Richard Maltby, Jr. Will Speak at Annual Broadway Blessing Sept. 12

Producer, director and lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr. will deliver a theatre  reflection at the 15th anniversary celebration of Broadway Blessing, 7 pm Sept. 12 at the Cathedral Church of St. the Divine, Amsterdam Avenue at 112th  St., NYC.

Maltby holds the distinction of having conceived and directed the  only two musical revues to ever win the Tony Award for Best Musical: Ain't Misbehavin' (1978, also Tony Award for  Best Director) and Fosse (1999:). He was  director/co-lyricist for the American version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and  Dance, starring Bernadette Peters, and was co-lyricist for Miss Saigon.

In a partnership that  began when they were students at Yale, Maltby and composer David Shire have  collaborated many times over the years. Their first Broadway credit was in 1968,  when their song "The Girl of the Minute" was used in the revue New Faces of  1968. In 1977 the Manhattan Theatre Club produced a review of their  earlier songs, written for other works, titled Starting Here, Starting Now.

With Shire  as composer, Maltby directed and was lyricist for Baby and the lyricist for Big. Also with Shire, he conceived and wrote  the lyrics for Take Flight, which had  its world premiere in July 2007 at the Menier Chocolate Factory in  London.

He also conceived and directed Ring Of Fire, The Johnny Cash Musical Show and  was co-bookwriter/lyricist for The Pirate  Queen. He was most recently represented on Broadway as the director of  the new, original musical The Story of My  Life by composer/lyricist Neil Bartram. That musical had a brief run at  the Booth Theatre in February 2009 and received a 2009 Drama Desk Award  nomination for outstanding production of a musical.

Maltby will be joined  by Broadway singer/actress Natalielie  Toro who will sing the Michel Legrand/Alan and Marilyn Bergman song “Where  Is It Written,” backed by the Broadway Blessing Choir, and Tony Haris will  perform a new song by composer/playwright Phil  Hall written in honor of the anniversary.

Following a tradition  established at the 10th anniversary celebration, Project  Dance will perform and Rabbi Jill Hausman of The Actors’ Temple and the Rev.  Canon Tom Miller, the Cathedral’s canon for liturgy and the arts, will lead the  annual candle lighting ceremony.

As with all announced guests, Maltby’s  availability is subject to change. Broadway Blessing is the free interfaith  service of song, dance and story that has been bringing the theatre community  together every September since 1997 to ask God’s blessing on the new season.  Reservations are not necessary.
was founded and is produced by journalist and author Retta Blaney, who will receive a 2011 "Lights Are Bright on Broadway Award" presented by Masterwork Productions, Inc. as part of the service.