Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox was prepared for the September 29,
2004 issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
A Museum Salutes the Musical
Every big Broadway songwriter has a connection to Bucks County, says
Fred Miller, a pianist and singer who has been making a living as a
performer for 15 years, ever since he left New York to carve out a
professional niche in a smaller pond.
Miller and his singing partner, coloratura Susan Whitenack, help the
James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown celebrate the history of
American musicals by performing on Sunday, October 3, at 3 p.m. The
museum’s exhibit, “Red, Hot & Blue,” uses videos, photographs,
posters, and biographies to trace the development of American musicals
from 19th century vaudeville to movies and the Broadway of today.
Developed and organized by the National Portrait Gallery, the National
Museum of American History, and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling
Exhibition Service, the show continues through Sunday, October 17.
Cost: $6.50 museum admission. Call 215-340-9800.
Bucks County is fertile ground for Miller to be spreading the gospel
of the great American songbook, because so many great names of the
Broadway stage – Oscar Hammerstein II, Stephen Sondheim, Moss & Kitty
Carlisle Hart, Arthur Schwartz, and George S. Kaufman, to name a few –
had lived here. “There was one degree of separation between Bucks and
every major songwriter,” says Miller, pointing out that George
Gershwin’s connection was through George S. Kaufman, and that the
Irving Berlin connection was through Moss Hart. “Stephen Sondheim met
Oscar Hammerstein in Bucks County and became an adopted son of the
Hammerstein family – he was going to be a mathematician but changed
his career plans.”
Miller’s quartet, the Silver Dollar Players, flourished during the
boom ’80s, but he scaled down to a duo and now makes his living going
to libraries and senior citizen centers to give lecture
demonstrations. “In 1998 I started with six lectures and found they
were very saleable. I kept finding new topics and now I have a
portfolio of more than 30.” “
Broadway tunes are an easy sell to senior citizens, but Miller hopes
to evangelize the next generation as well. With the Copper Penny
Players, he teaches amateur performers and each 10-week session
culminates in a performance at Phillips Mill (with the next one set
for Sunday, November 21, at 4 p.m., 609-397-8700). Last week Miller
gave his first lecture/performance at a college; it was the honors
program for a liberal arts school in northern New Jersey.
But he was disheartened to find that fewer than half of the 75
students had ever heard of George Gershwin, and only three recognized
the name of Fred Astaire. To his razzmatazz playing and singing, the
19-year-olds reacted with considerably less enthusiasm than if it had
been an audience of seniors. “But one young man came up to me
afterward,” says Miller, “and said he wished he could take a whole
semester on this.” Perhaps Miller will be the one to discover the next
Stephen Sondheim.
– Barbara Fox
Red, Hot & Blue, James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 SouthPine Street, Doylestown, 215-340-9800. Musical performance by SusanWhitenack and Fred Miller in conjunction with the exhibition, “Red,Hot & Blue: A Salute to American Musicals,” tracing the development ofAmerican musicals from 19th century vaudeville to the silver screenand contemporary theater. Sunday, October 3, 3 p.m.Open Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday 10a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. $6.50; $4 students.www.michenerartmuseum.org.Top Of PageArt in TownDynasty Arts, 20 Nassau Street, Unit F, 609-688-9388. The recentlyopened Chinese antique and art gallery features a silk-screen series,”Last Dynasty,” oil and watercolor, and limited edition prints. Artistand owner, Lu Zuogeng, combines Chinese brushwork with Westernwatercolor. Also, Chinese antique furniture of Ming and Qingdynasties. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to6:30 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.Historical Society of Princeton, Bainbridge House, 158 Nassau Street,609-921-6748. “Lost Princeton,” an exhibit that explores lostbusinesses and houses. The historic house also houses a long-termexhibition about Princeton history highlighting the Native Americanoccupation, the Revolutionary War, and Princeton in the 19th and 20thcenturies. Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Freeadmission.Princeton Theological Seminary, Erdman Hall Gallery, 20 Library Place,609-497-7990. “Heather Pool Royal’s exhibit “Dialogues.” Her paintingsare about how ideas, dialogues, space, and time intersect and collidewith one another. Open Monday to Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.;Sunday 2:30 to 9 p.m. Through October 15.Top Of PageArea GalleriesBarron Arts Center, 582 Rahway Avenue, Woodbridge, 732-634-0413.”Perceptions in Paper & Steel.” On view through October 31.Gold Medal Impressions, 43 Princeton Hightstown Road, West Windsor,609-606-9001. Newly-expanded gallery of photographer Richard Druckman,a freelance photographer for Associated Press. Six rooms and over 250photographs of professional football, basketball, hockey, tennis, andOlympic events. Photographs for sale are matted and framed and in avariety of sizes and prices. Gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.Peggy Lewis Gallery, Lambertville Public Library, 6 Lilly Street,609-397-0275. Gretchen Altabef’s exhibit featuring photographs shetook at the largest memorial assembled after 911 in Union Square.Searching for peace three weeks after 911, she was greeted withhandmade signs and memorials. Gallery hours are Monday, Wednesday,Thursday, 1 to 9 p.m.; Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday 1 to 5 p.m.;and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Through November 9.Queenstown Gallery, 43 South Main Street, Pennington, 609-737-1876.Solo exhibition of recent landscapes of Hopewell Valley by artist MaryM. Michaels. