A portfolio of theatre songs by Jones and his longtime collaborator Harvey Schmidt, The Show Goes On, which continues through March 18, is directed by Pamela Hunt. The cast comprises Tom Jones (The Fantasticks), Graham Rowat (Guys and Dolls, LoveMusik, The Blue Flower), Stephanie Umoh (Ragtime, York's Falling for Eve) and Susan Watson (Follies).
Audiences can expect to hear tunes from The Fantasticks, 110 in the Shade, I Do! I Do!, Celebration, and many more.
The series will also feature Roadside (March 30-April 1), Harold and Maude (April 13-15), Colette Collage (April 27-29) and The Game of Love (May 11-13); performances play The York Theatre at Saint Peter's on 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue. Casting for the remaining productions will be announced shortly.
York's Musicals in Mufti series presents musical theatre gems in staged concert performances. Mufti means "in street clothes," without the trappings associated with the original productions. Each show is presented Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2:30 PM and 8 PM and Sunday at 2:30 PM and 7:30 PM. Talkbacks follow all matinee performances.
Tickets are priced $39.50 and are available online at www.yorktheatre.org, by calling (212) 935-5820, or in person at the box office at the York Theatre at Saint Peter’s (enter on 54th Street, just east of Lexington).
A special five-show package is available at $150 and includes an invitation to Story by Story: A Conversation with Tom Jones, which will be presented April 24 (normally $24.50).
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Festival details, according to the York, follow:
Roadside
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones
Music by Harvey Schmidt
Directed by David Glenn Armstrong
March 30- April
Roadside is a melodic, rip-roaring musical based on a play by Lynn Riggs, whose Green Grow the Lilacs became Oklahoma! Roadside is a Southwestern love story of mythic proportions about two kissin’, punchin’, cussin’, larger-than-life characters who refuse to settle down and be “house-broke” by the arrival of fences and laws. Premiered at the York in 2001.
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Story by Story: A Conversation with Tom Jones
Wednesday, April
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Harold and Maude
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones
Music by Joseph Thalken (Songs from an Unmade Bed)
Based on the screenplay by Colin Higgins
Directed by Carl Andress (The Divine Sister)
April 13-
The musical adaptation of the 1971 cult-classic film Harold and Maude comes to life on the York stage in a new version by Jones and Thalken. In what some call the quintessential May-December romance, death-obsessed teenager, Harold, meets Maude, 79, at a funeral and thus begins one of the most unusual, yet truly touching romantic sagas in American pop-culture history.
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Colette Collage
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones
Music by Harvey Schmidt
Directed by Michael Montel
April 27-29
The joys, fears and loves of the celebrated French writer Colette are at the center of the poignant and insightful Colette Collage. Sensual, witty and entirely unconventional, this intimate, highly theatrical musical captures the essence of one of the most liberated women of all time. The life of the legendary author unfolds over a period of sixty years in this classic bio-musical from Jones and Schmidt, which premiered Off-Broadway at the York in 1983.
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The Game of Love
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones
Music by Jacques Offenbach
With Arrangements and Additional Music by Nancy Ford
Based on The Anatol Plays by Arthur Schnitzler
Directed by West Hyler
Music Direction by Nancy Ford
May 11-13
With book and lyrics by Tom Jones, music by classical composer Jacques Offenbach, and arrangements and additional music by Nancy Ford (I’m Getting My Act Together…), The Game of Love is based The Anatol Plays by Arthur Schnitzler. This deliciously romantic musical about the frivolities and foibles of love takes place in 19th-century Vienna. At the center of the piece is Anatol, a playful Lothario, whose rendezvous with five unique women unfold over the course of this sensuous, melodic romp.
