The season of vintage musical theatre will celebrate the works of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Harold Rome and Oscar Hammerstein.
Blackhurst stars as Ambassador Sally Adams in Berlin's Call Me Madam, which opens the season Sept. 23 and plays to Oct. 18. "Washington's most unconventional party-giver is sent to represent the U.S. in tiny duchy of Lichtenburg, where her down-to-earth and unorthodox manner surprises and charms the local citizenry — especially the handsome Prime Minister," according to press notes. Dyan McBride directs the production that will also feature Rob Hatzenbeller and Giana DeGeiso.
Following will be Harold Rome's Destry Rides Again, starring Steve Rhyne and Connie Champagne and running Oct. 28-Nov. 15. The musical, according to 42nd Street Moon, is "set in the Wild West town of Bottleneck [and] filled with characters all intent on maintaining their wild ways. The new sheriff, Tom Destry, intends to keep the peace without using a gun. Frenchy, the dance hall girl at the Last Chance Saloon, is sent to compromise his morals and lead him astray."
Megan Cavanagh and Michael Patrick Gaffney will star in Cole Porter and Moss Hart's Jubilee, which is set to run Nov. 25-Dec. 13. "The Royal Family of a 'fictional European country' (read: England) use the threat posed by an impending revolution as an excuse to abandon the throne and pursue their private dreams." Greg MacKellan directs a cast that also features Andrew Willis-Woodward, Juliet Heller Alison Ewing, Zack Thomas Wilde, Dyan McBride and C.J. Blankenship.
Dyan McBride will stage Ira Gershwin's Lady, Be Good!, running March 21-April 25, 2010. The musical centers on "a brother-and-sister vaudeville team, who, through a series of madcap adventures find themselves rocketing from the state of the dispossessed to wealth and popularity among the Long Island haut monde." Greg MacKellan will direct Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's Very Warm for May, which concludes the season May 6-24, 2010. "A giddy romp, Oscar Hammerstein II's script takes the old 'barn musical' plot and turns it on its head. This time, the show in the barn is an avant-garde musical being rehearsed by a bohemian bunch led by an eccentric director. Equally strange is Winnie Spofford, the amiably screwball Long Island matron who sponsors the troupe on her estate."
Salon evenings will celebrate the work of Dorothy Fields on Oct. 13 and Ira Gershwin on Jan. 28, 2010.
42nd Street Moon productions play the Eureka Theatre, located at 215 Jackson Street in San Francisco, CA. For tickets call (415) 255-8207 or visit www.42ndstmoon.org.
