Why Lee?: A Musical Scrapbook about Lee Wiley

Award-winning performers Lois Walden, Barry Kleinbort, and Paul Greenwood will tell the largely untold story of acclaimed and notoriously enigmatic American singer Lee Wiley while celebrating her enduring musical legacy in Why Lee?: A Musical Scrapbook About Lee Wiley. This musical tribute features songs from Wiley’s repertoire, anecdotes and dramatic scenarios about her life – both onstage and off – and personal reminiscences from Walden, Kleinbort, and Greenwood.

A favorite singer of George Gershwin, Cole Porter and other legendary American composers, Lee Wiley’s sophisticated singing style influenced the most iconic recording artists of the 20th century – from Peggy Lee to Barbra Streisand. She performed with the hottest jazz musicians of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, including Bunny Berigan, Eddie Condon, and Fats Waller, and pioneered the concept of the “songbook” album in the late 1930’s with albums devoted to the music of the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and Harold Arlen. With her remarkable talent and astounding beauty, Lee Wiley seemed destined for stardom — yet she virtually disappeared in the 1950’s at the height of her popularity.

Why Lee? showcases many of Wiley’s best-known and best-loved hits, including the Gershwins’ “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” Harold Arlen’s “Down With Love,” Johnny Mercer’s “Moon River,” as well as her signature songs — Victor Young’s “A Woman’s Intuition” and “Street of Dreams,” and the Victor Young/Bing Crosby/Ned Washington favorite “A Ghost of a Chance.” This enchanting musical journey also features a medley of songs from Wiley’s songbook albums.