A Tuneful Love Story
Diana Barth
November 3, 2007
For only two writer/performers to create a musical is a tall order, but Anya Turner, responsible for lyrics and book, and Robert Grusecki, handling music and lyrics, have done just that—-with Robert supplying the only accompaniment needed, on the piano. The result is Greetings From Yorkville, a tuneful warmhearted depiction of a couple of Midwestern songwriters who come to the Big Apple with the hopes of hitting it big in Show Business. This tightly paced show is a winner.
Click here for the podcast with Anya, Robert and
Baayork Lee.
PHOTO FLASH: SOHO PLAYHOUSE OPENS GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Who Knows Productions presents Greetings from Yorkville with music and lyrics by Robert Grusecki, lyrics and book by Anya Turner. Turner and Grusecki will both perform. The production, directed by Thommie Walsh, will run Off-Broadway at the SoHo Playhouse with previews beginning Tuesday, September 25. The official opening is Thursday, October 4 at 7PM. Click here for the article.
by Ellen Wernecke
EDGE New York City Contributor
Friday Oct 5, 2007
Anya and Robert are two dreamers from the Midwest who come to New York to become cabaret stars. Their Brill Building is a fifth-floor walk-up for just $540 a month (probably five times that much today) in Yorkville, east of the tony Upper East Side. They manage to get a number of showcases and performing gigs, but still end up asking themselves, "But where’s the money?" Despite their protests of being “ordinary people” with “ordinary dreams,” Anya Turner and Robert Grusecki, the co-creators and performers of Greetings From Yorkville, make their variant on the New York dream stand out with their occasionally silly, but musically memorable songs. She has the sex appeal and he, the dancing fingers.
Show Business Meets Real Life, In Song
October 8, 2007
The autobiographical story of a struggling team of songwriters trying to get a foothold on the big time performed by the people who wrote and lived it . . . Ms. Turner and Mr. Grusecki are genuinely likable. Ms. Turner is a lovely singer with a clear, low voice tinged with a whiskeyish burr. Mr. Grusecki is one of those facile musicians whose fine ear allows him to leap deftly from style to style . . . There are strong original songs and the story rings true because it is their own.
October 8, 2007
Anya Turner and Robert Grusecki’s two-person musical is about the songwriting careers of its creators, who are, as they sing, “ordinary people living ordinary lives [who] dream the most extraordinary dreams.” The songs, some wistful, some comic, chronicle the pair’s many years of trying to make it in New York. Both performers have lovely voices.
October 15, 2007
By Auburn Scallon
Those kids from Rent no longer have a monopoly on stories of starving artists singing for their supper. Greetings From Yorkville widens the genre with two musical theater veterans who have refused to let go of their dreams. Both Turner and Grusecki carry on throughout the evening with well-trained voices and an ease on stage honed from their years in the business. The show is cleverly written with themes of optimism and living each day for the things you love.
Creative Team Announced for Greetings from Yorkville
By Adam Hetrick
30 Aug 2007
The upcoming Off-Broadway musical Greetings from Yorkville, originally helmed by the late Tony-winning choreographer Tommy Walsh, has added more Broadway veterans to its creative team.
Before his death in June, Walsh requested that his long-time friend and collaborator, Baayork Lee, take over directorial duties for the musical. Lee, who co-starred in the original production of A Chorus Line alongside Walsh, most recently re-created Michael Bennett's original choreography and direction for the musical's Broadway revival. Click here for the full article.
Thommie Walsh Work to Live on Off-Broadway
By Andrew Gans
11Jul 2007
Greetings from Yorkville, a two-character musical that was presented in 2004 at the Woodstock NY Fringe Festival and in June 2005 at the 78th Street Theatre Lab, will arrive Off-Broadway this fall.
The late Thommie Walsh — the Tony-winning choreographer who created the role of Bobby in the original cast of A Chorus Line — directed the two previous incarnations of the musical and was actively involved in the planning of the Off-Broadway run prior to his death in June. Walsh's direction and concept for the musical, press notes state, "will be realized with the help of some of his long-time friends and associates." Click here for the full article
For Immediate Release:
Press Contact: Shirley Herz / Daniel DeMello (212) 221-8466
Who Knows Productions
ANNOUNCES DESIGN TEAM FOR
GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE
A New Musical
Written and performed by Anya Turner and Robert Grusecki
Directed by Thommie Walsh
Who Knows Productions has announced the Design Team for the upcoming off-Broadway musical, GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE. Baayork Lee, who worked closely with the late Thommie Walsh and was hand picked by him to carry the project forward, will be joined by Scenic Designer Jesse Poleshuck, Costume Designer Dona Granata, Tony Award- winning Lighting Designer Natasha Katz, Sound Designer David Stollings, and celebrated illustrator Robert Risko.
