Original Broadway cast members Lucie Arnaz and Robert Klein will reunite to star in a February 11, 2019, concert presentation of They’re Playing Our Song, which will take place 40 years to the day of the original Broadway opening.
Featuring a book by the late three-time Tony Award winner Neil Simon and a score by Academy Award winners Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, the musical will presented in a 7:30 PM concert at the Music Box Theatre.
The long-running Broadway hit, based on the real-life relationship between collaborators Hamlisch and Sager, ran over 1,000 performances on Broadway.
They’re Playing Our Song centers on the love story between fictional composer Vernon Gersch and lyricist Sonia Walsk. What begins as a songwriting collaboration quickly turns into something more, but their larger-than-life personalities threaten to derail their passionate romance.
“To be asked to revisit one of the best theatrical memories of my career, and get a chance to have those Neil Simon words come out of my mouth again and bring Marvin and Carole’s unforgettable music back to the stage was just too good an invitation to turn down,” Arnaz said in a statement. “The original cast forty years after its Broadway opening? Truly rare. Maybe even historic. Best of all, we will be packing the house to benefit The Actors Fund, especially Song’s original ‘keyboard fingers’ Fran Liebergal. Robert Klein and I do laugh, though, that instead of the love story of Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, we’re now playing Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields. Ha! And I can’t wait.”
“I’m thrilled to be reuniting with Lucie to step back into this show which has meant so much to us, especially for such a great cause, The Actors Fund,” added Klein. “To sing the wonderful songs of Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager and to say the great lines of Neil Simon is a thrill. Still fresh after 40 years.”
Chet Walker will direct and choreograph, with music director Larry Blank conducting a full orchestra. The concert is produced in association with Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment.
An on-sale date will be announced shortly.
Simon died August 26 at the age of 91. The prolific playwright was responsible for bringing such beloved comedies as The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, and Brighton Beach Memoirs to the stage. His additional musicals included Little Me, Sweet Charity, and Promises, Promises.
