FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Amy Frank, Managing Director Phone: 920.743.1760 [email protected]

RECLAIMING A LOST LANDMARK Gershwin’s First Broadway Musical is Restored and Onstage

STURGEON BAY, WI [July 2019]: For the first time in over a century George Gershwin’s very first musical, La ​ La Lucille, will be staged - not on Broadway as it was in 1919 - but in the intimate Studio Theatre at Third ​ Avenue Playhouse in Sturgeon Bay. Although much of the music for the show has been lost over time, La La ​ Lucille has been restored and reconstructed by composer/director James Valcq (co-Artistic Director at Third ​ Avenue Playhouse) for its second-ever performance, opening July 25 and running through September 1st.

La La Lucille is a riotous, fast-paced farce about a married couple who plot to become temporarily divorced in ​ order to claim an inheritance. When their scheme goes awry, hilarity, hijinks, and tap dancing ensue. The score brims over with Gershwin melodies that haven’t been heard in a century, as well as some that have never been performed, plus a bonus of several immortal Gershwin hits.

It all started with a manila file folder. James Valcq was barely ten years old he found a manila file folder at an antique fair in Milwaukee that was marked ‘La La Lucille Selection’ by George Gershwin. Valcq already knew ​ ​ the name George Gershwin and was instantly intrigued. Inside the folder he found sheet music for a lengthy overture-like medley, including the music for six songs. Curious, he convinced his mother to buy it for him and he’s kept it ever since - in the same manila folder.

At the time, all Valcq knew was that La La Lucille was Gershwin’s very first complete Broadway score and the ​ ​ musical opened on Broadway in 1919. When the American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle by Gerald Bordman ​ ​ was published 1978 (and Valcq was 15) he learned the detailed plot synopsis for La La Lucille. But it wasn’t ​ ​ until the Internet era that he was finally able to locate sheet music of the score’s published songs. At long last, he was finally able to learn the lyrics that went with the melodies from that manila folder.

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PO Box 843 239 N Third Avenue Sturgeon Bay WI 54235 920.743.1760 www.thirdavenueplayhouse.com

Co-Artistic Directors: Robert Boles & James Valcq. Managing Director: Amy Frank ​ ​ ​ Board of Directors: Steve Kane, Alan Kopischke, melaniejane, Jeremy Popelka, Cinnamon Rossman, ​ David Utzinger, James Valcq, Tracy Vreeke, Shirley Young, Karl Wise TAP is a member of Theatre Communications Group (the national organization for professional nonprofit theatre) In 1982, the mystery intensified when a treasure trove of material from the golden age of theatre was discovered hidden in a warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey. Many Gershwin shows that were thought lost were found virtually complete. Unfortunately, La La Lucille was not one of them. It seemed all that remained of ​ ​ Gershwin’s first musical was the seven published songs, two orchestrated numbers in full score at the Library of Congress, and the complete script (containing all the lyrics) in the research archives of the New York Public Library.

th Fast forward to several years ago, when Valcq realized that 2019 would be the 100 ​ anniversary of La La ​ ​ Lucille’s Broadway debut. Inspiration struck and he began to plan how to reconstruct and restore a performable ​ version of the show - one that could be produced at Third Avenue Playhouse. It was a daunting, yet challenging undertaking.

Valcq’s first task was to visit the New York Public Library, where he and Bob Boles (the other co-Artistic Director at TAP) photographed every page of the script in order to complete a ‘feasibility’ study to determine its stage-worthiness. They were delighted to discover it was a very funny Feydeau-style farce. Together they deemed the show viable and agreed it could work on the stage at Third Avenue Playhouse.

Assembling the score proved to be another matter. Vlacq possessed that handful of the published songs from the manila envelope, but the remainder of the music was missing and presumed lost. The photographed script provided the lyrics for the opening choruses, ensembles, ‘situation’ numbers, and finales, but there was no music. Anywhere. What to do?

Valcq, a self-proclaimed, amateur Gershwin scholar, was determined to see the project through. “I have a fairly sturdy working knowledge of how Gershwin constructed his show scores - thanks in large part to having access to numerous reconstructions done in the wake of that Secaucus find in the 1980s. I set myself to the task of locating every possible piece of Gershwin music published between 1917 and 1922 – the years just before and after La La Lucille.” Fortunately, all of Gershwin’s music from this time period is in the Public ​ ​ Domain.

