This Week on Broadway for February 7, 2021: Sally Wilfert, All the Girls

Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere talk with Sally Wilfert.

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Panel:

Peter Filichia | [email protected] | Facebook
PETER FILICHIA is a playwright, journalist, and historian with a number of books. His columns appear at Encore Magazine, Masterworks Broadway, Broadway Select and many other places.

James Marino | [email protected] | Twitter | Facebook
BroadwayStars

Michael Portantiere | [email protected] | Facebook
MICHAEL PORTANTIERE is a theater reviewer and essayist. He is the founder and editor of CastAlbumReviews.com. He is also a theatrical photographer whose photos have appeared in The New York Times and other major publications. You can see his photography work at FollowSpotPhoto.com.

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Guest: Sally Wilfert

Sally Wilfert: Website | Twitter | Facebook | IBDB | IOBDB | IMDB | Playbill | BroadwayWorld

PS CLASSICS
PRESENTS THE NEW ALBUM FROM
REBECCA LUKER AND SALLY WILFERT
“ALL THE GIRLS”

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF REBECCA LUKER

A CELEBRATION OF FEMALE FRIENDSHIP WITH SONGS BY
STEPHEN SONDHEIM, LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, KANDER & EBB AND MORE
OUT IN DIGITAL AND STREAMING FORMATS, 12/25/2020

CD ONLINE AND IN STORES, 1/22/2021

PS CLASSICS, the label that celebrates the heritage of Broadway and American popular song, has announced the release of All the Girls – the new album from star Broadway vocalists Rebecca Luker and Sally Wilfert – in digital and streaming formats today Friday, December 25. The album marks the final recording by Ms. Luker, a Broadway luminary for over 30 years, who passed away earlier this week. A CD will be available on Friday, January 22, 2021.

“Rebecca and I were overwhelmingly grateful to PS Classics for bringing the album All the Girls to fruition,” says Wilfert. “It filled her heart with happiness to have something creative to focus on, and brought laughter, purpose and comfort to the time we spent together during what, we now know, would become her final days. She was very proud of this recording, and I am equally proud to release it to the world with the spirit and heart that is, my dearest friend, Rebecca Luker.”

Building on a special friendship forged on and off the stage, the pair recorded a celebration of womanhood in all its complexities and expressions. Adapted from the stage show of the same name, All the Girls is framed by songs from such theater luminaries as Stephen Sondheim, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Fred Ebb & John Kander, highlighted by a delicious medley from musicals featuring iconic female duets. Luker and Wilfert enrich the tone and expand the scope by also embracing art songs, cabaret material, and settings of poems written expressly for them by the show’s music director, Joseph Thalken, who expanded the orchestrations from four to ten pieces for this recording.

The album celebrates women with an empathy and optimism that radiate through the material. Individually, Luker and Wilfert’s dazzling voices and keen dramatic senses animate the tenderness, humor and resilience in these songs, while together their personal bond produces duets of extraordinary sensitivity and beauty. PS Classics is proud to present this inspiring ode to female friendship by two remarkable women.

This recording was made possible in part by the support and generosity of Maury Yeston, Ted & Mary Jo Shen, Sean Patrick Flahaven, Larry Hirschhorn, Charles Baker and Nick Lamer.

All the Girls highlights the vocalists’ individual talents with both comic and dramatic selections, from the cutting humor of “What Did You Do to Your Face” and the poignant storytelling of “Lovely Lies,” to the intense emotion of “Millwork / I Could Have Been a Sailor” and the very funny “Not Funny.” As much as these solos soar, the album’s duets capture the fun and fire of their friendship. “You Are My Best Friend” delightfully articulates their mutual affection, “Everybody Says Don’t” showcases their interpretative and musical prowess, the tongue-in-cheek medley of “shows they could have starred in together” celebrates their infectious zaniness – not to mention belting abilities – while “Isn’t This Better?” reveals the openness of their hearts.

PS CLASSICS is also home to Rebecca Luker’s solo albums I Got Love: Songs of Jerome Kern (2013), Greenwich Time (2009), and Leaving Home (2004). She also appears on many of the label’s cast recordings, including Passion (2013), Jerome Kern: The Land Where the Good Songs Go (2012), Death Takes a Holiday (2011), Sweet Bye and Bye (2011), Life Begins at 8:40 (2010), Dear Edwina (2008), and Jule Styne in Hollywood (2005). Sally Wilfert can be heard on Assassins (2004). Both Luker and Wilfert are featured on Sweet Little Devil (2012) and Kitty’s Kisses (2009).

REBECCA LUKER’s Broadway roles include Helen in Fun Home; Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother; Winifred in the original Broadway production of Mary Poppins (Tony Award nomination); Claudia in Nine, opposite Antonio Banderas; Marian Paroo in The Music Man (Tony, Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle Award nominations); Maria in The Sound of Music (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination); Magnolia in Showboat (Tony Award nomination); Lily in The Secret Garden (Drama Desk Nomination); Christine in The Phantom of the Opera. With the New York City Opera, Ms. Luker was featured in X (The Life and Times of Malcolm X) and was Fiona in Brigadoon. Off-Broadway she starred in Maury Yeston’s Death Takes a Holiday (Outer Critics Circle nomination; Roundabout, 2011), the world premiere of A.R.Gurney’s Indian Blood (Primary Stages), Can’t Let Go (Keen Company) and The Vagina Monologues.

