42nd St Moon Offers Upcoming Forget Your Troubles 2009-2010 Season

Greg MacKellan, artistic director of 42nd Street Moon, and Stephanie Rhoads, producing director, today announced details of the upcoming 2009-10 season of uncommon musical theater. The offering has been called "Forget Your Troubles" and as Rhoads explains: "In this time of turmoil and uncertainly, we hope that 42nd Street Moon will be a place to experience the sweet joy that a visit to vintage Broadway musicals can offer." This season therefore focuses on the Broadway greats like Berlin, Porter, Gershwin, Kern, and Hammerstein. 42nd Street Moon's shows, previously strict staged concerts, and now presented without scripts, and with full choreography, costumes, and props.

The season also marks the beginning of an exciting project for 42nd Street Moon: a multi-year celebration of the musicals of composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Ira Gershwin. In 2009-10, the company also begins a special series of Salon Evenings at the Alcazar Theatre, intimate performances, in which Moon performers and special guest stars will celebrate the life and works of musical theatre composers and lyricists.

"Stephanie and I have a great fondness for the works of Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin," MacKellan stated. "Their names don't necessarily carry the glamour of Cole Porter's or Ira's brother George's, but their careers both spanned more than forty years, and gave American popular music some of its most enduring standards. Our celebration begins in the spring of 2010 with Ira Gershwin's earliest Broadway hit, Lady, Be Good!, and Jerome Kern's final Broadway musical, Very Warm for May. Coming up in the following two year will be Kern's Princess Musical Oh, Boy! and his English musical with Oscar Hammerstein, Three Sisters, back-to-back productions of Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing and its sequel, Let ‘Em Eat Cake, as some of his Broadway revues. Announcements will be made on our website regarding the exciting finale shows and concerts that will spotlight the artistic legacy of these two Broadway giants in our 20th anniversary season in 2012-13."

The 2009-10 season opens on September 23 with the Irving Berlin classic, Call Me Madam, starring international cabaret and concert star Klea Blackhurst who returns as Ambassador Sally Adams, the "Hostess With the Mostes' on the Ball." 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. Costarring with Blackhurst are Rob Hatzenbeller and Giana DeGeiso. Dyan McBride directs and Jayne Zaban choreographs. The dynamite Irving Berlin score features You're Just in Love, It's a Lovely Day Today, Something to Dance About, The Ocarina, and The Best Thing for You.
Dates: Previews Sept. 23, 24 & 25, Opening Sept. 26 through Oct. 18

The 1959 hit Destry Rides Again roars into town next. Set in the Wild West town of Bottleneck, 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. In a classic tangle of law vs. vice, Destry Rides Again takes a dark turn and moves toward a riveting climax. In roles immortalized by Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich on film, and Andy Griffith and Dolores Gray on Broadway, are Moon favorite Steve Rhyne and popular San Francisco singer Connie Champagne. Harold Rome's score includes rousing numbers such as Are You Ready, Gyp Watson?, I Say Hello, Anyone Would Love You, and Ev'ry Once in a While.
Dates: Previews Oct. 28, 29 & 30 Opening Oct. 31 through Nov. 15

Jubilee, Cole Porter and Moss Hart's 1935 hit, follows in late November, directed by Greg MacKellan and choreographed by Tom Segal. 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. The escapades that follow feature parody versions of a host of recognizable 1930s celebrities (Noel Coward, Elsa Maxwell, Johnny Weissmuller, Ginger Rogers), who show the disguised monarch and his family the time of their royal lives. Megan Cavanagh, well-known from the films A League of Their Own and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, stars as the Queen with Michael Patrick Gaffney as the King. Featured as their children are Andrew Willis-Woodward and Juliet Heller, and, in the Rogers/Coward/Maxwell/Weissmuller roles, Alison Ewing, Zack Thomas Wilde, Dyan McBride, and C.J. Blankenship. Cole Porter's amazing score includes Begin the Beguine, Just One of Those Things, Why Shouldn't I?, A Picture of Me Without You, and The Kling-Kling Bird on the Divi-Divi Tree.
Dates: Previews Nov. 25, 26 & 27, Opening Nov. 28 through Dec. 13

42nd Street Moon's Ira Gershwin celebration kicks off with one of the earliest Gershwin hits: Lady, Be Good!, directed by Dyan McBride. Fred and Adele Astaire originally starred in this farce about 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. The Gershwins propelled Broadway into the Roaring Twenties with their dazzling score featuring hot jazz and cool blues in numbers such as Fascinating Rhythm, Little Jazz Bird, So Am I, The Half-of-It-Dearie Blues, and Lady, Be Good.
Dates: Previews March 21, 22 & 23 Opening March 24 through April 25, 2010

The first show in the Jerome Kern Celebration, Very Warm for May, spotlights Kern's final Broadway score. 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. Kern and Hammerstein's beautiful and sophisticated score which features the timeless All the Things You Are (heard in a stunning arrangement unique to the musical), All in Fun, In the Heart of the Dark, Heaven in My Arms, and In Other Words, Seventeen. Greg MacKellan directs.
Dates: Previews May 6, 7 & 8 Opening May 9 through May 24

Salon Evenings:
On October 13, 2009, 42nd Street Moon salutes the work of lyricist and librettist Dorothy Fields. In her 45-year career, Ms. Fields wrote lyrics to the music of Jerome Kern, Cy Coleman, Jimmy McHugh, Harold Arlen, Albert Hague, Arthur Schwartz, Harry Warren and others. Her catalogue of brilliant song hits includes I Can't Give You Anything But Love € On The Sunny Side Of The Street € A Fine Romance € I'm In The Mood For Love € The Way You Look Tonight €Make the Man Love Me € Big Spender € If My Friends Could See Me Now

The prelude to the multi-year salute to the shows of Ira Gershwin, the Salon Evening on January 28, 2010, will celebrate the quieter of the two Gershwin Brothers. Ira's career spanned the 20th century, and brought the world a dazzling array of songs written with his brother George as well as Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Vernon Duke, and others, including Fascinating Rhythm € Embraceable You € The Man That Got Away € My Ship € The Way You Look Tonight € I Can't Get Started € Who Cares? € Long Ago and Far Away € The Man I Love € Someone to Watch Over Me

Subscriptions ranging from $90 to $168 with discounts for seniors and students, are available through the 42nd Street Moon Box Office at 415/255-8207 (Open Tues. - Fri. from noon to 5 p.m.), or through the website www.42ndstmoon.org <http://www.42ndstmoon.org/> . A special Childrens' Subscription Series is available for a 1 p.m. matinee on the 2nd Saturday of each production for those under 18 years-of-age.

Current season subscribers are urged to renew by May 15, 2008, in order to guarantee the same seats for each performance. Single tickets will go on sale on August 1. All performances are presented at San Francisco's intimate Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St.

42nd Street Moon celebrates and preserves the art and spirit of the American Musical Theatre, contributing to its evolution and continuing vitality by presenting intimate productions of "Uncommon Musicals" -- classic and rarely performed shows by the great 20th century songwriters. Through productions, educational programs, and community outreach, the company is committed to increasing the awareness and appreciation of the rich heritage and cultural perspective of the musical theatre and its vast influence on the world stage. Since 1993 the company has staged more than 90 musicals, as well as several revues celebrating the dazzling legacy of the 20th Century's greatest musical theater composers and lyricists.