Borrowing a title from Shire's Oscar-winning song from the film "Norma Rae," It Goes Like It Goes, The Music of David Shire, will play Nov. 16-20 at the UB Center for the Arts in Buffalo, NY, Shire's home town.
Director-choreographer Terry Berliner (The Lion King, The Sound of Music, The Red Shoes, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife) has been in residence with the UB Department of Theatre and Dance in recent weeks, working on the piece with an undergraduate cast and associate professor of music theatre Nathan R. Matthews, who is the show's conceiver, music director and orchestrator.
It Goes Like It Goes includes songs from Shire's films and his stage shows with lyricist Richard Maltby Jr. (Big; Baby; Take Flight; Starting Here, Starting Now; and Closer Than Ever).
The show will boast a cast of 18 undergraduate music theatre and dance students and an orchestra. The sets, lights and costumes are newly designed and executed for the show. Shire and his wife, actress Didi Conn, will attend the opening-night dinner, gala performance and reception.
The Buffalo cast includes Michael Barattini, Sarah Blewett, Cristiana Cavallo, Alana Graber, Taylor Gray, Tyler Hardwick, Melissa Hunt, Stephanie Klajbor, Ricky Marchese, Maria Pedro, Gabrielle Petrosino, Zach Rich, Angela Siler, Shawn Smith, Zach Snyder, Rich Steele, Gina Tarrou and Kara Tripoli. The design team includes Courtney Ricigliano (properties designer), Ross Juzdowski (scenic), Andy Fenster (lighting), Matthew Powell (sound) and Olivia Crosby (costumes).
Shire is a two-time Grammy Award winner and a multiple Tony and Emmy Award nominee. He composed scores and songs for the films "All the President's Men," "Farewell My Lovely," "Max Dugan Returns," "Return to Oz" and "Saturday Night Fever." He received Tony Award nominations for Best Score for Baby and Big. He also composed the music for the Off-Broadway musical revues Starting Here, Starting Now (Barbra Streisand recorded the title song) and Closer Than Ever ("Miss Byrd," "If I Sing" and "Life Story" are popular standouts from the show, as is "Patterns," which was cut from Baby). His musical with Maltby, Take Flight, received productions in Princeton, NJ, London and Tokyo. My History of Marriage, his musical with several lyricists, was seen in the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival. (Visit www.davidshiremusic.com.)
It Goes Like It Goes will play Nov. 16-19 at 7:30 PM and Nov. 19-20 at 2 PM. Center for the Arts is located on the University at Buffalo North Campus. Visit ubcfa.org.
For tickets, call Ticketmaster (800) 982-2787 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.
Kenneth Jones is managing editor of Playbill.com. Follow him on Twitter @PlaybillKenneth.
