DIX HILLS, NY, – Talk about your
revivals… the missing Broadway script,
including the long-lost score of the 1929
Rogers and Hart’ musical Spring Is Here
was recently unearthed in a Hollywood
archive among the material used in the
making of the 1930 film version -- also lost
to the ages. Now, The Dix Hills Performing
Arts Center, Five Towns College’s
award-winning Theatre Department, and a
handful of talented Broadway professionals
will present Spring is Here in an
historic one-night-only workshop ensemble
performance. A mixture of students and
Broadway talent will pay homage to
Broadway’s greatest writing
pair by performing a play that has not been
staged in more than
75 years.
This personal quest began when Aaron Gandy
(conductor for Lion King on Broadway,
casting agent for Disney and musicologist)
became interested in resurrecting old
Broadway shows that had yet to be revived.
He felt that the 1929 Rogers and Hart
musical, Spring is Here would be an
excellent candidate. But when Gandy inquired
to Mary Rogers (daughter of Richard Rogers)
and the Rogers and Hammerstein Library about
the work, he learned that the original
Broadway script and orchestration had been
lost. Aaron then went to the archive vault
for the movie company that produced the 1930
film version of Spring is Here. His
plan was to use the movie score and script
to archeologically rebuild the Broadway
show. To his great surprise, while searching
through the cob web and dust-covered box of
original film scripts and direction
materials, he found the long-lost original
script and score of the Broadway show.
Gandy then had the fragile paper work copied
and spoke to TONY, OSCAR (All That Jazz)
and EMMY(Death of a Salesman) winner
Tony Walton about modernizing the script and
directing the new workshop version. Tony,
Aaron and Five Towns College Theatre
Department Director Jared Herskowitz met at
the Theatre Museum Awards Ceremony, where
Five Towns won the award for Excellence In
Theatre Education. The two asked Five Towns
to work with their team, including eight
Broadway actors to produce a workshop encore
concert version of the play. Five Town
staff took on the bulk of the creative
work. Its theatre students will be seen in
the ensemble and in smaller roles.
With that Manhattan meeting, the Dix Hills
Performing Arts Center was selected as the
site for the one night only performance on
May 4. Because Broadway theaters are dark
only on Monday, this date gives the
professional actors the opportunity to play
Dix Hills as a benefit performance for The
Theatre Museum of NYC.
For more information on this historic
presentation for both theater and music
lovers, please visit
www.DHPAC.org
or call the Center’s Box Office at (631)
656-2148.