York Theater Co Announces Mufti Series With GRAND TOUR, HIGH SPIRIT & More

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) announces its Spring 2009 Musicals in Mufti Series-the York's acclaimed series of musical theatre gems in staged concert performances. The dates and shows are as follows:

The Grand Tour May 29-31
High Spirits June 12-14
Knickerbocker Holiday June 26-28

All shows will be presented at the Theatre at Saint Peter's (54th Street, just East of Lexington Ave). Each show will play five performances: Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2:30 & 8 PM, and Sunday at 2:30 & 7:30 PM. Audience talkbacks will follow all matinees. Tickets are priced at $37.50. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.yorktheatre.org or call the York's Box Office at 212-935-5820.
‘Mufti' (pronounced MUFF' tee) means "in street clothes; without the usual trappings" and each show in the Series is presented script-in-hand, with minimal staging. To date, the York has presented over 70 Mufti concert revivals of musical theatre gems from Broadway, Off-Broadway and London, celebrating such writers as Richard Rodgers, George Abbott and Joseph Stein.

THE GRAND TOUR (May 29-31) Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman. Book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble. (Based on the original play "Jacobowski and the Colonel" by Franz Werfel.) Directed by Michael Montel; Music Direction by James Bassi. The Grand Tour is a bittersweet comic tale featuring love triangles, mistaken identity and a wedding at sea. At the onset of the Nazi invasion, two strangers with nothing in common travel from France to England and unexpectedly become the best of friends. Jerry Herman's sweeping music and lyrics complement Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble's acclaimed, period-perfect script. Originally starring Joel Grey and admired by many, The Grand Tour's life on Broadway in 1979 was regrettably short-lived and was hailed by Joel Siegel as "a first-class musical!"

HIGH SPIRITS (June 12-14) Book, Music, and Lyrics by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray. Based on the play "Blithe Spirit" by Noël Coward (who also directed the original production of High Spirits) Directed by Marc Bruni; Music Direction by Vadim Feichtner. In the supernatural musical-comedy High Spirits, a happily re-married widower gets a surprise visit from his first wife when a kooky medium mistakenly awakens her spirit from the dead. Based on Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit (currently enjoying a hit revival on Broadway), this telepathic tuner was written by Hugh Martin (Meet Me in St. Louis) and Timothy Gray and competed for the 1964 Tony Award for Best Musical alongside Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly!.Theatre enthusiasts may remember the original production featured Beatrice Lillie, Tammy Grimes and a young Christopher Walken in the Ensemble.

KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY (June 26-28) Book and Lyrics by Maxwell Anderson, Music by Kurt Weill. Directed by Michael Unger; Music Direction by John Bell. On the eve of the American Revolution, the arrival of a new Governor in New York City (then called New Amsterdam) causes a great deal of chaos amongst his new constituents in this madcap "romantic-political-musical-comedy." Anderson cleverly based his story in the distant past from an enduring and well-known Washington Irving tale in order to create a farcical response to President Roosevelt's New Deal in 1938. Knickerbocker Holiday will be The York Theatre Company's 75th Mufti production.

Notable Musicals in Mufti productions have included: Enter Laughing, The Musical (which inspired The York's record-breaking Off-Broadway production), Take Me Along, Beggar's Holiday, Mirette, The Grass Harp, Carmelina, Wish You Were Here, Fanny, Plain and Fancy, Lucky Stiff, Darling of the Day, Celebration, Mata Hari, Weird Romance, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, The Girl Who Came to Supper, Carmen Jones, Theda Bara and the Frontier Rabbi, Johnny Johnson, Rex, Billion Dollar Baby and 70, Girls, 70. TIME Magazine listed York's Mufti version of Darling of the Day as one of the Top Ten Theatrical Events of 2005, and AM New York recently referred to the Mufti Series as "increasingly essential" in its Best of 2007 list.

For ticket information visit www.yorktheatre.org or call 212-935-5820.
THE YORK THEATRE COMPANY in Saint Peter's Theatre
54th Street Just East of Lexington
E or V train to Lexington Avenue or 6 train to 51st Street