Valcq’s plan was to find the right music to fit all the orphan lyrics in the La La Lucille script. However, there ​ ​ were very few instances where a La La Lucille lyric would graft onto a Public Domain Gershwin song and make ​ ​ sense. Valcq found he needed to meld the melodic contour from one song with the harmonic structure from another, the accompaniment pattern from a third song, and the countermelody ‘fill’ material from a fourth, and by alchemy create a “new” Gershwin song to fit the lyrics.

Confused? Valcq has an analogy that helps explain it: “Imagine you find a trunk filled with pieces of fabric your grandmother used to create a quilt that has since fallen apart. You decide to sew the pieces together. You don’t know what the original quilt looked like, but you take the pieces you have and stitch them together in a way that makes sense. Is it your grandmother’s quilt? No. Did your grandmother create everything that comprises the quilt? Absolutely.”

During this process, Gershwin blogger Mike Morris generously shared some of his own finds from the Library of Congress. Incredibly, one item was the La La Lucille orchestral scores, which simply needed to be reunited ​ ​ with its lyric. “It was also through Mr. Morris that I acquired a sketch (in Gershwin’s hand!) of an unknown and unpublished melody simply labeled Nov. 29, 1921. This little gem just needed its accompaniment idiomatically ​ ​ filled out to provide a lilting opening to Act Two!” Valcq recalls.

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To round out the remainder of the score, Valcq interspersed a number of early Gershwin songs in their entirety, as a way to give a voice to some of the song-free characters and situations.

Now, two years after his centennial brainstorm (and many years after that antique fair find), La La Lucille will ​ ​ be seen – and heard – again for the very first time in 100 years right here in Sturgeon Bay. “This has truly been a labor of love,” Valcq reflects. “I hope we do George proud.”

Third Avenue Playhouse (TAP) is Door County, Wisconsin’s only year-round professional theatre. Founded in 2000, TAP’s mission is to entertain and educate by provoking thought, laughter, and tears. Facilities include the 250-seat mainstage as well as the 84-seat Studio Theatre. Led by co-Artistic Directors Bob Boles and James Valcq, TAP produces riveting performances of contemporary and classic plays, musicals, and even opera, bringing audiences face to face with powerful stories by creating the most intimate theatrical experience possible.

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(Bios and photos are included below. If you would like more information or to schedule a phone interview with Mr. Valcq, please call Amy Frank at 920-743-1760 or email [email protected].)

Third Avenue Playhouse in historic downtown Sturgeon Bay presents La La Lucille Music By George Gershwin, Book by Fred Jackson, Lyrics by Arthur Jackson & B.G. Sylva, Additional Lyrics by Lou Paley, Irving Caesar, & Arthur Francis.

July 25 – September 1, 2019 Wednesdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm Sunday Matinees at 2:00pm

Tickets: $32 ($12 for students) Pay-What-You-Can Preview July 24, 7:30pm Tickets available at www.thirdavenueplayhouse.com or 920-743-1760.

James Valcq is the co-Artistic Director of Third Avenue Playhouse ​ in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. He is best known as the composer of the Off-Broadway musical The Spitfire Grill (Playwrights Horizons, ​ ​ 2001) which won the Richard Rodgers Production Award administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Stephen Sondheim, chair) and received Best Musical nominations from the Outer Critics Circle and Drama League plus two Drama Desk nominations. Written with collaborator Fred Alley, Spitfire has ​ ​ been produced almost 700 times across the United States, in Germany, South Korea, Japan, and Australia, as well as a highly lauded London premiere in 2015. James is the composer/author of Zombies from The Beyond which opened Off-Broadway to critical ​ acclaim in 1995.

He has composed scores for Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Door Shakespeare, The Passage (another ​ ​ collaboration with Fred Alley), Victory Farm, and Boxcar for ​ ​ ​ ​ Northern Sky Theatre, and Anatole for First Stage. For TAP, James ​ ​ has created the Irving Berlin cavalcade I Love a Piano, reconceived ​ ​ the opera “La Serva Padrona” as Maid to Marry, created a new ​ ​ adaptation of the 1910 musical Madame Sherry, as well as writing ​ ​ and performing the monodrama Velvet Gentleman which was ​ ​ named “Best Performance of the Year” by Green Bay’s WFRV-TV in 2017 and 2018. ​

Broadway credits as conductor and/or musician include Chicago, Flower Drum Song, Cabaret, and The Scarlet ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Pimpernel. Other conducting credits: Maurice Sendak’s production of Really Rosie; Candide, Lady in the Dark, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ South Pacific (Skylight Opera Theatre); and She Loves Me (Indiana Rep). Television appearances include The ​ ​ ​ ​ Today Show (NBC) and Musical Theatre: New Directions (PBS). ​ ​ ​

