<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center">Rehearsal at the Actors' Temple in New York City, with Broadway choreographer Karin Baker rehearsing performers for Fort Salem's production of <i>Echoing Back: The Songs of Johnny Mercer</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b>ECHOING BACK THE
SONGS OF</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b>JOHNNY MERCER<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<h1>FOR RELEASE WEEK OF JUNE 23<o:p></o:p></h1><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><u><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">SALEM – Fort Salem Theater once
again provides a launching pad for new musical material as Broadway dance guru
Karin Baker (<i>42<sup>nd</sup> Street, Me and My Girl) </i><span style="font-style:normal">introduces to the world-at-large her new concert
salute to Broadway and Hollywood songwriter Johnny Mercer, for one weekend
only, June 27-29, in </span><i>Echoing Back: The Songs of Johnny Mercer.</i><span style="font-style:normal"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">Born in 1909 in Savannah,
Georgia, Johnny Mercer wrote lyrics prodigiously from the 1930’s to the 1970’s,
winning four Original Song Academy Awards and scoring dozens of recognizable
hits. His Oscar songs, “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” (1946), “In
the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” (1951), “Moon River” (1961), and “The Days
of Wine and Roses” (1962) only begin to document Mercer’s lasting effect on pop
music in the twentieth century. Whether it was his early Hollywood lyric
collaborations with Richard Whiting (“Too Marvelous for Words” and “Hooray for
Hollywood”) or his bi-coastal collaborations with Harold Arlen (“Blues in the
Night,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Old Black Magic,” “One
for My Baby,” “Come Rain or Come Shine”), or his own music and lyrics in
“Dream,” “I Wanna Be Around,” and “G.I. Jive,” his songs illustrate how an
era’s music could reflect a smoldering sensuality that bespeaks a romanticism
unequaled in our modern era of blatantly obscene lyrics. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">Karin Baker has taken these songs
and more written by Johnny Mercer and woven them into a performance of song and
dance with three Broadway performers and Fort Salem’s own artistic director,
Jay Kerr, featuring Granville CSD music teacher Tim Patrick on bass. Ms. Baker
was dance assistant and tap dance consultant to Gower Champion in <i>42<sup>nd</sup>
Street, </i><span style="font-style:normal">taught the tap dance that helped
dramatic actress Maryann Plunkett win her Tony Award in the musical </span><i>Me
and My Girl, </i><span style="font-style:normal">performed in the original
casts of </span><i>Coco </i><span style="font-style:normal">and </span><i>George
M!, </i><span style="font-style:normal">and is represented in local productions
across the country as the author of </span><i>The Melody Lingers On, </i><span style="font-style:normal">a revue of the songs and life of Irving Berlin. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">Broadway performers appearing in <i>Echoing
Back </i><span style="font-style:normal">include Juliet Ewing </span><i>(Footloose),
</i><span style="font-style:normal">Bambi Jones </span><i>(Nunsense), </i><span style="font-style:normal">and Joyce Nolen (</span><i>Stop the World, </i><span style="font-style:normal">with Sammy Davis). They have workshopped elements of
the Fort Salem production in benefit performances for the professional
organization Dancers Over Forty and for the Actors’ Temple in Manhattan. Their
musical arranger, David Hancock Turner, unable to work in Salem this year due
to prior commitments, has graced several Fort Salem productions, both as
musician (</span><i>Getting My Act Together </i><span style="font-style:normal">with
Benita Zahn and </span><i>Forever Plaid </i><span style="font-style:normal">with
Jerry Gretzinger) and actor (</span><i>Corn! The Musical).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></i><span style="font-style:normal">Carrying
on in his stead, Jay Kerr, who has not performed on Broadway since 1971,
accompanies on piano and sings along with the gals. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">The Broadway singing and dancing
comes to Salem for three performances, Friday and Saturday, June 27-28 at 8 PM,
with a Sunday (6/29) matinee at 2 PM. More information is available on the
Fort’s website (<i><a href="http://fortsalemtheater.com">fortsalemtheater.com</a></i><span style="font-style:normal">) or
by calling the theater’s box office at (518) 854-9200.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
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<div style="font-size: 12px; "><div>Jay Kerr</div><div>Artistic Director</div><div>Fort Salem Theater</div><div><a href="mailto:jay@fortsalemtheater.com">jay@fortsalemtheater.com</a></div><div>(518) 854-9200</div></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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