Aria Entertainment presents a 9 week season of Jewish themed work Upstairs At The Gatehouse Theatre in February-April 2016. The headline musical will be the revival of the musical Bar Mitzvah Boy.
Bar Mitzvah Boy – Jack Rosenthal adapted his award winning 1976 TV play (British Academy Best Play Award and Broadcasting Press Guild Best Play Award), for the musical stage with America’s Oscar and Tony award composer Jule Styne and lyrics by Oscar and Tony award winner Don Black.This new production will run for 6 weeks from Thursday 3 March to Sunday 10 April. The press night is on Thursday 10 March. It will be directed by Stewart Nicholls. It is the first staging of Bar Mitzvah Boy since the original 1978 London production. Don Black has written new songs to unheard Styne compositions and a revised script has been written byDavid Thompson, author of ‘The Scottsboro Boys’, ‘Steel Pier’, libretto for ‘And The World Goes Round’ plus the script adaptation of the hit musical revival of ‘Chicago’.
Bar Mitzvah Boy is about a North London family’s anxious build up to their only son’s Bar Mitzvah. This classic tale resonates for any important family occasion – whatever the religion!
Bar Mitzvah Boy was composer Jule Styne’s only London musical. A prolific Hollywood and Broadway composer (‘Gypsy’, ‘Funny Girl’, ‘Bells Are Ringing’ and ‘Gentleman Prefer Blondes’), he collaborated with Don Black: (‘Sunset Boulevard’, ‘Tell Me On a Sunday’, ‘Aspects of Love’, and classic hit songs: Thunderball, Tomorrmow Never Dies, Diamonds Are Forever, The World Is Not Enough, To Sir With Love, Ben plus Born Free (for which he won an Oscar).
Thurs 3 March to Sun 10 April 2016 @BarMitzvahBoy16
Press perf Thurs 10 March 7.30pm See website for ticket prices
Upstairs At The Gatehouse, Highgate Village, N 6 4 BD
Box Office 020 8 340 3488
Perfs Sat 16 & Sun 17 April Radlett Centre 01923 859291
The season will begin with a newly commisioned show THE GREAT JEWISH AMERCIAN SONGBOOK which will run from February 9th-29th. Press perf Thurs 11 February.
JEWISH SONGWRITERS WHO MADE ENTERTAINMENT HISTORY!
How is it that Jews wrote the musical background to American lives from the First World War to the sixties?
In a land of opportunity, they created a musical world of escapism and romance… and helped invent the American Dream.
‘THE GREAT AMERICAN JEWISH SONGBOOK’ EXPLORES A CENTURY OF SONG, FEATURING THE GREATEST SONGWRITERS EVER!
Written by Chris BurgessMusical Arrangements by Andy Collyer
Directed by Matthew Gould