Directing credits include Zombies from The Beyond off-Broadway, ​ ​ Northern Sky’s The Spitfire Grill, and TAP’s Almost, Maine, The ​ ​ ​ Glass Menagerie, The 39 Steps, The Drawer Boy, Candide, Steel Magnolias, and The Amish Project (among others). Favorite ​ ​ ​ acting roles include Cosme in Souvenir (Boise Contemporary ​ ​ Theatre, American Stage Company, & TAP), Feste in Twelfth ​ Night (Door Shakespeare), Ernie in Guys on Ice (Milwaukee Rep), ​ ​ ​ Erik Satie in Velvet Gentleman & Philippe in Madame Sherry ​ ​ ​ (TAP), and Pierre in How I Became a Pirate (First Stage ​ ​ Milwaukee). James holds an MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and is a proud member of the American Federation of Musicians & Actors Equity Association.

George Gershwin, born in Brooklyn, New York on September 26, 1898, was ​ the second son of Russian immigrants. As a boy, George was anything but studious, and it came as a wonderful surprise to his family that he had secretly been learning to play the piano. In 1914, Gershwin left high school to work as a Tin Pan Alley song plugger and within three years, “When You Want ‘Em, You Can’t Get ‘Em; When You Have ‘Em, You Don’t Want ‘Em,” was published. Though this initial effort created little interest, “Swanee” (lyrics by Irving Caesar) — turned into a smash hit by Al Jolson in 1919 — brought Gershwin his first real fame.

In 1924, when George teamed up with his older brother Ira, “the Gershwins” became the dominant Broadway songwriters, creating infectious rhythm numbers and poignant ballads, fashioning the words to fit the melodies with a “glove-like” fidelity. This extraordinary combination created a succession of musical comedies, including LADY, BE GOOD! (1924), OH, KAY! (1926), FUNNY FACE (1927), STRIKE UP THE BAND (1927 and 1930), GIRL CRAZY (1930), and OF THEE I SING (1931), the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize. Over the years, Gershwin songs have also been used in numerous films, including SHALL WE DANCE (1937), A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS (1937), and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951). Later years produced the award-winning “new” stage musicals MY ONE AND ONLY (1983) and CRAZY FOR YOU (1992), which ran for four years on Broadway.

Starting with his early days as a song composer, Gershwin had ambitions to compose serious music. Asked by Paul Whiteman to write an original work for a concert of modern music to be presented at Aeolian Hall in New York on February 12, 1924, George, who was hard at work on a musical comedy, SWEET LITTLE DEVIL, barely completed his composition in time. Commencing with the first low trill of the solo clarinet and its spine-tingling run up the scale, RHAPSODY IN BLUE caught the public’s fancy and opened a new era in American music. In 1925, conductor Walter Damrosch commissioned Gershwin to compose a piano concerto for the New York Symphony Society. Many feel that the CONCERTO IN F is Gershwin’s finest orchestral work. Others opt for his AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1928) or his SECOND RHAPSODY for piano and orchestra.

In 1926 Gershwin read PORGY, DuBose Heyward’s novel of the South Carolina Gullah culture, and immediately recognized it as a perfect vehicle for a “folk opera” using blues and jazz idioms. PORGY AND BESS (co-written with Heyward and Ira) was Gershwin’s most ambitious undertaking, integrating unforgettable songs with dramatic incident. PORGY AND BESS previewed in Boston on September 30, 1935 and opened its Broadway run on October 10. The opera had major revivals in 1942, 1952, 1976, and 1983 and has toured the world. It was made into a major motion picture by Samuel Goldwyn in 1959, while Trevor Nunn’s landmark Glyndebourne Opera production was taped for television in 1993.

George Gershwin was at the height of his career in 1937. His symphonic works and three PRELUDES for piano were becoming part of the standard repertoire for concerts and recitals, and his show songs had brought him increasing fame and fortune. It was in Hollywood, while working on the score of THE GOLDWYN FOLLIES, that George Gershwin died of a brain tumor; he was not quite 39 years old.

Gershwin’s works are performed today with greater frequency than they were during his brief lifetime. His songs and concert pieces continue to fill the pages of discographies and orchestra calendars. The Trustees of Columbia University recognized Gershwin’s influence — and made up for his not receiving a Pulitzer for OF THEE I SING in 1932 — when they awarded him a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1998, the centennial of his birth.