Tony Winner Rees to Direct Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner's White House Cantata

By Andrew Gans
March 5, 2008

The Collegiate Chorale will present what is being billed as the New York premiere of Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner's A White House Cantata March 31 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater.

Tony Award winner Roger Rees will direct the semi-staged performance, which will feature soprano Anita Johnson as Seena, soprano Emily Pulley as the First Lady, tenor Robert Mack as Lud and baritone Dwayne Croft as the President. The evening will also feature the Orchestra of St. Luke's. This year marks the 90th birthdays of both Lerner and Bernstein. The Collegiate Chorale, led by music director Robert Bass, is presenting the evening in honor of Bernstein's 90th birthday.

A White House Cantata, according to press notes, is fashioned from "the historically controversial and short-lived Broadway musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which [Bernstein] wrote in collaboration with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner."

The Cantata, which the London Symphony Orchestra premiered in 1997, depicts "the absurdity of period social hierarchies within the first 100 years of the United States' executive mansion using 11 presidents, selected first ladies, and three generations of black servants while illustrating the exclusivity of the American dream amongst the white privileged class."

The design team for the evening includes Frances Aronson (lighting designer) and Michael Clark (projection designer).

Subscriptions and single tickets may be purchased by calling The Collegiate Chorale at (646) 792-2373 or by visiting www.collegiatechorale.org.