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  • Sunday, March 12th (2:00PM EST)

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54 Sings Eubie July 10, 2018

To commemorate its 40th anniversary, Feinstein’s/54 Below is bringing back, for one night only, the acclaimed Tony- nominated Broadway musical, Eubie!

Buy Tickets Online.

A a toe-tapping, musical celebration of one of Broadway’s most prolific pioneers, Eubie Blake, Eubie! is a celebration of the melodies, mayhem, and mischievousness of the early 20th century jazz world.

The soul and sound of the celebrated composer is evoked in a dizzying collection of songs that span the century, including the classics “Low Down Blues,” “My Handyman Ain’t Handy No More,” and “I’m Just Wild about Harry.”

Featuring:
Ethel Beatty (Eubie OBC, Dreamgirls, Bubbling Brown Sugar)
Leslie Dockery (Eubie OBC, Sophisticated Ladies, The Tap Dance Kid)
Lynnie Godfrey (Eubie OBC,No Place To Be Somebody, TV’s Amen, Brewster Place)
Mel Johnson Jr. (Eubie OBC, The Lion King, Jelly’s Last Jam)
Arbender Robinson (Shuffle Along, Beautiful)
Jeffrey V Thompson (Eubie OBC, Uptown…It’s Hot, Amen Corner)

Produced and Directed by Robert W. Schneider


Lynnie Godfrey sings
The First “Daddy” on Broadway

Photo by Bert Andrews

Lynnie Godfrey
A Later “Daddy” on the Showtime Network

Photo by Showtime Staff

And Today???
Lynnie Godfrey sings “DADDY “
Will I or Won’t I??? More importantly CAN l???
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!!


Photo by Lori Smith


Photo by Stephanie Gardner

Well… Come and See…Come See the Talented Cast … Some of The Original Cast Members Plus Wonderful Talent of Today and Share the Songs and the Memories!

First Rehearsal of the Allentown Children’s Christmas Chorus

Allentown Children’s Christmas Chorus

This is the First Rehearsal of the Allentown Children’s Christmas Chorus!!

Auditions are over and the the Allentown Children’s Christmas Chorus has officially launched. The first rehearsal has been held as the group prepares for  a performance with Ms. Godfrey at her holiday concert at St. John’s in December, 2018.

In addition to rehearsing holiday songs, Godfrey plans to invite guest performers to the rehearsals to teach students about acting, vocal technique and the audition process. She says she was inspired to create the chorus after discovering how little time and funding is allocated to the arts in Allentown schools.

“It came as a shock and I needed to do something about it,” Godfrey explains. “Growing up in Harlem, I attended The Modern School, where arts were infused into everything we did. I always say my ability to memorize a script goes back to learning and reciting poetry for our school festival. No matter what career path, the arts are vital to a child’s education.”

Godfrey, who was recently named President of Friends of Music in Bethlehem, says after seeing the success of that organization’s music education grant program in the Bethlehem schools, she wanted to do something to benefit children in Allentown.

Corporate sponsors are needed underwrite uniforms, sheet music and some other costs of the program and Godfrey says she is grateful to St. John’s Church and the Allentown School District, for partnering on this first-time project.

Article: Broadway Veteran Launching Children’s Chorus in Allentown

More media coverage of Lynnie Godfrey’s new project. From 69 News

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A Broadway veteran is launching a children’s chorus in Allentown. Lynnie Godfrey held auditions Saturday at Saint John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. Godfrey’s resume includes roles on Broadway, at the Kennedy Center, in television series and on film. She says she was inspired to create the chorus after learning of the limited resources dedicated to the arts in Allentown schools.

See the video here

Broadway Veteran to Launch Allentown Children’s Chorus

Lynnie Godfrey to Audition Youth to Sing in Upcoming Concert

ALLENTOWN, PA — Lynnie Godfrey’s resume includes roles on Broadway, at the Kennedy Center, in television series and on film. Now, is ready to share what she’s learned with a group of Allentown children, who will perform with her in concert. The Lehigh Valley resident is holding auditions for a new “Children’s Chorus” on Saturday, February 24, 2018 from 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 37 S 5th Street in Allentown (www.stjohnsallentown.org).

Download Allentown Children’s Chorus Audition Flyer (PDF)

Children in grades kindergarten thru fifth grades are eligible to audition. They may sing any song they choose, either a cappella, or if they bring sheet music, an accompanist will be provided.
Auditions and participation is free. Approximately 12-15 students will be selected and commit to two rehearsals a month, leading to a performance with Ms. Godfrey at her holiday concert at St. John’s in December, 2018.

