Michael Mayer's On a Clear Day to Land at The Vineyard Theatre in January 2011

The Vineyard Theatre will present Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer’s (American Idiot) new version of stage classic On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in 2011. Featuring lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner (Brigadoon), music by Burton Lane (Finian’s Rainbow) and a new book by original playwright Peter Parnell, the re-conceived spin on the original 1960s musical begins performances in January 2011. As previously reported, the production will play at Vassar College later this month as part of New York Stage and Film Company and Powerhouse Program’s summer workshop collaboration. 

In an interview with the Times, Mayer discussed significant changes to the musical's storyline, which originally followed the romantic entanglements of Daisy Gamble, a woman who discovers a past life as an 18th century woman named Melinda Welles when she is put under hypnosis by psychiatrist Dr. Mark Bruckner. The plot twists when Dr. Bruckner falls for the elusive Melinda, while Daisy falls for the good doctor. “I don’t want to overexplain it,” Mayer told the paper. “By playing a little bit with gender, I thought I could make a different kind of love triangle at the center of it. That’s the goal.”

The original production, which played 280 performances when it opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in 1965, starred Barbara Harris and John Cullum. A subsequent film adaptation in 1970, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starred Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand.