SHORT TAKES : ‘Oh, Kay!’ Finds Life on the Road

EAST HADDAM, Conn. — The popular production of the musical “Oh, Kay!” at the Goodspeed Opera House here will get a second life--with a North American tour beginning in September as well as possible productions in London and on Broadway.

The touring company of the Gershwin musical, reset in 1920s Harlem with an all-black cast, will begin with a six-week engagement in Toronto beginning in September, before hitting the road for a 30- to 35-week tour.

The touring show will be financed by the producing team of David and Ed Mirvish of Toronto, New York-based Columbia Artists Theatrical Inc. and “possibly a New York commercial producer attached to the show,” according to a spokesman for Columbia Artists. Michael P. Price, executive director at Goodspeed, will be the executive producer of the show and the tour.

Most of the cast from the Goodspeed production is likely to be included in the new production but “national” names also are being considered. The Goodspeed show stars Ron Richardson (who won a Tony Award for “Big River”) and Pamela Issacs.

“Oh, Kay!” is a 1926 musical by George and Ira Gershwin featuring such songs as “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Do, Do, Do” and “Clap Yo’ Hands.” The show has a book by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse; its radical script adaptation by James Racheff shifts the setting from an estate on New York’s Long Island to a Harlem speak-easy.