UnsungMusicalsCo. Inc. (www.UnsungMusicals.org) will launch its new initiative The Archival Project with a special exploratory reading of the 1947 musical comedy Barefoot Boy With Cheek on January 14 at 3pm at Manhattan Theatre Club's Creative Center, 311 West 43rd Street. The new UMC initiative is aimed at researching, assembling and restoring the material from unpublished and out-of-print musical shows.
The cast will feature Jenn Colella (High Fidelity, Urban Cowboy), Randy Donaldson (Wonderful Town), Jenny Fellner (Pal Joey, Wicked, Mamma Mia!), Nick Gaswirth (Goodspeed's James and the Giant Peach), Drew Gehling (Jersey Boys), Anne Horak (White Christmas), Robert Lenzi (South Pacific), Sarah Litzsinger (Amour, Beauty and the Beast), Nora Mae Lyng (Into the Woods, Cabaret, My Favorite Year), Rye Mullis (Young Frankenstein), Greg Reuter (Shrek, Spamalot) and Max Von Essen (Les Miserables, Xanadu).
A nutty 1947 musical romp, Barefoot Boy With Cheek follows a bright-eyed young freshman at the fictitious University of Minnesota as he navigates a rowdy campus complete with swindling frat boys, dreamy jocks and communist coeds.
Based on the best-selling novel by Tony Award nominee Max Shulman (The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis), the musical has a book by Mr. Shulman, music by Sidney Lippman ("Too Young", "A...You're Adorable") and lyrics by Sylvia Dee ("Chickery Chick", "The End of the World"). UMC artistic director Ben West (Platinum, How Now, Dow Jones) will direct the reading. Fran Minarik (How Now, Dow Jones, Sessions) provides new musical arrangements from Mr. Lippman's original score. The reading restores Mr. Shulman's original libretto as well as the originally penned act one finale, "Don't Spoil the Party", which was cut in 1947 during the musical's development.
To receive invites to future UMC readings, sign-up at www.UnsungMusicals.org. UMC's Archival Project will present a reading of its next restoration in May 2011.
The original Broadway production of Barefoot Boy With Cheek opened on April 3, 1947 at the Martin Beck Theatre where it set a house record for box office gross in its first full week of performances ($34,232). Produced and directed by George Abbott, the musical starred Nancy Walker, Red Buttons, Billy Redfield and Ellen Hanley. It received favorable reviews, particularly for its pre-Broadway engagement in Boston, and played 108 performances. Hanley won a Theatre World Award for her debut.
Original 1947 Reviews:
"A fresh and lively hit!" - NY Daily Mirror
"A smash hit!" - Boston Herald
"A zippy, tuneful and altogether delightful show!" - Billboard
"A fast, bouncing, youthful and high-spirited girl-and-music carnival!" - New York Post
"A wonderfully amusing musical comedy!" - Boston Post
"A brightly mounted, brisk show with breezy young collegians!" - World Telegram & Sun
UNSUNGMUSICALSCO. INC. (Ben West, Artistic Director) is a not-for-profit production company dedicated to the preservation of musical theatre through the presentation of infrequently performed works. Focusing primarily on overlooked projects from the Golden Age, both hits and substantive misses, UMC treats each property as a new musical thereby providing a unique collaboration between the artists of today and those of the past. Recently, UMC created a new initiative aimed at researching, assembling and restoring the material from unpublished and out-of-print musical shows: The Archival Project. www.UnsungMusicals.org
