Leslie Uggams Performs CLASSIC UGGAMS in Two Shows at Liu Tilles Center; Plays 54 Below, Nov 2012

Tony and Emmy Award winner Leslie Uggams will present two special performances of her new cabaret Classic Uggams at the Long Island University Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, November 10 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. The legendary actress and singer will then make her 54 Below debut with the show November 13-17 in Manhattan.

Classic Uggams features favorite songs from Uggams’ decades-spanning career that she and other notable entertainers like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin made famous. Ms. Uggams brings audiences back to the nightclub heyday when she performed at Harrah’s in Reno with the likes of Bill Cosby and Sammy Davis, Jr. She also sings a moving tribute to her lifelong friend the late Marvin Hamlisch who wrote for her while they attended the Professional Children’s School as teenagers.

Highlights include new arrangements of “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “One,” and “What I Did for Love.” Uggams also tells the real story behind her infamous flub of the lyrics to “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” that she sang during a live broadcast of “A Capital Fourth” from the Mall in Washington, DC. She gamely recreates the hilarious gaffe that redefines the term “show biz trouper.”

The star of such Broadway shows as Hallelujah, Baby!, Jerry’s Girls, On Golden Pond, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Anything Goes has co-written Classic Uggams with Michael Bush, who also directs. Bush is a founding partner in Tritone Productions, a new company dedicated to developing new work. He is also the former artistic director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Cabaret and Performance Conference and Manhattan Theatre Club. Bush has directed Uggams in the Broadway-bound Stormy Weather: The Lena Horne Story and Uptown Downtown, her acclaimed one-woman musical autobiography which she performs across the country.

For this new show Uggams is accompanied by a swinging four-piece band: Steve Bargonetti, guitar; Ray Kilday, bass; Buddy Williams, drums; and Don Rebic, piano. Rebic also serves as music director.

The Tilles Center for the Performing Arts is Long Island’s premier concert hall located at Long Island University, 720 Northern Boulevard, Greenvale, New York. Classic Uggams will be performed as part of the Cabaret at Club T series in the center’s 490-seat Hillwood Recital Hall.