THE PETER MELNICK SONGBOOK AT THE DONNELL LIBRARY
Arts And Artists At St. Paul's presents THE PETER MELNICK SONGBOOK
on Tuesday, January 30th at 6:00 pm, as part of its ongoing series
at THE DONNELL LIBRARY THEATER (20 West 53rd Street, NYC -
http://www.nypl.org/branch/central/dlc/
). Performers include Rachel deBenedet, Alan Campbell, Lauren Kennedy,
Will Swenson, Michele Ragusa, Orville Mendoza, Jonathan Rayson, Elisa
van Duyne, Tonya Dixon, John Hickock, and Paul Iacono. Featuring lyrics
by Bill Russell & Christopher Durang the event is produced and hosted
by John F. Znidarsic. Admission is free - no reservations are taken.
Despite his impressive musical theater roots, composer
Peter Melnick has long straddled the worlds of live theater and
film scoring. His new musical ADRIFT IN MACAO, a parody of film
noir written with collaborator/librettist Christopher Durang, opens
Off-Broadway at Primary Stages 59E59 THEATERS (59 East 59th Street,
NYC - 212-279-4200 - http://www.59e59.org/
) on February 13th after a successful and award-winning run at the
Philadelphia Theatre Company.
In addition to ADRIFT IN MACAO, Melnick is working
with librettist Bill Russell on THE LAST SMOKER IN AMERICA, a futuristic
fantasy about a dysfunctional family in a smoke-free America. He
is also collaborating with librettists Bill and Cheri Steinkellner
(the Broadway-bound SISTER ACT) on ESTHER PLAYS THE PALACE, a musical
based on the Purim story. Past productions include the scores to
CHINESE CABARET, Twyla Tharp's SEXTET, and several off-off-Broadway
projects that fall under the category of learning experiences.
Melnick's film credits include the soon-to-be-released
Farce of the Penguins, written and directed by Bob Saget. Other
credits include L.A. Story, the Steven Martin comedy; award-winning
independent features Call Waiting and West of Here; The Only Thrill,
starring Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard; Horton Foote's Convicts,
with Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones; and Only You, starring
Helen Hunt and Kelly Preston. His cable and television credits include
the Emmy-winning Indictment: The McMartin Trial (HBO), Grand Avenue
(HBO), Lily Dale (Showtime), Mermaid (Showtime), and numerous PBS
documentaries.
Melnick attended Harvard College, Berklee College
of Music, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He also studied
privately with jazz legend Jaki Byard. (Disclosure: he dropped out
of Harvard one year shy of a degree in order to study music at Berklee,
which he similarly abandoned seven semesters later when offered
his first film scoring assignment.)
Melnick now makes his home in Montecito, California,
with his wife, Laini, an appellate criminal defense attorney and
their children Daniel and Reine. He grew up in New York, the product
of an extraordinary entertainment family - his father is film producer
Daniel Melnick (All That Jazz, Straw Dogs, Altered States, Footloose,
That's Entertainment, and the seminal television comedy Get Smart),
his mother is Linda Rodgers (composer 'Three to Make Music' and
other popular children's songs) and his grandfather was legendary
composer Richard Rodgers. Raised in the New York tradition of bagels-and-lox
secular Judaism, Melnick has since connected with the Jewish community
in a more active way. He became an adult bar-mitzvah in his thirties,
and subsequently had the joy of teaching his own son how to chant
Torah. He currently sits on the board of the Santa Barbara ADL,
and serves as the Social Action chair of the Community Shul of Montecito
and Santa Barbara. Israel advocacy is his third great passion, after
family and musical theater.
ARTS AND ARTISTS at St. Paul's is a non-profit organization
dedicated to supporting and nurturing the artistic community by
providing a forum for the development of new worthwhile works. This
is accomplished with unique programs in drama, musical theater,
cabaret, dance and opera performed in concert, staged readings and
workshops.
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