Musical Theater Heritage to Stage Original Show SONGS OF THE GREAT WAR

This year's second original show from Musical Theater Heritage will be "SONGS OF THE GREAT WAR," October 6 - 16, sponsored by the NATIONAL WORLD WAR l MUSEUM & MEMORIAL and with funding provided WILLIAM T. KEMPER, II CHARITABLE TRUST.

"SONGS OF THE GREAT WAR" is written and conceived by MTH Executive Director & Founder, George Harter; with direction by Tim Scott and musical direction by Jeremy Watson. The program will feature an all-local cast of seven singers and a five-piece band. George Harter will act as the show's 'tour guide' in narrating how the songs fit within the era of World War One.

"This project is designed to demonstrate with music how societies and cultures changed as a result of the upheaval of the Great War," says George Harter in explaining how this show will be different than any other revue containing the popular music of the World War I era. "Especially in Europe," Harter continues, "the effects of World War I ushered in the new age of cabaret, the Dada movement, the more visceral music of Kurt Weill and in the United States it led to the creation of jazz and music for the stage."

Harter solicited the help of Michael Feinstein in locating two early unpublished songs by Kurt Weill when Weill was an unknown composer and a patriotic German. Weill's Reiterlied (The Rider's Song) and Im Volkstrom (Parting Song) are included in the show thanks to Feinstein sharing his personal copies with Musical Theater Heritage.

The production will be staged in the round and presented in a way that is intended to make the music and the subject matter more immediate and accessible to contemporary audiences.

The ensemble consists of David Adams, Jessica Alcorn, Taylor Avazpour, Maggie Marx, Christian Thomas Owen, Bob Wearing, and Kayla Wilkens.

Performances only will be presented Thursdays thru Sundays, October 6 to 16 at MUSICAL THEATER HERITAGE at CROWN CENTER on the third floor of the Crown Center Shops.

For more information, visit www.MTHKC.com.