THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF SONG Begins Tonight at St. Luke's

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF SONG: The Music of Harold Arlen, a musical revue featuring Stormy Weather, Come Rain or Come Shine, Paper Moon, Accentuate-The-Positive, Lets Fall in Love, and all the much-loved tunes from THE WIZARD OF OZ, begins previews at St. Luke's Theatre, 308 West 46^th Street, NYC tonight, December 13 and opens officially on Thursday, January 10 at 8 PM.

The Wonderful Wizard of Song moves from The Cotton Club, thru Harold Arlen's Hollywood Years to Broadway, sharing inside stories of how some of the world's most beloved songs were created as well as sharing rare behind the scenes footage from The Wizard of Oz taken by Harold Arlen himself.  Featuring The Three Crooners, George Bugatti, Marcus Goldhaber and Joe Shepherd, with Antoinette Henry, the Arlen revue makes its New York debut after a national tour to 18 cities and a month-long run at the Debbie Reynolds Theatre in Las Vegas.

Produced by Yellow Brick Productions in association with Shea Arender,  Steven Colucci and Jerry Rosenberg, THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF SONG has direction & musical staging by Broadway veteran Gene Castle.  The original concept is by Nigel Wright, Sam Arlen and George Bugatti with special thanks to Harold Arlen's son Sam Arlen for all archival and historical content. 

The Three Crooners are headed by creator George Bugatti who is an American singer, pianist and songwriter with three CD's in wide release.  His latest CD, "A Night for Romance", was produced by Nigel Wright (Executive Music Producer of American Idol and Warner Bros' Phantom of the Opera) and is distributed by Universal/Verese Sarabande.  In 1998, Steve Wynn invited Bugatti, Michael Feinstein and John Pizzerelli to open Wynn's Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas where he recorded "Bugatti Live on the Strip" produced by Paul Anka Productions. His first CD, "Oh, What a Night for Love", was produced by The Tonight Show's Steve Allen who discovered George at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.  Bugatti headlined with his big band at The Sands, Atlantic City and made his NYC Debut at Carnegie Hall in 2003 playing piano and singing.  His current CD, "A Night for Romance", features "Two Shots of Happy" (originally written for Frank Sinatra) by U2 front-man Bono and given to George when Sinatra passed away. "The Wonderful Wizard of Song" is a labor of love for Bugatti who has written, directed and performed in the various versions of the show all over the country. Recently, Bugatti starred with The Rochester Symphony in "Over The Rainbow" produced by Todd Gershwin and Dan Chilewich.  George is also co-founder, along with Sam Arlen, of The Harold Arlen Foundation/American Songbook Foundation.