Peg O' My Heart

Last year Karin Baker & Greg Keane's musical adaptation of PEG O' MY HEART played the Midtown Festival of Musicals and today a small group of us gathered at Karin and Greg's apartment to read through the changes they've since made to the script.

Designed as a small cast piece, the songs are hits of the period including, of course, the title song as well as "If You're Irish, Come in to the Parlour", "I'd Rather Be Blue", "They Go Wild, Simply Wild Over Me" and "There's a Broken heart For Every Light On Broadway". Not so much a jukebox musical as a piano roll musical.
Two of the original cast were with us today, the feisty and clarion voiced Brittney Lee Hamilton as Peg

(who, I have since discovered, was Baby  June to Tovah Feldshuh's Rose last year)

and the talented and chiseled Allen E. Read who played the idiotic Alaric. He was in THE FULL MONTY at Paper Mill with Wayne Wilcox & Elaine Stritch.

Other ring-ins for today's reading included Mary Stout (immortalised forever in the script of [title of show])

James Darrah as Peg's love interest Jerry (James was Cornelius to both Carol Channing AND Madeline Kahn's Dolly!!)

 James Dybas from PACIFIC OVERTURES ("Pardon me, I was there...")

and the wickedly funny Sidney Meyer, manager and host at DON'T TELL MAMA. Today's reading was for the benefit of legendary performer/director Lee Roy Reams who used to be Karin Baker's dancing partner when they were 17 and now hopes to direct PEG in its next incarnation. I very much enjoyed reading Peg's Irish dad today and will be interested to see what lies ahead for the project.