A cabaret revue celebrating the centenary anniversary of lyricist Y.E. "Yip" Harburg ó featuring songs like "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", "Over the Rainbow," Here's to Your Illusions," and "Old Devil Moon" from such plays and movies as "Finian's Rainbow," "Bloomer Girl," "Flahooley," "Hooray for What," "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gay Purr-ee." Composers represented include Harold Arlen, Jule Styne, Vernon Duke, Jerome Kern and Jay Gorney.

SAN FRANCISCO (27 August 1996) --- 42nd St. Moon kicks off the Fall with a special bonus cabaret revue, SOMETHING SORT OF GRANDISH, celebrating the centenary anniversary of the birth of beloved lyricist E.Y. (Yip) Harburg. The 42nd St. Moon original revue SOMETHING SORT OF GRANDISH, which includes more than 40 of Harburg's most popular songs, will be presented September 19 - 29 (Preview: Sept. 18) at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco.

In the course of his fifty-year career as one of the leading lyricists of American theatre song, E.Y. Harburg, more commonly known as "Yip," wrote the lyrics to some of the most widely known, provocative, and exceptionally crafted songs from the heyday of the Broadway and Hollywood musical (FINIAN'S RAINBOW, WIZARD OF OZ). In total, Yip wrote the lyrics for more than five hundred songs with some fifty composers, including Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Burton Lane, Jule Styne, and Vernon Duke. He is known for dozens of classic songs such as "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," "April in Paris," "It's Only a Paper Moon," "Old Devil Moon," and "Over the Rainbow. Once a poet of light verse, Harburg came to play an important role in the development of the sophisticated musicals of the 1940's and 1950's. Two such notable musicals that he conceived, wrote the lyrics, and co-authored were BLOOMER GIRL and FINIAN'S RAINBOW, which incorporated such issues as black and female equality, war and capitalism.

Harburg's popularity was limitless, resulting in a career that spanned from GARRICK GAIETIES, EARL CARROLL VANITIES, and ZIEGFELD FOLLIES to Hollywood films such as GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937, BABES IN ARMS, CABIN IN THE SKY, DU BARRY WAS A LADY, and KISMET. While radically changing the American musical, his contributions to American theatre and film also wielded political weight, stirring the fears of McCarthyists, which resulted in his assignment to the Blacklist in 1950, just as he was in the midst of work on a musical version of "Huckleberry Finn" for MGM. Aside from the stage and silver screen, Harburg also found his way onto radio and television in such ventures as "Unity Fair," a 1945 radio broadcast at the opening of the United Nations in San Francisco.

SOMETHING SORT OF GRANDISH brings together some of the best singing talent of 42nd St. Moon: Bill Fahrner (GOODTIME CHARLEY, SILK STOCKINGS), Lesley Hamilton (THREE SISTERS), Chanelle Schaffer (SILK STOCKINGS), and co-producers Greg MacKellan (VERY WARM FOR MAY) and Stephanie Rhoads (SILK STOCKINGS). Newcomer Bruce Thompson, fresh from the national tour of LES MISERABLES, rounds out the company, with musical director Michael Horsley leading the group through Harburg's extensive repertoire.

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