ATTIE, THE STAR
Paulette Attie, the star, the actress, the singer, the performer, the composer, the songwriter, the author, the poet, the writer, the Prima Donna starred in 1,000 shows, musicals, operas, plays, cabarets acts, concerts around the world. She won the Silver Globe Award playing a French nightclub singer on TV's The Yanks Are Coming. Other TV credits include the part of Marshal Dobbs in One Life to Live plus leading roles on General Hospital, Another World, All My Children, Sesame Street, Mercy or Murder etc. She has played the leading female roles in musicals and operettas: My Fair Lady, Gypsy, Can-Can, The Merry Widow, La Vie Parisienne and plays by Neil Simon, Tennessee Williams and Noel Coward. Of her over one thousand concerts, she has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, Bruno Walter Auditorium, Westbury Music Fair and concert halls in Japan and South America. She has performed on and off- Broadway. Her acclaimed one-woman show, "About Time" opened off-Broadway in 1997 ("Her voice has size and power and her comic timing is in great shape"...The New York Times. "Rush to see About Time, where Paulette Attie personifies grace and talent"... Aisle Say. "Astounding talent"...The Village Voice. Her official biography tells us that on her award winning weekly radio show, Paulette Attie's Musical Playbill (WNYC for 2 years), Paulette sang songs by America's best loved songwriters, often accompanied by the composers themselves. Her legendary list of guests includes Lee Adams, Harold Arlen, Jerry Bock, Cy Coleman, "Yip" Harburg, Sheldon Harnick, Burton Lane, Cy Coleman, John Green, Dorothy Fields, Jimmy Mc Hugh, Arthur Schwartz, Mary Rodgers, Harold Rome, Charles Strouse and Jule Styne. "The songwriter I most enjoyed talking with was Johnny Mercer," says Paulette. "If there ever was a person who could charm the birds out of the trees, it was Johnny." Paulette made two separate shows of her interview with Johnny Mercer and had the pleasure of seeing him on several occasions thereafter. She has sung in Washington D.C. for Presidents and Heads of State, including being chosen in 1998 to sing in Washington for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Statehood of Israel. In 1988, she became the first woman performer elected into the Friars Club. The Award winning singer/actress and poet just received the 2004 ASCAP Plus Songwriter Award. This makes it her fifth year in a row.
In addition, Paulette received a letter of congratulations from President Bush for her song "United Are We" and for donating her time to work with the children at PS 1, the school nearest Ground Zero that was still operating after after 9/11. She was invited to sing "United Are We" at PS 1 on March 6th, where fifty 7 and 8 year olds joined her. The performance was seen several times on NY1 TV. On September 11, 2002, the entire student body of 650 children at PS 1 sang "United Are We" with Paulette, honoring the one year anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. USA Today, the New York Post, Associated Press and Reuters interviewed Paulette and wrote articles about her song, "United Are We" and singing with the children. Paulette sang "United Are We" at the Annual Screen Actors Guild Party, on Martin Luther King Day with a group of children at an elementary school near Ground Zero, at churches and temples throughout the five boroughs, elementary and high schools, Senior Centers, the Donnell Library Children's Program, with Muslim school children, and at a Jesuit Retreat in Montreal. "Each audience has taken the song to its heart and made this song the highlight of my shows.", said Paulette Attie. To hear a sound clip of Paulette singing "United Are We" click here (RealPlayer file) Roy Sander in Back Stage said she's "a combination of Lily Pons and Carmen Miranda. I daresay millions would adore her." "The classiest singer around today" is how Marjorie Gunner described her in The New York Voice, and Howard Thompson at The New York Times described Paulette as "Beautiful, animated, plaintive, and intense."
ATTIE, THE EDUCATOR
In addition to major productions and plays she took part or starred in,
and between writing books and essays, Paulette Attie has devoted a great
deal of her time to children and education. She taught and lectured in
many institutions, schools and centers of learning and presented
interactive programs of poems and songs, to both educate and entertain.
She is highly admired for her original show/program of the poems, songs and music of Shel Silverstein, Langston Hughes, Douglas Florin, Marilyn Singer, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Rodgers and Hart, along with original poetry and poems by William Shakespeare, Robert Pinsky, and Nikki Giovanni.
Paulette Attie with Eric Michael Gillette and the fabulous Sue Matsuki.
ATTIE: THE LOVING AND CARING HUMAN BEING AND GUIDING LIGHT
To make a difference in the world is probably the most evolved example of success for her. Paulette told me :" I consciously try to apply this principle every day. Even the smallest gesture, like smiling at someone, or exhibiting compassion to another can make a difference. I recently received a letter of thanks from someone I'd helped some twenty-five years ago. I'd long since forgotten the deed, but she hadn't. This may be off the beat and track for your piece, but I just completed writing my first book, “The Seven Keys to Live a Masterful Life,” that I hope will make a difference in the lives of many people." She loves observing nature, and this "could be a walk in the park, or looking at beautiful flowers. It’s a great way of relaxing and even helps get me past worries and concerns because it takes me out of myself." Paulette told me.
INTERVIEW WITH PAULETTE ATTIE ON PAGE 22.
Continues on page
22.