Grace Elliott News

This performance of Young Frankenstein by the cast and crew of Keystone Theatrics is one you won’t want to miss. It is hilarious and heart-warming.

Forty of the nation's top high school vocalists have been selected to participate in the 2020 Songbook Academy® summer intensive, a week of personal instruction and mentoring from arts and entertainment professionals presented each year by the Great American Songbook Foundation.

When it comes to Tony Award snubbing, there are several artistic high crimes and misdemeanors. For instance, Fiorello! winning Best Musical over Gypsy, or the good Music Man besting the better West Side Story. Or how about this awful upset: Two Gentlemen of Verona (the since-forgotten musical) beating both Grease and Follies for the top honor. Perhaps worst of all is this: Even though A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM was Stephen Sondheim's first and most successful Broadway show as a composer and lyricist, and even though it would win six of its eight nominated Tony Awards in 1962-1963 (including Best Musical), Mr. Sondheim himself was not even nominated for his lyrics and score. A show that features some of the most beloved comic songs from the early 1960's--'Comedy Tonight,' 'Lovely,' and 'Everybody Ought to Have a Maid'--wasn't even nominated for these iconic numbers. (For the record, Oliver! won that year for Best Score.) Broadway's greatest composer would have to wait almost a decade to receive his first Tony Award.

Now celebrating its 10th year, the Great American Songbook Foundation's Songbook Academy has announced the new class of national finalists who will participate in the annual summer music intensive July 13-20.