Before his death in June, Thommie Walsh asked his long-time friend and associate Baayork Lee, whose credits include A Chorus Line, My One And Only, and Promises, Promises, to fulfill his vision for GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE. Rehearsals begin Sept 10 and the production will run Off-Broadway at the SoHo Playhouse with previews beginning Tuesday, September 25th. The official opening is Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 7 p.m.
Lovers, collaborators, partners in all things, a couple of songwriters from the Midwest arrive in the Big City. From their fifth-floor walkup in Yorkville, they set out to navigate the turbulent waters of show business. Whether it’s writing special material, recording CD’s, or creating full-length musicals, the pair constantly strives to find new ways to “get their songs out there”. Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Thommie Walsh, GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE is a musical love story about trying again, and again, and again . . .
Performances of GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE are Tuesdays thru Sundays: Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Tickets are $60 and $40 and can be purchased by calling the SoHo Playhouse at 212.691.1555, ordering online at sohoplayhouse.com, or visiting the Box Office. Student rush tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the Box Office beginning one hour before each performance, subject to availability.
The SoHo Playhouse is located at 15 Vandam Street, between 6th Avenue and Varick, 3 blocks south of Houston.
________________________________________________
For Immediate Release:
Press Contact: Shirley Herz / Daniel DeMello (212) 221-8466
Who Knows Productions
presents
GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE
A New Musical
Written and performed by Anya Turner and Robert Grusecki
Directed by Thommie Walsh
At the SoHo Playhouse
Previews begin Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Official Opening, Thursday October 4, 2007
Who Knows Productions will present GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE with music and lyrics by Robert Grusecki, lyrics and book by Anya Turner. Turner and Grusecki will both perform. The production, directed by Thommie Walsh, will run Off-Broadway at the SoHo Playhouse with previews beginning Tuesday, September 25th. The official opening is Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 7 p.m.
Lovers, collaborators, partners in all things, a couple of songwriters from the Midwest arrive in the Big City. From their fifth-floor walkup in Yorkville, they set out to navigate the turbulent waters of show business. Whether it’s writing special material, recording CD’s, or creating full-length musicals, the pair constantly strives to find new ways to “get their songs out there”. Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Thommie Walsh, GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE is a musical love story about trying again, and again, and again . . .
This two-character musical was first presented in a one-act version at the Woodstock (NY) Fringe Festival in September 2004; it was subsequently workshopped as a two-act musical at the 78th Street Theatre Lab (NYC) in June 2005. Both productions were directed by Thommie Walsh and performed by the writers. In March 2006 Greetings From Yorkville was named finalist for the 2006 Richard Rodgers Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In January 2007 the York Theatre Company (NYC) presented two performances of a revised version of the show as part of their Developmental Reading Series.
Thommie Walsh worked closely with the writers over the past three years in the development of the show. He was actively involved in the planning of this production, up until the time of his death in June 2007. Thommie’s direction and concept for the musical will be realized with the help of some of his long-time friends and associates. The complete design team will be announced shortly. Robert Risko (New Yorker and Vanity Fair magazines) will design the Artwork for the production.
Turner and Grusecki’s songs have been performed by such artists as Karen Akers, Donna McKechnie, and Steve Ross at NYC’s Avery Fisher Hall, Town Hall, Symphony Space, and the 92nd Street Y. The team recorded two CD’s for Original Cast Records: Anya & Robert: Ordinary People and Anya & Robert: You Loved Me. Their seven-character musical After All, a musical much ado, named finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award, was presented in concert in 2003.
Anya Turner appeared Off-Broadway in Cut The Ribbons and One Damn Thing After Another; regional credits include Annie in Annie Get Your Gun and the revue Nice Faces of 1943; A native of Iowa, she studied acting and directing with Michael Shurtleff in Los Angeles. Anya is a participating collaborator in the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop.
Robert Grusecki served as pianist for the Broadway musicals Grand Hotel and TheMadwoman of Central Park West. He conducted new musicals for NYC's Manhattan Theatre Club, Musical Theatre Works, and Soho Rep. Originally from Chicago, Robert studied composition with Dominick Argento and songwriting with BMI's Lehman Engel and Maury Yeston.
Thommie Walsh created the role of Bobby in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line. He choreographed Broadway’s The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, Nine, and My Favorite Year among others. He received the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his choreography in A Day In Hollywood/A Night In The Ukraine and My One And Only, which he co-directed with Tommy Tune.
Performances of GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE are Tuesdays thru Sundays: Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Tickets are $60 and $40 and can be purchased by calling the SoHo Playhouse at 212.691.1555, ordering online at sohoplayhouse.com, or visiting the Box Office. Student rush tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the Box Office beginning one hour before each performance, subject to availability.
The SoHo Playhouse is located at 15 Vandam Street, between 6th Avenue and Varick, 3 blocks south of Houston.
