Coming events at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center will include evenings with composer Charles Strouse, a look at the early history of music on the London stage.
Here's the line-up:
March 2: An Evening With Charles Strouse, composer of Annie, Rags, Golden Boy and Applause Strouse is currently adapting The Night They Raided Minsky's into a musical.
March 9: "To Please The Towne: Variety on the London Stage," featuring students and musicians from Maness College doing scenes, songs and dances from the early days of London theatre. Alice Standlin recreates the choreography.
On exhibit, March 14-May 2 will be masks, figures and designs by Ralph Lee, founder of the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. Lee himself will offer tours of the exhibition March 14, 19 and 24.
April 4: "Anything Can Happen In New York: Politics On Broadway With Yip Harburg & Friends." A narrated theatrical concert with Deena Rosenberg & other performers. April 16: The cast-members and creators of the new musical, Ragtime.
Also, now through May 22, visitors can see an exhibition (titled "With Pen In Hand") of theatrical correspondence by such theatre notables as G.B. Shaw, Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams.
For information on these free events, call (212) 870-1630. Tickets are not reservable; they're distributed at the Library's information desk two hours before events get under way.
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In other NY Public Library for the Performing Arts news, plans for the Lincoln Center venue's renovation are being finalized. According to NYPL spokesperson Alex Wang, the space will likely shut down in mid-July and undergo a two-year relocation period. During that time, "in addition to reapportioning the space [at the Lincoln Center building], there'll be an infrastructure for the latest information technologies, new wiring and networking for reference databases, as well as for personal computers." The projected cost is $25 million.
Meanwhile, as reported in Backstage, the Library will split its collection, with half being housed at the building on Fifth Ave & 40th St., and half at the annex on 43rd St. & Tenth Ave.
Asked about the reason for the renovation, executive director Robert Marx told Backstage, "The library building doesn't really adequately hold us at this point. Our annual attendance is 400,000. This building wasn't designed to hold that many people. We're bursting at the seams."
