CAPS FOR SALE THE MUSICAL Coming to The New Victory

A persistent peddler, his tower of caps and a troop of mischievous monkeys jump from the pages of Esphyr Slobodkina's Caps for Sale and onto the New Victory stage in celebration of the award-winning book's 75th Anniversary. Adventure Theatre MTC's Caps for Sale the Musical will make its New York premiere this February 27-March 6.

"Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!" A peddler wears his wares on his head--gray caps, brown caps, blue caps and red caps--stacked high as a sycamore tree. With original songs and live accompaniment, Caps for Sale the Musical bursts with happy harmonies, bright staging and quite a bit of monkey business. Adapted for the stage by Michael J. Bobbitt, Artistic Director of Adventure Theatre MTC (Bob Marley's Three Little Birds, New Vic 2014), and Ann Marie Mulhearn Sayer, president of the Slobodkina Foundation, this new musical interweaves Caps for Sale and its recently published sequel, More Caps for Sale, based on story ideas discussed by Slobodkina and Mulhearn Sayer.

"During my years working with the indomitable and brilliant Esphyr Slobodkina, she became both friend and mentor to me," says Mulhearn Sayer, who was friend and colleague to the esteemed author and artist. "The story is timeless, and now the adventures continue for the peddler, and of course, those monkeys."

Celebrating its 75th anniversary, Slobodkina's Caps for Sale, published in 1940 by Harper Collins, is a children's book classic which has sold more than two million copies and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Also a celebrated avant garde artist, Esphyr Slobodkina (1908-2002) was among the first female American artists to explore abstraction and the first to fully illustrate an American children's storybook using the collage technique. She was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group, and her paintings, sculptures and literary works are part of the collections of the Smithsonian; The Metropolitan Museum; the Whitney Museum; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the New York Public Library; among others.

Caps for Sale the Musical is directed by Patrick Pearson (Director of Artistic Programming, Ford's Theatre) and features a score penned by William Yanesh (Helen Hayes Nomination, The Last Five Years at Signature Theatre). The production features Chelsea Baldree as Housewife, Sean Elias as Grocer, Bibi Mama as Stylist, Alan Naylor as The Peddler, Danny Pushkin as Window Washer and Rebecca Tucker as Essie.

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