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Living Up To Their Titles

"First rate songs!" (The Village Voice). "Beguiling melodies!" (Associated Press). "The songs are splendid!" (New York Daily News). "Irresistible songs!" (Broadway.com). "The best score on Broadway!" (TheatreMania.com).

These are the reviews Edward Kleban always dreamed his songs would receive. The Tony Award winning lyricist of A CHORUS LINE was hell-bent on writing both the words and music for a Broadway show, a goal unrealized in 1987 when he died of cancer at the age of 48. Only posthumously would Eds songs garner the acclaim they always deserved, in the biographical musical A CLASS ACT.

The scene is Eds memorial service on the stage of the Shubert Theatre, where A CHORUS LINE is strutting through the 13^th year of its record-breaking run. His story is rendered in the memories of friends and loved ones with Ed very much present, making certain they get it right. The deceased proves to be, as in life, a needy, neurotic nerd, by turns cantankerous and irrepressible, yet inescapably loveable and humane; the tortured artist as mensch.

Ed gets his start under the wing of the legendary, acerbic Lehman Engle in his BMI Musical Theater Workshop. Here he largely amasses the charismatic songbook that has been arranged in A CLASS ACT to dramatize Eds often hilarious, ultimately heartbreaking journey. The action shifts in time and place, whisking us from a mental hospital where Ed discovers his passion for songwriting, to Toronto where hes fired from a revival of IRENE; from his turbulent collaboration with the relentlessly peppy Marvin Hamlisch and Über-creative Michael Bennett on A CHORUS LINE and through the dispiriting decade that followed. An ensemble of four women and three men inhabit the colorful gallery of characters in Eds life including his oldest friend and first love, his loyalists, detractors, and last love.

Back at the memorial service, Eds final (and typically sardonic) request is read. "It is my wish that my friends will arrange for my songs to be performed, preferably in a large building, in a central part of town, in a dark room, as part of a play, with a lot of people listening, who have all paid a great deal to get in." Eds wish was granted by his longtime companion, Linda Kline, and Broadway actor-director Lonny Price when they created A CLASS ACT. Fourteen years after his death, Eds songs his words and music sent the critics scrambling for the kind of superlatives Ed could only dream of.

"The best musical to open on Broadway in years!" (Billboard). "Polished, charming, tuneful and clever. You leave feeling genuinely touched." (The New York Times). "Delightful&a musical that manages to be bright, jaunty and heartbreaking¬ to mention entertaining and even inspirational." (Newsday). "A class act all the way! Inventive, richly entertaining and moving&the songs are splendid." (The NY Daily News). "Touching&charming&hilarious! A pure-hearted show that trusts in the timeless value of a story and a song." (Time Out NY). "Fresh and engaging, witty and original." (Time Magazine).

With A CLASS ACT, one of the theaters unsung champions is finally introduced to the public he deserves.

[The R&H Theatre Library is proud to announce the availability of A CLASS ACT for both professional and amateur production. Please contact us for perusal materials and royalty quotes.]

"Two thirds rhythm and one third soul." Thats how Fats Waller defined that uniquely American music and dance known as "swing." Requiring only joyful enthusiasm and a ready partner, swing exploded out of pre-war Harlems hotbed of youth culture, swept the world, and continues to enjoy a global resurgence that began more than a decade ago.

"Its the one music that appeals to everyone." says Paul Kelly, who conceived the Broadway hit musical SWING! "Its joyful, it moves people and its fun. There is something about it that crosses over generational boundaries. Just go to a wedding party or bar mitzvah and watch what happens when the band plays In The Mood. All of a sudden everyone, from eight to eighty, is on the dance floor." Lynne Taylor-Corbett, the renowned Broadway director-choreographer of SWING!, agrees. "SWING! pays tribute to this great diversity and the marriage of past and present. After all, swing is not a time, its just a state of mind."

Swing music shattered ethnic and cultural barriers, generating dance styles like the traditional Lindy Hop granddaddy of them all and spawning specialty styles such as Jive, Latin Swing, Hip-Hop Swing, West Coast Swing (with its nod to disco), and Rock n Roll Swing (utilizing acrobatics in the service of dance). SWING! celebrates these styles in a euphoric cavalcade set to the beat of such exhilarating standards as It Dont Mean a Thing (If it Aint Got that Swing); Caravan; Ill Be Seeing You; Stompin at the Savoy; Cry Me a River; Blues in the Night; All of Me; Sing, Sing, Sing; Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and, of course, In the Mood.

When SWING! opened on Broadway, the critics found themselves grinning from ear to ear, unable to stop tapping their toes.

"Astonishing&a masterpiece!" exclaimed Gannett Newspapers. "Every single moment seems inspired." WNBC-TV hailed SWING! as "Two hours of joy!" USA Today praised the show for its "Sophisticated wit," pronouncing it "tuneful and sexy." The New York Post summed it all up: "The most purely exhilarating show in town!"

SWING! features 4 lead singers (2 women and 2 men), a singing-dancing ensemble of 7 couples and an 8-piece band. A unique collaboration of singers, dancers and musicians, SWING! harnesses the abundant spirit and joy of its dynamic genre within the framework of a dance-happy, song-driven Broadway musical.

[The R&H Theatre Library is proud to announce that SWING! is now available for professional production with amateur rights available for performances beginning September 1, 2003. Please contact us for perusal materials and royalty quotes.]