Eugene O’Neill’s dark family drama
Anna Christie seems an unlikely source for a musical, but composer/lyricist Bob Merrill and book-writer George Abbott thought otherwise and developed
New Girl in Town as a vehicle for Gwen Verndon in the late 1950s. (It ran on Broadway for more than a year, and Verndon and co-star Thelma Ritter shared the 1957 Tony Award as Best Actress.) Now Bayou City Concert Musicals presents the Houston premiere in a fully staged concert musical production, as Anna Christie, a woman with a checkered past, is reunited with her seafaring father and falls for a sailor. Her past is revealed by her father’s jealous common-law wife, Marthy, fueling the plot. Anna’s entrance line: “Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side. And don’t be stingy, baby.” Sounds like fun.
See New Girl in Town at 7:30 p.m. September 4, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 and 7:30 p.m. September 7. Heinen Theatre, 3517 Austin. For information, call 713-465-6484 or visit bayoucityconcertmusicals.org. $25 to $50.
Thu., Sept. 4, 7:30 p.m.; Sept. 5-6, 8 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 7, 2 & 7:30 p.m., 2014