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"Hometown Diva Thrives on Busy ScheduleFrom Boardman to Broadway, Maureen McGovern shows no signs of slowing down.By Dan O'BrienAsk singer Maureen McGovern what genre she prefers -- Broadway? Off-Broadway? Jazz? Blues? American standards? Drama? Comedy? -- and you get an immediate answer."I'm very happy doing it all," she responds. Today, she's doing just that. In a career in show business that's spanned more than 30 years, McGovern has earned international acclaim as a vocalist and performer. Yet, she says, the latest chapter of her life may well be the most rewarding, professionally and personally."A lot of people I know can't wait to retire, McGovern says, shaking her head. "That's a word I don't understand."McGovern, born and reared in the Mahoning Valley, found time in her busy schedule Dec. 13, shortly before an evening concert at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, to talk to The Business Journal about her career in song and theater, her influences and her continuing devotion to charitable causes."I'm on the road anywhere from 80% to 90% of the year," McGovern relates. She is performing in her fourth Broadway show as Marmee in Little Women: The Musical. Previews have started and opening night is scheduled for Jan. 23. Still, the preview schedule is taxing -- eight shows a week plus rehearsals. "We'll rehearse all day and do a show at night," she says. "We're working constantly and they're making changes constantly."McGovern chose to squeeze in last month's performance at Stambaugh into her only night off. "Tomorrow, I'll go back to New York," she said, "do a costume fitting, rehearse and start performing." With a laugh, she adds, "I'll try to get some sleep in January." Meantime, there are more concerts, charitable events, studio sessions and other projects slated this year. "I love the discipline of musical theater," McGovern offers. "And I love jazz because it's so free and wonderful." She pauses a moment. "I also find performing with a symphony orchestra exhilarating."McGovern first found her voice as a 5-year-old as she grew up on Lucius Avenue on Youngstown's south side. "I used to sing with my father's barbershop quartet," she recalls. The family moved to Boardman, and although her attempt to learn piano flopped, she taught herself guitar and became swept up in the folk music of the 1960s. Singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell greatly influenced her, she says. There were other influences as well. "Dusty Springfield, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald, Streisand, Judy Garland, the Andrews Sisters -- there were a whole range of performers," she says.Her managers advised that the route to success lay in the pop/rock mainstream. "The first manager I had put a rock band behind me and sent me on the lounge circuit," McGovern says. "I played every Holiday Inn, Ramada Inn -- you name it."But in 1973, McGovern, then working full-time as a secretary, burst onto the nation's consciousness with the pop hit "The Morning After." No one-hit wonder, she has demonstrated her versatility by mastering several genres: jazz and blues classics, show tunes, swing standards, children's songs. All are part of the diva's repertoire.Moreover, the singer says, she feels completely in control of her career, something not always the case."The Morning After" was an international smash -- earning McGovern her first Grammy nomination (as best new artist) -- but she had no say on how her songs were produced. "I was grateful for 'The Morning After,' " she says, "but others picked the keys for me, arranged it and everything. I had no control." The song, used as the theme for the disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure, held Billboard's No. 1 spot two weeks.That was followed the next year with another successful single, "We May Never Love Like This Again," which became the theme of another disaster flick, "The Towering Inferno." A third song, 1979's "Can You Read My Mind?" in the film Superman proved to be the last straw for McGovern. "The single was a success, but the album was totally controlled by the producer and it failed," she says, resigned to the situation. It was at that moment McGovern issued an artistic declaration of independence to herself, vowing to never record another album unless it was on her terms. "It was a hard lesson to learn," she adds.The turning point came during the early 1980s, when McGovern met jazz pianist Mike Renzi while performing on Broadway in The Pirates of Penzance. In addition to the eight-show-a-week Broadway schedule, McGovern and Renzi teamed on a midnight cabaret show, a freewheeling, liberating experience that allowed McGovern to explore a wide range of musical genres. "It was a terribly exciting time for me because everything was a stretch -- a learning experience," she says.Her partnership with Renzi eventually resulted in the 1986 album "Another Woman In Love," which McGovern dubs "Maureen McGovern's first album" because it was the first