FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Miller Wright / Dan Fortune at (212) 977-7800
“THE QUEEN OF CABARET”
ANDREA MARCOVICCI
CONTINES HER 20th ANNIVERSARY YEAR
AT THE LEGENDARY OAK ROOM OF THE ALGONQUIN HOTEL
PRESENTING “just love… By Request”
AND THE DEDICATION OF THE ALGONQUIN’S MARCOVICCI SUITE
MAY 15 – 26, 2007
"Sublimely moving, instantly transporting us to another time and place." – Will Friedwald, The New York Sun
“As radiant as a storybook princess... Irresistible enthusiasm.” – Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“Marcovicci doesn’t just sing songs, she embraces their history and emotion” – Daryl H. Miller, Los Angeles Times
ANDREA MARCOVICCI – the celebrated singer and actress lauded as “the greatest cabaret star of her generation” by The International Herald Tribune and “the epitome of elegance and showbiz savvy” by Variety – will return to the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel from May 15-26. Continuing her Twenty-year Anniversary at the venue, her show “just love… By Request” features musical director Shelly Markham on piano and Jered Egan on bass. Also on opening night, May 15, in celebration of Andrea’s unprecedented achievement, the legendary hotel will unveil the Andrea Marcovicci Suite. Decorated with programs, posters, and other unique memorabilia, the suite commemorates Andrea’s outstanding contribution to the world of cabaret, the arts, and the Oak Room itself.
Critics have called just love… By Request “enthralling” and “magical.” Now Andrea recreates that magic once more with a brand new entry. While last year Andrea took this opportunity to examine the fragility of the human heart, this year’s version focuses on Andrea’s long association with the Algonquin and New York City, and returns Andrea to her most spontaneous, witty and off-the-cuff self. Once again audiences will choose their favorites from a booklet of over 125 songs and drop them, literally, into a top hat. Andrea will pull the slips at random. By honoring requests to augment her ready-made framework Andrea will present a unique evening of song which never unfolds the same way twice but audiences will hear some of Andrea’s most requested songs such as “On Such a Night as This,” “Long Ago and Far Away,” “The Folks Who Live on the Hill,” “Two for the Road” “Send in the Clowns,” and “The Kind of Love You Never Recover From.” Last spring, as audiences submitted their songs for the show, Andrea compiled a list of over twelve hundred requests thus creating perhaps the first ever cabaret marketing survey on the American Popular song. Results were tabulated and the audiences’ top picks have been incorporated into this new version. This became the inspiration for a mini-retrospective including material from the Algonquin’s own Dorothy Parker as well as songwriters such as folk singer Christine Lavin. This retrospective forms the base core of the show.
Andrea Marcovicci, the Queen of Cabaret, “torch singer, spellbinder, heart-breaker” (People) was hailed as the “most Sinatra-like” of the new generation of cabaret performers by Life Magazine. She “has the capacity to caress a song with a warming embrace…Marcovicci steals the heart …the epitome of elegance and showbiz savvy,” declared Variety while Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times, “Andrea Marcovicci has an incandescent enthusiasm and a masterly balance between poignancy and wit.”
Cabaret legend Andrea Marcovicci continues to entertain sold-out audiences from coast to coast whenever touring her numerous critically acclaimed shows. She celebrates her 20th Anniversary this fall at the legendary Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel with her latest creation, I’m Feeling Like a Million: A Salute the Incomparable Hildegarde. She returns there this spring for the second year of her successful just love…by request, described by critics as a “magical evening” and Andrea as “radiant as a storybook princess.” A departure from her traditional theme shows, just love…by request, features classic and contemporary material crafted with the collaborative air of spontaneity as she honors audiences’ wishes. The show is never done the same way twice and the list of available songs changes each season.
Also scheduled this fall Andrea will participate in a reading of The Misalliance for Project Shaw at the Player’s Club in New York which thus far has featured such illustrious actors as Marion Seldes, Brian Murray, and Charlotte Rae. In December, Andrea will host and create, (along with musical director, Shelly Markham), My Christmas Song For You - a benefit for Symphony Space – with a cast including Barbara Brussell, Natalie Douglas, and Jeff Harnar. Andrea’s latest CD release bears the same name as is available on-line at www.marcovicci.com.
This year also marked Andrea’s 20th Anniversary season at The Plush Room in San Francisco, a celebration which began in 2005 at the Gardenia in Hollywood. In March Andrea stunned a sold-out benefit crowd at UCLA for the Academy for Jewish Religion with selections from I Am Anne Frank. The complete concert will reprise with Orchestra in New York in 2007. This summer Andrea debuted at Steppenwolf in Chicago with I’ll Be Seeing You... Love Songs of WWII. That show was a recreation of her most requested show and has played throughout the country and in Normandy in recognition of the original ‘Band of Brothers’ who were immortalized by the HBO series. It will be presented with Chamber Orchestra in two Acts in February of 2007 at New York’s Town Hall. In November of 2005 Andrea created, performed and directed Kurt Weill in America with a cast of six at the prestigious Lyrics And Lyricists Series at the 92Y. That concert has been recorded and is slated for a 2007 release when she returns to the Y for the third straight year as guest Artistic Director. The new show will be Thanks for the Memories: The Lyrics of Leo Robin. Ms. Marcovicci has fourteen CDs to her credit. Her most recent releases, Andrea Sings Astaire, How’s Your Romance? Andrea Marcovicci Sings Cole Porter and If I Were A Bell ~ The Songs of Frank Loesser, debuted on her own record label, Andreasong. The latest release, My Christmas Song for You is out just in time for the 2006 Holiday season.
Andrea’s 2005 Calendar has morphed into a souvenir book replete with luscious photos and anecdotes of her life and career in television, film and theatre. An actress and singer, Andrea began on the daytime television series Love Is A Many Splendored Thing. She debuted on Broadway in Ambassador, the musical adaptation of the novel by Henry James, staring Howard Keel and last appeared on the Great White Way in Frank D. Gilroy’s play Any Given Day with Sada Thompson. Her numerous appearances off-Broadway include The Wedding of Iphigenia, Variety Obit, and The Seagull. She performed Ophelia to Sam Waterston’s Hamlet for Joseph Papp’s Shakespeare in the Park. Ms. Marcovicci received rave reviews for her performances in the leading roles of the American Conservatory Theater productions of St. Joan (1989), Burn This (1990) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1991). In Los Angeles, she starred opposite Anthony Newley in Chaplin, portraying all the legendary actor’s wives and starred in the Philadelphia revival of Lady in the Dark at the Prince Music Theatre. Her film credits include: The Front (nominated for a Golden Globe Award) with Woody Allen, The Hand with Sir Michael Caine, The Stuff with Michael Moriarty, Spacehunter with Peter Strauss, The Canterville Ghost with Sir John Gielgud, Henry Jaglom’s Someone To Love (featuring Orson Welles in his last film appearance), and Jack the Bear, as Danny DeVito’s wife. Her many television appearances include Arli$$ for HBO, Cybil, Taxi, Magnum P.I., Hill Street Blues, and Trapper John, M.D., among others and numerous made-for-television movies. Her last television guest appearance was in Strong Medicine on the Lifetime network. She recently provided commentary for the DVD release of the movie Someone to Love and her latest foray into film is the Independent feature, Irene in Time, directed by long-time friend, Henry Jaglom and slated to be released next year.
Andrea was most honored to usher in the Millennium with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her concert work includes appearances with the San Francisco Pops, Florida Philharmonic, and Oregon and Ft. Worth Symphonies among others. Her 1993 Carnegie Hall solo debut, with the American Symphony Orchestra, was to a sold-out audience. Prior to that, Carnegie Hall commissioned December Songs specifically created for Andrea by Maury Yeston. The concert was then reconceived as a ballet by Lynn Taylor Corbett and premiered with Andrea at The Carolina Ballet in 2002. Lincoln Center commissioned both her Noel Coward show and her Kurt Weill in America. The latter is the genesis of her Lyrics & Lyricists show. In April of 2005 Andrea played to sold-out houses at the esteemed LICEU Opera House in Barcelona. Andrea’s concert version of I Am Anne Frank (Lyrics: Enid Futterman / Music: Michael Cohen) most recently performed at UCLA, originally debuted in Los Angeles and was then recorded. Subsequently, it was performed at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center with Stephen Bogardus and Town Hall in New York with the addition of a new introduction penned by Futterman, and read by a variety of celebrities, giving the work a timeless quality. In the spring of 2004 Andrea served as Director and Artistic Director for Easy to Love, The Lyrics of Cole Porter for Lyrics and Lyricists at the 92nd Street Y. She returned the following year with Kurt Weill in America. In the fall of 2003, and again in 2004, she directed the Cabaret Concert for Young Audiences at the New York Cabaret Convention.
Enjoying the intimate art of cabaret performance, Andrea has appeared at numerous prestigious nightclubs throughout the country including the famed Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel in New York City, The Gardenia and The Cinegrill in Los Angles, The Plush Room in San Francisco, The Colony in Palm Beach, FL., Le Chat Noir of New Orleans, and many others. Her London cabaret debut in 1994 sold out a one-month engagement at the Music Room at Pizza on the Park. Sheridan Morley, theater critic of The Spectator and The International Herald-Tribune, called her “the greatest cabaret star of her generation.” Peter Hepple in The Stage and Television Today wrote, “Marcovicci cast her spell, with a voice of supreme tenderness, much rangier than at first appeared, with a thrillingly controlled vibrato, marvelous diction and phrasing that can only come from a skilled actress.”
In addition to clubs, Andrea Marcovicci has performed at the White House and brought the intimacy of the small cabaret to numerous theatres and concert halls across the country including: the Tilles Center and the famed John Drew Theatre, of Long Island; NJPAC in New Jersey; the Grendal in St. Louis; the Napa Valley Opera House, CA; the Lyric Theatre in Florida; Bass Hall Performing Arts Center in Ft. Worth, and many others. Also known for her remarkable hosting abilities, Andrea has been at the helm of a plethora of events throughout the country including the ASCAP Songwriter’s Evening at the Chicago Humanities Festival and twice the New York Nightlife Awards. She was also a guest speaker (along with the President of the Netherlands) at the New York Film Society’s tribute to Sir Michael Caine at Lincoln Center. In recent years Andrea has taught Master Classes on the art of cabaret in several cities. She is proud to begin her fourth year this August as a Master teacher at the Perry-Mansfield School in Steamboat Springs, CO.
Her numerous fundraising efforts have produced everything from building additions to aiding the disenfranchised. She has worked tirelessly for a variety of causes. Just a few of these charitable events include helping underprivileged children, (Reach the World, Variety Arts Telethon, The Youth League), feeding and providing medical care for the homeless and those suffering with AIDS, (MHRC, The Broward Partnership for the Homeless), protecting the environment, (Tree People), and preserving arts organizations and educational opportunities (San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Music Conservatory of Westchester.) She is the recipient of several awards and honors including three Lifetime Achievement Awards - honored so by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs, the Licia Albanese - Puccini Foundation, and by a Bob Harrington Backstage Bistro Award. In recognition of her accomplishments in the arts, Andrea has received honorary degrees from Trinity College in Hartford, CT and the Memphis College of Art.
For more information please visit: www.marcovicci.com
