Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble to Reconstruct HELEN OF TROY Musical This Winter

Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble, one of New York's longest-running experimental theatres, is excited to announce the return of the "lost" classic Broadway musical, Helen of Troy, New York. Medicine Show has reconstructed the lost 1923 show to bring it back to New York audiences. The production will run for just five weeks, opening Friday, January 16, 2015 and closing Sunday, February, 15, 2015. Performances are scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. The theatre is located at 549 W. 52nd Street, 3rd Floor, near 11th Ave., subway C/E 50th St.

The book is by the famed American playwright-team George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. The score is by co-composers/co-lyricists Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar. Medicine Show artistic director, Obie Award-winner Barbara Vann will direct this 2015 production with a cast of approximately 14 actors.

The script was thought lost for decades when the Medicine Show team had a serendipitous encounter. In 1986, they auditioned an actress who said she had been given the script by co-author Marc Connelly (he had died six years earlier in 1980 at the age of 90). They verified the work with co-author George S. Kaufman's daughter Anne Kaufman, who also believed no copies of the show remained. They also showed it to co-lyricist/co-composer Harry Ruby's daughter who said she believed she would never see it again. Then, the team had to re-construct the score. Most of the songs were found, but sadly a few such as "Up On Our Toes," "Advertising," "If I Never See You Again," and "It Was Meant to Be" have not been found. Other Ruby & Kalmar songs of the period have been inserted in their place and happily work well with the plot. But Medicine Show likes to keep things accurate and let it be known. Other than a few of those song changes, today's audiences will see the show as scripted for the audiences of 1923.

The plot is incredibly relevant and still funny today, as it is a parody of business and advertising. Set in Troy, N.Y., the center of the detachable collar trade, the plot focuses on a shady semi-soft collar business in the age of starched collars.

Medicine Show staged Helen of Troy, New York once before in 1986, a production attended by some of the off-spring of the writers. A video copy of that show can be see at the Performing Arts Library, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at Lincoln Center.

Tickets are $20.00 for general admission, $15.00 for seniors and students. They are available from Smarttix at www.Smarttix.com or (212) 868-4444. For more information, log onto the company's website at www.MedicineShowTheatre.org.