The New York Times-20080127-Another -Elmer Gantry-- -Letter-

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Another 'Elmer Gantry'; [Letter]

Full Text (122  words)

To the Editor:

It was surprising that Mr. Green, in his exhaustive piece on the gestation of Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein's opera Elmer Gantry, omitted a musical version that's been kicking around the country for 20 years.

Not Gantry, the Broadway flop from 1970, which Mr. Green mentions, but Elmer Gantry by John Bishop (book), Mel Marvin (music) and Robert Satuloff (lyrics). It has had at least four major productions, including two at Ford's Theater, in 1988 and 1995, one at La Jolla Playhouse, in 1991, and one at the Marriott Lincolnshire in Chicago, in 1998.

Though the musical has been produced more than the opera, they all seem to have similar problems with the source material. David Hurst

New York