Musicals in Mufti Series: Winter 2017

The three-show Musicals in Mufti series launches with Milk and Honey — book by Don Appel, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Marking the Broadway debut of Jerry Herman, this musical centers on the romance between two Americans in Israel — a lonely widow on tour and an unhappily married man visiting his daughter. Set against the backdrop of Israel’s struggle for recognition as an independent nation, the show is a tale of love, optimism, and second chances.

It is followed by Berlin to Broadway With Kurt Weill: A Musical Voyage — music by Kurt Weill, text and format by Gene Lerner, lyrics by Maxwell Anderson, Marc Blitzstein, Bertolt Brecht, Michael Feingold, Ira Gershwin, Paul Green, Langston Hughes, Alan Jay Lerner, Ogden Nash, and others. The musical is a joyous and moving celebration of Kurt Weill, a cantor’s son and one of the most extraordinary composers of the 20th century. Weill’s greatest theater songs are presented in a fluid blend of music and story, spanning 20 eventful years — from Von Hindenburg and Hitler in Germany to Roosevelt and Truman in the U.S.

The Winter 2017 series concludes with Dear World — book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, new version by David Thompson (based on an adaptation by Maurice Valency of the play The Madwoman of Chaillot by Jean Giraudoux), music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. When a group of businessmen scheme to drill for oil in Paris, there is only one force in the world that can stop them: Countess Aurelia, the Madwoman of Chaillot. With the help of idealism, love, and poetry — not to mention two other madwomen, a local sewerman, and a pair of young lovers — the Countess fights to save Paris and the world from greed. This production stars Emmy and Tony Award winner Tyne Daly.

Happening in conjunction with the Musicals in Mufti series is Hello, Jerry!, a multimedia presentation by Charles Troy, a musical theater historian, graphic designer, and former lyricist.