{"id":6108,"date":"2019-07-10T18:59:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T18:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/?p=6108"},"modified":"2019-07-19T17:15:54","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T17:15:54","slug":"tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Yazbeck&#8217;s Passion for Gershwin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever had the feeling you were born too late? That you missed out on the things that really influence your taste? Singer\/dancer\/actor Tony Yazbeck certainly does. Which is why the chance to sing the music of George and Ira Gershwin is something he&#8217;s done before and will do again on Saturday when he joins Michael Feinstein and the Pasadena Pops for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pasadenasymphony-pops.org\/concert\/rhapsody-in-blue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Rhapsody in Blue<\/em><\/a> at the LA County Arboretum.<\/p>\n<p>Yazbeck began his Broadway career as a replacement newsboy in Arthur Laurents&#8217; revival of&nbsp;<em>Gypsy<\/em> with Tyne Daly. He has played Billy Flynn several time in <em>Chicago<\/em>. He was Al in the revival of&nbsp;<em>A Chorus Line<\/em>; Tulsa in the revival of&nbsp;<em>Gypsy<\/em> with Patti LuPone<em>&nbsp;<\/em>and Gabey in the revival of&nbsp;<em>On the Town<\/em>. He received his first Tony Award nomination for that performance.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/ZXg4FbzBI9w\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There may be a reason he&#8217;s in so many revivals. It isn&#8217;t just that Broadway likes to produce them. It&#8217;s where Yazbeck feels most at home &#8211; as I discovered when we spoke by phone about Gershwin, Broadway and loving simpler stories.<\/p>\n<p>Not only for this concert, but you&#8217;ve done other shows celebrating Gershwin&#8217;s music. Why does his music speak to you?<\/p>\n<p><strong>I was raised as a kid with this music. It was maybe my father&#8217;s favorite music. I started dancing at four-years-old watching Fred Astaire on television. I think the first movie I saw was&nbsp;<em>Shall We Dance<\/em> which is where a lot of these songs we love got introduced. These were songs that were ingrained in me and made me happy in a simple way.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Whether or not they are part of this concert, but are there specific songs that resonate most with you?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Michael approached me with the songs. He has such a library of songs that are arranged for symphony orchestras.&nbsp;You don&#8217;t want to&nbsp;mess with them because most are derived from the original arrangements. I looked at them and said, &#8220;What can I do with these and put my stamp on it and still respect it?&#8221; There&#8217;s one number I&#8217;ll throw my tap shoes on for it. A ballad I&#8217;m singing is probably my favorite Gershwin song of all time: &#8220;How&nbsp;Long Has This Been Going On?&#8221; I think it is underrated. It resonates with those who find a connection and felt it was there forever. I&#8217;ll do like three numbers. If he asked me to do more, I know half the repertoire in my head&nbsp;already.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/W5AB9Fm9lFk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Most of your Broadway credits are revivals of classic musicals. As a song-and-dance man, do you think you were born too late? Or do you have the opportunity, perhaps the responsibility, to keep this great work alive by doing it now?<\/p>\n<p><strong>That&#8217;s a good&nbsp;question. I feel like I&#8217;m devoted and the reason I&#8217;m still in this business is that very question. We want to affect an audience. I was greatly affected by this music and this style when I was younger. It had nothing to do with the 1980s. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>It&#8217;s a deep question: do we embrace&nbsp;technology now or do we say this has a&nbsp;place and &#8220;children&#8230;look here!&#8221; But I think it&#8217;s embrace it. We&#8217;re all on our phones all the time. People can&#8217;t look at a video for two minutes&nbsp;before their mind wanders. It will be fascinating to see what happens in the future. There is room for&nbsp;this thing, but we need to find writers and creators who can write new&nbsp;material based on the simple styles we heard like Gershwin back in the day. As amazingly&nbsp;beautiful as their melodies and arrangements are, they were simple. Somehow we decided simple wasn&#8217;t enough.<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6111\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6111\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6111\" src=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-2-696x392.jpg 696w, https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-2-746x420.jpg 746w, https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-2.jpg 860w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6111\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tony Yazbeck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Even your 2016 album,&nbsp;<em>The Floor Above Me<\/em>, is more of a celebration of older material. Do you worry about an industry, meaning Broadway, that feels like Donna Summer, Cher and now Neil Diamond are the best sources for new musical material?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Everybody wants to feel&nbsp;immortal. That&#8217;s my first instinct as a dancer. It&#8217;s probably wrong. I don&#8217;t know why everyone needs to feel even more acclaimed and famous later in life after they&#8217;ve had&nbsp;their multiple decade careers. My thing is, is there a great story? Are they going to tell it in a way that&#8217;s brand new?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>When I was in&nbsp;<em>Gypsy<\/em> with Tyne Daly in 1990-1991 coming to the city every day there was a magic and spark to it that isn&#8217;t around anymore. It&#8217;s about popularity and fame and &#8220;I want&nbsp;something in a certain way and I expect it and I&#8217;m going to get&nbsp;exactly what I want,&#8221; rather than buy a ticket a be completely surprised and overwhelmed by what I saw. That was the beauty of Bob Fosse or Michael Bennett &#8211; they gave the audience something to think about. We&#8217;re just&nbsp;spoon-feeding them what they know.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>George Gershwin said, &#8220;True music must repeat the thought and aspirations of the people and the time.&#8221; Why does his music continue to do this almost 100 years later?