Ms. Luker performed leading roles at theaters throughout the country including the world premiere of Little Dancer by Aherns and Flaherty, directed by Susan Stroman; Clara in Passion at the Kennedy Center; Julia in Time and Again at the Old Globe; Mary in Harmony (Drama-Logue Award) at the La Jolla Playhouse; and Amalia in She Loves Me with “Reprise!” in Los Angeles. In concert, she has appeared in Footloose at the Kennedy Center; Arias and Barcaroles, with the Chicago Symphony; Life Begins at 8:40, Pardon My English, Primrose, and Babes in Arms, all at The Library of Congress; Jubilee and Music in the Air at Town Hall; at Carnegie Hall: No, No Nanette; Trouble in Tahiti; Gay Divorce; “The Art of the Lyricist” (Ira Gershwin Centennial); My Favorite Broadway’s “The Leading Ladies” and “The Love Songs (both on PBS). With Encores! at City Center: Where’s Charley? and The Boys from Syracuse and two concerts with Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series.

SALLY WILFERT has appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning production of Assassins, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and King David. She toured the country in the first national tour of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Off-Broadway, Ms. Wilfert’s credits include See Rock City, Make Me A Song: The Music of William Finn, The Mistress Cycle, and The Prince & The Pauper. At Carnegie Hall she has appeared in Cole Porter’s Jubilee, South Pacific in Concert (starring Reba McEntire), and Sondheim: A Tribute, (all for PBS). Performing with the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center and Tokyo, she was featured soloist, singing “Somewhere” for their performances of West Side Story Suite. Wilfert has performed throughout the country, including shows at the La Jolla Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, New Haven’s Schubert Theatre, Barrington Stage, Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS), Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival, Goodspeed Musicals, Northshore Music Theatre, Cap 21, Hartford Theatreworks, The Maltz Jupiter Theatre, The Fulton Opera House, Connecticut Grand Opera, and The Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati in such roles as Donna in Mamma Mia, Ethel Gumm in Chasing Rainbows, Meg in Damn Yankees, Kate in Kiss Me Kate, Margaret in The Light in the Piazza, Ethel in Footloose, Maggie in When We Met, Georgianne in LMNOP (World Premiere), Ms. Jenkins in Little Miss Sunshine (World Premiere), Woman in Marry Me A Little, Woman 1 in Elegies: A Song Cycle, Madame Thernardier in Les Miserables, Cathy in The Last Five Years, Constanze in Amadeus, The Witch in Into the Woods, Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera to name a few.

Sally has appeared in concert in major venues around the country. Credit include: Rob Kapilow’s “What Makes it Great,” American Songbook’s “Rebecca Luker, Sally Wilfert: It’s Time,” William Finn’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” Broadway in South Africa, Jeff Blumenkrantz Songbook, “New York City Christmas” in such venues as 54 Below, NJ Performing Arts Center, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Mr. Finn’s Cabaret at Blatt Center, Dallas’ Horchow Center, Jacob Javits Center, Le Chat Noir, The Allen Room, The Zipper Theatre, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, Joe’s Pub, Los Angeles Staples Center, Birdland, and Williamstown’s 62 Center. Her recording credits include One Voice: Natalie Weiss & Sally Wilfert, See Rock City, New York City Christmas, Make Me A Song, Assassins, King David, The Prince & the Pauper, and A Christmas Survival Guide.

PS CLASSICS, founded in 2000 by Tommy Krasker and Philip Chaffin, is a nine-time Grammy Award nominee for its cast albums of Assassins, Nine: The Musical, Grey Gardens, Company, A Little Night Music, Sondheim on Sondheim, Follies, Porgy and Bess, and Fun Home. The label’s catalog includes award-winning cast recordings; solo albums by such artists as Cheyenne Jackson, Victoria Clark, Steven Pasquale, Liz Callaway, Tony Yazbeck, Stephanie J. Block, Judy Kuhn, and Rebecca Luker; and restorations of long-lost musicals, including Vernon Duke’s Sweet Bye and Bye, George Gershwin’s Sweet Little Devil, and Vincent Youmans’ Through the Years. Recent releases include the two-disc set Maury Sings Yeston: The Demos, commemorating the 75th Birthday of Tony Award-winning composer Maury Yeston. www.psclassics.com.

“ALL THE GIRLS” TRACK LIST

1. You Are My Best Friend (Will Aronson & Kyoung-Ae Kang; from My Scary Girl, 2009) – Rebecca & Sally
2. Lovely Lies (Jeff Blumenkrantz & Beth Blatt) – Rebecca
3. What Did You Do to Your Face (Susan Werner) – Sally
4. Everybody Says Don’t (Stephen Sondheim; from Anyone Can Whistle, 1964) – Rebecca & Sally
5. There Are Delicacies (Joseph Thalken, poem by Earle Birney) – Rebecca
6. I Have Loved Hours at Sea (Joseph Thalken, poem by Sara Teasdale) – Sally
7. Marilyn Miller (Joseph Thalken, poem by Dorothy Parker) – Rebecca & Sally
8. “Shows we could have starred in together” – Rebecca & Sally

9. A QUOI Bon Dire (Joseph Thalken, poem by Charlotte Mew) – Rebecca
10. War Song (Joseph Thalken, poem by Dorothy Parker) – Sally
11. Isn’t This Better? (John Kander & Fred Ebb; from Funny Lady, 1975) – Rebecca & Sally
12. Millwork (James Taylor, from Working, 1977) / I Could Have Been a Sailor (Peter Allen) – Sally
13. Not Funny (Michael Heitzman & Ilene Reid) – Rebecca
14. Be Careful (Patty Griffin) / Dear Theodosia (Lin-Manuel Miranda; from Hamilton, 2015)

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