Yours, Truly • Press
Naples man in New York with second chance for father's music
Naples man in New York with second chance for father's music
Naples man in New York with second chance for father's music
Naples Daily News • May 17, 2018
by Harriet Howard Heithaus
Gary Kelson's musical paean to his songwriting father has been quietly showing up in workshops on both coasts. But this time, it's in a venue where it can make some noise.
His musical, retitled "Yours Truly," is sleeker and more fused with the script's action. It will get a reading — and singing — in a theater for music lovers who appreciate the effort. It's at the York Theatre, a historic New York City musical incubator, at 2:30 p.m. May 22.This is, Kelson said, not a performance for producers and directors, as its performance at Playwrights Horizons was in 2013. At this reading, the public gets to weigh in with its response.
Learning by Doing
Naples man in New York with second chance for father's music
Naples man in New York with second chance for father's music
MetroActive • February 7, 2007
by Marianne Messina
• TheatreWorks' annual writers retreat gives playwright a chance to hone the Tony winners of tomorrow.
WRITERS' RETREAT—it sounds like writers contemplating projects from their monastic cells in the woods. But TheatreWorks' Fifth Annual Writers' Retreat (Jan. 22-28) takes place in a peninsula office park full of studio rooms abuzz with activity.
...In the room next door, well-lit like a dance studio, five actors sit side by side, music stands in front of them, preparing to do a reading. Writers D.W. Jacobs and Gary Kelson preside over the read-through of the 40-minute piece.
Songs from My Father
He's Better than Sinatra
He's Better than Sinatra
Naples Daily News • June 14, 2013
by Harriet Howard Helthaus
• The career crooner Lee Kelson gave up may come back to him in a musical
Gary Kelson knew his dad as a furniture salesman. He plans to honor him, however, as a singer and a composer.
That tribute won't be ready by Father's Day. But after 10 years, Kelson, a Naples resident who works with Opera Naples in market development, can be patient a little longer in hopes that sweet tunes such as "Autumn and Eve" will be sung on a theater stage by the end of this year. I's putting his father, in essence, back into the show business he loved, even if it's after his death in 2000.
He's Better than Sinatra
He's Better than Sinatra
He's Better than Sinatra
Naples Daily News
by Harriet Howard Heithaus
• Naples resident Gary Kelson's musical tribute to his songwriting/singing father has reached Broadway's door.
His musical play, "Better than Sinatra," will get a reading for producers and artists at 11 a.m. Sept. 11 at Playwrights Horizons in New York City.
Playwrights Horizons call itself "a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists and to the production of their new work." Productions that have through it include Alfred Ubry's "Driving Miss Daisy" ...