'Sing Muse' to Begin N.Y. Run in December

A week ago the New York Journal-American blared forth in a banner headline: OFF BROADWAY GOES HARVARD. A couple of days earlier, a small box on The New York Times' theatre page had announced that "'Sing Muse', a musical that offers 'a new slant' on Helen and other matters leading up to the Trojan War, will open off Broadway in the first week of December."

"Sing Muse" was born in a Hum 2 classroom last year. In the spring, on a Leverett House commission, section man Erich Segal '58 teamed with composer Joseph Raposo '58 and turned his fascination for the mock-heroic into the theme of a musical comedy.

After four sellout nights last Spring, the show received six New York offers. Robert D. Feldstein, producer of Agatha Christie's long-running "The Mouse Trap," got the contract.

The show goes into rehearsal October 30 under the direction of William Penn, who is slated to direct "Time is a Thief" on Broadway next spring. The names of the leading performers and the theatre will be disclosed next week.

Segal to Revise Script

Segal, who has cut himself off from New York calls and is hibernating over Ph.D. generals, says he will begin revising the script "as soon as the orals are over next week and I get a night's sleep." In its present form, the show runs only 100 minutes. "We're going to add five musical numbers, choreography, and fix up the second act to bring out the full satire," he reported.

"Sing Muse" becomes the second Harvard play to receive a New York contract within the last two years. "Oh, Dad..!", by Arthur Kopit '59, will be presented next spring.

Over the summer, Segal and Raposo brought "the wrath of Achilles" to Sardi's Restaurant in New York in a backers' audition. After Segal had finished romping through "The Deus ex Machina Mambo," someone asked him if he would perform in the New York production.

He replied: "Are you kidding? I wouldn't perform in a play by an unknown author."