The lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, both born and raised in Brooklyn, worked as a team with many of the major composers of the 20th century during their sixty-three-year marriage and creative partnership. In 2022, Marilyn passed away at ninety-three and Alan died in 2025, less than a month before his one hundredth birthday. They wrote two Academy Award-winning Best Songs, “The Windmills of Your Mind (from 1969’s The Thomas Crown Affair), 1973’s title song from The Way We Were, as well as a Best Original Song Score Oscar for Yentl (1983). Overall, their voluminous film work brought them 16 nominations, though they only worked on Broadway twice with the musicals Something Moore! (1964/music by Sammy Fain), and 1978’s Ballroom (music by Billy Goldenberg). It’s wonderful to report that a treasure trove of thirty Bergman songs makes up a brand-new revue being presented this weekend at 92NY titled “Every Kind of Light,” part of its long-running Lyrics & Lyricists series, which first debuted in 1970.

Fabled pianist and vocalist Billy Strich serves as musical director and co-host alongside the invaluable chanteuse Ann Hampton Callaway. Co-writers Malcolm Gets and Dick Scanlan (who also directs) have concocted a fine tribute consisting almost entirely of love songs. Appropriate, since we all know the dictum “write what you know.” The Bergmans long and happy marriage produced songs of every kind on the subject of love. What Gets and Scanlan have done offers evidence of just how much can be accomplished over 90-minutes that both educates and entertains. With light and breezy choreography by Rommy Sandhu, the talented cast of five (Stritch and Callaway included, of course) sing with precision and, when called for, emotional depth. Nikki Renée Daniels (of the recent Broadway revivals of Company and Once Upon a Mattress), Brandon Victor Dixon (nominated two seasons ago as Featured Actor in a Musical for Hell’s Kitchen), and Ali Stroker (Tony Award-winner for her Ado Annie in 2019’s Oklahoma!), make for a smart and sassy trio, especially when showing off some smart moves (see photo below) with a little known song "The Best of Friends" (music by Marc Shaiman).

As for the music, Bergman’s collective partners rate as an impressive group. Among others they number Dave Grusin, Marvin Hamlisch, Quincy Jones, Michel Legrand, Kenny Loggins, Johnny Mandel, Marc Shaiman, Lew Spence, and John Williams. Beginning with one of their first hits, “Nice and Easy,” written with Spence specifically for Frank Sinatra, they effortlessly turned out songs for every type of singer from Dean Martin to Barbra Streisand. Of course, it was their connection to Streisand (and their Brooklyn roots) that helped form the most enduring professional and personal relationship with any artist of their careers. More than sixty songs with lyrics by the Bergmans were recorded by Streisand over a fifty-year period. No small feat in that it's no secret how fussy Barbra Streisand is with the material she chooses.

Highlights of the concert feature Stritch’s eloquent rendition of “I Have the Feeling I’ve Been Here Before” (music by Roger Kellaway), Calloway’s “On My Way to You” (music by Michel Legrand), Ali Stroker’s mash-up—something of a master stroke—of “Ask Yourself Why” (Legrand) and Stephen Sondheim’s “Everybody Says Don’t,” which each cover similar territory in different ways. Leading into the song, Stroker talks about Marilyn Bergman’s advocacy as a fighter for women’s rights, yoked to her own for those with disabilities (Stroker uses a wheelchair), which make her singing here even more memorable. Dixon charmed with “Nice and Easy” and used his striking voice (his Judas in the 2018 Jesus Christ Superstar for NBC earned him an Emmy nomination), with a stunning rendition of “Where Do You Start?” (music by Johnny Mandel). Daniels cut a striking figure leaning on the side of the proscenium arch serenading with “I Won’t Believe My Eyes” (also Mandel) and a fierce “Fifty Percent” (from Ballroom), that was a rouser and welcome contrast by having a younger woman sing this song, as opposed to more mature female singers who have claimed it as their own for a long time now.

Special mention should be made of the slide show that accompanies many of the songs, mostly consisting of personal photos from the Bergmans’ own collection (Kylee Loera and Greg Emetaz doing a great job with the projections). Also, the excellent accompanists Andy Erzin (keyboard), Eric Halvorson (drums), Michael O’Brien (bass), and especially Aaron Heick (reeds), who form the quintet led by Stritch.

This lovely show concludes tomorrow, Monday June 8th at 7:30 pm and, if you like to do things spontaneously at the last minute, pick up a ticket and go. The Bergmans really did know their way around a love song and this company is more than up to the challenge of seeing and hearing them shining in their best possible light. You won’t be disappointed.

“Every Kind of Light: The Love and Lyrics of Alan & Marilyn Bergman is being presented June 6th, 7th, and 8th at 92NY, 1395 Lexington Avenue. For future programing, please click here.

Photos by Richard Termine.