Infinite Joy is a musical revue consisting of songs by Broadway composer William Finn. The songs are mostly material cut from Finn's earlier shows and material from works Finn was then working on. Several of the songs were included in the composer's song cycle Elegies.
The revue was performed on various dates from September 2000 and January 2000 at Joe's Pub, a nightclub within The Public Theater in New York City. Finn played the piano and sang several songs. Other performers included: Liz Callaway, Carolee Carmello, Lewis Cleale, Stephen DeRosa, Wanda Houston, Norm Lewis, Mary Testa, Farah Alvin, James Sasser, and Kristin Woodbury.
A live recording was made at the January 2001 performance and released on RCA Victor. William Ruhlmann, reviewing the recording for Allmusic wrote: "Finn's songs often have an "inside baseball" quality to them, revolving around the gay, Jewish world of musical theater. But they are often so witty, moving, and accomplished that they become universal despite themselves."
On March 29, 2004, another concert of Finn's songs was performed at the Merkin Concert Hall as part of The Kaufman Center's annual Broadway Close Up series, called More Infinite Joy: The Music of William Finn. Performers included Betty Buckley, Stephen DeRosa, Raúl Esparza, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Janet Metz. The songs were from Finn's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Elegies, Falsettos, and A New Brain.
A third installment, Even More Infinite Joy was presented by The Kaufman Center at Merkin Concert Hall on October 31, 2005, featuring Finn.
Read more about Infinite Joy: Songs
Famous quotes containing the words infinite and/or joy:
“Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship in the river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over a deepening channel into an infinite sea.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Suddenly he found he had pressed the spring of the grenade. He struggled to pull it out of his pocket. It stuck in the narrow pocket. His arm and his cold fingers that clutched the grenade seemed paralyzed. Then a warm joy went through him. He had thrown it.
Anderson was standing up, swaying backwards and forwards. The explosion made the woods quake.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)