Mary

The New York Musical Comedy Company at New York University presents a semi-staged concert production of George M. Cohan’s Mary, with music by Louis Hirsch and book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. Jack Keene, a wealthy young man, is convinced he can make a fortune building portable houses. While his friends reject the model house as being old fashioned, he finds support from his mother’s secretary, Mary. Jack leaves for Kansas to build his houses and returns after his construction plans do not succeed. However, he does succeed in finding oil on his property and realizes that he is in love with Mary. Directed by Joseph N. Rubin, it features a cast of 30 and an 18 piece orchestra performing the newly discovered original orchestrations.

Mary was one of the most successful and famous musical comedies of the 1920s, but has not been revived with orchestra in over 50 years. The show’s masterful score by Louis Hirsch contains the song hit “The Love Nest,” which was later used as the theme song for the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. The book and lyrics are by Otto Harbach who also penned such successes as No, No, Nanette, The Desert Song, and Roberta.