The series will feature The Show Goes On (March 16-18), 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 will play The York Theatre at Saint Peter’s on 54th St., just east of Lexington Avenue.
Casting 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.
“We are thrilled and excited to showcase the works of our dear friend, Tom Jones, who has given us so many significant musical theater gems,” stated York Theatre’s James Morgan. “This year we thought we would once again present a series honoring a single writer, but present more shows than we ever have before because Tom’s body of work is so rich. It’s a celebration I think everyone will enjoy. It’s also noteworthy that three of these shows had their premieres at York.”
Each show will be presented Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2:30 PM and 8 PM and Sunday at 2:30 PM and 7:30 PM. Talkbacks will 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:
The Show Goes On: A Portfolio of Theater Songs by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt
Directed by Pamela Hunt; Music Direction by Michael Rice
Featuring Tom Jones and Susan Watson; March 16-18
The Show Goes On is a portfolio of theatre songs from Tom Jones and longtime collaborator Harvey Schmidt, featuring music from timeless classics such as The Fantasticks, 110 in the Shade, I Do! I Do!, Celebration, and many more. In a rare treat, Tom Jones himself will guide us through the onstage revels, along with Broadway’s Susan Watson, fresh from the hit revival of Follies.
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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 4
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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 13-15
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.