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Oak Park To
Broadway
Composer-lyricist Andrew Lippa charms
Oak Park Public Schools retirees.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Special to the Jewish News
It was a night to remember,
Everyone was there.
It was a night to remember,
Despite the loss of hair.
usician and lyricist Andrew
Lippa, Oak Park High
School Class of 1983,
wrote "A Night to Remember" two
years ago in honor of his high
school reunion. On Aug. 15, he pre-
sented the song once again at a
luncheon for more than 200 retired
Oak Park School District employees
and friends. And the words still
caused a chuckle of recognition.
The occasion was the 11th annual
,
Oak Park Alumni Association
reunion held at Glen Oaks Country
Club in Farmington Hills. Accord-
ing to Howard Stone, OPAA
founder and president, members of
the organization have logged more
than 6,200 years of working for the
Oak Park School District, an average
of 23.5 years per person.
Andrew Lippa performs for the crowd.
The crowd included three former
district superintendents - Clifford
May, Al Shrosbree and Alexander
Bailey - along with nine newly
retired employees.
"This reunion was an idea I had,
and I just ran with it," said Stone,
who retired in 1993 as the district's
director of athletics and physical
education. "It started at Beau Jack's
in Bloomfield Township, then, for
eight years, we went to Big Daddy's
on Orchard Lake Road. I never
knew it would get so large."
Remembering Oak Park
Lippa, an award-winning lyricist,
composer, producer, singer and
pianist, was one of three Oak Park
alumni slated to receive outstanding
alumni of theyear awards at the
retirees luncheon.
"This year, we chose three gradu-
ates who'd been successful in enter-
tainment and media,". Stone said.
Along with Lippa, honorees were-Lai
Ling Jew, class of 1984, and Jeffrey
Andrew Lippa and Lai Ling Jew with Howard Stone, ounder.and president of the
Oak Park Alumni Association
Seller, class of 1982.
A producer at Dateline NBC since
1996, Jew was the only woman pro-
. ducer embedded in the initial phase
of the war in Iraq. She has won an
Emmy Award for best news maga-
zine report, Clarion Award for best
investigative report and two Emmy
nominations for breaking news.
Seller, producer of the Broadway
blockbusters Rent and Avenue Q, was
stranded in New York City by a
rainstorm and has promised to
attend next year's reunion.
Before Lippa sat down at the
piano, he recalled some of the high-
lights — along with some less-flat-
tering moments — of his school
career.
Among his many accomplish-
ments, the Oak Park native wrote
the book, music and lyrics for the
2000 musical The Wild Party, which
won the Outer Circle Critics Award
for best off-Broadway musical and
earned him the 2000 Drama Desk
Award for best music. He also wrote
three new songs for the Tony Award-
winning Broadway revival of You're a
Good Man, Charlie Brown, and is
working on a musical biography of
cartoon character Betty Boop.
Despite his current success, some
memories of elementary school still
haunt him.
"I don't know what Miss Schultz
[now Mrs. Janet Thurston ], my ele-
mentary school music teacher, saw
in me," Lippa said. "I was just this
fat kid who liked to sing."
He failed to win the Alice B.
Deucey Award for all-around fifth-
grader. Instead, it went to Cynthia
Fink, and the loss bothers him to •
this day.
Another embarrassing recollection
involves his British-born mother try-
ing to run down Pepper Elementary
Principal Arnold Solomon with her
car. "We'd just moved to Oak Park,
and she saw this strange man walk-
ing down the street with her son,"
Lippa explained.
At Frost Middle School, music
teacher Gayle Finder (now Gayle
Palme) boosted his ego by selecting
him for the seventh-grade Men's
Chorus.
"It was delightful, at that age, to
be called a man," said Lippa, who
celebrated his bar mitzvah in 1978
at Congregation B'nai Moshe.
Among the many teachers he
remembered with affection was
Mary Alice Powell, concert choir
director, who died earlier this year.
"Miss Powell was like Zeus to
me," Lippa said. "She held the keys
to a kingdom I was proud to walk
through."
Larry Wolf, concert choir director
at the high school, chose Lippa as
assistant conductor. He also intro-
duced the teen to the world of
opera.
"As a teacher, you never know
what you are going to do or say that
will be impactful," Lippa said.
"Opera bored a huge hole in my
head that I am still trying to fill." ❑
SS
9/ 1
2005
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