Twin Interests

by Steve Cohen

theater

Gemini, The Musical is pure Philadelphia. The tuneful version of the long-running Broadway success about a music-loving South Philadelphia family is a collaboration between its South Philly creator and a South Philly composer. Prince Music Theater will give Gemini its world premiere, and producing artistic director Marjorie Samoff says, "It's a natural, a great opportunity for a born-in-Philadelphia musical."

Samoff isn't the first person to think of Gemini in terms of music. Leonard Bernstein saw the play when it was new and told the author, Albert Innaurato: "You know, your play is bubbly, like a Rossini comic opera." Gemini won an Obie Award for Best Play when it opened off-Broadway in 1977, then moved to Broadway for a four-year run.

Innaurato grew up around 20th and Ritner, graduated from Central High, then was a theater major at Temple. He has adapted his own script and co-written the song lyrics. Charles Gilbert of the theater program at the University of the Arts composed the music and co-wrote the lyrics. "We had instantaneous chemistry," says Gilbert, "because we're both kind of brainy people who are interested in many forms of music and theater. We hit it off right away and it's been fun working together. His play has a lot of screwball comedy and his personality, too, is like that. He has a lively mind—as lively as his play." Gilbert worked with high school students enrolled in UArts' July 2003 Summer Institute on adapting Gemini into a musical. Gilbert wrote three songs and then presented them, as an audition, to Samoff. She liked them, introduced him to Innaurato and commissioned a full score.

"I live in South Philly," says Gilbert. "I remember the 1970s, when I was in college, and I enjoy recapturing the sounds of that time and place. Albert's characters are emotional and Mediterranean, and their speeches naturally lend themselves to song."

Gemini, The Musical, Oct. 9-31, $38-$52, Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., 215-569-9700.