42nd St. Moon's 2012-13 Season to Include OF THEE I SING, PAL JOEY, CARNIVAL

Greg MacKellan and Stephanie Rhoads, artistic and producing directors of 42nd Street Moon, today announced details for the company's 20th Anniversary Season of musical theater: Moon Goes Platinum! It will be celebrated with five diverse comedies – all first-time productions for the organization, including a political comedy, romantic comedy, singing satire, a comedy-drama and a no-holds-barred farce.

The five musicals for the 2012-13 Season are OF THEE I SING, CARMELINA, PAL JOEY, CARNIVAL and LITTLE ME. 42nd Street Moon also continues with its special series of Salon Evenings at the Alcazar Theatre, this time with a special January salute to composer/lyricist Frank Loesser: Baby, It's Cold Outside!

"The twentieth is the modern platinum anniversary, but we're going with five solid-gold comedies to celebrate," MacKellan said. "We've revisited a few of our past shows in the last three or four years, so to make our 20th anniversary extra-special, Stephanie and I chose musicals that are all first-time productions for Moon."

"We're particularly excited to have such an outstanding group of playwrights and songwriters represented – George and Ira Gershwin, George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Alan Jay Lerner, Burton Lane, Joseph Stein, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, John O'Hara, Frank Loesser, Bob Merrill, Michael Stewart, Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh. The shows we're doing this year feature some of their finest work. We have two genuine classics in Of Thee I Sing and Pal Joey, two rarely seen gems in Carnival! and Little Me, and a real surprise with the West Coast Premiere of Lerner, Lane and Stein's Carmelina. Additionally, we have the brilliant comic actor Jason Graae as our guest star for our closing show of the season, Little Me."

OF THEE I SING (1931)
The season opens with George and Ira Gershwin's OF THEE I SING. With the book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, this was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Presidency, and the democratic process itself are all targets in this timeless farce. John P. Wintergreen's party runs on a "love platform," promising that he will marry the partner chosen for him at an Atlantic City beauty pageant. Instead, he falls for a White House secretary and the trouble begins. The Gershwin score includes Who Cares?, Love is Sweeping the Country, Of Thee I Sing, Baby, Trumpeter Blow Your Golden Horn. Greg MacKellan directs, with Dave Dobrusky musical directing.
Dates: Previews Oct. 3 – 5, Opening Oct. 6 through Oct. 21

CARMELINA (1979)
The season continues with the West Coast Premiere of CARMELINA, with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Burton Lane, and the book by Lerner and Joseph Stein. Carmelina is the musical version of the film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, which is also the source of the story in the hit Broadway musical, Mamma Mia! Carmelina played briefly on Broadway in 1979 and had two staged concerts at the York Theatre. In 1962, Carmelina Campbell, Italian "widow" of a non-existent soldier, is faced with the return of three American soldiers who liberated San Forino in WWII. One of them is the father of her daughter, Gia ... but she's not sure which! The great score by team that did Royal Wedding and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever includes two standards, One More Walk Around the Garden and It's Time for a Love Song, as well as Why Him?, Someone in April, I'm a Woman and Love Before Breakfast.
Dates: Previews: Oct. 31, Nov. 1 & 2, Opening Nov. 3 through Nov. 18

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