When looking at the Gershwin brothers, the attention is most often focused on George, but on this week’s Dress Circle (9/27 7:00 p.m.), we’ll be sampling the lyrics of Ira in a program we’ve titled “Ira Beyond George.” Ira became a recluse after George’s death, and he was brought out of his forced retirement by Kurt Weill and Moss Hart who convinced him to work on “Lady in the Dark,” a musical about psychoanalysis. We’ll be sampling some of these songs as well as songs he wrote with other composers such as Vernon Duke, Burton Lane, Harry Warren, and Jerome Kern.
Some of the musicals for stage and screen include “Cover Girl,” “A Star is Born,” “The Barkley’s of Broadway,” “The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936,” and “Give a Girl a Break.” We’ll even hear from the film musical “The Shocking Miss Pilgrim” that featured a score created from some of George’s trunk songs by their friend Kay Swift.
