
Barbara Cook, who won her Tony Award for her performance as Marian in the original Broadway cast of The Music Man, celebrates her 80th birthday Oct. 25. The celebrated singing actress will mark this milestone with concerts in Los Angeles, New York and London in the coming weeks. On Oct. 27 Cook will offer No One Is Alone at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA. Cook will then perform with the New York Philharmonic Nov. 19 and 20; those concerts, featuring musical direction by Lee Musiker, will include songs penned by Sigmund Romberg, Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Bacharach & David.
The birthday celebration will culminate Dec. 2 in London with World AIDS Day Concert – Barbara Cook and Friends at the London Coliseum. Those scheduled to join the veteran performer include Elaine Paige, Julia McKenzie, Ruthie Henshall, Anne Reid, Maureen Lippman, Nicholas Parsons, Sian Phillips, Daniel Evans, Graham Bickley and Sally Anne Triplett. The evening will benefit Interact Worldwide, a UK-based international AIDS charity.
Barbara Cook has starred on Broadway in Flahooley, Candide, The Gay Life, The Music Man and She Loves Me. She received a Best Featured Actress in a Musical Tony Award for her performance in The Music Man, and her one-woman show, Mostly Sondheim, was nominated for a Tony in the Best Special Theatrical Event category. Cook was most recently on the New York stage in Barbara Cook's Broadway. Both Mostly Sondheim and Barbara Cook's Broadway were recorded for DRG. Cook made her solo debut at the Metropolitan Opera, which was also released on DRG Records.
For the Los Angeles concert, visit LAPhil.com or call (323) 850-2000; for the New York evenings, go to nyphil.org; for the London benefit, call 011-44-870-145-2200.