The series opens February 1, 2017, in The Appel Room with with Andrew Lippa & Friends, the first of four evenings celebrating composers and lyricists of stage and film. Lippa, the Tony- and Grammy-nominated creator of The Wild Party, The Addams Family, and Big Fish, will be joined by Kate Baldwin, Caroline O’Connor, and others for a survey of his favorite songs.
The Story Goes On: Liz Callaway Sings Maltby & Shire, a sold-out hit in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse last year, will be offered February 15 in The Appel Room.
The Songs of Elizabeth Swados will be offered March 8; the evening will feature artists whose work the late composer mentored and influenced, including Taylor Mac, Grace McLean, Josie de Guzman, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Jo Lampert.
The Oscar- and Tony Award-winning husband-and-wife songwriting duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Bobby Lopez (Frozen) will make a rare concert appearance in their American Songbook debut with We Never Do This: An Evening with Kristen & Bobby Lopez on March 11.
The Appel Room will also host concerts by R&B/soul force-of-nature India.Arie (February 22); bluegrass and country legend Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder (February 25); Broadway’s Heather Headley (February 4) and Santino Fontana (February 18); leading lights of British neo-soul Laura Mvula (February 16) and Jamie Lidell & The Royal Pharaohs (February 17); native Canadian folk icon Buffy Sainte-Marie (February 23) and Southern soul architect of the Stax sound William Bell (February 24); the indie-balladeer José González (March 10) and Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq (March 9); and rising singer-songwriters and their bands, Five for Fighting (February 2) and Okkervil River (February 3).
On April 14, American Songbook will return to Alice Tully Hall—where the series was launched in 1998—for a concert by two-time Tony winner Sutton Foster, seen Off-Broadway this season in Sweet Charity. Rhiannon Giddens will also perform in concert at Alice Tully Hall; her May 13 evening is the closing concert of the American Songbook season.
American Songbook will return to the intimate Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse in spring 2017. Artists and programs will be announced at a future date.
Tickets for Friends of Lincoln Center go on sale November 7 and to the general public beginning November 14. Tickets may be purchased online beginning November 14, at AmericanSongbook.org, via CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500, at the Alice Tully Hall and David Geffen Hall Box Offices, or at the Frederick P. Rose Hall Box Office.
