The evening features songs by Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Dietz & Schwartz, Duke Ellington, and George & Ira Gershwin, among many others. Clark will be backed by five musicians: piano, bass, drums, guitar and tenor saxophone.
Born Patricia Larson, the singer's family immigrated to the United States from the same part of Scandinavia as Peggy Lee's did and settled with their countrymen around Dakota. The two lady vocalists would intermittently cross paths throughout their career.
Clark gave her first public performance at age three, and by 17 she was signed by the NBC station in North Dakota, the same station that hired Peggy Lee some time earlier. The station manager suggested that she change her name from Patricia Larson to Patty Clark (Norma Engstrom was asked to do the same and she became Peggy Lee).
Clark had her own radio and television programs at NBC. Later she appeared with Bob Hope on four national tours, for a season she was featured on CBS network TV with Johnny Desmond and Ray McKinley with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
She retired after her marriage to Tony Fantozzi, an executive of the William Morris talent agency. In recent years, "she succumbed to the 'seven-year itch' to sing unforgettable American classics with tributes to great songwriters as Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter," according to the Lortel announcement. Her latest album, "I Love You," was recently released in the U.K. on the Mainstream label. The disc is a tribute to the great songwriters, and she is backed by a 55-piece orchestra led by pianist Lou Forestieri and featuring jazz soloists Gary Foster (tenor saxophone) Doug Webb (soprano saxophone) and Bob McChensney (trombone).
With renovations going on at the White Barn in Westport, CT, an abbreviated cabaret season is being presented at Off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre. The late Lortel founded White Barn in 1947 as a summer venue designed to develop new works.
Upcoming performances in the cabaret series at the Lucille Lortel Theatre include William Bolcom, Joan Morris and Max Morath in Over the Rainbow: Music to the Lyrics of E.Y. Harburg, June 20-22. They will sing songs written by E. Y. Harburg with music by Harold Arlen, Sammy Fain, Jule Styne, Burton Lane, Vernon Duke and others.
Also, Tony Award-nominee Sharon McNight (Starmites) sings Songs to Offend Almost Everyone, June 26-28.
Performances play 8 PM Friday, 2 & 8 PM Saturday and 3 Saturdays and 3 & 7 PM Sunday. (Though McNight plays 8 PM Thursday, 7 & 10 PM Friday and 2 & 8 PM Saturday.
The Lucille Lortel Theatre is located at 121 Christopher, between Hudson and Bleecker Streets. Tickets range $30 $35. For ticket information, call (212)239-6200 or (800) 447-7400, or visit whitebarntheatre.org.
