Celebrating the centennial of Alan Jay Lerner,  The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Dir; Evans Haile, Executive Dir) has announced that its acclaimed Musicals in Mufti series will celebrate the work of the legendary librettist and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, whose hundredth birthday was August 31, 2018.  The series honors one of the creators behind such classics as Brigadoon, Camelot, Love Life, and My Fair Lady. The 2019 Winter Musicals of Mufti series celebrates Lerner with a look at three of his musicals: CARMELINA (Jan 26 - Feb 3, 2019), DANCE A LITTLE CLOSER (Feb 9 – 17), and LOLITA, MY LOVE (Feb 23 – Mar 3) at The York Theatre at Saint Peter’s (entrance on East 54th St, just east of Lexington Ave). These musical theatre gems, performed in a simply-staged, book-in-hand concert format, are part of the Muftis’ twenty-fifth historic year of presenting shows from the past that deserve a second look. Mufti means “in street clothes, without the trappings associated with a full production.”  Opening the 2019 winter series is "Carmelina," with music by Burton Lane, lyrics by Mr Lerner, additional lyrics by Barry Harman, and book by Joseph Stein and Alan Jay Lerner.  In a picturesque Italian village, Carmelina has raised her teenaged daughter to believe her father was an American who died heroically in World War II—all the while collecting child support checks from three American soldiers, each of whom thinks he is the girl’s father.  The version of Carmelina presented here is the revised version created by Joseph Stein, Burton Lane, and Lerner protégé Barry Harman for The York in 1996, then further revised for a second Mufti presentation ten years later.  The second show in the series is the 1983 B'way musical "Dance a Little Closer" with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Charles Strouse, based on the play Idiot’s Delight by Robert E. Sherwood.  On a New Year's Eve "in the avoidable future," the guests at the grand Alpine Barclay Palace Hotel find themselves in the midst of a potential nuclear Armageddon. Against this background, a washed-up lounge singer romances a phony English aristocrat. Closing out the popular Mufti series celebration is "Lolita, My Love," with music by John Barry and book and lyrics by Mr Lerner, based on the 1955 novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. The musical, which originally closed in Boston in 1971, closely follows the legendary novel: a college professor named Humbert Humbert becomes fascinated by and starts to seduce his landlady's young daughter, Dolores "Lolita" Haze. The fascination quickly turns into obsession, and soon a whirlwind race across the US begins.  ”For this Mufti presentation, Erik Haagensen has created a new script, edited together from Lerner’s assorted drafts, each vastly different from the others. For additional information, please visit www.yorktheatre.org. Press contact: Richard Hillman PR (917/523-8849)...