Best of the Versed

“Celebrating the Opening Lyrics You May Not Know to Tunes You Thought You Did.”

Starring Steve Ross & Karen Murphy

Produced and Hosted by David Alpern

Explore the vivid universe of verse in the Great American Songbook: tunes both familiar and obscure, but all with now rarely-performed introductory lyrics, poetic, pithy, and artfully crafted to tie into so many Golden Age stage and screen musicals; or provide free-standing context – emotional, comical, always lyrical – as originally written by Ira Gershwin, Larry Hart, Cole Porter, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Sammy Cahn, Herman Hupfeld and more. "As a tot when I trotted in little velvet panties", "In Verona my late cousin Romeo", "My love must be a kind of blind love", "I don't need a moon, a nook, a tune for violins", "My face is glowing, I'm energetic", "Men are really men no longer now". Name that tune? Google can help, but we"... tell you more and sing them all!

Steve Ross, dubbed "Crown Prince of Cabaret" by the New York Times, has earned that title over decades at venerable venues throughout Manhattan, across the country and around the world. His nearly dozen CDs include musical explorations of Stepen Sondheim, Alan Jay Lerner, Cole Porter and, of course Noel Coward, whose green velvet smoking jacket – or at least one tailored for Noel in London – was gifted to Steve by Britain's Noel Coward Society."The smoothest cabaret act in the world" – London Times

Karen Murphy's Broadway credits include: A Little Night Music, 9-to-5, 42nd Street, and Titanic. Off Broadway most recently she was in The Jerusalem Syndrome, and previously My Vaudeville Man, Zombie Prom, and Forbidden Broadway. National tours include: Finding Neverland, Mary Poppins, White Christmas, and Les Miz.

"Once in a while a cabaret performer comes along with a vision so unique, a performance so original, it can only be described as electrifying. Such a find is Karen Murphy” – Scott Siegel, concert producer/columnist

Producer and host David Alpern, son of a "girl singer" on the road and radio circa 1939, was a reporter, writer, editor and radio host for Newsweek Magazine over 40 years, interviewing politicians, policy experts and entertainers including Katherine Hepburn, Tony Bennett, and several stars of this LTV cabaret series: Steve Ross, Anna Bergman, Mark Nadler, K.T. Sullivan, Christine Andreas. Long a Sag Harbor resident, these days he reviews books for the East Hampton Star and hosts programs for local libraries.

STEVE ROSS, PIANIST

Steve Ross has been a fixture of the cabaret community in Manhattan for over forty years. He was born “forty-five minutes from Broadway” in New Rochelle, NY, and was raised in Washington, DC with an opera-loving father and a mother who played on the piano the songs of Gershwin, Porter and Irving Berlin. His first major job in New York was as a successful singer/pianist at the now famous piano bar Ted Hook’s Backstage.

In 1981 he re-opened the legendary Oak Room at Manhattan’s famed Hotel Algonquin where he held forth off and on for more than 15 years. He has appeared on Broadway in Noel Coward’s Present Laughter and off-Broadway in his tribute to Fred Astaire entitled I Won’t Dance. Internationally, he has performed in London, Paris, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne and Sydney as well as cabarets and theatres across America and on the high seas. He’s hosted programs on the BBC and New York Public Radio and was on the Concerts and Lectures roster at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for eight years. He co-starred with KT Sullivan in Love, Noel: the Letters and Songs of Noel Coward - summer of 2019 at the Irish Repertory Theatre) His last show at the Algonquin, Puttin’ on the Ritz – the Songs of Fred Astaire, prompted Stephen Holden of the New York Times to describe Steve as “the personification of the bygone dream world that his music summons.”

Steve Ross has delighted and beguiled international audience for decades. Although he has performed in huge out-of-door venues (the St. Lous Muny Opera) and on theatre stages (Present Laughter - Broadway; I Won't Dance - Off-Broadway and on tour) he is equally successful in bringing his unique brand of Manhattan sophistication to cabarets and intimate events all over the world - from the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo to the RItz hotels in London and Paris and from parties for Revlon to special evenings for Christies. The Transatlantic Songbook is alive and well in the hands of this elegant and seasoned performer who turns every evening into an exciting Cafe Society event.

AWARDS

Lifetime Achievement (National Arts Club); New School Film-Maker Series Special Award; Manhattan NiteLife Award; Manhattan Association of Cabarets Lifetime Achievement Award

BENEFITS AND FUNDRAISERS

Hearts of the World Merkin Hall (NYC); Vocal Ease (NYC); Roundabout Theatre Co. Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC); Santa Fe Opera; Benefit performance Taj Hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka

SPECIAL EVENTS

Yale Alumni Celebration, Class of '45; The Morgan Library - Retirement Party, Charles Pierce the Morgan Library; Columbus Club Benefit for Charter Schools

FESTIVALS

Queens Festival (Belfast); Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC); Hong Kong Arts Festival; Caramoor Festival (New York); Thames Festival (UK); Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival ; The World Congress of Art Deco, Rio de Janeiro; Perth Theatre Festival, Australia; Adelaide Cabaret Festival Australia); Melbourne international Cabaret Festival (Australia); Chicago Humanities Festival; Cole Porter Festival (Provincetown, MA); Cole Porter Festival (Peru, IN); Midsummer Night's swing