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to5:30 p.m.; and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Through November 6.Wheaton Village, 1501 Glasstown Road, Millville, 856-825-6800. Nativeto Neo: Mexican Folk Arts from Oaxaca is a four-month project devotedto the arts and crafts from Oaxaca, Mexico and the first exhibition inthe new Creative Community Connections Series, an initiative tounderstand and embrace cultural diversity. Through November 12.Top Of PageCampus ArtsPrinceton University Art Museum, 609-258-3788. Medieval, Renaissance,and baroque galleries are open. The museum’s galleries are openTuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Toursare given on Saturdays at 2 p.m.”Nineteenth Century Photographs from the Museum Collection,” a surveyof signature works by Anna Atkins, Edouard Baldus, Francis Frith,Henry Peach Robinson, and Carlton Watkins. Through October 24.”Bringing into Being: Materials and Techniques in American Prints 1950to 2000,” an exhibition of 30 prints exploring American artists totechnical advances in printmaking. Through January 23, 2005.Rider University Art Gallery, Student Center, 2083 Lawrencelle Road,609-895-5588. Princeton artist Margaret Kennard Johnson’s exhibit”From Stone to Mesh: Sixty Years,” a show featuring originalcollagraph prints, handmade paper work, and mesh wall hangings. OpenTuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sundays from noon to 4p.m. Through October 22.Top Of PageArt in the WorkplaceBristol-Myers Squibb, Hopewell Campus, 609-252-5120. Outdoor sculptureshow features works by seven prominent East Coast artists: Hope Carterof Hopewell, Kate Dodd, Richard Heinrich, John Isherwood, JoelPerlman, John Van Alstine, and Jay Wholley. Exhibition is on viewduring business hours and will remain in its location for two years.Top Of PageArt by the RiverE.M. Adams Gallery, 440 Union Square Drive, New Hope, 215-862-5667.Exhibit of new paintings called “Celebrating Hope,” by painter andsculptor Edward M. Adams. Gallery hours are Monday and Thursday, noonto 5 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, noon to 8 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 6p.m. On view through October 17.New Hope Arts, Union Square, West Bridge Street and Union SquareDrive, New Hope, 215-862-3396. Second annual New Hope SculptureExhibition featuring an indoor exhibition of more than 88 works by 43nationally and internationally recognized artists and an outdoor showof seven large-scale works installed throughout the town. ThroughApril, 2005.Top Of PageArt In TrentonThe Old Barracks Museum, Barrack Street, Trenton, 609-396-1776.”Furniture, Curios and Pictures: 100 Years of Collecting by the OldBarracks,” a display in the exhibit gallery is included in the touradmission fee. Open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the last tour isat 3:50 p.m.Top Of PageArea MuseumsAmerican Hungarian Foundation Museum, 300 Somerset Street, NewBrunswick, 732-846-5777. “Enchanting Modern: Ilonka Karasz 1896-1981.”Museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sunday, 1to 4 p.m. Through February 6, 2005.Hunterdon Museum of Art, 7 Lower Center Street, Clinton, 908-735-8415.”Christopher B. Koep: Paintings.” Gallery hours are Tuesday throughSaturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. On view through October 3.Monmouth Museum, Brookdale Community College, Newman Springs Road,Lincroft, 732-747-2266. 62nd annual open juried exhibition of the NewJersey Water Color Society. Gallery hours are Tuesdays throughSaturdays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. On viewthrough October 31.James A. Michener Art Museum, Union Square Complex, Bridge Street, NewHope, 215-340-9800. New Hope satellite facility opens with therelocation of the popular, interactive multi-media show, “CreativeBucks County: A Celebration of Art and Artists,” featuring 19th and20th century painters, writers, composers, and playwrights. Also onexhibit, “Pennsylvania Impressionists of the New Hope School.” Museumadmission $6 adults; $2 youth. Tuesday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 6 p.m.Closed Mondays.James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 South Pine Street, Doylestown,215-340-9800. “The Artists Among Us,” a permanent interactive exhibitdedicated to the history and legacy of the artists who have made NewHope an internationally recognized arts colony. It is a permanentexhibition. Open Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday 10a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Museum admission $6.50adults; $4 students. www.michenerartmuseum.org.Also on display are 10 pieces of sculpture by Connecticut-based artistDavid Hayes in the outdoor sculpture area. Most are largemulti-colored works of painted steel. Through October 1.Also on exhibit is an exhibition of works by Sandy Sorlien,”Photographs from Fifty Houses,” a selection of photographs from her2002 book, “Fifty Houses: Images from the American Road.” ThroughOctober 3.Also, “Edward W. Redfield: Just Values and Fine Settings,” anexhibition of over 50 works created by the 20th century Pennsylvaniaimpressionist. The exhibit features works from early studentsdrawings, landscapes painted in France, and some pieces never beforeon public view. Through January 9, 2005.Philadelphia Museum of Art, 709-721 Catharine Street, Philadelphia,215-922-3456. Four-part Challenge Series, the Delaware Valley’spremier juried artist exhibition program. Exhibit features the worksof Steve Cope, Veleta Vancza, and Sarah Zwerling. Through October 6.Zimmerli Art Museum, George and Hamilton streets, New Brunswick,732-932-7237. “Beyond Memory: Soviet Nonconformist Photography andPhoto-Related Works of Art.” Also, “Photo-related Works of Art.” Boththrough November 28.”Alexsandr Arefiev and the Artists of His Circle.” Through December31, 2004. “Designs for Theater, Opera, and Dance.” Through February13, 2005. “Transcultural New Jersey: Residents and Visitor, Works onPaper from the Collection of the Newark Public Library. ThroughJanuary 2, 2005. Pastels in Paris: From the Fin-de Siecle to La BelleEpoque.” Through January 30. “Beyond the Border: Picturing Mexico inChildren’s Book Illustrations.” Through February 6, 2005.Museum hours are Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday andSunday, noon to 5 p.m. Spotlight tours every Sunday at 2 and 3 p.m.Admission $3 adults; under 18 free. Free admission on the first Sundayof each month.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
