God Save the City
I was asked to create this video at the beginning of the Covid - 19 Pandemic in early April of 2020. I had known Marc Shaiman from the Early 80's and Club 57. Robert I Rubinsky I knew as a wonderful New Yorl based performer and original cast member of "HAIR!". The project was ceated to raise money for the frontline medical workers of New York at a time when there was true desperation regarding supplies to protect these courageoous nurses, doctors, EMTs and patients!
God Save The City"
from the musical "DEMENTOS"
Lyrics by Robert I Rubinsky
Music by Marc Shaiman
Lead Vocal by Jenifer Lewis
Video by Eric Marciano
In the late 1970’s, Robert I. Rubinsky (conceiver/lyricist) and Marc Shaiman (composer) wrote a musical called “DEMENTOS", that looked compassionately at the NYC street scene, the homeless, the marginalized. The finale was a song called “God Save The City”.
Video designer Eric Marciano has created this moving video accompanying Jenifer Lewis’ striking vocal, with background vocals by Capathia Jenkins, Shayna Steele, Jason Paige and Billy Porter, from a live recording of an AIDS benefit in NYC in 1995.
And now, it's a message of gratitude to those on the front lines of the Covid -19 pandemic, the tireless workers around the world doing their best to help us through.
GOD SAVE THE CITY
THE PEOPLE ARE HURTING TOO BAD
GOD SAVE THE CITY
TONIGHT THE CITY FEELS SAD
CITY OF HOPE, CITY OF FEARS, CITY OF PLANS
CITY OF YEARS OF WAITING, WAITING, WAITING
GOD SAVE THE CITY
DON'T FORGET THE RICH OR THE POOR
GOD SAVE THE CITY
THE CALL GIRL, THE HUSTLER AND THE WHORE
CITY OF PLANS, CITY OF DREAMS, CITY OF HOPE
A CITY OF YEARS OF WAITING
I'M TIRED OF WAITING!
GOD!
GOD, DON'T FORGET ANYONE
FILL THE CITY WITH SUN
GOD SAVE THE CITY
SHINE YOUR LIGHT FROM ABOVE
GOD SAVE THE CITY
FILL THE CITY WITH YOUR LOVE
CITY OF PLANS, CITY OF SCHEMES, CITY OF HOPE
CITY OF DREAMS WE NEED TO SEE TOMORROW
DREAMS WE NEED TO SEE THROUGH TODAY
TODAY!
GOD, OH GOD
GOD SAVE THE CITY
If this presentation moves you to, please donate to
The Actor’s Fund
actorsfund.org/support-our-work
or
Broadway Cares
broadwaycares.org/donation-options-page
or
any of these Medical Support Institutions at this link:
cnn.com/interactive/2020/health/coronavirus-how-to-help/#medical-efforts
Special thanks to the friends who helped us put this music together: Scott M. Riesett, Samuel Hoad, Julia Walker, Shayna Steele and Dave Cook.
Special thanks to the friends who gave us their images and help for this special video: Meredith Jacobson Marciano, Fred Hatt, Peter Nolan Smith, Jack Ramey, Nancy Rodgers, Viv Mainwaring, Robert Morrison and ZacK Zeng!
Additional thanks to the journalists, news photographers and videographers, news agencies, networks and production companies whose work is in this piece: CNN, Reuters, Sky News, The New Yorker and Condé Nast, Business Insider and JT Magen.
