Andrew Levine & Friends

Richard, Mary, Adam & Friends: A Broadway Legacy

Featuring the songs of Richard Rodgers, Mary Rodgers, Adam Guettel and their influential circle of friends. Performed by Jeanine Pardey Levine, Claire Simard.

Musical director: Andrew Levine

Today’s program explores the theater lineage that runs through the songs of Richard Rodgers, his daughter Mary, and Mary’s son, Adam Guettel. This rich and colorful Broadway legacy is somehow able to encapsulate the essence of what we think of when we say the words, ‘Broadway Musicals’. Richard’s writing partners, Larry Hart and Oscar Hammerstein, Jr. helped create some of the greatest songs in the American songbook and the most iconic Broadway shows of the Golden Age of Musicals. Mary Rodgers, whose recent autobiography, Shy (with Jesse Green of The NY Times), proves that she’s a gifted story-teller. Mary was also a fine composer and lyricist herself, and her circle of friends and collaborators included Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, and many more of theater’s finest talents. Adam Guettel (Light in the Piazza, Floyd Collins), is Mary’s son and a singular talent capable of taking music to its greatest heights. Adam, has a new show making its debut shortly, The Days of Wine and Roses.

Jeanine Levine’s performing experience spans concert and oratorio, opera, musical theatre and cabaret. Musical theatre experience includes Mrs. Nordstrom in A Little Night Music at CW Post Tilles Center, She Loves Me at the Opera Ensemble of New York (conducted by Jonathan Tunick), Anna Held in Tintypes, Elsa in The Sound of Music, and a featured performer in Fascinating Gershwin (semi-national tour). Concert credits include, CAMI Hall, The Walter Reade Theatre, Wave Hill, Trinity Church, and the Bruno Walter Auditorium in New York, as well as a season in Europe performing with the International Institute for Chamber Music. Her operatic roles include Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Baby Doe in The Ballade of Baby Doe and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, with the Brooklyn Opera Ensemble, and the Opera Ensemble of New York.  Her work in higher education began in 2001 as a Professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, developing a new musical theatre program and ultimately becoming Chair of the Media and Performing Arts Department. She has been on faculty and/or administrative positons at Molloy College, Manhattanville College and Adelphi University. She is currently a Teaching Artist in the Theatre Division of The Hartt School at the U. of Hartford.

Claire Simard is the Head of Music and Theater at the Wooster School in Danbury.  She has appeared at Musicals at Richter as Elsa in The Sound of Music, Grace in Annie, Mamma Mia!(ACT), Noel Coward’s Bittersweet, and Young Heidi in Follies.   Claire has a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the Catholic University of America.  Locally, Ms. Simard has been a guest soloist at Congregation Shir Shalom, the Richter Arts Association, and St. Stephen’s Church in Ridgefield.  She lives in Ridgefield with her husband Nick and their two children, Amélie and Gabriel.  Since November 2021 Claire has been posting a song every day online @clairechanteuse.

Andrew Levine has enjoyed a multifaceted career in the performing arts, working as a performer/composer, arts administrator, educator and producer. Andrew served as managing director for the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in lower Manhattan after holding the role of Executive Director at the York Theatre Company. He played a major role in the development of new musical theater works at Perry-Mansfield in Steamboat Springs, CO partnering with ASCAP’s Michael Kerker and Stephen Schwartz. As a musical director/composer Andrew has worked at Long Wharf Theater, Prospect Theatre, American PlaceTheater, Goodspeed Opera, Cleveland Playhouse, NYMF, and New American Theater. At 10 years old he saw his first musical, the 1965 revival of Carousel. Years later he had the privilege of accompanying John Raitt in his musical biography concert and of learning from John’s wisdom and fearlessness. As an educator Andrew served as the resident musical director at the Savannah College of Art and Design for four years and was an adjunct instructor for the musical theater programs at PACE University and The Hartt School, at the University of Hartford.