Producer Richard Winkler will present a reading of the new musical comedy LET ME SING starring Tony Award nominee Sam Harris as Al Jolson in New York City on Thursday, April 15. With a book by Sherman Yellen, new music & lyrics by Will Holt and featuring some of the most enduring Al Jolson standards, LET ME SING is directed by Matt Lenz. Carl Pasbjerg/Alchemy Productions is the General Manager.
Al Jolson struts across this sassy, irreverent musical which tells the story of his Prohibition era romance with tap dancer
Ruby Keeler, and the rise, fall, and rise again of a legendary entertainer. Presented as vaudeville, LET ME SING is an honest, compelling and hugely entertaining musical about a performer and his love affair with a woman he desires and the audience whose love he craves.
Sam Harris (
Al Jolson) received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for his role in The Life. He also appeared on Broadway in The Producers, Grease! (Drama Desk nomination) and toured in the Broadway production of Joseph...Dreamcoat. Sam also starred in Hair (with
Steven Weber!), Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret and the self-penned Hard Copy, Different Hats and Revival. His appearances on "Star Search" launched a multimillion-selling recording career and numerous concerts worldwide, including at
Carnegie Hall. He co-wrote the sitcom "Down to Earth," co-produced the special "Love Letter to New York" and created arrangements for "
Michael Jackson's 30th Year Anniversary." Following September 11th,
Oprah Winfrey asked Sam to sing live on her show "Music to Heal Our Hearts," and shortly after, he was asked to sing at the White House.
Sherman Yellen (Book). Screenwriter, playwright, and lyricist, was nominated for a Tony Award for his book for the musical, The Rothschilds. Sherman's plays include Strangers, a biographical drama about
Sinclair Lewis which was produced on Broadway, and most recently the drama December Fools, produced by the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex in New York in January-March '06. His musical, Josephine Tonight!, tracing the early life of
Josephine Baker from Jim Crow America to Paris in the twenties, was produced in Chicago in February '06. Sherman's screenwriting has won him two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, first for his drama John Adams, Lawyer in the PBS series The Adams Chronicles, and later for An Early Frost, a groundbreaking drama about AIDS in America. His Beauty and the Beast with
George C. Scott was nominated for an Emmy and won the Christopher Award. Yellen received a lifetime achievement award in Arts and Letters from Bard College.
Will Holt (New Music & Lyrics) an American singer, songwriter, librettist and lyricist. Broadway credits include: A
Kurt Weill Cabaret, Platinum, Music Is, Me and Bessie, Over Here, The Me Nobody Knows (Drama Desk Award, Tony Nomination) and Come Summer.
Matt Lenz (Director) directed The Irish Curse, which is currently playing at The Soho Playhouse. Broadway credits include Hairspray (Associate Director - also for National Tours, South Africa, Las Vegas, Toronto, Germany), Disney's Beauty and the Beast (Resident Director), The Yellow Brick Road Not Traveled: Wicked's 5 th Anniversary (Director). Off-Broadway: Idaho! (NYMF - Winner of "Best of Fest" 2008 and Best Director Awards), The Irish Curse (NY Fringe Festival), Alan Ball's The Amazing Adventures of Tense Guy. Regional: Saint Heaven (a new musical by
Martin Casella and
Keith Gordon), Scituate by
Martin Casella (Stamford Center), Aida (MUNY, Gateway), The Full Monty, Beauty and the Beast (MUNY,
North Carolina Theatre,
Michigan Opera Theatre), South Pacific (Casa Manana, NCT) Confidentially, Cole (LA), Dirty Blonde, Love! Valor! Compassion! (Austin). Member SDC.
