Maureen McGovern: at the Colonial July 23
A Long and Winding Road: The Concert
By: Heather Greenfield - Jul 14, 2010
Maureen McGovern will bring her show A Long and Winding Road: The Concert (with Jeffrey Harris on piano) to the Colonial on July 23 at 8PM. Tickets are $50 and $35 and can be purchased in person at the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street Monday-Friday 10AM-5PM, performance Saturdays 10AM-2PM, by calling (413) 997-4444 or online at www.thecolonialtheatre.org.
This eclectic concert is an entertaining and introspective look at the songs that inspired Maureen McGovern before her Academy Award-winning hit “The Morning After.” Her repertoire includes selections of iconoclastic singer-songwriter material including “The Circle Game,” “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” “The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress,” “Imagine,” “Fire and Rain” and many others.
“For the longest time, people have been asking me to do a concert featuring so-called ‘Baby Boomer’ songs. At this time in my life, looking back, what interested me most were those introspective songs that influenced and inspired my own development as a person and an artist before “The Morning After.” I started out as a folk singer in the late ’60s, so it was highly nostalgic for me to go back and explore this particular section of my musical influences. I fell in love all over again with the early works of Jimmy Webb, Carole King, Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Laura Nyro and other groundbreaking singer- songwriters from my youth. Their songs, as the New York Times has called them, have become ‘the second half of the Great American Songbook.’ They're classic, timeless and evoke all kinds of memories.”
Maureen McGovern recently won an IRNE Award for Best Solo Performance for her one-woman theatrical show A Long And Winding Road (now titled Carry It On) at Boston's Huntington Threatre and spent several years wowing audiences in her Drama Desk nominated role of Marmee in the musical Little Women, first on Broadway and in the show's first national tour. She has also starred on Broadway in The Pirates of Penzance, Nine, 3 Penny Opera, and Off-Broadway in Brownstone, appeared in the Broadway National Tour of The King and I, and regionally in The Lion in Winter, Of Thee I Sing, Let 'Em Eat Cake, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Dear World, Letters from 'Nam, Elegies, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Guys & Dolls, I Do, I Do and her children's composition, The Bengal Tiger's Ball.
McGovern's recording career began with her Oscar-winning International Gold Records, “The Morning After” and “We May Never Love Like This Again.” She was nominated for a Grammy as Best New Artist (1973), for Best Traditional Pop Performance (1998) and shares in a Grammy for her participation in Songs From The Neighborhood: The Music of Mister Rogers. Her critically acclaimed recordings include “Another Woman In Love” and “The Pleasure Of His Company” with jazz pianist, Mike Renzi, songwriter tributes to George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers and Alan & Marilyn Bergman and her most recent release, A Long And Winding Road with pianist/arranger, Jeff Harris. In 2008, she received the AMEE Award from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists for her life's work in television, radio and recording and the MAC Lifetime Achievement Award.
A concert artist for nearly 40 years, her talents range from pop to jazz to classical and to the musical theater. She has consistently been a much sought-after guest artist with all the major symphonies, including the Boston Pops, The National Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and the New York Pops. She also toured extensively with the legendary jazz greats Mel Torme, Mercer Ellington and The Duke Ellington Orchestra and John Pizzarelli.
Maureen McGovern devotes a considerable amount of time to numerous charities and is the recipient of the
Imagination Award, presented by Imagination Stage, for her work with children, the arts, and philanthropy.
She received the Songs From The Heart Award from NARAS and The American Music Therapy Association,
for which she is an Artist Spokesperson. She is a National Board Member of the Muscular Dystrophy
Association and has been an MDA volunteer for over 30 years. McGovern is the founder of The Maureen McGovern “Works of Heart” Foundation for Music and Healing, with recent releases “Help Is On The Way” (in partnership with Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS) and Works of Heart: Songs of Hope featuring a 30th Anniversary recording of her signature song, “The Morning After.”
Jeff Harris is a musician who is comfortable in many kinds of music: pop, jazz, classical and musical theatre. He is also equally at home as a pianist, composer, arranger, conductor and lyricist. He has worked with such diverse singers as Maureen McGovern, Chaka Khan, Barbara Cook, Jack Jones, Audra McDonald, Cleo Laine, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christine Andreas, Liz Callaway and Karen Akers. His longest association has been with Maureen McGovern, playing on and arranging six of her CDs, writing many songs for her (she has recorded sixteen) and appearing with her frequently on television and in concerts.
Mr. Harris has worked extensively on Broadway as both a pianist and conductor, most recently as Associate Musical Director for Gypsy. Other Broadway credits include On The Town (directed by George C. Wolfe), Fosse, Chicago, Beauty and The Beast, and Crazy for You. Jeff Harris is a frequent guest as a pianist and conductor with many of the leading orchestras including the Boston, St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit, and National symphony orchestras, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and as a regular member of the New York Pops. He was featured on the PBS television special, Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds playing piano and speaking about the music of Richard Rodgers.
As a composer for the theater, he most recently composed Pinocchio: An Adoption Musical, which has been produced at South Coast Repertory Theater, and at Omaha Theater Company. Born in California to a musical family, Jeff Harris attended the University of Southern California on a full scholarship receiving his Bachelors of Music in Composition. He now makes his home in the New York City area.
Tickets for the performance are $50 and $35 and can be purchased in person at the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street Monday-Friday 10AM-5PM, performance Saturdays 10AM-2PM, by calling (413) 997-4444 or online at www.thecolonialtheatre.org