show that never had the popularity or success of the big ones, and I love my work in it almost more than in some of the more known things." So he set to work retooling some of the songs, and sent David Thompson to work rewriting the script. Himberg said last week they were still receiving new bits of the revised score. "It's very exciting," he said. "It's very much like a work in progress." Grammy-nominated singer and actress Maureen McGovern will play the lead, filling the role created by Angela Lansbury. "Maureen"s voice is perfectly suited for this," Herman said. "She"s got a very flexible voice that allows her to do a poignant ballad at one point, and a strong declaration of her strength for another song called "One Person." You really need a flexible instrument to do songs that different from one another, and Maureen is quite perfect for it." |
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Jerry
Herman returns to his 'Dear World' By NANCY VAN VALKENBURG Over the decades, as Broadway celebrated Jerry Herman"s biggest hits, the composer and lyricist has harbored a secret favorite. Sure, "Hello, Dolly!," "Mame" and "La Cage aux Folles" were box-office bonanzas that inspired popular films, but Herman"s "favorite failure" was "Dear World." "What we had written was really a chamber piece," Herman said in a phone interview. "It was supposed to be a very charming, lighter-than-air fable. But because our first producer was a showman, he wanted to turn it into a big musical spectacle. He wanted 32 musicians. I had envisioned seven. He wanted one of the bigger Broadway theaters, I wanted a more intimate space. The show ended up being twisted out of shape, and what opened wasn't the vision we had at all." Thirty-three years later, Herman got another chance to express his original vision. "Dear World" -- with musical accompaniment by seven musicians -- opened Thursday night in previews at Sundance Resort"s outdoor theater, the Eccles Stage. Recording artist and Broadway veteran Maureen McGovern stars in the role that won belter Angela Lansbury a Tony. "Maureen"s voice is perfectly
suited for this," Herman said. "She"s got a very flexible voice that
allows her to do a poignant ballad at one point, and a strong declaration
of her strength for another song called "One Person." You really need
a flexible instrument to do songs that different from one another,
and Maureen is quite perfect for it." |
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20-June-2002
Dear World Gets a New Spin by
The investigation of the material — the score is by Jerry Herman, the book by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee — continues June 27-Aug. 17 in Utah, where the Sundance Theatre is staging a revised version at its outdoor Eccles Stage. . . . Herman, of course, is the composer-lyricist known for the international blockbusters Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage aux Folles. In this Dear World, Maureen McGovern stars as Countess Aurelia, the touched Parisian who fights the forces of capitalistic injustice in postwar Paris. The show is a musical version of Jean Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, written during the Nazi occupation of France as a speculation on life after liberation. . . . The score has been reshuffled, and some new or previously cut songs are in place for Sundance. "A Sensible Woman," about how the "madwoman" feels life should be led opens the show (as it did at Goodspeed's Norma Terris, a version that starred Sally Ann Howes). "One Person," cut at Goodspeed, is back in, ending Act One. The title song is sung by the three madwomen, as a kind of lullaby that leads to "One Person." A song called "Through the Bottom of the Glass" does not appear in the show, and "Rugged to be Rich" has been rewritten as "Have a Little Pity on the Rich." The score also includes the famed number, "I Don't Want to Know," plus the delicious counterpoint trio for the women, as well as the romantic "Kiss Her Now" and "Tomorrow Morning" (all beloved staples from the cast album). "I feel like we've made some exquisite moments happen," Himberg told Playbill On-Line by phone from Utah. "Jerry and Tommy have given us a lot of leeway to do that." Solving the show is not easy, and finding a way to make the title song was no picnic, however. "Jerry even wanted to cut 'Dear World' at one point," Himberg explained. "He called me and said, 'Oh, let's just cut the song and change the name of the show to Tomorrow Morning. I said, 'No, no, no — we'll figure it out.' Jerry's been great. I think I could probably have asked him to do more stuff. I just decided that my job was to make this play work." Soprano Maureen McGovern, a veteran of pop tunes, Broadway musicals and cherished studio recordings of Of Thee I Sing and Let 'Em Eat Cake, will bring, arguably, the most trained, precise and soaring voice yet to the show. "When we went to Jerry's house to go over the score, Maureen began to sing," Himberg said. "He was at the piano and she was singing 'A Sensible Woman,' and he just stopped. Jerry's like a kid. He stood up and his eyes welled up with tears and he said, 'I've waited 40 years to hear this score sung like that.' Nothing against Angela, she's gorgeous and her voice is beautiful, but when Maureen McGovern wraps herself around these melodies it's a whole other reality." From his home in California, Herman told Playbill On-Line: "It was so thrilling to hear a voice like that sing those songs. You can imagine what they sounded like. It was just glorious. They're doing new orchestrations. It's still gonna be small, it's not gonna be the huge thing that opened on Broadway, which was very out of shape.". . . Herman
said he is excited about the summer and 2003. His short-lived Mack
& Mabel is expected to get a major U.S. revival in 2003. "It's
kind of a nice time for me because I'm gonna be able to see two of
my favorite works, which were failures, come back and hopefully have
new lives," he said. "You don't have a lot of second chances
in show business.". . . Dear World will play the Sundance Institute's outdoor Eccles Stage at Sundance Village beginning June 27. For ticket information, call (801) 907-4050. The Sundance Theatre is a not-for-profit arts organization founded by Robert Redford; for more information go to sundance.org. — By Kenneth Jones |
|
June 30, 2002 "Dear World, which stars the internationally-lauded Maureen McGovern, is a fable set in post World War II Paris about the power of optimism, idealism, and hope over the cold worlds of business and science. The failure of the 1969 production is attributed to an over-blown Broadway treatment that smothered the musical's subtle intimacy. "From what I gather, it was conceived as a chamber piece, explains Ms. McGovern.". . . According to Himberg, he and McGovern worked closely with Herman to reclaim Dear World as its creator had first envisioned it, "gossamer and just quietly romantic. Mr. Herman even introduced songs that he wrote for the 1969 version that were hacked out and have never been sung in performance. "Now [the lost songs] are back where they were intended to be. All is well in the world, smiles Herman.. . . This is Himberg's sixth season at Sundance, where he says the challenges of working at altitude with unpredictable weather are far overshadowed by the splendor of the setting. "I've been to outdoor theaters all over the country, and nothing is as beautiful as seeing a play at Sundance with the mountain for a backdrop. Himberg met McGovern when he produced The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and later met Herman at a Sundance workshop. A collaboration was born. "The role [of the Countess Aurelia] is a wonderful challenge for me, says McGovern, who graced Utah audiences in 1999 at Sundance as Mme. Emery in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. This year marks her 30th in show business, with performing credits spanning all media, from Broadway and the world's most acclaimed concert stages, to television, film, and numerous recordings, including the Academy Award-winning song "The Morning After from The Poseidon Adventure. Mel Torme calls McGovern "quite simply, the most glorious singer ever to come down the pike. Many of the cast members are local, including Park City resident, Dee Macaluso. Macaluso is a professional actress who also teaches improvisational comedy classes. Himberg says that working with a predominantly Utah cast and crew has been rewarding and that he is impressed with the appreciation for musical theater he has found in Utah. "I've found Utah audiences to be so enthusiastic and sophisticated, agrees Herman. McGovern, who has also performed with Keith Lockhart and the Utah Symphony, concurs. "Utah audiences are devoted, musically astute, and receptive, she praises. She recalls one evening during the production of Umbrellas of Cherbourg, when it began to rain. "The audience stayed, she laughs with amazement, "they just put up their own umbrellas; it was very fitting. The production of "Dear World is not without similar irony: during a recent rehearsal, the cast was silenced by an animal bounding across the amphitheater's seating, prompting them to privately refer to the play as Deer World. "Dear World is the undeservedly
neglected story of one woman's quest to vanquish the injustices of
capitalism. With a blessing from the musical's creator, Himberg and
his cast will breathe fresh life into "Dear World, more than 30 years
after its disappointing debut. |
| McGovern
Adds New Vigor to Rodgers Classics Monday, June 17, 2002 BY CELIA R. BAKER THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The
lucky people who filled the Jeanne Wagner Theatre on Saturday night
witnessed one of the most outstanding performances seen in Salt Lake
City this year. |
| March
29, 2002 USAF Band dazzles D.C. with the '02 Guest Artist Series
by
Master Sgt. Elizabeth K. Campeau
|
BALTIMORE
SONGWRITER INTERVIEW
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