Summer of 42

Product Description Hermie's teenage summer of fun becomes a bittersweet lesson in love when he falls for a young war bride in a seaside town in this original musical based on the 1971 Oscar-nominated film. Funny, wistful and romantic, Summer of '42 will bring you back to that innocent age of 1940s swing, when friends met at the local soda fountain, the Andrews Sisters played on every radio, and the discovery of first love felt strange and wonderful.Relive the summer you'll always remember! This show, which has played off-Broadway and around the country, comes home to the theatre where it had its first reading, with a stunning cast headed by Rachel York as Dorothy. Also including: Megan Valerie Walker (Miriam), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Aggie), Joe Gallagher (Benjie), Brett Tabisel (Oscy), Ryan Driscoll (Hermie), Ayal Miodovnik (Pete), Danielle Ferland (Gloria), and Bill Buell (Mr. Sanders, Walter Winchell). Amazon.com Despite running for only a month Off-Broadway in 2002, this musical was preserved in a studio cast recording five years later. Based on Herman Raucher's coming-of-age memoir about a very special New England summer (which also spawned a 1971 movie that boasted one of Michel Legrand¹s most famous themes, THe Summer of '42 is uneven but sports enough grace notes to be deemed encouraging. Working from a book by Hunter Foster (himself a musical-theater actor of note), David Kirshenbaum has come up with a pleasant, if perhaps a little bland score‹one wishes his music reflected more the youthful passion felt by the main protagonist, 15-year-old Hermie, for the older Dorothy. Kirshenbaum, like many young composers of his generation, displays a certain Sondheimian bent ("Will That Ever Happen to Me?" "I Think I Like Her") but the best tracks are the ones that incorporate period touches, most notably in the lovely Andrews Sisters-­like harmonies of Celia Keenan-Bolger, Danielle Ferland and Megan Valerie Walker (check out their winning, swinging "You're Gonna Miss Me," "Man Around the House," and "Oh Gee, I Love My G.I."). As Dorothy, the wonderful Rachel York gets three ballads that may well find their way in many cabaret set lists in years to come--Alice Ripley already did the belting showcase "Losing Track of Time" (a bonus track) on Unsuspecting Hearts. --Elisabeth Vincentelli