MISIA
A New Musical
MISIA is a brand new Vernon Duke musical, featuring a previously unknown score by the legendary composer of "Autumn in New York," "April in Paris," "I Can't Get Started," and "Taking a Chance on Love."
MISIA was brought to life after Barry Singer wrote an essay about Vernon Duke for the New York Times. The composer's widow, Kay Duke Ingalls, asked to meet with Singer and proceeded to hand him "The French Score," a never-produced, unknown musical that Duke had written while living in Paris in 1949.
Barry Singer wrote an entirely new book and new lyrics around the Vernon Duke score, focused on Misia Sert, the infamous muse and patroness of fin de siecle Paris whose intimates and discoveries included Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Auguste Renoir, Marcel Proust, "Coco" Chanel and Serge Diaghilev, all of whom appear as characters in MISIA.
MISIA received its world premiere as a staged reading at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. It then received two staged readings in New York under the auspices of Jujamcyn Theaters, directed by Mark Lamos, before being released on CD by PS Classics in a world premiere recording starring the late-Marin Mazzie , with new orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick.