A Long and Winding Road features intimate musical portraits of such celebrated 60's songwriters as Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Webb, Paul Simon, Carole King, James Taylor, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan, John Lennon , Paul McCartney, Laura Nyro and more. The repertoire celebrates an eclectic selection of iconoclastic singer-songwriter material including "The Circle Game," "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress," "Imagine" and many others. Joining Ms. McGovern for the performance will be Musical Director and Pianist Jeffrey Harris and Jeff Carney on Bass.
"For the longest time, people have been asking me to do a concert featuring so-called "Baby Boomer" songs,” said McGovern. “At this time in my life, looking back, what interested me most were those introspective songs that influenced and inspired my own development as a person and an artist before "The Morning After." I started out as a folk singer in the late 60's, so it was highly nostalgic for me to go back and explore this particular section of my musical influences. I fell in love all over again with the early works of Jimmy Webb, Carole King, Bob Dylan, Randy Newman and other groundbreaking singer-songwriters from my youth. Their songs, as the New York Times has called them, have become "the second half of the Great American Songbook." They're classic, timeless and evoke all kinds of memories."
Maureen McGovern has spent much of the past few years wowing audiences in her Drama Desk nominated role of Marmee in the musical “Little Women”, first on Broadway and more recently in the show's first national tour. She has also starred on Broadway in “The Pirates of Penzance”, “Nine”, “3 Penny Opera”, and Off-Broadway in “Brownstone.” She appeared in the Broadway National Tour of “The King and I”, and regionally in “The Lion in Winter”, “Of Thee I Sing”, “Let 'Em Eat Cake”, “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”, “Letters from 'Nam”, “Elegies”, “The Sound of Music”, “South Pacific”, “Guys & Dolls”, “I Do, I Do” and “The Bengal Tiger's Ball.”
A concert artist for nearly 40 years, her talents range from pop to jazz to classical and to the musical theater. She has consistently been a much sought-after guest artist with all the major symphonies, including the Boston Pops, The National Symphony and the New York Pops. She has also toured extensively with the jazz greats Mel Torme, Mercer Ellington and The Duke Ellington Orchestra and John Pizzarelli.
Tickets for Maureen McGovern—The Long and Winding Road are $75 for the concert , which includes the catered pre-concert reception. For $150 a limited number of patrons will be able to attend the entire evening, which would include the VIP after-party with the artist.
Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.centenarystageco.org/ or through the CSC box office at 908.979.0900, or directly at the new facility between 1-5 PM Monday through Friday. A map of the campus with the location of the new Center (at the intersection of Grand Avenue and 3rd Avenue) is located at http://www.centenarystageco.org/. The Gala evening will benefit the CSC Artists’ Fund which will be directed exclusively to artists fees involved in bringing professional cultural events to the community and region.
Performances at the Centenary Stage Company are made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, and CSC Members and Sponsors. Accommodations for Ms. McGovern and her fellow artists, as well as artists throughout the complete 2010-11 season is provided through a generous grant from the Marriott Residence Inn at the International Trade Center in Mount Olive.
ABOUT THE FACILITY: One of the most sophisticated performing arts venues in Northwest New Jersey, the David and Carol Lackland Center encompasses a 22,000-square-foot performance space, a new state-of-the-art 500-seat theatre (Sitnik Theater), a black box theater (The Edith Bolte Kutz ’42 Theater), a dance studio, scene shop, a costume shop, green room and dressing rooms. In addition to housing the theatre, the 68K square foot Lackland Center will be a home for a variety of cultural activity, and will include WNTI, the College’s listener-supported NPR Affiliate, and CCTV, Centenary’s Comcast-licensed television studio, and gallery space for visual artists. Named in honor of Carol Burgess Lackland, A Centenary graduate (Class of 1954), and her husband, David A. Lackland, a Centenary College Trustee, The David and Carol Lackland Center has been designed to enrich student life and bring new cultural opportunities to northwest New Jersey.