<\/p>\n<p><strong>I think because honestly, a lot of&nbsp;things don&#8217;t change or really haven&#8217;t. It&#8217;s a little scary to think about. It&#8217;s crazy how we can&#8217;t learn after 100 years. We have music like Gershwin&#8217;s &#8220;Strike Up the Band.&#8221; You&nbsp;have this music that has fiery, angry heartbreak under this simple joyful melody. &nbsp;I think that&#8217;s why this music stands the test of time. In joy there&#8217;s darkness and vice-versa.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I learned a lot from Arthur Laurents. He said the&nbsp;emotional tone of&nbsp;<em>Gypsy<\/em> is melancholy. It was about an&nbsp;angry frustration&nbsp;under the dream that Tulsa had. But he has a fire underneath it. Nothing will stop him. On the top is bubbly joy, but underneath&#8230;If this isn&#8217;t like so much music out there that needs to be communicated. If this isn&#8217;t the heartbeat of us all. Like Gershwin. It will stand the test of time.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Photos courtesy of the Pasadena Pops<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We need to find writers and creators who can write new\u00a0material based on the simple styles we heard like Gershwin back in the day. Somehow we decided simple wasn&#8217;t enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,11,25],"tags":[63,1751,1150,258,3570,519,821,2007,1182,3571,790],"class_list":{"0":"post-6108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-performers-close-up","9":"category-whats-hot","10":"tag-a-chorus-line","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-george-gershwin","13":"tag-gypsy","14":"tag-ira-gershwin","15":"tag-michael-feinstein","16":"tag-on-the-town","17":"tag-pasadena-pops","18":"tag-patti-lupone","19":"tag-tony-yazbeck","20":"tag-tyne-daly"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tony Yazbeck&#039;s Passion for Gershwin - Cultural Attach\u00e9<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tony Yazbeck&#039;s Passion for Gershwin - Cultural Attach\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;We need to find writers and creators who can write new\u00a0material based on the simple styles we heard like Gershwin back in the day. Somehow we decided simple wasn&#039;t enough.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cultural Attach\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/attache4culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-10T18:59:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-19T17:15:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-Yazbeck-Room.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Craig Byrd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Attache4Culture\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Attache4Culture\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Craig Byrd\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/\",\"name\":\"Tony Yazbeck's Passion for Gershwin - Cultural Attach\u00e9\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-Yazbeck-Room.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-10T18:59:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-19T17:15:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/6d78feed787e95949b0db355148d624c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-Yazbeck-Room.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-Yazbeck-Room.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Tony Yazbeck\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tony Yazbeck&#8217;s Passion for Gershwin\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/\",\"name\":\"Cultural Attach\u00e9\",\"description\":\"The Guide to Arts and Culture events in and around Los Angeles\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/6d78feed787e95949b0db355148d624c\",\"name\":\"Craig Byrd\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7705a8cbe60b38ac00ab43c86370922?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7705a8cbe60b38ac00ab43c86370922?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Craig Byrd\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/author\/craiglbyrdgmail-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tony Yazbeck's Passion for Gershwin - Cultural Attach\u00e9","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tony Yazbeck's Passion for Gershwin - Cultural Attach\u00e9","og_description":"\"We need to find writers and creators who can write new\u00a0material based on the simple styles we heard like Gershwin back in the day. Somehow we decided simple wasn't enough.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/","og_site_name":"Cultural Attach\u00e9","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/attache4culture\/","article_published_time":"2019-07-10T18:59:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-07-19T17:15:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-Yazbeck-Room.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Craig Byrd","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Attache4Culture","twitter_site":"@Attache4Culture","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Craig Byrd","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/","url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/","name":"Tony Yazbeck's Passion for Gershwin - Cultural Attach\u00e9","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-Yazbeck-Room.jpg","datePublished":"2019-07-10T18:59:48+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-19T17:15:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/6d78feed787e95949b0db355148d624c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-Yazbeck-Room.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tony-Yazbeck-Room.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"Tony Yazbeck"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2019\/07\/10\/tony-yazbecks-passion-for-gershwin\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tony Yazbeck&#8217;s Passion for Gershwin"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#website","url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/","name":"Cultural Attach\u00e9","description":"The Guide to Arts and Culture events in and around Los Angeles","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/6d78feed787e95949b0db355148d624c","name":"Craig Byrd","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7705a8cbe60b38ac00ab43c86370922?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7705a8cbe60b38ac00ab43c86370922?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Craig Byrd"},"url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/author\/craiglbyrdgmail-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6108"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6115,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6108\/revisions\/6115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}