Contributed photo.
Westville’s Lyric Hall will stage a world premiere Friday, as literature, music and history come together to celebrate the legacy of Broadway composers George Gershwin and Kay Swift in “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” a theatrical concert that will highlight composer George Gershwin’s romance with Broadway composer Kay Swift and some of the landmark musical hits they produced.
The Great American Songbook, a canon of important American standards of the early 20th century, invariably lists George Gershwin as among the most influential composers of the era. Breaking a glass ceiling for women at the time was Kay Swift, who composed and arranged a number of important Broadway hits in what was widely understood to be a male-dominated profession.
The two apparently shared more than beautiful music together, as recounted inThe Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family’s Legacy of Infidelities, a memoir by author and Bethany resident, Katharine Weber, the grand daughter of Kay Swift.
The story and its history of romantic triangulation will be touched upon though the performance’s music. It is told in much greater depth in Weber’s book, copies of which will be signed, sold and donated as a benefit for Lyric Hall.
“I’ve donated every penny of the books and the door will benefit Lyric Hall,” Ms. Weber said in a recent interview with Binnie Klein on WPKN radio. Weber also gave a shout-out to Lyric Hall owner and impresario John Cavaliere: “It has been a labor of love for him. It’s a charming place with actual footlights.”
From top left: Swift/James Paul Warburg, R, Swift/Gershwin, bottom, Gershwin.
Weber passionately manages her grandmother’s musical legacy and is a trustee and contact person for The Kay Swift Memorial Trust, which was established by Swift’s estate to “to enable scholarship about the life and work of Kay Swift, and to perpetuate performance, recording and publication of her music.”
Portrait of Kay Swift, courtesy of Kay Swift Trust. C. 1935.
The event will feature unpublished photos from the Kay Swift Memorial archive and “private recordings and never before seen letters, which offer a glimpse into their [Gershwin and Swift’s] remarkable affair” according to Weber.
Contributed photo
Contributed photo, C. 1928
Musical selections for the concert will include Gershwin classics “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” “Embracable You,” Love is Sweeping the Country,” ‘Swonderful, Who Cares?,” “ Summertime,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” and “Let’s call the Whole Thing Off.” Hit numbers from the Kay Swift catalogue will include, “ “Can’t We Be Friend’s?,” “Fine and Dandy,” and “Can This Be Love.”
DAVID SEPULVEDA PHOTO
Scene from the concert.
Broadway conductor Aaron Gandy, the artistic adviser to the Kay Swift Trust, will serve as the program’s pianist and host. Broadway singers for the show are soprano Merrill Grant and tenor Sean Doherty, with direction and Multimedia Design by Mark York, founder and executive director of New Yourk City’s Ziegfeld Society.
With Valentine’s Day only a few days away, this concert premier showcased at historic Lyric Hall stands to be more than a fine and dandy time for those lucky enough to score tickets.
The concert will be performed Friday beginning at 8 pm at Lyric Hall. For additional information visit the Lyric Hall Website.