SAN FRANCISCO (28 August 1995) -- A young girl fleeing from her high society life on Long Island hides out with a summer stock troupe in VERY WARM FOR MAY, the 1939 Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein musical that contains Kern's last Broadway score. 42nd St. Moon presents the original Broadway script and score of VERY WARM FOR MAY in a staged concert reading September 22 - October 8, 1995 (preview: September 21) at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre.

VERY WARM FOR MAY opened at the Alvin Theatre on November 17, 1939 and was Jerome Kern's last score for Broadway before relocating to Hollywood and writing music for movies until his death in 1945. (Kern was scheduled to return to Broadway to write music for ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, but died before work on the musical began.)

Eve Arden portrayed a dizzy society matron and Vincente Minnelli directed the show which contained such favorite songs as "All the Things You Are", "All in Fun" and the "In the Heart of the Dark." Gerald Bordman, author of the definitive Kern biography Jerome Kern: His Life and Music, hailed the score as one of Kern's finest. VERY WARM FOR MAY ran on Broadway for two months, receiving mixed reviews: The New York World Telegram called the show "Gay and delightful" and found the songs to be "the most charming that Kern and Hammerstein have ever written," while the New York Times yawned, "VERY WARM FOR MAY is not so hot for November," and Robert Benchley of the New Yorker praised the show as, "Lovely to the ear and complimentary to the intelligence...unlike most musicals, (it) actually gets better and funnier as it goes on."

Part of the lukewarm response may have been due to a book that was changed at the last minute. According to 42nd St. Moon producer Greg MacKellan, VERY WARM FOR MAY opened out of town with a plot that had society girl May Graham fleeing threatening gangsters (hence the title). Her journeys take her to an avant garde summer stock troupe in Connecticut and this version of the show received rave reviews and played to sold-out houses. "Producer Max Gordon had been away when the show opened out of town," says MacKellan. "When he saw it he hated the gangster subplot and had it taken out, but New Yorkers didn't seem to be as crazy about the summer stock story, having just seen BABES IN ARMS the year before." Adds MacKellan, "It was a very competitive season on Broadway. One month after VERY WARM FOR MAY opened, Cole Porter's DUBARRY WAS A LADY, DeSylva and Henderson's THE GEORGE WHITE SCANDALS and Rodgers and Hart's TOO MANY GIRLS all opened." MacKellan calls VERY WARM FOR MAY a "quintessential lost musical from the '30s" because of it's enduring score by two Broadway legends and its surprisingly quick disappearance from the theatre scene.

VERY WARM FOR MAY was transferred (loosely) to the silver screen for the 1940's movie, "Broadway Rhythm," with only one song from the musical retained and yet another complete plot rewrite. 42nd St. Moon will present the Broadway script, with Roy Casstevens (director of 42nd St. Moon's production of AMERICA'S SWEETHEART) taking the helm on this production. Richard "Scrumbly" Koldewyn will provide musical direction. Cast members include Dyan McBride as the title character; Diana Romley in Eve Arden's role as a society matron, Winnie Spofford, who owns the barn used by the summer stock troupe; Juliette Morgan and Dan Testa as Winnie's offspring -- an aspiring actress and a theatre technician who is the object of May's affections; Greg Raffelson as May's brother, Johnny Graham; and Bill Fahrner as Ogden Quiller, an outrageous theatre director. The cast is rounded out by Greg MacKellan, Sean Sharp, Lisa Kass, Caroline Altman and Patrick Dukeman.

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