Abbey Jasmine Rose (MCA ’17) Cast in Feinstein’s/54 Below ‘A Pound In Your Pocket’
“I'm very excited to share this beautiful musical with people who have never heard it, especially because it was just recently dusted off after over 50 years,” Abbey says.
On January 24, 2018, Abbey Jasmine Rose (MCA, Dec ’17) will perform in the Feinstein’s/54 Below production of A Pound in Your Pocket, the first musical that Tony Award-winning composers Charles Strouse and Lee Adams wrote together. The musical comedy is based on a Charles Dickens novel, The Old Curiosity Shop.
In February 2016, The Media, Culture, and the Arts program at King’s, in association with The King’s Players, brought A Pound in Your Pocket to New York City for the first time. The cast was primarily made up of students, and Abbey played the leading role of Small Servant Girl. Through the production, Abbey met Charles Strouse and Strouse’s executive producer Carolyn Copeland, producer of the Broadway show Amazing Grace and the one responsible for rediscovering A Pound in Your Pocket.
After the King’s show concluded, Abbey kept in contact with Strouse and Copeland. When Playbill announced the Feinstein’s/54 Below production, Abbey wrote to Copeland to inquire about auditioning. “Carolyn put me in touch with Steven McCasland, who is the director,” she says. “They said that they had already discussed the possibility of me doing the role of Small Servant Girl again!”
At Feinstein’s/54 Below, a Broadway supper club, A Pound in Your Pocket will be presented as part of the Second Act Series produced by Steven Carl McCasland and James Horan. The series aims to revisit “neglected scores,” and has previously featured musicals like Onward Victoria, Charlie and Algernon, Eating Raoul, and Nick & Nora. More information and tickets are available here.
“I can’t wait to work with Carolyn and Charles again, and all of these new friends who I’m sure I will learn from. And I know that my parents are going to be in the front row,” Abbey says. “I’m very excited to share this beautiful musical with people who have never heard it, especially because it was just recently dusted off after over 50 years.”
When A Pound in Your Pocket concludes, Abbey plans to remain active in the theater and arts community. This January, she will also perform in a production of King Lear, and when she’s not acting, she teaches voice lessons and hosts after school art classes for Brooklyn elementary students.