"What Makes Leonard Bernstein Great?" — featuring Brian d'Arcy James and Ana Maria Andricain — and LaChanze's solo concert debut will complete the fall portion of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series. On Nov. 15 (8 PM) composer-conductor-pianist Rob Kapilow will lead an evening entitled "What Makes Leonard Bernstein Great?" Kapilow will offer musical insights into several tunes by the late Bernstein, including "Something's Coming," "Maria," "Tonight" and "I Can Cook Too." The songs will be performed by
Titanic's Brian d'Arcy James and
Les Misérables' Ana Maria Andricain.
On Nov. 16 (8 and 10 PM) LaChanze — star of Broadway's
Once On This Island, Ragtime and
Company — will make her solo concert debut. Concertgoers will hear the singer-actress interpret such tunes as "Another Hundred People," Haymes and Brandt's "That's All," Lala Hathaway's "So They Say" as well as songs by Dianne Reeve, Edwardo del Bario, Raul Midon and the team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. One of the Ahrens/Flaherty offerings will be "A Song for LaChanze," a work the
Ragtime team composed to pay tribute to the death of LaChanze's husband Calvin Gooding, who perished during the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
The American Songbook series is devoted to the popular American song. Recent participants include Kristin Chenoweth, Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, Karen Mason and John Barrowman.