Photo: Karen Hudson

Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE! has announced its return to live performances on Feb. 22 and 23, 2022, with a production of Herbert’s 1914 musical comedy, “The Only Girl.”

VHRP Live! will hold the production at the company’s new performance space, The Theater at St. Jeans in New York City.

Herbert’s comedy relates a Suffragette-era battle of the sexes between a librettist and a composer after the librettist named Alan “Kim” Kimbrough hears a captivating melody emanating from a neighbor’s apartment. Determined to meet the man behind the music, “Kim” discovers the composer is a woman named Ruth.

Herbert’s show was a hit when it landed on Broadway as Suffragettes marched in Manhattan and World War I ravaged Europe. The work’s well-known number, “When You’re Away,” has remained in front of audiences for 108 years, even though the operetta is rarely staged. Alyce Mott created a new adaptation of the original libretto by Henry Blossom. Mott directs the show and Music Director Michael Thomas will be on the podium, conducting The New Victor Herbert Orchestra.

“The Only Girl” features Joanie Brittingham, Andrew Buck, Jack Cotterell, Alexa Devlin, Hannah Holmes, Emily Hughes, Sara Law, Barbee Monk, Mariah Muehler, Jonathan Fox Powers, Christopher Robin Sapp, and David Seatter.

The Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE! is the world’s only company exclusively dedicated to reviving the work of Victor Herbert, an Irish American composer, conductor, musician, and orchestrator.