Lost Musicals will present an exclusive engagement of the lesser-known classic Silk Stockings at Florence Gould Hall in the French Institute Alliance Française (55 East 59th Street between Park and Madison Ave.). The musical will be presented for four semi-staged performances only--on Sunday, September 11th, Monday, September 19th, Monday, September 26th and Monday, October 3rd; all performances are at 6:30 pm.
Featuring music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and a book by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath and Abe Burrows, Silk Stockings is directed by Ian Marshall Fisher. The musical was a hit on Broadway in 1955 with Don Ameche and Hildegarde Neff, running a total of 478 performances, and later became a film starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. The show has not been seen on the stage since it debuted on Broadway. The show was Porter's fifth work and despite its Russian heroine, is set in Paris (the reason for its venue).Silk Stockings was based on the Billy Wilder film Ninotchka that starred Greta Garbo. In the show, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Kaufman (Of Thee I Sing, You Can't Take It With You) and Burrows (How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Guys and Dolls) satirize Hollywood and Communism. Porter's memorable score includes such numbers as "All of You," "Paris Loves Lovers" and "Stereophonic Sound."
"Over the last sixteen years, Ian Marshall Fisher has been known in London for specializing in directing and presenting neglected musicals by America's finest theatre writers in London's Barbican, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells. He has directed, reconstructed, cast and produced over 70 different musicals with some 2,000 actors, most of whom are drawn from the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre. He presented Silk Stockings in London in May, and because of the authors' pedigree and interest in the work, he has decided to bring the show back to New York with an American cast," state production notes.Silk Stockings will raise funds for The Lost Musicals Charitable Trust, a UK government educational organization connected to Fisher's Lost Musicals work. The cast of 17 performers will be announced shortly.Tickets, which are $40, are on sale now and can be ordered by calling TicketMaster at 212-307-4100 or by visiting TicketMaster.com online. Tickets are also available in person at the Florence Gould Hall Box Office or by calling 212-355-6160.
