Carmelina
Staged Reading
Sunday, October 5, 2008
7:00 p.m.
Each season The Round Barn Theatre produces a staged reading
in a single performance of Broadway musicals. Past readings
have included Take Me Along, Rags, Floyd Collins, and The Spitfire
Grill. 
The 2008 production is Carmelina, a musical with a book by Joseph Stein and Alan Jay Lerner, lyrics by Lerner, and music by Burton Lane. In 2006 Carmelina was revised by libbretist Stein and reduced to a cast of seven. It was produced by the York Theatre in New York City as part of its Musicals in Mufti Series. Through the aggrement and cooperation of Mr. Stein, The Round Barn Theatre at Amish Acres is presenting his revised work.
Based on the 1968 film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, it focuses on an Italian woman who has raised her teenaged daughter Gia to believe her father was an American who died heroically in World War II. Supposedly she spurns the constant advances of local café owner Vittorio because her heart still belongs to the man she tragically lost. In reality, she had affairs with three different GIs and has no idea who fathered the girl. Trouble ensues when the three veterans decide to reunite in Carmelina’s small hometown.
After eleven previews, the Broadway production, directed by José Ferrer and choreographed by Peter Gennaro, opened on April 8, 1979 at the St. James Theatre, where it ran for only seventeen performances.
A nomination for Best Original Score was its sole recognition from the Tony Awards committee.
Home