THEATRES AND AUDITORIUMS

Broadway Present Laughter; Off-Broadway and tour I Won’t Dance – Steve Ross Sings Fred Astaire; L’Amour, the Merrier!co-starring Karen Murphy; St. The Muny Goes British; The Muny Goes Hollywood (St. Louis Muny Opera); Boccacio Arena Stage (Washington, DC); Jermyn Street Theatre (London); The Palace (Stamford, Ct); Museum of Performance and Design (San Francisco); State Theatre (Melbourne); Sydney Town Hall (Sydney); 59 East 59 (NYC); YMCA, Jerusalem; Rose Hall, The Allen Room (Lincoln Center, NYC); The Sheldon (St. Louis); Love, Noel (Irish Repertory Theatre, New York)

RADIO

New York Cabaret Nights (NPR, two seasons, 26 episodes); BBC cabaret series with prominent guest stars; Garison Keilor’s Prairie Home Companion -- guest appearance

HOTELS

London Ritz; Paris Ritz; Hotel Crillon (Paris); Hotel Algonquin (NYC); Buckingham Place, Galle, Sri Lanka; Hotel Cipriani (Venice); Stanhope Park Hyatt (NYC); Savoy Hotel (London); St. Regis Hotel (NYC); Aman Grand Canal, (Venice); Hotel Pellicano, Porto Ercole (Italy)

PERFORMING ARTS CENTERS

The Kravis Center, West Palm Beach, FL; Saratoga Performing Arts Center, New York; Annenberg Center, Palm Springs

CLUBS AND CABARETS

Birdland (NYC); Iridium Jazz Club (NYC); Café Sabarsky Neue Galerie (NYC); Rainbow and Stars (NYC); Tavern on the Green (NYC); Everglades Club (Palm Beach); Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC); Rio Country Club (Rio de Janeiro); Santa Fe Stages; Tucson Sizzling Summer Series; Nikko’s (San Francisco); The Plush Room (San Francisco) Pizza on the Park, Crazy Coqs -London; Colony Hotel, Palm Beach; Le Chat Noir New Orleans; Laurie Beechman Theatre (NYC)

VENUES

Carnegie Hall (NYC); The Town Hall (NYC); Bruno Walter Auditorium, Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts; Lyrics and Lyricists, 92nd St. YMHA (NYC); Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) ; The Harvard Club; The Yale Club; the Harmonie Club, The Princeton Club; The Knickerbocker Club, the University Club; The Players Club (NYC); Feinstein's 54 Below Sondheim Unplugged.

LECTURE & PERFORMANCE

Eight years on the Concert/Lectures Bureau of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)

MASTER CLASSES

Royal Academy of Music (London); NYU (New York); Georgetown University (DC); Catholic University (DC); New South Wales Institute of Dramatic Art (Sydney, Australia); Chapel-Off-Chapel (Melbourne, Australia), 202917-2918 New York City

BIG BAND and ORCHESTRA: Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Detroit Pops The Pops Goes British, Jack Everle conductor; The Cole Porter Concert The Wheeling Symphony, The Roanoke Symphony, the Yale Concert Band; Midsummer Night's Swing (Lincoln Center)

ON THE HIGH SEAS

QEII, Regent Seven Seas Voyager, Sea Cloud II

KAREN MURPHY

Karen Murphy makes a dynamic impact in every avenue of entertainment she performs. Most recently ended a ten month tour of Disney’s Mary Poppins, playing the evil Miss Andrew. Karen last appeared on Broadway as Madame Armfeldt in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music opposite Bernadette Peters. She received a 2009 Drama Desk nomination for her acclaimed performance in My Vaudeville Man. She has enjoyed many roles on Broadway: 9 to 5 (as Margaret the “Atta Girl” drunk), All Shook Up, the Tony-Award Winning 42nd Street, Titanic, A Christmas Carol (original cast at Madison Square Garden), and King David. Off-Broadway: Zombie Prom (Dramalogue and Encore Awards), Hysterical Blindness, Jerry Herman's Showtune. National Tour: Les Miserables, Wizard of Oz, and White Christmas. She made her debut at NY City Opera in A Most Happy Fella. A favorite experience was impersonating Angela Lansbury as Mame in productions around the world of Forbidden Broadway including Japan, New York and across the US. Karen is also an accomplished cabaret artist. Her one woman show Torchgoddess is featured in The Nifty Fifties, a pops orchestra concert program. She has performed these selections with Pittsburgh, Seattle, Cincinnati, Toronto, Rochester and Indianapolis pops orchestras. Recordings: Torchgoddess, My Vaudeville Man, 9 to 5, Zombie Prom, and I Won’t Dance (with Steve Ross).

Photo by Tess Steinkolk Photography

Best of the Versed

Saturday June 29, 2024 @ 7:30PM

Tickets:

General Admission: $50 in advanced, $55 at the door

VIP Cafe seating: $80

BUY TICKETS

HAMPTONS SUMMER SONGBOOK BY THE SEA PRESENTS

Best of the Versed

“Celebrating the Opening Lyrics You May Not Know to Tunes You Thought You Did.”

Starring Steve Ross & Karen Murphy

Produced and Hosted by David Alpern

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