Lincoln Center Announces 2023 Series, American Songbook: A Place You Belong

Saturday, April 1

A Little Touch of Rateliff:

Nathaniel Rateliff sings the American Songbook and the songs of Harry Nilsson

David Geffen Hall

In 1973, singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson released an album of standards from the Great American Songbook, an adventurous and unprecedented move for someone at the height of their powers in the rock era. The album, A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, takes listeners on a narrative arc through infatuation, courting, marriage, separation, and the inevitable slide into old age. This April, Denver singer and songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff breathes new life into this classic album, blending his folk, Americana, and vintage rhythm & blues influences with Nilsson’s classic tribute to the Golden Age of American music. After performing the album in its entirety, the evening’s concert will conclude with Rateliff and the orchestra performing some of his favorite Nilsson originals.

Wednesday, April 5

Cabaret at the Café Society

with the Matt Ray Trio and featuring Rizo and Ikechukwu Ufomadu

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room

From 1938 to 1948, the hottest spot for hip intellectuals to see and be seen was downtown New York's Café Society, one of the first racially integrated nightclubs in North America. A pivotal stage for the best-known names in jazz, cabaret, gospel and comedy, Café Society was a regular haunt for Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Zero Mostel, Josh White, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Billie Holiday, who often ended her sets with the devastating protest song "Strange Fruit." Versatile pianist Matt Ray leads his Trio as the house band for this three-night tribute to the Café's enduring legacy. Tonight's featured guests are two artists who draw inspiration from the avantgarde of yesteryear: the bawdy bombshell chanteuse Rizo and the waggishly absurd master of the non sequitur, Ikechukwu Ufomado. Conceived by writer, filmmaker, producer, and multiple Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe.

Thursday, April 6

Cabaret at the Café Society

with the Matt Ray Trio and featuring Mykal Kilgore and Aminah Imani

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room

From 1938 to 1948, the hottest spot for hip intellectuals to see and be seen was downtown New York's Café Society, one of the first racially integrated nightclubs in North America. A pivotal stage for the best-known names in jazz, gospel and comedy, Café Society was a regular haunt for Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Zero Mostel, Josh White, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Billie Holiday, who often ended her sets with the devastating protest song "Strange Fruit." Versatile pianist Matt Ray leads his Trio as the house band for this three-night cabaret tribute to the Café's enduring legacy. Tonight's featured guests include the Grammy-nominated R&B singer, Broadway star and LGBTQ+ icon Mykal Kilgore, alongside the sharply insightful stand-up comedian, actor and podcaster Aminah Imani. Conceived by writer, filmmaker, producer, and multiple Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe.

Friday, April 7

Cabaret at the Café Society

with the Matt Ray Trio and featuring Raye Zaragoza and Jordan Carlos

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room

From 1938 to 1948, the hottest spot for hip intellectuals to see and be seen was downtown New York's Café Society, one of the first racially integrated nightclubs in North America. A pivotal stage for the best-known names in jazz, gospel and comedy, Café Society was a regular haunt for Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Zero Mostel, Josh White, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Billie Holiday, who often ended her sets with the devastating protest song "Strange Fruit." Versatile pianist Matt Ray leads his Trio as the house band for this three-night cabaret tribute to the Café's enduring legacy. Tonight's show features sets from the socially-progressive folk singer Raye Zaragoza and the stand-up comedian, actor, and cohost of the popular podcast Adulting, Jordan Carlos. Conceived by writer, filmmaker, producer, and multiple Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe.

Saturday, April 8

Ariana DeBose: Authenticity

David Geffen Hall

Triple-threat actor, singer and dancer Ariana DeBose is a Tony Award nominee for her lead performance in the Broadway hit Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and a recent Oscar, BAFTA, and SAG Award winner in the role of Anita in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story. For an encore, DeBose debuts Authenticity, an original solo concert created with her longtime Musical Director Benjamin Rauhala, at New York City's newest iconic cultural center, the reimagined David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. With a setlist that showcases her love for a diverse array of influences—including Dionne Warwick, Stephen Sondheim, Judy Garland, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ray Charles, and ABBA—Authenticity is a reflection of DeBose’s musical loves, presented with her signature masterful flair for mashups, medleys, and candid storytelling.

Friday April 14

The Paradise Garage

As reimagined by C'mon Everybody

Featuring The Dragon Sisters, DJ Samuella, and The Illustrious Blacks

The David Rubenstein Atrium

From 1977 to 1987, the SoHo nightclub Paradise Garage was the center of the underground dance world and a key nexus point of New York LGBTQIA+ history, notorious for its all-night, experiential, and musically diverse explorations into sound. This celebration of Paradise Garage's memorable musical and cultural legacy, curated by the queer-owned and operated Brooklyn performance venue C’mon Everybody, invites the audience to come with their dancing shoes fully laced up for an all-night participatory party with live performances. Harlem DJ, producer, and youth advocate DJ Samuella opens the evening, followed by two pairs of nonbinary rising stars: crossover hip hop drag provocateurs The Dragon Sisters and the rhinestonespangled and afro-wigged disco divas The Illustrious Blacks. Conceived by writer, filmmaker, producer, and multiple Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe.

Thursday, April 20

The Spirit of The Savoy Ballroom

Featuring Charles Turner & Uptown Swing, The Eyal Vilner Swing Band, and dancers from

SW!NG OUT

The David Rubenstein Atrium

FREE

Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom was one of America’s best known and most historically important dance venues, regularly hosting performances by Chick Webb, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie. Renowned as the birthplace of the Savoy-style Lindy Hop predominant among that era's Black dancers, the Ballroom's anti-discrimination policy sparked a cultural cross-pollination that informs popular dance and music to this day. The spirit of the Savoy lives on in this evening of participatory live dance scored with swing-jazz played by Charles Turner & Uptown Swing and The Eyal Vilner Swing Band. The audience will be joined on the dance floor by professional Savoy swing Lindy Hoppers from choreographer Caleb Teicher's SW!NG OUT. Conceived by writer, filmmaker, producer, and multiple Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe.

Friday, April 21

¡VAYA! Dance Night at The Palladium

Featuring Tito Rodríguez, Jr.

The David Rubenstein Atrium

FREE

Few North American clubs have so drastically raised the profile of Latin music and dance as the Palladium Ballroom, the Midtown dance venue that served as ground zero for the mambo craze of the 1940s and ‘50s. The Palladium's decades-long success is directly attributable to its "Big Three" headline artists-in-residence: Afro-Cuban jazz legend Machito, iconic percussionist Tito Puente, and the composer-singer-crossover star Tito Rodríguez. Rodríguez's son, Tito Rodríguez, Jr., continues his father's legacy on the bandstand to this day. Generally considered to be one of the world's leading timbaleros and bandleaders of modern salsa and Latin Jazz, Rodíguez, Jr. and his band will electrify the dance floor with a set of mambo classics done in the classic Palladium-era style with a contemporary twist. Conceived by writer, filmmaker, producer, and multiple Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) is a cultural and civic cornerstone of New York City. The primary advocate for the entire Lincoln Center campus, our strategic priorities include: fostering collaboration and deepening impact across the Lincoln Center resident organizations; championing inclusion and increasing the accessibility and reach of Lincoln Center’s work; and nurturing innovation on stage and off to help ensure the arts are at the center of civic life for all. LCPA presents hundreds of programs each year, offered primarily for free and choose-what-youpay, including many specially designed for young audiences, families, and those with disabilities.