Johnny Rodgers & Lee Lessack Star in Simon and Garfunkel Revisited

Event Has Passed

Last Show: Monday 15 th October 2018

Revisit a time when, for just one evening in NYC, all was “right" with the world. Experience musical history being RE-made at PizzaExpress Live when award winning U.S. performers Lee Lessack and Johnny Rodgers  - with BSL interpretation by the West End’s favorite Donna Ruane on 14th-15th October -  recreate the legendary night in 1981 when 500,000 people gathered in Central Park, NYC to witness the reunion of pop’s greatest duos, Simon and Garfunkel. The occasion was a fundraiser for the iconic, internationally loved park, which was badly in need of tender loving care after the hellish NYC budget battles of the 1970’s. 

Special guest on October 14th-15th: Donna Ruane

Read more ...

Duplicating the exact set list, Lee Lessack and Johnny Rodgers blend their dulcet tones - so reminiscent of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s dreamy harmonies - and take us back to that magical night for four evenings at PizzaExpress Live in Holborn, Birmingham and Maidstone, performing the concert in its entirety. This is not an “impersonation” - it’s a chance to revisit an evening when NYC natives Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel put their well-publicized feud aside, came together for a great cause, and brought half a million New Yorkers and visitors together in celebration.

LEE LESSACK’s graceful Lyric baritone vocals and sophisticated and engaging persona have made him a shining star on the international concert scene. Billboard Magazine calls his singing “vocal romanticism of a high order.” He has toured extensively in the United States and Europe and has released eight recordings since 1995, the latest being “Live in Central Park [Revisited]: Simon and Garfunkel” with Johnny Rodgers. His repertoire includes favorites from the classic and new American Songbook, as well as French artists such as Aznavour and Piaf. In 2005, he released In Good Company to great acclaim. Intimate and impeccably produced, the album features outstanding duets with music notables such as Michael Feinstein, Maureen McGovern, Amanda McBroom, Ann Hampton Callaway and Stephen Schwartz. In Good Company earned a MAC and Bistro Award for Best Recording of the Year. For a discography, click here
In 1996, Lessack founded LML Music (www.LMLmusic.com), which now has a catalog of over 100 of the country’s top live recording artists and performers. In 2008, he founded LML Music Presents, representing performers for concert bookings internationally. His clients include theater icon Chita Rivera as well as songwriter, Amanda McBroom and jazzbird, Jane Monheit. (http://lmlmusicpresents.com)

JOHNNY RODGERS is an internationally celebrated singer-songwriter, pianist, Broadway veteran, and recording artist who is described by Stephen Holden, from The New York Times, as an entertainer “who has show business in his bones” with “fused elements of Billy Joel, Peter Allen and Johnny Mercer.”
As an Ambassador of American Music, Johnny Rodgers dazzles audiences with his Americana mélange of original songs and classic favorites. He tours for the US State Department to places such as the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Rodgers has toured Russia and performed with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, with Igor Butman and his Jazz Orchestra as well as for the US Embassy Independence Day Celebration and the Grodno Jazz Festival in Minsk, Belarus.
Rodgers has been Music Director and accompanist for Liza Minnelli performances and tours and starred in and wrote the song “I Would Never Leave You” for Liza’s Tony Award®- winning Liza’s At The Palace, filmed and released by PBS television. Johnny has earned New York’s Nightlife, Bistro and MAC awards for his critically lauded performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Jazz At Lincoln Center, Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, and other premiere clubs. His songwriting has been recognized with Billboard and ASCAP Foundation awards.
  Visit johnnyrodgers.com.

Special guest in High Holborn:

Donna Ruane
Donna is probably the West End's most prolific Sign Language Interpreter as she has regularly interpreted Jersey Boys,
Billy Elliot, Mamma Mia!, Blood Brothers, Phantom of the Opera, We Will Rock You, The Lion King, Shrek, Singin' in the Rain, Rock of Ages and War Horse, Chicago, Legally Blonde. Oliver!, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Sister Act, Lord of the Rings, Little Shop of Horrors, The Woman in White, Avenue Q, Spamalot, Annie, Evita, Grease, Fame, Dirty Dancing, Saturday Night Fever, Blood Brothers, Rent, The Mousetrap, Mary Poppins, Reduced Shakespeare Company, Never Forget,Bombay Dreams, Love Never Dies, The King & I, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Scrooge, Jailhouse Rock, The Witches of Eastwick,The Sound of Music, Cabaretand The Woman in Black.  At the Old Vic The Entertainer, A Moon for the Misbegotten and Ian McKellen's Aladdin plus Spring Awakeningat the Lyric Hammersmith.
She has also for many years interpreted the Laurence Olivier Awards for the Society of London Theatre, at the Edinburgh Festival, and Unicorn Theatre's Opera, Clockwork at the Royal Opera House where she returned for Faeries and The Wind in the Willowsin 2012.
Since 1998, she has been resident Sign Language Interpreter at the Churchill Theatre Bromley for many shows including High School Musical (on tour and at the Hammersmith Apollo). At the Rose Theatre Kingston Bedroom Farce and Judi Dench's Midsummer Night's Dream. West End shows have included Hair, Love Never Dies, Legally Blonde (also Theatre Royal Nottingham and at Southend) Betty Blue Eyes, Million Dollar Quartet and The Wizard of Oz, Rock of Ages, Shrek the Musical, Singin' in the Rain, Bette & Joan, Shakespeare in Love, Made in Dagenham, Miss Saigon plus Gypsy at the Curve,Leicester. Disney have chosen her to interpret the UK tour of The Lion King which she continues to interpret in the West End and on tour as well as the National Theatre's War Horse..
Donna is the Senior Interpreter at Theatresign,a qualified Assessor and Mentor who teaches on its training courses and has responsibility for mentoring new Theatre Interpreters. In 2011/2012 she was part of Theatresign's training team for Theatre Interpreters at the National Theatre in Budapest,and at the British Embassy in Hungary. Donna also leads Theatresign's work with Mousetrap Theatre Projects' StageSeen which has includedThe Lion King, Billy Elliot, Shrek, Wicked, The Bodyguard, Matilda, Mamma Mia!and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. She is the official Sign Language Interpreter for the UK tours of The Lion King, War Horse, One Man Two Guvnors, Jersey Boys, The Bodyguard and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.