Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Opera Philadelphia has taken on a new creative partner for its upcoming production of the Gershwin brothers\u2019 rarely performed Let \u2018Em Eat Cake. After a January run at the Academy of Music, the musical will be presented by New York City Center as part of its \u201cEncores!\u201d series with 15 performances in March, both companies announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Let \u2018Em Eat Cake<\/a> is a natural fit for Encores!, which specializes in the revival of American musicals. For Opera Philadelphia, where musical theater is more of a novelty, the partnership could open up possibilities for casting, which isn\u2019t yet set.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that because City Center is such an established brand in this world, it could attract certain famous names and people that I don\u2019t have connections to or that might not otherwise consider coming to what is an opera company,\u201d said Opera Philadelphia general director and president Anthony Roth Costanzo.<\/p>\n In this first ever collaboration between the two arts organizations, the production could be the same in both places, or not \u2014 it is yet to be fleshed out \u2014 but there will be at least some differences. The orchestra and chorus in Philadelphia will be larger, and the conductor will be different in each city (Corrado Rovaris in Philadelphia, Rob Berman in New York). <\/p>\n Still, for both, director Zack Winokur \u201cwill develop the whole concept and idea for the production,\u201d said Costanzo.<\/p>\n Partnering with City Center will yield a \u201cfinancial benefit\u201d for Opera Philadelphia, he said. \u201cWe share costs. We bring in partnership revenue and that helps to cover the costs of what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Let \u2018Em Eat Cake, written by George and Ira Gershwin with a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, premiered on Broadway in 1933 and, despite a memorably melodic score and sharp social and political commentary, hasn\u2019t been heard much since. The story \u2014 about a U.S. president who doesn\u2019t accept the election results, establishes a dictatorship and renovates the White House \u2014 was meant at the time as satire.<\/p>\n Opera Philadelphia has never before produced a Broadway show, though it has a strong track record with works that don\u2019t fall into neat categories.<\/p>\n \u201cSomebody said to me the other day, \u2019Is this an opera or is it a musical?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Well, I\u2019m not really here to gate-keep opera,\u2019\u201d said Costanzo. \u201cI think it\u2019s storytelling through music, and that\u2019s what opera fundamentally is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet \u2018Em Eat Cake\u201d runs Jan. 29, 30 and 31 at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Sts., operaphila.org<\/a>; and at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., March 17-28, nycitycenter.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Opera Philadelphia has taken on a new creative partner for its upcoming production…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63,132237],"class_list":["post-354773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-opera-philadelphia-gershwin-encores-city-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}