Theater News

York Theatre Sets Fall Musicals in Mufti Season

Joseph Stein
Joseph Stein

The York Theatre Company will present three shows written by Joseph Stein, Take Me Along, Carmelina, and Plain and Fancy, at this fall’s Musicals in Mufti series of staged concert presentations. No casting has been announced for these projects.

Take Me Along, to be directed by Michael Montel, will run October 13-15. The show is a musical adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s family comedy Ah, Wilderness!, with a book by Stein and Robert Russell and a score by Bob Merrill. The 1959 Broadway production ran for nearly 450 performances and earned 10 Tony Award nominations, with star Jackie Gleason taking home the only trophy. A 1985 Broadway revival, featuring Tammy Grimes and Beth Fowler, closed on opening night, although actor Kurt Knudson received a Tony nomination.

The following weekend, October 18-20, will be Carmelina, to be directed by Michael Leeds. The show has a book by Stein and Alan Jay Lerner, based on the film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, and a score by Lerner and Burton Lane, with additional lyrics by Barry Harman. It tells the story of a woman who lives in a small Italian town and the men who may or may not be the father of her 17-year-old daughter. The show had a very short-lived Broadway run in 1979, starring Georgia Brown and Cesarie Siepi. The York did a previous Mufti production of the show in 1996 starring Debbie Gravitte.

The final show of the season will be Plain and Fancy, October 27-29. It features a book by Stein and Will Glickman, and a score by Albert Hague and Arnold B. Hewitt.
The story focuses on a pair of sophisticated New Yorkers who end up in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. The show’s 1955 Broadway production, which starred Barbara Cook, ran for over 460 performances.

Prior to mounting the Mufti series, the York will present Chris and Adelmo, starring opera singers Chris Cain and Adelmo Guidarelli, August 24-27, followed by the new musical Asylum: The Strange Case of Mary Lincoln, September 5-October 1.

For more information, call 212-935-5820 or visit www.yorktheatre.org.