Ninety-one-year-old Ray Evans, who partnered with Jay Livingston on more than 400 songs, will appear with Karen Benjamin and Alan Chapman at the Smothers Theatre Sunday.
By David Wallace / Special to The Malibu Times
This Sunday at Pepperdine’s Smothers Theater, as part of their “Songwriters and Their Songs” series, the celebrated husband-and-wife duo of singer Karen Benjamin and pianist Alan Chapman are presenting a special show featuring the music of the Academy Award winning song-writing team of Livingston and Evans. As a special treat for lovers of show music, Ray Evans, at 91 the last remaining songwriter from the golden days of Hollywood, will join them on stage to reminisce about his partnership with Jay Livingston, and the composing of more than 400 songs (and 26 million selling records) that are part of America’s musical culture.
Among the songs to be performed, Benjamin, who starred in the Los Angeles production of “Phantom of the Opera” for four and a half years, and Chapman, an accomplished composer, lyricist, pianist, and producer and host at KUSC-FM, will be performing the songwriters’ three Oscar winners: “Mona Lisa,” from the 1950s “Captain Carey, U.S.A,” was the first song from a non musical to win an Oscar; “Buttons and Bows” from the 1948 Bob Hope film “The Paleface;” and “Que Sera, Sera,” made famous by Doris Day in Hitchcock’s 1956 classic “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” Other music on the program will be “Silver Bells” from the 1950’s “The Lemon Drop Kid” (after “White Christmas,” still the most popular holiday song), the title songs from their TV days, “Bonanza” and “Mr. Ed,” as well as their quirky “Mole People.”
Although they always billed their work as “music and lyrics by Livingston and Evans,” Jay Livingston, who died in 2001, actually wrote the music and Evans the lyrics. After the Pepperdine show, the trio are taking it on the road, appearing at Michael Feinstein’s New York cabaret on Oct. 9, as the first stop on a short New York state tour that will take them to Evan’s hometown, Salamanca, as well as an appearance at the Lincoln Center Cabaret Convention Oct. 17.
“We knew Jay and Ray socially for some time,” said Chapman, who, with his wife, previously put together highly praised shows of familiar and less familiar music by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. “Last December Ray came to our Cole Porter concert at Steinway Hall in West Los Angeles, and lightning struck. Within two months we did our first performance, and the response has been unbelievable.
“Of our four shows,” Chapman added, “I think this one is the most special because of the diversity of the music. And Ray tells amazing stories behind so many beloved songs. In particular, his tale of the transmutations of ‘Mona Lisa,’ as the studio kept changing the original name and concept of the film (which starred Alan Ladd), is engrossing.”
The concert takes place Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets for the concert are $35 each and may be bought through the Smothers Theater box office by calling 310.506.4522 or online from Ticketmaster.