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'Hollywoodland' features best-loved songs from the silver screen

Candy Williams
| Thursday, February 6, 2020 12:00 a.m.
Courtesy of Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
From left: Vocalists Jim Caruso and Jane Monheit and singer/pianist/arranger Billy Stritch will perform “Hollywoodland: Songs From the Silver Screen,” Feb. 10 in Greer Cabaret Theater, Downtown Pittsburgh.

Two performances of the most loved songs from the movies — including classics like “Over the Rainbow,” “Pennies from Heaven” and “Whistle While You Work” — will warm a winter evening for audiences at “Hollywoodland: Songs From the Silver Screen.”

The musical production, being presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust as part of its Trust Cabaret Series, will be held on Feb. 10 in Greer Cabaret Theater in the city’s Cultural District.

Featured performers at the 7 and 9:30 p.m. shows will include song stylists Jane Monheit and Jim Caruso and singer/pianist/arranger Billy Stritch.

Randal Miller, director of dance programming and special projects for the Trust, says Caruso and Stritch have been featured in the Trust Cabaret Series before with their show, “Cast Party,” but “Hollywoodland is a totally different experience, as they’ve joined forces with the amazing jazz vocalist Jane Monheit.”

Musical fusion

Monheit is an award- winning performer who has recorded many songs from the Great American Songbook, including a tribute album called “The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald.” She also has had two Grammy Award nominations.

Caruso has won numerous awards, including six Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) Awards, two Nightlife and two BackStage Bistro awards for his acclaimed New York nightclub shows at Birdland, the Algonquin Hotel and Arci’s Place. He made his Broadway debut with Liza Minnelli in the Tony Award-winning show, “Liza’s at the Palace!”

Stritch is a premier singer and pianist in New York, where among his nightclub acts was the successful “Billy Stritch Sings the Mel Torme Songbook.” In 2015, Stritch toured the U.S. and Canada with Jim Caruso for their show, “The Sinatra Century.”

“All of us have been raised on great movie musicals,” Stritch says.

One of his favorite musicals is “Singin’ in the Rain,” the 1952 American musical-romantic comedy film that starred Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds.

He also favors classic Disney movies that feature songs such as “Give a Little Whistle” (“Pinocchio”) and “Whistle While You Work” (“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”).

Great friend Liza

For 25 years, Stritch was best known as music director, piano player and long-time friend of Liza Minnelli, who he met in 1991 when he was playing piano in a New York restaurant. They struck up a friendship, and he would go on to serve as her music arranger, conductor and musical director.

“She allowed me to shine,” Stritch said. “I wasn’t just the piano player; she would introduce me as ‘my great friend Billy Stritch,’ which is very rare for a performer to do.”

Stritch currently is working in Nashville, where he is co-producing an album for Linda Lavin.

He said “Hollywoodland: Songs from the Silver Screen” in Pittsburgh will be a don’t-miss performance — and audiences will know most of the material the three performers present.

“Who hasn’t seen ‘Singin’ in the Rain’?” he asked. “This is music that they’ll love. They’ll find themselves having a good time. And we have fun; it’s an informal, funny evening.”


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