Melissa Manchester celebrates her remarkable 50-year career in show business w/ debut of “Musical Memoir” show!

Tickets for “50 Threads: An Artist’s Journey” are available HERE

Manchester’s autobiographical show will unfold in both monologues and songs, beginning with her first musical memories – hearing her father play bassoon, then falling under the spell of Ella Fitzgerald at age five – and covering key aspects of her development. “I studied songwriting with Paul Simon, and of course, Laura Nyro was my muse,” she says. “Soon I met Carole Bayer Sager and Marvin Hamlisch, both of whom I collaborated with. A lot of brilliant talents figure into my story.”

Manchester will accompany herself at times on piano, and she will be joined by keyboardist Tedd Firth and singer-percussionist Susan Holder. Fans can expect to hear a wide range of treasures from Manchester’s glorious catalog. The setlist will include beloved hits like “Midnight Blue,” “Whenever I Call You Friend,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” “Come In From the Rain,” “You Should Hear How She Talks About You,” and more. As she did on her acclaimed recent album RE:VIEW (Green Hill Productions), Manchester will rework and reimagine select classics, particularly on solo songs she turned into duets.

“We’ll have my collaborators from RE:VIEW on video screens for me to sing live with – Kenny Loggins, Dolly Parton, Dave Koz and some others,” Manchester says. “It will be a lot of fun.”

On July 19, fans will hear a different side of Melissa Manchester when her first-ever concerto for piano and orchestra titled “AWAKE!” will have its debut performance at the Corning Museum of Glass Auditorium in Corning, NY. This stunning, hauntingly beautiful and multi-dimensional piece will be performed by renowned pianist and composer Jeffrey Biegel and a 40-piece orchestra.

Tickets for “AWAKE!” can be purchased HERE

“I’ve never done anything like this,” says Manchester, who will attend the performance. “I had been watching Jeffrey Biegel’s videos online and was quite taken with them, so I reached out to him. He asked me if I would ever consider writing a concerto for piano and orchestra. I thought to myself, ‘Nobody’s ever asked me that before,’ so I said yes.”

Manchester describes “AWAKE!” as “cinematic. It’s a hero’s story told in five parts. According to this piece, you pray for strength because something is coming. Through your strength and courage, you’re able to move forward and fight. But there’s menace that one has to overcome, and that’s through courage. What’s interesting is, you don’t know if you have courage until something happens. Sometimes you move forward claiming your courage, and that first step is still with a trembling foot.”

Last month, Manchester concluded her triumphant run as Mrs. Brice in the national tour of Funny Girl. Her performances earned widespread praise from critics across the country. Entertainment Weekly enthused, “Melissa Manchester is a stand-out as Mrs. Brice, Fanny’s mother, and she wisely avoids the pitfall of making a caricature of the ‘Jewish mother’ while still finding plenty of opportunities for wise-cracking.” And CITY magazine crowed, “Consider [actors] Shankman and Lukas lucky to have Melissa Manchester on stage with them in the role of Brice’s mother, Rose. A gifted singer-songwriter and actress, Manchester exudes warmth and sincerity.”

Capping it all off, on Monday, June 2, the Boston Critics Theatre Association will award Manchester the prestigious Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Visiting Featured Performance in Funny Girl. “I’m incredibly honored,” says Manchester, who will accept her award with a videotaped speech. “It’s in the deep realm of coolness, because this is the first time I’ve been hired to do something as an actor. There was very little singing, but I still had many scenes. I’m told that my character is the heartbeat of the show, so to be recognized by the Boston Critics is really special.”

Manchester is also basking in the praises for her revelatory album RE:VIEW, on which she revisited her past by reimagining songs from her back catalog. The singer also welcomed old and new friends to duet with her – and she counts her pairings with Kenny Loggins and Dolly Parton as particular highlights.

“I wrote ‘Whenever I Call You Friend’ with Kenny, but we never got a chance to record it,” she says. “When we finally sang it together for RE:VIEW, I didn’t want to redo what he had done with Stevie Nicks. This version has a different groove, and the way I stacked the vocals has a whole new approach. Kenny sounds fantastic with that piercing clarion call of a voice. And Dave Koz is on sax – it’s a bunch of sweetness.”

Of dueting with Dolly Parton on a sumptuous new version of “Midnight Blue,” Manchester says, “The experience was unbelievable. Her voice is so special, and the way she sings intervals is quite unique. I actually had to redo my own vocals, because I wanted to meet her emotionally. I thought this version of the song should be between two women, and Dolly was perfect.” She adds, “When we shot the video in Nashville, a bus rolled by and all these people stuck their heads out the window screaming her name. She is deserving of the title of Queen.”

Until recently, fans were only able to hear “Confide in Me” (which Manchester wrote with Stan Schwartz) on versions by Diana Ross – and by Raquel Welch on The Muppets. But on RE:VIEW, she reclaims the number, turning the torch song into a gorgeous, Latin-tinged ballad. Accompanying the track is a beautifully rendered video that has quickly become Manchester’s number one clip of all time.

“The process of making RE:VIEW has been so illuminating and rewarding,” she says. “These are legacy songs that people have loved, and it’s very gratifying to see my fans experience them in a new way. It was a blessing to reinvent these songs and give people a different world I hadn’t thought of 40 or 50 years ago.”

STREAM / SHARE / PURCHASE RE:VIEW HERE

MORE ABOUT MELISSA MANCHESTER

In 1980, Melissa Manchester became the first recording artist in the history of the Academy Awards to have two nominated movie themes in a single year – “Through the Eyes of Love” from Ice Castles and “I’ll Never Say Goodbye” from The Promise - and to perform them both on the Oscar telecast. Manchester created the role of Maddy, the title character’s mother, on the NBC hit TV series Blossom. She was nominated for a GRAMMY for “Don’t Cry Out Loud” in 1980 and she won the GRAMMY Award for Best Female Vocalist in 1982 singing “You Should Hear How She Talks About You.” Manchester has celebrated her tenure as Artist In Residence at Citrus College with the release of her albums, You Gotta Love The Life, The Fellas - a tribute to the iconic male singers who set the platinum standard for pop music – and now, her golden anniversary offering, RE:VIEW. In 2021, Manchester was inducted into the Great American Songbook Foundation’s Hall of Fame and she is a recipient of the NARAS Board of Governors Award.

For more information, please visit:

https://melissamanchester.com/