to show her versatility and taste. "I took my own money and we recorded 13 songs with no other reason than that I wanted to have a record that I was really proud of," she says."Another Woman In Love" comprised 13 American standards that dated to the 1920s, Renzi playing solo piano accompanied only by McGovern's voice. Other critically acclaimed recordings followed, including "Naughty Baby," a collection of George Gershwin songs that The New York Times lauds as the "quintessential Gershwin CD."Twelve years later, McGovern and Renzi once again teamed up for another piano/voice album, "The Pleasure of His Company.""They [the record company] didn't think a piano/voice album would sell," the Mahoning Valley native says, "so they humored me by letting me do it. I produced it myself with Mike, with no other reason except to do the songs that we love." The album netted McGovern her second Grammy nomination in 1999.Last year, McGovern re-released two CDs, "The Music Never Ends, The Lyrics of Alan & Marilyn Bergman" and "Out Of This World: Maureen McGovern Sings Arlen," the latter a tribute to Harold Arlen. Arlen composed such great songs as "Stormy Weather" and "Over the Rainbow."In selecting her material, McGovern says a song must have a "timeless melody and a timeless lyric. I want my audience to know that when they come to see me they'll be taken through a range of emotions, a range of musical tastes." Her Stambaugh performance was devoted mostly to swing music. "I love the Big Band era and the songs of World War II. There was an inherent longing in all those songs," she muses.Aside from performances and her Broadway schedule, McGovern says she is planning to return soon to the studio, this time to record works of jazz great John Coltrane with the celebrated reed player Tom Scott. "I'll also probably do a [Stephen] Sondheim album," she adds.Theater has also been a magnet for McGovern, who recently appeared in both dramatic and musical roles on stages across the country. One of her most memorable, she relates, is originating the role of Eleanor Bridges in Letters From 'Nam at the North Shore Theater in Boston. "My generation was very contemptuous of the war in Vietnam," she remembers. "But these men who fought came home to a country that completely dismissed them."It was during the Boston run that 9/11 occurred and from that point, the show took on a whole new meaning. "People still came, but it was quiet all week through the show and we always acknowledged all veterans in the audience," McGovern says.Other performances include Polly Peachum, opposite Sting, in the Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera and her dramatic debut recently as Eleanor of Aquataine in The Lion of Winter.A children's musical The Bengal Tiger's Ball, had its East Coast premiere in 1999. McGovern wrote the music, co-created and starred in the production. "I love writing kids' stuff. I want to be the antidote to 'Barney,' " she laughs.McGovern is driven by a restless conviction, she says that music has the power to unleash the deepest emotions in even the most guarded of people. To her, music is more than a listening experience, it is a form of therapeutic artistry that can help heal.Enhancing the role of music in healing is just one of McGovern's passions as she pursues even more dimensions in an already successful career. As a result, McGovern started the McGovern Works of Heart Foundation for Music and Healing, an organization devoted to furthering the cause of music therapy for people and children stricken by illness. Several years ago, McGovern read a book by Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, The Sounds of Healing, which used the scientific method to document people's physical reactions to music. The book inspired her to become more involved in this cause.In 2003, McGovern released "Works of Heart," a CD filled with inspirational and uplifting songs designed to counteract some of the distressing music she says pervades the airwaves today. McGovern's artist royalties are donated to support the American Music Therapy Association."I've done many things, all trying to further me and my dream," McGovern says. Yet all the accolades -- from performing at Carnegie Hall to receiving an honorary doctorate at Youngstown State University last month -- somehow pale when compared to the responses she receives from children or their parents.She recalls a children's benefit in Pittsburgh early in her career: "The kids were really sick and they wheeled them in. I played the piano and guitar and sang children's songs and did 'The Morning After' a cappella." After the performance, each of the parents approached her, hugged her and sobbed uncontrollably, all the time thanking her. "I'll never forget that. It was one of the experiences of my life that showed me music has a much greater power than we're aware of."ONLY ONLINE: Perseverance is the best way to achieve success, according to Oscar winner and two-time Grammy award nominee Maureen McGovern. Go to www.business-journal.com/YSUMakeOwnDecisions.asp"