“This is not about finding the next contestant for “The Voice,” Godfrey explains. “Enthusiasm is more important than talent. We want to create an opportunity for children who love to sing and will benefit from the experience of performing.”

In addition to rehearsing holiday songs, Godfrey plans to invite guest performers to the rehearsals to teach students about acting, vocal technique and the audition process. She says she was inspired to create the chorus after discovering how little time and funding is allocated to the arts in Allentown schools.

“It came as a shock and I needed to do something about it,” Godfrey explains. “Growing up in Harlem, I attended The Modern School, where arts were infused into everything we did. I always say my ability to memorize a script goes back to learning and reciting poetry for our school festival. No matter what career path, the arts are vital to a child’s education.”

Godfrey, who was recently named President of Friends of Music in Bethlehem, says after seeing the success of that organization’s music education grant program in the Bethlehem schools, she wanted to do something to benefit children in Allentown.

Corporate sponsors are needed underwrite uniforms, sheet music and some other costs of the program and Godfrey says she is grateful to St. John’s Church and the Allentown School District, for partnering on this first-time project.

Last year, Godfrey, who has performed with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, directed two new plays at ArtsQuest in Bethlehem. Her production company, Godlee Entertainment, includes “Essence of Acting,” an African-American acting troupe based in New York City that recently performed “Greenwood: An American Dream Destroyed,” about the 1921 race riot in Oklahoma.

For questions about the chorus auditions, email: goleeentertain@aol.com

 

Article: Lynnie Godfrey: Activist for Children in Music

Here’s  a great article about Lynnie’s new role that harkens back to that childhood dream: she has become an activist for music education in local elementary schools. 

Lynnie Godfrey: Activist for Children in Music

By: Daryl Nerl – Special to The Morning Call

When Lynnie Godfrey was a girl in Harlem, she dreamed of growing up to be a schoolteacher.

In her room, she’d stand at a blackboard with a new pack of crayons in her hands, and pretend her dolls were her class.

But Godfrey’s natural talent, ambition and the love of theater she discovered in college took her in a different direction.

She is a singer and actress who has appeared on Broadway and other stages all over the world. She has acted on television shows and in movies.

Now living in the Lehigh Valley, Godfrey directs a theater group and performs as a cabaret/nightclub singer, specializing in the music of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn.

She also has taken on a new role that harkens back to that childhood dream: she has become an activist for music education in local elementary schools.

Through Bethlehem’s Friends of Music, of which she recently became president, Godfrey has spearheaded a new grant program that last year provided $1,000 each to three Bethlehem Area elementary schools to enhance music education programs. Read the full article here

 

The Play’s The Thing

By Melba Tolliver

     Once upon a time there was a place called Greenwood.  Let it never be forgotten.

This is the last line in Celeste Bedford Walker’s Greenwood: An American Dream Destroyed. When I heard those words in the first public reading of Walker’s play they left me wondering.  Were the words a desperate plea? An ominous warning?   Or both?   They come at the close of the play’s final act, spoken by the photojournalist character.  He is an outsider invited to document the glory of an unapoligetically all-black Oklahoma town. But the visitor ends up bearing witness to the town’s destruction  in two days of race riots in 1921.

Back row: Bernadette Drayton, Lawrence Cherry,Jimmy Gary Jr., Dathan B. Williams, Byron C. Saunders, Akil Williams, Guy Whitlock, Marlene Villafane, Charles B Murray, Anthony Goss, Elijah Bland and Jalene Goodwin. Seated: Playwright: Celeste Bedford Walker Yvette Ganier, Director: Lynnie Godfrey and Brenda Denmark

Back row: Bernadette Drayton, Lawrence Cherry,Jimmy Gary Jr., Dathan B. Williams, Byron C. Saunders, Akil Williams, Guy Whitlock, Marlene Villafane, Charles B Murray, Anthony Goss, Elijah Bland and Jalene Goodwin. Seated: Playwright: Celeste Bedford Walker, Yvette Ganier, Director: Lynnie Godfrey and Brenda Denmark

For now, the place called Greenwood and the people—proud and  prosperous —-who built it are not forgotten.  Far from it. Both are being remembered—in fact and  in fiction—in Bethlehem, in New York City , in Los Angeles—-and wherever folks have access to cable TV if a production now being developed pans out.   

First,  to Walker’s Greenwood.  An  original work by the Houston-based playwright, it  had its first public reading last month at  SteelStacks in Bethlehem. The reading, directed by award-winning actress  and Broadway veteran Lynnie Godfrey, played to an enthusiastic and engaged audience, most of whom had never heard of the Oklahoma town or the riots that ruined it . 

