Kay Swift 
Composer/singer Evelyn Swensson has played the part of quite a few great ladies. Composer Kay Swift, who in 1930 was the first woman composer to have a show on Broadway, was the cousin of Frances Dorr Swift Tatnall who founded theTatnall School. Kay Swift worked with Ira and George Gershwin when they wrote “Porgy and Bess.” Best known in musical theater circles for her long-term romance with George Gershwin, Kay Swift's own musical talent was considerable. She later was resident composer for Radio City Music Hall and then composer for both the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. Swensson has written and will perform a musical story about this remarkable lady.
Kay Swift was the first woman to write the score to a hit Broadway musical, the 1930 show Fine and Dandy. Her three most enduring songs are "Fine and Dandy" and "Can This Be Love?" (both from that show), and "Can't We Be Friends?", which was first sung by Libby Holman to Clifton Webb in the 1929 Little Show on Broadway. "Can't We Be Friends?" captured the mood of the period so perfectly that it is immortalized by a reference in the 1931 F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, "A New Leaf."
The performance will be held Wednesday, April 4 at 5:30 pm at Opera Studios, 4 South Poplar Street, Wilmington, DE. Tickets are $10 at the door.