A Lost Classic by Rogers & Hart: “Spring Is Here” production at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center is staged as a benefit for The Theatre Museum

Talk about your revivals… the long-lost score of the 1929 Rogers and Hart’ musical “Spring Is Here” was recently unearthed along with the missing Broadway script in a Hollywood archive storing material used in the making of the 1930 film version, itself lost to the ages. The Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, Five Towns College’s award-winning Theater Department and a handful of talented Broadway professionals presented Spring is Here in an historic one-night-only workshop ensemble performance. It featured a combination of both student and professional Broadway talent paying homage to Broadway’s greatest writing pair by performing a play that has not been staged in more than 75 years.

This personal quest began when Aaron Gandy (conductor for The Lion King on Broadway, casting agent for Disney and musicologist) became interested in resurrecting old Broadway shows that had yet to be revived. He felt that the 1929 Rogers and Hart musical, Spring is Here, would be an excellent candidate. But when Gandy made the inquiry to Mary Rogers (daughter of Richard Rogers) and the Rogers and Hammerstein Library about the work, he learned that the original Broadway script and orchestration had been lost. So Aaron went to the archive vault for the movie company that produced the 1930 film version of Spring is Here. His plan was to use the movie score and script to archeologically rebuild the Broadway show. His great surprise was that while searching through the cobweb and dust-covered box of original film scripts and direction materials, he found the long-lost original script and score of the Broadway show.

Gandy then had the fragile paper work copied and spoke to Tony Walton, winner of a Tony (Pippin), Oscar (All That Jazz) and Emmy (Death of a Salesman) about modernizing the script and directing the new workshop version. Tony, Aaron and Five Towns College Theater Department Director Jared Herskowitz met at The Theatre Museum Awards Ceremony, where Five Towns won the award for Excellence In Theatre Education. The two asked Five Towns to work with their team including eight Broadway actors to produce a workshop encore concert version of the play using Five Towns theatre students in the ensemble and small parts and with the Five Towns staff doing much of the creative work.

With that Manhattan meeting, the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center was selected as the site for the historic first production of an original Rogers and Hart Broadway musical in more than 75 years.

The one-night only performance was a benefit production with a portion of the proceeds going to The Theatre Museum.