 Walker spent years digging into the facts surrounding the town’s destruction by white terrorists. Writing and re-writing, incorporating history with the story of  a Depression era community whose wealth and self-sufficiency had earned it the title “ black wall street”  Walker finally felt the work was finished and let it go.   A regional theatre took over production of the piece, originally Black Wall Street.   

But as fate and the creative muse would have it, Walker wasn’t done yet. The regional production was an audience failure. As it happened, Lynnie Godfrey got wind of the play and the story moved her, she saw  huge potential in Walker’s work.  So Godfrey reached out to the playwright,  shared her vision of how to re-work the play and together they began taking it to another level.  In phone conversations and  email and maybe with a bit of ESP thrown in, the author and the director took the play down to its bare bones and then re-built it scene by inspired scene.

 “We did not intend it as a documentation of the event,” says Godfrey speaking about the real Oklahoma race riot.  “ But what it (the race riot) did to people.  We built it around the family.”

And so it is not the gunfire, not the dead bodies of 300 black residents, not the arson fires that wiped out businesses, hospitals, schools and  left 9-thousand people homeless, and  not the vicious rioters  that keep Greenwood audiences riveted in their seats. Instead they watch  generations of the  fictional Boley family face and then deal with raw truth:  social prominence and wealth may appear solid, but are in fact only tentative,  always subject to forces beyond one’s control, forces fueled by envy and hatred.

Molly Boley, played by Godfrey  is the class conscious,  steely gatekeeper of the family’s social  status.  A veteran of Broadway, Godfrey is superb in the role, peeling  away what Molly uses to cover her vulnerable core  as a  wife and mother and the family member who  is most devastated  by the riots.  In what turns out to be excruciatingly  bad timing, Molly  has invited a photojournalist to town expecting he will come away with a glowing report about Greenwood.   Instead, the riots, sparked by accusations of a young black man making advances on a white woman, upend Molly’s attempts at self-promotion and give the photojournalist fodder for an entirely different story than the one Molly intended.  The family’s rude awakening is shared by other characters whose lives intersect with the  Boley’s. 

Walker acknowledges that playwriting, as with any writing, can be pretty lonely and she says having a partner in Godfrey was a blessing.  “I was so delighted to work with someone as gifted as Lynnie.  She made great contributions to this script.”

Collaboration is obviously part of the total Godfrey package and keystone of a process  she has aptly named “From the Page to the Stage and Screen.” With SteelStacks as the venue and ArtsQuest as the artist incubator, Godfrey is the catalyst for providing a safe space where the projects of  writers, actors,  and other word-workers and performers can be polished and road-tested.  Charles White is an example. A playwright and lawyer, White had the benefit of Godfrey directing a first public reading of his Unentitled last June. “I once heard that you should make your plays director-proof because directors will ruin your vision,” White says.  “That is not the case.  She (Godfrey) was a marvelous director, wonderful to work with.”

White’s Unentitled, like Walker’s Greenwood, explores the dynamics of financially well-off black families.  What happens when unexpected events force hard choices on such families,  threatens their status, and undermines the images they hold of themselves? Q&A sessions  which Godfrey held immediately after both  readings gave the  director and the actors a chance to hear audience comments and field their questions.

Most of the Greenwood audience  admitted that their knowledge of American history didn’t include the Oklahoma riots or those that wrecked  58 similar  black communities in the early 1900’s. One person  even remarked that he found the wealth of Greenwood blacks, “unbelievable ” because he had no idea that wealthy black people existed.

Godfrey’s collaborative approach saw both Bethlehem readings repeated at off- Broadway venues in New York City. And five actors from Unentitled  were in the eleven member cast of  Greenwood.   Jalene Goodwin brought a youthful and winning playfulness to both readings as a daughter who takes for granted the material things her moneyed parents can give her, but rebels against their class-conscious rules.  Brenda Thomas Denmark was  a standout in both readings. Though the characters differed, Denmark was thoroughly believable , both as the stylish mother-in-law in Unentitled  and the entrepreneurial  Boley family matriarch who  helped keep Greenwood money circulating within the community. The photojournalist was  given a strong presence as played by Dathan B. Williams.  Willing to see and report the picture Molly wants to paint of her beloved town, he  cannot escape the racial undertow  surging  just below its surface.

   

What’s next for Greenwood and Unentitled?  The question pops up after every reading and Godfrey and crew have been ready with some possibilities:   Workshop productions with sets and costumes. Maybe even Broadway if the readings result in the kind of word-of-mouth that attracts “angels” with investment dollars.

