Who: Kelli O’Hara, Bill Irwin, Lauren Worsham, Christopher Fitzgerald, Jonathan Freeman, Chris Sullivan, Jeffrey Schecter, Ted Sperling, singers from MasterVoices and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s
What: Rare revival of Babes in Toyland
Where: Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, 881 Seventh Ave. at West 57th St., 212-247-7800
When: Thursday, April 27, $10-$150, 7:00
Why: Formerly known as the Collegiate Chorale, MasterVoices is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary with a one-night-only revival of Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough’s 1903 operetta, Babes in Toyland, with the full original score and orchestrations. Singing such songs as “Toyland,” “March of the Toys,” and “I Can’t Do the Sum,” some of which never made it to the 1929 and 1930 Broadway revivals, will be Kelli O’Hara as Contrary Mary, Bill Irwin as Master Toymaker, Lauren Worsham as Jane, Christopher Fitzgerald as Alan, Jonathan Freeman as Uncle Barnaby, Michael Kostroff as Chief Inspector Marmaduke, Chris Sullivan as Gonzorgo, Blair Brown as the Narrator, Jay Armstrong Johnson as Tom Tom, and Jeffrey Schecter as Roderigo, in addition to the 130 members of MasterVoices and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, directed and conducted by MasterVoices artistic director Ted Sperling. The 1903 operetta was turned into a classic Laurel & Hardy film (also known as The March of the Wooden Soldiers) as well as a 1961 Disney musical starring Ray Bolger, Annette Funicello, Tommy Sands, and Ed Wynn, a 1986 television movie with Keanu Reeves, Richard Mulligan, Eileen Brennan, Drew Barrymore, Jill Schoelen, and Pat Morita, and a 1997 animated film with Raphael Sbarge, Christopher Plummer, Charles Nelson Reilly, Jim Belushi, and Bronson Pinchot, so it’s always attracted a rather diverse cast.