The Livingston Public Library invites the public to our In-Person Senior Happening on Friday, November 15th at 1pm featuring “Lecture-in-Song: Ethel Merman” performed by Fred Miller.
On Broadway, there was one performer who was truly inimitable. From that historic moment in 1930 when she delivered the Gershwins’ “I Got Rhythm” to a stunned audience, Ethel Merman was and remained Broadway’s greatest (and most bankable) star, the definitive, brassy Voice of the Great White Way, the Classic Belter.
Merman’s mystique lay in the extraordinary power of a voice delivered by a sassy, humorous, no-nonsense dame. She could be touching and feminine, she could be a steamroller. Whatever it was, it was invincibly Merman, and what you saw was what you got. And what Broadway got was at least a dozen hit shows, none of which ran less than six months thanks to her special brand of exhilarating entertainment.
Fred Miller is the founder of the Copper Penny Players, a singing class for amateurs that has been operating for the past quarter century. He has experience in many different musical fields, including opera, comedy and piano music. There are now more than seventy Lecture-in-Song programs that he performs around New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The Senior Happening is a monthly series that allows attendees (“Seniors” or otherwise) to socialize during the first part of the program (12 until 12:45 pm) by bringing a bag lunch, while enjoying desserts and coffee served by the Friends of the Library volunteers. The program and entertainment then begins at 1 pm.
Registration is required and may be done in person at the library; by telephone at (973) 992-4600; or online at www.livingstonlibrary.org. Registration begins on October 28th for Livingston residents and other Essex County residents may register starting on November 11th.
Unable to make the show? A pre-recorded video of the performance will be available on the library website, www.livingstonlibrary.org, for you to enjoy at your leisure.
Senior Happening is made possible in part by funds from the Essex County Division of Cultural Affairs, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and through the support from the Friends of the Livingston Library.
