Unused lyrics and tucked away trunk songs take center stage in new cabaret show to benefit HealthGAP.
February 8 at Laurie Beechman Theatre
Mark Milano will perform "The Lyrics Left Behind" in a cabaret show composed of "trunk songs", "dummy lyrics", and other unused lyrics on Saturday, February 8 at 7:30 PM at The Laurie Beechman Theatre. In the heyday of Tin Pan Alley songwriting and Broadway musicals, working songwriters would toss their unused songs into a trunk. They would pull one of these songs out when a musical was in need of one more number, changing it as needed for the new use. Tickets benefit HealthGAP, an organization working to widen access to HIV/AIDS treatment. The Laurie Beechman Theatre is located inside the West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42 Street. Tickets are $20. Doors open one hour before showtime, and there is a $15 per person food/drink minimum, with a full dinner menu and full bar available. For more information, visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com.
Milano will perform the original versions of many familar songs. Few people know that Judy Garland's famous torch song "The Man That Got Away" was originally written as an upbeat love song 12 years before she sang it in "A Star Is Born," or that "Tomorrow" was actually used, with different lyrics, in a shirt commercial years before it was heard on Broadway in "Annie." And who knew that a straight-laced composer wrote X-rated lyrics to "You're The Top" that topped any double entendres Cole Porter ever wrote? Mark Milano has tracked down the original arrangements and lyrics of many familiar songs, offerng a truly unique cabaret offering.
Mark Milano is a longtime AIDS activist and showtune queen. He has been active in ACT UP/NY, Health GAP, and the AIDS Treatment Activist Coalition for over 25 years. He sang with Cantori New York for ten years, performing at Carnegie Hall with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and at Avery Fisher Hall with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra.
Health GAP campaigns for drug access and the resources necessary to sustain access for people with HIV/AIDS across the globe.They work with allies in the global South and in the G-8 countries to formulate policies that promote access, mobilize grassroots support for those policies, and confront governmental policy makers, the pharmaceutical industry and international agencies when their policies or practices block access. Health GAP also invests tremendous resources into rebuilding and sustaining the global AIDS movement. Their website is www.healthgap.org.