Cabaret Scenes and the American Songbook Association
2025 Gala Celebrating
Ahrens & Flaherty
On the Wheels of a Dream
Monday October 6, 20205
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, NYC
Report by Alix Cohen
Photos by James Gavin
Lynn Ahrens was working as a copywriter when she was invited to write a song for children’s television. A burgeoning career developed. Stephen Flaherty, who knew he wanted to write musicals when he was 12, moved to New York City from Pittsburgh. The three of us met at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop in 1982. The participants wrote with strangers; it was collaboration kismet. We all saw it. I was dismayed not to have the opportunity to work with Stephen and frustrated by being patently unable to dislike Lynn.
Lynn writes to time, place, character, and theatrical moment, but also to be understood—not naively or by talking down to an audience, but by being accessible. That’s what made her so successful writing kids’ songs. Lyrical compromise is rare; every word passes through both heart and mind. She knows where vocal breath will fall.Stephen’s music sounded something like Sondheim’s back then. He gradually developed his own distinctive voice. It would not be inappropriate to say his work is in the same mindful family as Sondheim. Like Lynn, Stephen writes to specific parameters, drawing from original choices. His music paints, manifests, and touches us.
The first produced Ahrens and Flaherty collaboration was the one-act children’s show The Emperor’s New Clothes (TheatreWorks USA in 1985). Lucky Stiff arrived three years later at what used to be Playwrights Horizon’s tiny theater. Once on This Island followed, then moved to Broadway and garnered eight Tony Award nominations. Island was produced at Circle in the Square in 2017. Instead of being swallowed among the other musicals, it emerged marvelous, winning the 2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The third revival of their show, Ragtime, which had premiered on Broadway in 1998, opened this year at Lincoln Center on October 16. An Ahrens & Flaherty musical is bound to intrigue, illuminate, and move its audience as well as
entertain. Their selection of subject matter is thoughtful, and their variety of style is remarkable. The pair has won a multitude of awards and has expanded into film and television.
“We write everything together in the same room. We talk, we laugh, we argue, we pace, we eat, we write.” Lynn observed. Stephen said “We’re very different people, but we share a sensibility. We trust each other’s instincts.”Director/producer Susan Stroman presented the 2025 Cabaret Scenes-ASA Lifetime Achievement Award to the collaborators, calling them “treasures of the American theater, each show a new shade of humanity.”
“You know what they always say about life achievement: get off the stage,” Lynn quipped. “Forty-two years of partnership (with Stephen) is a life achievement in itself… I am blessed in my friends.” “You don’t need a fancy institution to develop a love of this,” Stephen commented. “If it was
exciting to us, we hope it will be exciting to others.” Both collaborators were modest. Both thanked their tolerant husbands. Along with their awards, Lynn and Stephen were gifted blow-ups of the marvelous Ken Fallin caricatures used on the cover of the program.
Also tonight, The Bill Sensenbrenner Dream Maker Award was presented to Jamie deRoy by Frank Dain, longtime editor of Cabaret Scenes and
treasurer of the ASA. Sensenbrenner was the engine behind the ASA’s expanding education program, a contributor to its soul, and Dain’s partner for 33 years.
DeRoy is an actress, host, vocalist, producer (15 Tonys and counting, plus Drama Desk, Drama League, Audience Choice, and MAC Awards), collector
of art and artists, and a philanthropist. Her 50-plus years in entertainment and her unbridled, unjaded enthusiasm continue to promote and support theater and music. Recently, under her watch, 1,000 school kids were treated to Buena Vista Social Club and had access to the cast after the show.
“Creativity is our life’s blood. I just hope I never lose the desire or ability to do this. I highly recommend a life of music and theater,” Jamie said. (You can read my profile of Jamie at theaterlife.com/the-ubiquitous-jamie-deroy)
Rarely does one witness an entire show where each vocal was as outstanding as the next. This was one.
A.J. Shively, who has played the role he sang tonight, offered “Streets of Dublin” (A Man of No Importance) with a terrific Irish accent and showed gleeful, demonstrative affection for the city he conjured.
Elizabeth Stanley sang “Something Beautiful” (from a concert evening) “to make something beautiful before I go” was just that—earnest and ethereal with a swell that rose like a crystalline spring.
ASA Executive Director Carolyn Montgomery zealously described a group from its education division visiting a grade school, schlepping an amp and a keyboard in the 8:30 am rain. By the second verse of “On the Wings of a Dream,” the initially apathetic kids became attentive. “It only takes 60 minutes
to break through the walls of rock and pop,” she told us. “Music grows the brain, makes better test takers, critical thinkers, better humans. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a third grader from Harlem sing Cole Porter using the word ‘ennui’ and knowing what it means!”
Ann Kittredge led fifth graders from PS 205 in Bayside, Queens in “It’s Possible” (Seusical, the Musical) with exuberant singing and choreographed movement; the kids were charming. Kittredge then performed “Garden,” a balladic scene-in-one that attributed cultivated flora with all the attributes of
a loving partner.
Lillias White recalled her Broadway role as Erzulie, the Goddess of Love with “Come Down from the Tree” (Once on This Island). Warm and earthy, the artist created a soft (emotional) place to land. Also from Once, Kecia Lewis’ “Mama Will Provide” combined accent, growl, emphasis, and smooth moooves to create an infectious, rhythmic, fringed sarong of music. We chair danced.
Currently in development, Knoxville is a musical adaptation of James Agee’s A Death in the Family. Hannah Elless surprised us with a bluesy “His strength,” as if predestined to grief and fighting back. She had pith and presence. Two songs from Lucky Stiff included Nikki Renée Daniels’ tender, sincere, “Times Like This” (“a girl could use a dog”), and a two-hander of “Rita’s Confessions” replete with dialogue, by Janine LaManna and foil Robert Anthony Jones. The latter song was hysterical. Two fullly realized characters occupied the stage with their comic timing and buoyant chemistry.
My Favorite Year was represented by Nathan Salstone’s rendition of “Larger Than Life,” about a fan’s adoration of flamboyant, Errol Flynn–style movie star Alan Swann before his glory days were behind him. Salstone was credibly sweet and ingenuous.
Kate Baldwin’s interpretation of “Back to Before” (Ragtime) rode on rolling piano waves: “There was a time/Our happiness seemed never ending/I was so sure/ That where we were heading was right.” Its gravitas and longing filled the hall. She shimmered.
The anthemic “Make Them Hear You” (Ragtime) was delivered by Alton Fitzgerald White with heart, pride, and passion. “Teach every child to raise his voice…Make them hear you!” A song for the era.
Congratulations arrived via video from Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops.
The musical director/pianist for the evening was Daniel Green, and Adam Wolff was the percussionist. It was a beautifully produced evening of virtuosity
and imagination.
