The Peccadillo Theatre Company is presenting the 1951 George Abbott-Arthur Schwartz-Dorothy Fields musical A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN with a four piece band and revised book that doesn't really solve the show's problems. Fortunately, the cast includes the marvellous Jim Stanek (Hero in the Nathan Lane FUNNY THING HAPPENED...) as Johnny Nolan and Klea Blackhurst (she of the Merman-esque clarion voice) in Shirley Booth's original role of Aunt Cissie. Historians have always placed the blame for the short run of the Broadway production on the unnecessary building up of Booth's part but frankly her songs are Dorothy Fields's best writing. Interesting to see from a historical point of view.
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