New Musical A LETTER TO HARVEY MILK Will Debut Off-Broadway This Spring

The musical A LETTER TO Harvey Milk will debut Off-Broadway at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre (410 W 42 Street), beginning performances on February 21, opening on March 6, running through May 13, 2018.

Based on the short story by Lesléa Newman, the musical A LETTER TO Harvey Milk has lyrics by Ellen M. Schwartz, with additional lyrics by Cheryl Stern, music by Laura I. Kramer, book by Jerry James, Ellen M. Schwartz, Cheryl Stern and Laura I. Kramer and will be directed by Evan Pappas with casting by Stephanie Klapper. A LETTER TO Harvey Milk is presented by Letter Productions LLC and is executive produced by Lisa Dozier King.

San Francisco. 1986. What could Harry, an amiable but lonely retired kosher butcher have in common with Barbara, his young lesbian writing teacher at the senior center? Is it enough to bridge the divide?

When Harry fulfills a writing assignment to compose a letter to someone from his past who's dead, he writes not to his late wife Frannie, but to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay political leader in California. Barbara is stunned. Harry's letter evokes life-changing revelations that neither could have foreseen. This musical - with its soaring score and deeply-felt, surprisingly funny lyrics - deals with issues of friendship and loss, the grip of the past, and the hard-won acceptance set in motion by the most unexpected people.

A LETTER TO Harvey Milk was proud to be a selection of the New York Musical Theatre Festival's 2012 Next Link Project where it won five awards, including Most Promising Musical. It was also a finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award.

Tickets are $79 - $99 and can be purchased at Telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Ellen M. Schwartz (Lyricist)'s first work was writing children's songs with Bonnie Lee Sanders including "Meet the Care Bears", "Care Bears Bedtime Story", and "Meet the Mr. Men and Little Misses". She collaborated on individual songs with artists including Sue Maskaleris, Barbara Carroll, Gail Wynters, Joel Diamond, and Luiz Simas. Ellen also worked with other collaborators on a number of theatrical projects including Come Up 'N See Me, The Trapped Family Singers, A Letter To Harvey Milk, A Cast of Thousands, Second Avenue Rag, andTangled Webs, which was left uncompleted when she passed away in May 2013.

Laura I. Kramer (Composer/Book) A Letter to Harvey Milk (NYMF 2012 Next-Link Project and Most Promising Musical Award; Richard Rodgers Award 2012 finalist.) Music for As The Years Go By (lyricist Mitchell Bernard); choral piece Woman's Sphere finalist, Denver Women's Chorus Choral Music Competition. MA Music Theory/ Composition, Montclair State University; BS Music, Skidmore College; commissioned by Skidmore to write commemorative choral piece, A Musical Instrument. Studied choral composition with renowned composer Alice Parker. BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Member Dramatists Guild, IAWM.

Cheryl Stern (Book/ Additional Lyrics) recently received raves Off Broadway for her solo musical Shoes and Baggage with music by Tom Kochan. She created lyrics for the Jonathan Larson Award winning Off Broadway musical, Nor'mal (now retitled Pretty To The Bone). Other credits include: The Audience, Requiem for William, Being Audrey (Transport Group), That's Life!, A Christmas Survival Guide, Are We There Yet?, Famous, The Gene Game, Buffalonia ( EST). Cheryl is a resident member of the cell theatre and a graduate of Northwestern University.

Jerry James (Book) won the 2012 NYMF Award for Excellence in Writing-Book for A Letter to Harvey Milk. He is the author of a dozen plays, variously produced in New York City and across the USA, as well as in England and Germany. After a forty-year career in the New York theatre, where he spent ten years as PSM of Forbidden Broadway, he retired to Tucson, AZ, where he writes essays for the education program of the Rogue Theatre.

Evan Pappas (Director) Off-Bway: Liberty, Wonderful Town, DuBarry Was a Lady, What Will People Think? Regionally; The Color Purple, Sister Act (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina)Kiss Me Kate, Evita , West Side Story, The Daughter of the Regiment (Opera North), 7 Brides for 7 Brothers (SF Critics Best Production Award, and Director nom), Funny Girl (SF Critics Director nom) Lucky Stiff (Arizona Broadway Theatre), Murder for Two, My Way (Depot Theatre), Carousel, A Man of No Importance (Montclair State Univ), West Side Story (Santa Fe College), ). Some Place Like Home (Best Director Award Soundbites Festival, NYC), Broadway Babes (Covent Garden), Assoc. Dir. on Being Sellers (59E59),Moscow (Samuel French One-Act Festival), Parallel Lives (Theatre for the New City), Daily Sounds (Finalist in Strawberry Festival), etc. As an actor he has starred on and off-Broadway in My Favorite Year, Parade, Putting It Together, A Chorus Line, I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Café Society Swing, etc., and in London's West End in Follies and Merrily We Roll Along.

LESLÉA NEWMAN'S (Source material) 70 books include the short story collection, A Letter To Harvey Milk; the poetry collection, I Carry My Mother; and the children's books, Heather Has Two Mommies, Sparkle Boy, and Ketzel, The Cat Who Composed. Poems from her novel-in-verse, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard have been excerpted in the libretto of the fusion oratorio Considering Matthew Shepard composed by Grammy Award winner Craig Hella Johnson. A past National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellow and poet laureate of Northampton, MA, she currently teaches at Spalding University's low-residency MFA in Writing program.

Lisa Dozier King (Executive Producer) has offices in both New York and Miami, which has managed more than 100 professional theatrical productions. Upcoming: A Letter to Harvey Milk, Unlikely Heroes, Hit Her with the Skates, Shoes and Baggage. Past Off-Broadway highlights: The Crusade of Connor Stephens, Vincent, Promising, Bedbugs!!! the Musical,Breakfast with Mugabe, Final Analysis, F#%king Up Everything, Sistas the Musical, Bronte, Ten Chimneys, The Duchess of Malfi, How to be a Good Italian Daughter, Milk, The Diary of a Teenage Girl. Lisa is also the BFA theatre management program director at the University of Miami, producing director for the newly founded organization Miami New Drama that manages a 400-seat venue on Miami Beach, and has also served as the general manager for the National Alliance for Musical's Annual Festival of New Musicals for the last decade. ldkproductions.com

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