Kate Baldwin to release new album

PS CLASSICS is proud to release the new CD from rising Broadway star KATE BALDWIN, She Loves Him: Live at Feinstein’s, the first solo disc devoted entirely to the lyrics and music of Broadway legend SHELDON HARNICK. Recorded live in March 2011 at New York’s premiere nightclub, Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, She Loves Him documents an extraordinary meeting between Baldwin, a 2010 Tony Award nominee for Finian’s Rainbow, and Harnick, one of the most cherished writers in Broadway history.

Baldwin mines the master’s witty, moving and funny songs to astonishing effect on the new disc. She performs favorites from Harnick’s biggest hits, including Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me and Fiorello!, as well as seldom-heard selections from his early Off-Broadway career, film scores and lesser-known shows like The Rothschilds and A Wonderful Life. Harnick joins her onstage for a number of duets, including the rare “Dear Sweet Sewing Machine,” cut from Fiddler, as well as the world premiere of special lyrics for “To Life.” The recording is produced by Grammy Award-winner David Frost, includes liner notes by acclaimed journalist Frank Rich and features music director Scott Cady at the piano, Andrew Sterman on woodwinds and John Beal on bass.

The New York Times has raved, “Magic occurs whenever Ms. Baldwin has a chance to sing,” and Harnick echoes, “I love Kate’s voice and the intelligence that shapes her performances, so you can imagine how delighted I was when she told me that she wanted to do a program of my songs.” Now, this delightful set of standards and stand-outs has been preserved for fans of Baldwin, Harnick and the Great American Songbook.

KATE BALDWIN made her Broadway debut in The Full Monty in 2000, followed by appearances in Thoroughly Modern Millie and Wonderful Town. She was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for her portrayal of Nellie Forbush in the 2002 Arena Stage production of South Pacific. Additional credits include The Sound of Music and The Music Man at The Muny in St. Louis, Missouri and Charlotte in A Little Night Music at Centre Stage in Baltimore. Baldwin played the role of Sharon in the 2009 Encores! staged concert production of Finian’s Rainbow where New York Times critic Charles Isherwood called her a “discovery” and praised her performance, noting she sang the role “beautifully... her rich, pure soprano riding the crests of the melodies with ease.” She reprised the role in the Broadway revival receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. In October 2009, Baldwin released her first solo album, Let’s See What Happens, a compilation of songs written by Burton Lane and E. Y. Harburg. For more information, please visit www.Kate-Baldwin.com.

SHELDON HARNICK’s first song in a Broadway show, “The Boston Beguine” for New Faces of 1952, introduced theatergoers to the wry, subtle humor and deft wordplay indicative of a Harnick lyric. A few years later Harnick joined up with composer Jerry Bock to write their own musicals. While the first Bock & Harnick musical, The Body Beautiful in 1958 showed promise, it was their second musical, Fiorello! in 1959, that put the team on the map. Their musical biography of New York City’s legendary mayor earned the Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Their next musical, Tenderloin (1960), set in the seamy Tenderloin district of late 19th century New York, was followed by She Loves Me (1963), which beguiled audiences with its Central European charm and operetta elegance.

Their 1964 musical, Fiddler on the Roof earned the Tony Award, New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, a gold record (for both its Broadway cast album and film soundtrack recordings) and a platinum record (for the Broadway album). In 1971, with the Broadway production still running, United Artists released the film version starring Topol. The following year the stage production became the longest-running show in Broadway history, a record it held until 1979. The two went on to include such versatile fare as The Apple Tree (1966) and The Rothschilds in 1970.

Harnick’s other collaborators in musical theatre have included: Michel Legrand, for whom Harnick translated The Umbrellas of Cherbourg in 1979 before working together on a musical of A Christmas Carol in 1981; Mary Rodgers, with whom Harnick wrote a version of Pinnochio in 1973 for the famed Bil Baird Marionettes, and a song, “William’s Doll,” for Marlo Thomas’s “Free to Be...You and Me” in 1974; Richard Rodgers, joining forces for the score to Rex in 1976, a cantata premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and A Wonderful Life (1986), a musical based on Frank Capra’s holiday classic.