Nashville-born A STOOP ON ORCHARD STREET Musical Opens in Pennsylvania This Weekend

Ten years after its debut on a Nashville stage-which led to an off-Broadway run-Jay Kholos' A Stoop on Orchard Street this weekend returns to the stage in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, kicking off a three-month run that will take the company, including many of Nashville's best and brightest, to Philadelphia, New York and other points northeastward.

A Stoop On Orchard Street opens this weekend with performances in Wilkes-Barre  and at New York City's Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan, before moving to the Dell Theatre at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, where it is slated for an October 10-December 30 run. During its Philadelphia engagement, the show will also be performed in nearby cities, including Allentown and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Roslyn, New York, and New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Nashville Kholos is responsible for the book, music and lyrics for A Stoop On Orchard Street, which takes a nostalgic look at tenement life on Manhattan's Lower East Side, circa 1910. The musical comedy follows the trials and tribulations of the Lomansky family and neighbors as they adjust to a new life and new home in America, so different from the shtetls of Eastern Europe they left behind.

A Stoop On Orchard Street was first performed in a workshop at Nashville's Gordon Jewish Community Center (GJCC) in November 2002, featuring many well-known Nashville actors-including 2011 First Night Honoree Danny Proctor, John Silvestro, Kaine Riggan, and the late Anne Tonelson (a First Night Award winner) and Lon Gary. It then premiered at New York City's historic Mazer Theater in July 2003, where it ran for 16 months, becoming the longest-running production in the theater's history.

A Second Company launched Stoop at the Stage Door Theatre in South Florida-starring current Nashville actress Vicki White-where it ultimately ran for five months before launching a 30-city North American tour.

My Catskills Summer, Kholos' second musical, My Catskills Summer, premiered at the Gordon Jewish Community Center in March 2010. The sequel to Stoop looked at the next generation of Jewish-Americans, who had become successful, moved to the suburbs, and were largely, but not completely, assimilated. My Catskills Summer starred Barry Williams (of TV's The Brady Bunch fame) and featured some of Nashville's most popular theater performers including First Night Award winner Dan McGeachy, Mike Baum, Patrick Kramer, Alan Lee, Howard Snyder and Stoop veterans John Silvestro and Vicki White.

The current company of A Stoop on Orchard Street includes a cast and production team drawn from both the Nashville and Philadelphia areas. Alan Lee (under his stage name B.D. Boudreaux) is directing and stars in the show, produced by Kholos. The other Nashville-based production team-members include musical director Mark Beall, choreographer Kim Kinsley, set designer Anthony Popolo, associate producer Noel Henebury-Farmer, and dramaturg/music supervisor/assistant producer Howard Snyder. In addition to Alan Lee, Nashville cast members include Mia Rose, Francine Berk, and Howard Snyder.

For further details (including a video promo, song clips and ticket information) about A Stoop on Orchard Street, go to www.bigapplemusicals.org.

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