There are not a lot of musicals that have had the book, lyrics and music written by one person. Some of the most famous examples are The Music Man, The Most Happy Fella and Rent. When Darling Grenadine opens tonight at the Black Box Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, Daniel Zaitchik will add his name to that list.
Zaitchik was the recipient of the 2017 Kleban Prize Winner* as best musical theatre lyricist. The committee that year must be on to something as nearly every performance of Darling Grenadine has sold out. When I started writing this all performances were sold out. Apparently a few tickets have been released for eleven of the show’s performances.
Update: An extension has been announced and the show will now run through March 22nd.
Adam Kantor (recently seen on Broadway as “Telephone Guy” in The Band’s Visit) stars as Harry. He’s a songwriter who fells head over heels for a chorus girl named Louise (Emily Walton). Like all relationships theirs is filled with great joy and optimism. But can Harry and Louise maintain the joy of new-found love and evolve their relationship into something deeper and more meaningful?
Matt Dallal, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Aury Krebs and Mike Nappi round out the cast. Michael Berresse (most recently seen as Bob Mackie in The Cher Show and who was also in the original cast of The Light in the Piazza) directs and choreographs Darling Grenadine.
The musical was first seen at Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut in 2017. There was a second production at the Marriott Theatre outside Chicago in 2019. This Roundabout Theatre Company production marks the New York premiere of Darling Grenadine.
Zaitchik also has a new record that was just released in January called Natural History.
Does the brisk sale of tickets to Darling Grenadine reflect the discovery of a major new musical theatre talent? Time will tell.
For tickets go here.
*Kleban Prize is named for Edward Kleban who won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize as the lyricist for A Chorus Line.
Photo: Adam Kantor in Darling Grenadine (photo by Joan Marcus/courtesy of Polk & Co.)