Musicals in Concert Election Year Special

American Classics, for the fifth season of their IRNE-Award winning series Musicals in Concert, presents the Boston premiere of the original 1927 version of the George S. Kaufman, George & Ira Gershwin musical Strike Up the Band. This musical fable of politics and war is a natural for the 2004 election year, with performances just after Election Day. There are two performances of Strike Up the Band, Friday November 5th at 7:30 pm and Sunday November 7th at 3:00 pm, both at the PICKMAN CONCERT HALL of the Longy School of Music, (27 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA - 617-254-1125 or http://www.amclass.org/ ). There will be a pre-concert talk one-half hour before each performance. Tickets are $25; $20 for students and seniors.

Strike Up the Band is the first political show written by George & Ira Gershwin, and their first collaboration with George S. Kaufman, who wrote the book. Kaufman brought together anti-war sentiment with his already pronounced bias against big business in creating a story in which cheese magnate Horace P. Fletcher prompts America to start a war with Switzerland "to make the world safe for Fletcher's cheese." Ahead of its time in 1927, the book often resonates with current political events and attitudes as dubious reasons for war and the questioning of patriotism are lampooned (for example, The Very Patriotic League, created "to see that everyone thinks as we do"). In 1930 a second version, with extensive revisions bringing the show into the mainstream Broadway style, ran successfully.

Strike Up the Band in many ways was ahead of its time in 1927, but with the perspective of the Sondheim era of Broadway musicals, it now seems very up to date, in both book and score. The original version was not a typical star-driven Broadway musical, but drew heavily on the satirical and musical styles of Gilbert & Sullivan, with touches of HMS Pinafore in abundance. Nonetheless, the score is unmistakably the Gershwin brothers. In a new departure for the brothers, many scenes are through-composed, making the show one of the first "integrated" musicals. The show closed out of town, despite a generally positive response by critics; audiences were not ready yet for musicals that took on serious topics and lacked stars.

This version does include many fine songs, though only two are now well known. One is the title song, the other is The Man I Love, which had been dropped from Lady Be Good! in 1924. The Man I Love was popular in England by 1927 and the Gershwins felt that Strike Up the Band might offer an opportunity to place the song for American audiences, adding a much-needed romantic ballad to the show. Ira wrote new lyrics for a second chorus sung by the male lead as The Girl I Love; the added lyric is still rarely sung. Gershwin fans also will recognize in the score a melody that became the song Soon in the 1930 revision. Other gems from the score include Meadow Serenade, Yankee Doodle Rhythm, and Hoping That Someday You'd Care.

Cast features Mother and Daughter as Mother and Daughter

A superb cast of leading Boston performers has been assembled, including a bit of delightful casting in which mother Mrs. Draper and her daughter Anne are played by real-life mother and daughter Sarah de Lima and Caroline de Lima, both newcomers to American Classics. Also joining the company this year is Brian Robinson as hero Jim Townsend. American Classics regulars in the show are Bob Jolly as Horace J. Fletcher; Valerie Anastasio as his daughter Joan; Bradford Conner as Edgar Sloan; Benjamin Sears as Colonel Holmes; Brent Reno as Timothy Harper; and Peter A. Carey as George Spelvin. Rounding out the cast are Eric Bronner, Mary Ann Lanier, LaÇTarsha Long, Julia Madeson, Joei Marshall Perry, and Brian Wagner. Also returning are stage director David Frieze, and music director and pianist Margaret Ulmer.

American Classics is the only Boston-area organization dedicated solely to the works of American composers. Musicals in Concertand Songs & Singers are Boston's only annual entries in a national movement which includes Encores!, Musicals in Mufti, the 42nd Street Moon Theatre, Lyrics & Lyricists, and Singers & Songwriters. Musicals in Concert has presented reconstructions of Irving Berlin's first two Broadway scores, Watch Your Step (1914) and Stop! Look! Listen! (1915), along with the first reconstruction and revival of the George S. Kaufman, Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz classic revue, The Band Wagon (1931), which won a special IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award. Last season's performances of the rare Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart "play with music" Peggy-Ann was another Boston first. American Samplers continues the original focus of American Classics with concerts of a broad range of American music.

For more information, see http://www.amclass.org/ .

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