The Huntington Theatre Company continues its 28th season - a season of American Stories - with Grammy Award winner, Broadway star, and pop icon Maureen McGovern's world premiere musical memoir A Long and Winding Road, conceived and written by Philip Himberg and Maureen McGovern and presented in cooperation with Arena Stage. Chronicling the moments that define the Baby Boomer Generation, Ms. McGovern returns to her roots as a folk singer as she performs the classic songs The New York Times has dubbed "the second half of the Great American Songbook." Sundance Institute Producing Artistic Director Philip Himberg directs; Jeffrey Harris provides musical direction and accompaniment.
A Long and Winding Road revisits the hope-filled years of the 1960s, the tumultuous era of Vietnam, Watergate, the Civil Rights movement, the AIDS crisis, and on to today and its hope of a better tomorrow. It includes beloved music by Bob Dylan ("The Times, They Are a-Changin'"), Carole King ("You've Got a Friend"), The Beatles ("Let it Be"), Joni Mitchell ("All I Want," Paul Simon ("America"), Laura Nyro ("And When I Die"), and many more.
Maureen McGovern's (Performer, Conceiver, Writer) almost 40-year career includes Grammy Award nominations for "Best New Artist" and "Best Traditional Pop Vocal," a Grammy Award for "Best Musical Recording for Children" for her participation in "Songs from the Neighborhood: The Music of Mister Rogers," and the Academy Award-winning Gold Records "The Morning After" (Billboard #1) and "We May Never Love Like This Again." Her PS Classics release A Long and Winding Road was praised by The New York Times as "a captivating musical scrapbook from the 1960s to the early ‘70s. Ms. McGovern is blessed with a vocal technique second to none." Other critically acclaimed musical tributes include her Gershwin, Arlen, Rodgers, Marilyn and Alan Bergman CDs and more.
On Broadway, Ms. McGovern appeared in Little Women, The Musical, creating the role of Marmee, for which she was nominated for a 2005 Drama Desk Award, The Pirates of Penzance, Nine, 3 Penny Opera, and the recent national tours of Little Women, The Musical and The King and I. Off Broadway, she appeared in Brownstone, originating the role of Mary. Regionally, she has performed in Maureen McGovern: A Long and Winding Road (world premiere at Arena Stage, presented in cooperation with the Huntington), Elegies, Dear World, Letters From 'Nam (originating the role of Eleanor Bridges, at the North Shore Music Theatre), The Lion in Winter, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Of Thee I Sing, Let 'Em Eat Cake, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Guys & Dolls, I Do, I Do, and The Bengal Tiger's Ball (composed the music, co-created, and starred). She also appeared in The Towering Inferno and as the guitar-strumming nun in the film Airplane!, and lent her voIce To DreamWorks' animated feature Joseph: King of Dreams.
The Huntington's season of American stories is the first in the Company's 28-year history comprised entirely of shows by American writers. The plays of the season relate to one another through stories of opportunities lost and found, of intergenerational struggles and successes, and of the most intimate and meaningful relationships. Drawn from some of the best writing the country has to offer, the Huntington will engage its audience in a season-long conversation about issues of race, class, values, and a shared American experience.
Photos by Eric Antoniou
