Due to the tremendous outpouring of enthusiasm and excitement by the “Greatest Generation” to attend Rich Mancini’s American Songbook, The Music of World War II and to hear “their” music, the Town Players of New Canaan has added an extra matinee to conclude the show’s run on Sunday, August 14 at 2:30 PM.
Following the world première at the in Waveny Park, New Canaan on Friday, July 29 and the subsequent sold out performances that weekend, many Greatest Generation members in the audience later told the Town Players that they had hummed the music to themselves all during the show and that they knew the words to all 53 songs.
Lester Colodny, age 86, and the only member of the cast to have served in World War II, delivers a cameo rendition of “I’ll Be Seeing You” at the end of the show and received bravos from the audience. According to Mr. Colodny he kept in his mind’s eye on a very special lady as he sang.
The six actor singers in their 20s who portray the Greatest Generation when they were young in the 1940s, as well as the Town Players’ middle and high school backstage workers, also have fallen in love with the melodic and witty music.
For the fourth summer the Town Players is supporting the . Summer is a hard time for food pantries. Many people go away, but the need for food doesn’t! The Town Players asks the audience to put non-perishables in the wicker basket by the box office window when they come to the theatre.
The Merry Wives of Windsor basket, which hid Falstaff in an earlier production, was filled to the brim with bags surrounding at the end of Songbook’s first weekend and those goods have already been delivered to the New Canaan Food Pantry.
Performances of American Songbook, The Music of World War II will take place on Friday and Saturday, August 5, 6, 12 & 13 at 8:00 PM and on Sundays, August 7 & 14 at 2:30 PM at the Powerhouse Theatre, Waveny Park, New Canaan. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students and seniors (age 62).