Yet more evidence of Greenwood’s re-surfacing  is Tulsa a 4-hour made-for-tv mini-series currently in development for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) where money is apparently not a challenge.  Based on the same 1921 race riot history that inspired playwright Walker’s Greenwood, Tulsa also reportedly plans to  center its plot on a fictional family.

In a call to a reporter for the Tulsa World who wrote one of the first stories about the OWN mini-series I learned that it is still in the works, though the cameras have yet to roll  and it’s not certain when or where it will be shot. 

Almost daily, news headlines from Missouri, and Staten Island and elsewhere in America give weight to Walker’s closing line, “Let us not forget.”   Are those words  a passionate plea? Or a worn-out warning?  And who among us is really listening?

Meanwhile, Godfrey already has plans for her and ArtsQuest’s next project:  a play reading in March of Lois’s Wedding by Bethlehem publisher and writer Bathsheba Monk.

 

Little lady Lynnie Godfrey shows big personality/voice in cabaret at Symphony Hall

6a00d8341c4fe353ef019b002570b2970cSinger Lynnie Godfrey charmed a sold-out crowd last night during her first appearance in Symphony Hall’s Rodale Room as part of its Jazz Cabaret Series.She brought it all – fabulous dresses, theatrical savvy, witty banter, a crackerjack backing band, a powerhouse voice and a selection of popular classic songs presented in uique style.

Sheila Evans, Symphony Hall Executive Director, addressed the audience happily.

“I can’t tell you how much fun it is to post a sold-out sign on the front door,” she said.

Jazz Series head Ethel Drayton-Craig introduced Godfrey with a long list of her credits, which include a Drama Desk nomation for her Broadway debut in the musical “Eubie” and a starring role in “704 Hauser,” the Norman Lear sequel to “All in the Family.” Godfrey moved from New York to the Lehigh Valley a few years ago and has been creating a stir ever since.

The expectation was high and Godfrey met them from the moment she made her dramatic entrance from the back of the room in a hot pink sleeveless gown, shouting “Hello,” “Hello,” “Hello” as she worked her way through the tables to the front of the room.

The more than two-hour concert, with one intermission, featured nearly two dozen songs with focuses on Johnny Mercer and Ethel Waters. Godfrey introduced most songs with some background.
She opened with a songs by hitmaker Mercer, starting with “Accentuate the Positive,” and including “Jeepers Creepers “ and “Moon River.”

A series of what she called “boo hoo ballads” included “Lush Life,” “Guess Who I Saw Today” and “Cry Me a River.”

Then things turned more upbeat — “It’s time for us to fall in love again,” she said — with “L.O.V.E.,” “When I Fall in Love” and “The Best is Yet to Come.”

An interesting turn came with her performance of George Harrison’s “Something in the Way She Moves,” a contemporary song not part of Godfrey’s traditional songbook.

She ended her first set with a growly version of “Fever” that showcased her large vocal range, and the zippy “It Don’t Mean a Thing.”

Godfrey’s second entrance was as dramatic as the first, coming through the room in a snug black and brown striped halter dress with a black and pink feather headdress.

Numbers included “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” “Bye, Bye Blackbird,” “Good Morning Heartache” and “God Bless the Child.”

She got “down and dirty” with songs by her main inspiration, Ethel Waters. Godfrey does a one-woman show of her songs.

She started with a dramatic “Stormy Weather,” then got teary and choked up during “Suppertime,” an Irving Berlin song about a woman about to make supper for her children when she learns her husband won’t be coming home because he’s been lynched.

She ended her main set with what she said was her favorite, the gospel song “His Eyes on the Sparrow,” and returned for two quick encores.

Godfrey made it a fun evening with jokes and stories. At one point, she got the crowd laughing as she did a “little something” for Bill Steele, owner of Mr. Bill’s Poultry, which provided the light meal for the evening. A couple times she held some long notes, encouraging the audience to encourage her to keep going. Over and over again she expressed appreciation to the audience, which included family and many old friends.

Godfrey is a little lady with such a big personality, it was easy to forget there was music behind her, but there was a talented band – Gary Rissmiller on drums, Roger Latzgo on piano, Gene Perla on bass and Tom Hamilton on saxophone.

The band is working with her on her first CD, which she expects to have out in early 2014. The concert was sampler of what to expect.

Read the original article here: http://blogs.mcall.com/lehighvalleymusic/2013/10/little-lady-lynnie-godfrey-shows-big-personalityvoice-in-cabaret-at-symphony-hall.html