The cast features Ryan Alexander, who starred in the York's 2001 production of Roadside, as well as Erick Devine (Seussical), Janine DiVita (Odyssey, The Musical), Jamie LaVerdiere (The Producers), Daniel C. Levine (Les Miserables), Ed Watts (The Fantasticks) and Nick Wyman (The Phantom of the Opera).
David Glenn Armstrong directs the Jones-Harvey Schmidt musical. It plays to April 1.
It is billed as "a melodic, rip-roaring musical based on a play by Lynn Riggs... 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."
The Tom Jones Festival will continue with Harold and Maude, which will feature original cast members Donna Lynne Champlin (Billy Elliot) and Donna English (Lend Me a Tenor), who will be joined by Matt Dengler (A Little Night Music) as Harold, Cass Morgan (Memphis) as Maude and Steve Routman (Le Bete). Carl Andress (The Divine Sister, Judith of Bethulia) will direct Harold and Maude, which runs April 13-15. It has book and lyrics by Jones and a score by Joe Thalken. According to the York, "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."
Musicals in Mufti: The Tom Jones Festival launched March 16 with The Show Goes On, a portfolio of theatre songs by Jones and Schmidt. Also planned are Colette Collage (April 27-29) and The Game of Love (May 11-13). Read Playbill.com's recent scoop about the new musical being penned by 84-year-old lyricist-librettist Jones.
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).
